Juno Recommends Bass Best of 2020

Review: Astonishingly it's been four years since we last heared from Jamie XX, who midway through the last decade seemed an unstoppable musical force of nature. This comeback 12" - a single-sided, white label affair - is therefore hotly anticipated. Happily, we can confirm that it's rather good, with the experienced producer building a fiendishly percussive groove out of layered hip-house style breaks and tribal drum hits before introducing a gargantuan bassline, speeding things up to a "Shangan" style tempo and letting loose. Throw in some bold synth lines, a few electronic bleeps and some cut-up, glassy-eyed female vocal samples and you have a future dancefloor anthem on your hands. As comebacks go, "Idontknow" is pretty special.

Review: Having previously notched-up must-check Special Request releases on one vital rave-era record label, XL, Paul Woolford has now brought the hardcore and jungle-influenced project to another imprint that defined dance music in the early '90s, Belgian stable R&S Records. As you'd expect, he's in full-on bassbin-bothering, mind-mangling mode, with title track "Spectral Frequency" - a ruffneck, early jungle style workout with added intergalactic electronics - hitting home hardest of all. There's a bizarre (but kind of brilliant) backwards version ("Inverse Frequency") included on the A-side, before Woolford showcases the more melodious, ambient techno side of his multiple musical personalities on wonderfully warm and ear-pleasing flipside cuts "Family Doggo" and "No Other Way To See It".

Review: Showtime ladies and gentlemen, Desert Sound Colony's Holding Hands reaches the big one-oh with Gallegos and Baby Rollen and the results are every bit as sweaty and heavy as you'd hoped they'd be. Gallegos kicks off solo with the acid stampede "Blue Mountain" before Baby comes on board with "Underwater". Strutting breaks with just the right levels of dubby synths and elastic acid; this could easily be a 1999 jam. Flip to the B for some even hairier escapades as "B45" digs even deeper into breakbeat culture with a stripped back b-boy feel and velveteen rave pads before Gallegos finishes the EP with the stunning piano-tickled curveball "SHOULDACOULDAWOULDA". Rave on!

Review: Rude Marching Drum Storms.

Review: From Angola via Belgium and Manchester, Nazar follows 2018's Hyperdub rough kuduro debut "Enclave" with this immense multi-faceted body of work that analyses the Angolan war of independence, its atrocities and effects on its displaced people and his family. From the portrait on the cover of his rebel general father to many of the samples and stories, Nazar paints an unnerving picture that ranges from the militant drum shots fired on "Diverted" to the eerie juxtaposition of "FIM-92 Stinger" where a surface-to-air missile launcher gives it name to one of the album's most soulful, touching moments. Elsewhere we hear voices of his family on "Mother", we're fired up with gritty, unapologetic universal question "Why" and left asking more questions on the fractured finale "End Of Guerrilla". Much deeper than an album, this is a document, musically, politically, emotionally. Nazar and Hyperdub have created something truly unique.

Review: Hot Portuguese property Pedro has been glued to our radar since his debut "Damaia" EP in 2017. Fusing club music with Angolan, Brazilian and Cape Verdean influences, "Da Linha" is a bewitching brew of beats and bass that sits somewhere between gqom and house and never sits still. One moment we're treated to a tropical grime admonishment ("Too Much" with Nigerian MC Magugu), the next we're being massaged into sublime submission with the soothing reflective "Terra Treme", and before we know it we're neck deep in a dancefloor riot on the beat-heavy "Stuck On You" where the addictive whistling line and Bryte's vocals drive us into an entirely different submission. Loaded with emotional, moving moments such as the Balearic sunset-charmed "Calores", this is a superb accomplished debut album from an exciting artist who's just at the start of his journey.

Review: With roots in dubstep on labels such as Artikal and Subaltern, but a current sound that riffs on techno, electro and oblique sound design, Italian Piezo has honed a unique club sound in recent years, continuously pushing his sound and stretching his ideas into exciting new places. His debut album Perdu is no exception as he whisks us into his surreal percussive, harmonic world. It's a world where you're just as likely to be hypnotised by glistening tuned steel drums ('Blue Light Mama Magic') as you are pummelled into dancefloor submission by tightly woven conga breaks ('Castrol') or sent off into a deep dreamy harmonic slumber ('Xerotonin') It's a world that will still sound futuristic and of its own years into the future but fits 2020 and all is frustrating oddities perfectly. Go go Piezo.

Review: At time of release, the knee pit or upper shin of the weirdest year in our time, we may feel like we're owed some type of steak or cake day, but German duo Otto have much healthier meal plans... It's Clam Day, and there's more than enough of this hearty brew to share. Flavours include the sweetness of buoyant pop, the savoury tanginess of oddball electronics and sharp twangs of 16-bit innocence, baked slow and low in a lo-fi oven over 12 tracks. Particularly tasty dishes include the woozy shoegaze stew of 'Chlorine', the delightful D&B-meets-Megadrive-in-Toy Town splashes of 'Sprained My Ankle', the garage band blues-cum-2020 global anthem 'Wash Your Hands' and the final floaty hoorah 'Microplastics In My Bloodstream'. Political but laced with a soothing optimism. Ideal for fans of Clarke and Jim Noir alike, this is perfect chowder for our lockdown-ravaged souls.

Review: Codigo de Barras ('barcode) is the second release on Principe by their homeboy A K Adrix, now based in Manchester. He further develops his mutant batida grooves, broadcasting beats from his new hometown with very succinct rhythmic messages. There's hardly any intros, with the music getting straight to the point, developing new lifeforms yet leaving lasting impressions during their short lifespan. From the ethereal beats of 'Ambiente Spiritual', the off-kilter exotic rhythms of 'Ritmo Surfista' or 'Hotttt' and the wonky aracne bass of 'FILIPADO' - the tracks appear as alien life forms.

Review: 10 years since his debut release on Night Slugs, three years since his debut album Tears In The Club, Fade To Mind co-boss Kingdom returns with his highly anticipated sophomore Neurofire. Featuring the likes of LUVK, Kayla Blackmon, Pheona and Tiara Thomas, in a way it's still business as usual; the LA artist is still soothing our souls with his unique take on contemporary R&B, but here he shows even more of a musicality and dynamic range than ever before. Powered by smouldering beat work but playing much more with the minimalism, space and strange textures and glitches; with tracks like the broken beat style soul track 'High Enough', the contemplative slow-rave story 'Cell Splitter' and powerful opener 'No More Same', Kingdom is revealing even more of his musical universe. A highly accomplished second album.

Review: Following a low-key EP way back in 2011, Eprom and Stillcold founder Andrew Doubek's Deep Sky Objects go high-key with this raw and rampant LP. Nine tracks spanning the electronic diaspora, we're treated to everything from warm jacking house ("Brothers & Sisters") to industrial strength techno ("Lethwei") to schizoid bashment ("T.M.K.F") to divine dubbed-up haunted house ("The Chant") and all manners of club flavours in between. Unbounded business.

Review: Ten years on and Clubroot's second album still sounds like a universe of its own. Created during that exciting flux between dubstep blowing up and post-dubstep becoming saturated, Clubroot - very much like Burial - sculpted a genuinely unique sound. It's one that touched on all influences in the bass canon while standing entirely on its own. His second album II MM did this especially as he moved us through the intense maze from mournful ambience to deep driving emotive breaks and graveyard UKG and back again. A precursor to the wave movement that happened a few years later, whichever corner of the continuum he's exploring there's a consistent sense of sketches and loose ideas being captured just before they leave his mind. Natural, raw and forever unhurried. This has stood the test of time incredibly well.

Review: Four years after they blasted into the disco ether with their debut album Bodies, Canadian duo return with their second album and build on the hooky, big-groove signature they've been carefully developing. While their debut was a wide-cast net that showcased a rich, broad palette, Made Me Feel is a much finer focus on their penchant for disco and house. Warm, jacking and full of the good-time bubbles we're all craving in 2020, cuts like the filtered sample-slapper "It's Coming Down" nod to NY dons like Joeski, "Love Was Real" chows down on the seminal French touch sound from the late 90s while "Flame" is pure, unabashed Dave Lee level funky house. Concluding the O'Neal-style 80s soul of "Ready For Me", it's another impressive body of work from the hardworking duo.

Review: Fresh from revealing Current Value's new album, Prague-based futurist consortium / alt-bass collective YUKU remain in LP mode with this incredible album from Dutch beatmaker Subp Yao. His third and most comprehensive body of work so far, while his previous albums were more quick-jolt club bangers, this is a much more atmospheric, deeper narrative as he takes inspiration from the depths of the ocean. Ranging from tentacular blue-ring jungle slaps of 'One More Step' to the Barrier Reef bliss of 'Reelwitu' by way of a myriad of strange sea creatures, this is a thoughtful and often solemn dive into a whole other side of Subp Yao's psyche. A genuinely stand-out bass album from 2020.

Review: Following releases on the likes of Houndstooth and Nervous Horizon, Loraine James returns to Hyperdub with another unique release. Picking up where her breakthrough album 'For You & I' left us, it's another wily and collaborative affair as she brings in voices that don't often find themselves over futuristic beatscapes like Loraine's. 'Nothing' sees Lila Tirando a Violeta lament over a post-apocalyptic trance setting before Tardast raps in Farsi over the prang pads and glitchy beats of 'Marg' and Jonnine brings post-soul honey over the lavish beats of 'Don't You See It?'. For the finale, however, Loraine goes solo with 'The Starting Point.' Sparse, strange and scratchy throughout, it suddenly opens out into a bright and emotional conclusion. 'Nothing' always leads to something...

Review: Matteo Zamagni joins the razor sharp SVBKVLT family with a chop-walloping entry EP. More album sized in weight and dynamics, this sets the parameters for the a/v artist's widest scope. Five originals, three remixes, the story rifles us through the club continuum from militant rifle kicks and warp drone halftime ("Ravevv101") to bouncy post-Orbital bubbly-but-barbed rave harmonics and timpani terror ("Submechanophobia" - with TSVI) Remixes include a 23rd century two-step rave-up from Gooooose, killer kuduro from Zaliva-D and rhythmic poison from arthropod loving label member 33EMYBW.

Review: Manchester party crew Off Beat press the button and launch into label mode with two crucial workouts from Holding Hands and Modern Ruin affiliate Breaka as their debut. Two sides, two vibes; 'Startup' starts the motor with Bassbin Twin style booty-bass / UK club style shaker that rattles in subtle, infectious waves. 'The Ambush' looks back a little further to more junglised influences with jazzier breaks and big emotive pads that scream early Moving Shadow and Good Looking. What a way to start up a new label...

Review: Back in 2018 Soreab debuted on Beat Machine with a heavyweight EP that effortlessly joined the dots between grime, techno and breaks. This belated follow-up - a rare 10-inch EP containing four tracks - is similarly sizable, offering killer club cuts that pitch up grime rhythms to suit peak-time dancefloors. The absolute standout is Parallax collaboration "Wrinkles", a bustling assault on the senses in which the MC's flows rise above a wicked and wayward, sub-heavy backing track. It's accompanied by the moody roller "Watchme" as well as two flipside remixes: the melodious, hazy and otherworldly goodness that is the Basic Rhythm Remix of "Wrinkles", and a deep, chiming Benton take on "Watchme".

Review: Bean grinding business from Sydney newcomer Unpin on brand new label from the Velodrome collective. Six tracks deep, each cut as springy and tightly coiled as the last, the well-oiled funk of "At Traction" kicks us off before the acidic "Bang Tool" takes us into bumping ghetto territory, "Calling You" is the essence of rave over razor-sharp two-step and "Itchy & Scratchy" goes straight for your mind and mushes it up good and proper. Elsewhere "Take 2" is a wonderfully wonky slab of bluesy UKG and "Kalimbo" closes the show on a dreamy jungle tip. What a crucial debut.

Review: Fresh in the wake of his 'Hold Dat' EP on Tectonic, Lamont makes his debut on Version with two hard-shell club twisters. 'Dominant' plays a trippy role in proceedings. Stripped right back to its bare 808 bones, its swathed in a weirdo frequency that groans in and out of the strange and precision-placed samples. Meanwhile on the flip 'I Won't Ask' maintains that unpredictable edge but with much more of a mechanical sense of menace. A soundtrack to bounce around with asteroids to. Don't ask, don't get.