Juno Recommends Breakbeat: October 2022

Review: The Breakbeat Paradise label rolls out another one in its well regarded Toxic Funk series here and both tunes pack some serious dance floor heat. It is producer duo Suckaside along with LROY who bring the good times here with classic soul and funk mixed with just enough beats and breaks to make it sound current. LROY first offer the big soul groover 'Second Warning' with boom bap beats and lush vocals. On the flipside Suckaside aka Sucka Timmy and DJ B-side offer a take on Shannon's cult 'Let the Music Play' with some big hitting electronic funk.

Review: After this pair of Leeds residents made waves last November with their first EP for Pilot, Bobby O'Donnell and Reeshy return to lay down four new tracks that definitely stray towards the electro end of the breaks/electro spectrum. There's a sense of continuity, as the first EP's tracks - labelled 1-4, are followed by tracks 5-8, as well as being executed with a proper human touch that not all such machinefunk can boast. '6' is full of spiralling Drexciyan mystery, before being pared down to an LFO-style bass prod. '8' also echoes the former legends of Leeds with its dreamy pads and acid backdrop - something in the local water supply. Definitely funky enough to keep the breaks DJs onside, but with a thorough knowledge of love of 40 years of electronic music heritage at its disposal too, this is one release you should make sure you not miss.

Review: It's been a minute since we had a fresh drop from Hans Berg. Often found recording with Johanna Knutsson and releasing on UFO Station Recordings, Berg is already a shoe-in for the Klasse Wrecks vibe, where big bleeps and bigger breaks are par for the course. Berg's approach is also melodically charged, as he's demonstrated on his album projects, and 'A Floor Of Stars' leans on dreamy pads and harmonic interplay as much as crushing drums. For a remix, Klasse boss Luca Lozano turns up the heat with a pressure cooker version that keeps the original elements intact but pours in extra layers of gnarly rave grease to get the gears rolling good n' proper.

Review: BufoBufo aka. Ben Murphy debuts his first LP on Altered Sense, breaking away from his own self-run label Ritual Poison for a long-form demonstration of ambient breakbeat in multiple movements. At first cochlear glance, each track here appears as simple ambient braindance a-la Global Communication or Kid Spatula, but the progression of each tune is much more fleshed out than what would normally be expected of your run-of-the-mill Apollo Records wannabe. 'Water Scorpion' is the post-rave reesey highlight, while 'Starmetal' continues into uncharted techstep trance territory.

Review: At least before the current conflict, Ukraine had an ever more essential underground scene, most of it based around the revered Closer club in Kiev, although there are plenty of vital labels popping up with increasing frequency. Oldivibes is not the newest but on this evidence is one of the ones you really need to know about. Jentzen's new EP Transactions kicks off with 'Two Filter', a bumping and spaced out tech cut with nice solid bass. 'Octavia' then slips down a gear into a more deep and roomy groove with plenty of deft synth craft and leggy drums and 'Transactions' then picks up again with and percussion and ditty hits.

Review: Dext have always been right on the money with their releases, pursuing a sharp and snappy take on modern club music that celebrates the best in techno, electro and the grey area around bass music. Following a return to active service with Dawn Razor earlier this year, they follow up with an incisive transmission from Mani Festo, who is normally found shelling it down as part of Club Glow amongst other endeavours. The pressure is turned up from the get-go, whether through the metallic machine funk of 'Eyes Open' or the wild-eyed rave wrecker 'Dreadnaught'. At all times Festo keeps a firm hand on the tiller and delivers intrigue to match the intensity of this peak time, hardcore-licked club gear.

Review: Still sounding eons ahead of its time - or this present time - Jigen's 1998 album Blood's Finality enjoys a long-awaited repress having only been available on limited import CD for all these years. Taking jazz, experimental contemporary and the most leftfield jungle and breakbeat you can imagine and bringing it all together in an uncompromising, freeform body of work that skates, skitters, jumps and twists with no respect for formula or arrangement, Jigen created a one of kind document that joins dots frantically while sounding like nothing else on the planet. Catch us again for another repress in another 24 years and we'll feel the same way then, too.