Drum And Bass/Jungle charts

Review: Topping off an incredible year in which he's launched his own label (Weaponry) and delivered three EP troves of deep drum darkness, Seattle's Homemade Weapons presents his debut album Negative Space. Followers of his disarming, physical, rolling sub-heavy sound will know exactly how important this is: the flurried amen crashes of opener "Hawkeye", the cavernous ricochet rhythm shots of "Retina", the heavily pressurised space station pads, micro-traces of jazz and busted drum fury of "Conduit", the gurgling Doc Scott style drones and sense-blurring space between the drums on "Red Herring".... Homemade Weapons has captured his stark signature with slick, subtle detail and created a document that compounds everything we've suspected since he emerged in 2011.

Review: Seminal collection! Undercover Agent AKA Splash AKA Darren Ellis goes under the Suburban Base spotlight as the foundation label curate the best, most influential and most sought-after dispatches on sister labels Splash and Juice Records. With the gamechanging, forever-reloadable 'Babylon' from Splash (original AND the crucial Trace remix) taking the lead and setting the scene, we're then treated to a whole range of blueprint jungle schematics under various aliases and guises of Ellis including his MTS partnership with Darren Hickey and rare material with The Kriminal. Highlights across this extensive remastered sets include the rowdy Bristol-esque pummelling of 'Rebels' and the absolutely slamming remix of 'Hard Disk' by a very young DJ Zinc. Splashback!

Review: Razat has made an art form of distortion and saturation. The latter is what lends its name to this new eight-tracker on Saturate. After a fuzzy and textural opener the tumbling and brilliantly fluid rhythms of 'Overdrive' get you to the heart of the dance then 'Clipping' lurches backward and forwards on low-end oscillations and 'Bit Crush' closes the a-side with eye-watering hiss and fizz over crunchy drum slaps. Two further tunes on the flip find Razart manipulating sound and bass in his own unique way with two remixes adding extra bite to an already very useful EP.

Review: Old school RuneScape players will love these nostalgic remixes by London producer Pizza Hotline who has a fine rep' for crafting video game-inspired drum & bass and jungle riddims. Here, beloved RuneScape tracks get reimagined to blend classic vibes with modern twists and the first up 'Garden' embraces a traditional style, while the iconic 'Sea Shanty 2' transforms into a minimal d&b banger. 'Autumn Voyage' slows things down with a breakbeat remix, and 'Shine' takes on an atmospheric edge while seemingly drawing inspiration from Aphex Twin. Made using hardware like a Roland JV-1080 and reverb effects inspired by the PS1, Pizza Hotline stays true to the golden age here.

Review: After years of active work on the front of EP and white label releases, Okbron Records present their first various artists compilation on 4x12"LP, Will Of The Universe. The universe has indeed willed that Okbron output this incensory compilation, sure to befuddle and beguile any drum & bass listener with their head and gravity pack screwed on. Featuring eight previously unreleased tracks and exclusive mixes of tracks by Big Bud, Klute, Law, Nookie, Perfect Combination, PFM, Rantoul, Voyager and Wheeler, this is a compendium of cosmos-expanding proportions, spanning all from the most nebulaic and detailed of liquid ('Reminisce', 'The Rough With The Smooth') to the most guttered, curb-kicked jungle ('Meaner Streets'), representing everything Okbron has offered so far and continues to offer.

Review: Defenders of the true craft, no other label is repping quite as solidly, consistently and across all generations as much as Stretch's AKO Beatz. Take this new volume in their Defender series; a full-flavoured attack to the senses, every direction you look there's a humungous slab of vibes... Classic soul (Fez The Kid's timeless 'The Longest Time'), eerie retro futurism ('Blaze In'), sing-along reggae (Shay's raggamuffin rousing 'Sounbwoy Melody 1') smooth jazz feels (Scooby & Shaggy's summer-bound 'Catch It'), absolutely bumping hardcore (Culture Kutoshi's razor sharp 'Piece Of Body VIP'), criminally euphoric and wonderful (DJ Sofa's hardcore hero 'Wing Cap') The list goes on. Highest of high grades.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***


Razat has made an art form of distortion and saturation. The latter is what lends its name to this new eight-tracker on Saturate. After a fuzzy and textural opener the tumbling and brilliantly fluid rhythms of 'Overdrive' get you to the heart of the dance then 'Clipping' lurches backward and forwards on low-end oscillations and 'Bit Crush' closes the a-side with eye-watering hiss and fizz over crunchy drum slaps. Two further tunes on the flip find Razart manipulating sound and bass in his own unique way with two remixes adding extra bite to an already very useful EP.

Review: On limited heavyweight black-label vinyl come yet more samurai-themed various arts from the Berlin d&b dramaturgists at Samurai Music, clocking in at an insanely portentous 13 tracks. Also marking their hundredth vinyl release, the label honour their nearly 17-year existence with aspirant, boundary-pushing, dark drum & bass numbers, all sourced internationally. Representative of the Samurai Music sound is an intense brand of technically scratchy, yet smoothly intoned atmoss - one that doesn't fall prey to overburdening by drums and retains an emphasis on nyctophonic, serene scapes. Its star selections - the sonic katanas that refract the most light in the dark - have to be ASC's techno-informed 'S100' and Mako's intricately designed mammoth of a track, 'Get Away With It'.

Review: Dom & Roland's Industry set new standards when it was released on Moving Shadow in 1998. This was a vision of d&b as a cinematic vessel like never before, pushing the limits of sound design in a style which has been standard practice ever since. Steely and intense, it's as fresh and relevant now as it was when it first laid waste to the scene in a blizzard of industrial strength drums and dystopian moods. Newly remastered and now spread across five plates (compared to the still considerable four it originally arrived on), this is a landmark slice of drum & bass history given the ceremonious reappraisal it deserves.

Review: By 1997 Photek had already marked himself out as a wild card in the rapidly evolving d&b scene. He'd had three years to carve out some frankly dizzying displays of break editing wizardry and such was the innovation on display there just had to be an album coming. Modus Operandi smartly stepped to one side of the dancefloor, offering a smoky reflection on where jungle and d&b had got to, highlighting the compatibility between half-speed downtempo and breakneck drums and bringing inherent jazziness to the forefront of the beats, which avoided all the usual cliches. It's a masterpiece which hasn't dulled with time and here it's getting a heavyweight reissue across three slabs to ensure the loudest cut. All the better to blow your mind with, all over again.

Review: Colours Revisited isn't just a nod to Adam F's 1997 Colours but a wholly reconstructed journey that blends the echoes of late 90s drum and bass with new layers of live instrumentation. Rather than dusting off the original, Adam F digs deep, pairing soulful grooves with UK jazz virtuoso Julian Joseph's keys and the rich textures of re-recorded vocals by Kirsty Hawkshaw. A standout, 'Metropolis' channels the Metalheadz-issued original's punch with a vivid, rhythmic pulse, while 'Music in My Mind' echoes Herbie Hancock's influence. The album pulses with both reverence and reinvention, casting classic tracks in a fresh sonic space where analogue warmth meets carefully layered modernity. This is Colours, all brilliantly retold for a new era.

Review: Shogun Audio is a towering drum & bass behemoth whose presence in the scene has very much shaped its sound over the last two decades. To mark this fine milestone, the label has assembled the ultimate collector's piece in the four of this 4 x 12" vinyl box set plus a 20 Years Of Shogun Audio book housed in a bespoke presentation box. The tunes take in 10 remixes of Shogun's best tunes and 10 forward-thinking new cuts. Plenty of key associates such as Friction, DJ Marky, Monrroe, Emily Makis, Lens, GLXY, Sustance, SP:MC and many more all feature in what is a real slice of drum & bass history.

Review: Low-cal melodic pop d&b done from a new-gen perspective: Piri & Tommy's take on drum & bass has been a runaway success in the last two years as the couple bring their own unique song writing signature to the genre. Now to mark this year's RSD, their debut album Froge.mp3 enjoys a limited vinyl outing and it sounds amazing for it. Cuts like the sing-along 'On & On' and the lofi dreaminess 'Slowly But Surely' and the sun-kissed summer joint 'Beachin' all still sparkling as bright as they did when they first dropped last year, this is a significant moment for Piri & Tommy. Happy Record Store Day!

Review: Rhythm Section International turns ten this yearia whole decade since Bradley Zero started what seemed like a modest project, spinning out of those infamous Peckham pool hall parties. But modest it was not. In those ten years, Rhythm Section became more than just a label. It became a pulseia defining force in London's music landscape, rippling out across the globe. To celebrate the milestone, Rhythm Section has pulled together something that's as much a reflection as it is a bold step forward: a three-part compilation titled PAST, RE-IMAGINED AND FUTURE. Six discs, 30 tracks, spanning the label's evolution while pointing toward its next era. The first two discs? A dive into history, with one track from each year since 2014ia walk through the archives that pulls out deep cuts and forgotten classics. Then we get into the RE-IMAGINED part, where artists from the label like Ruf Dug, Session Victim, and Private Joy reinterpret past tracks in their own styles. No gimmicksijust raw, playful creativity that breathes new life into the old. And finally, the FUTURE: two discs of brand-new material for 2024. Artists like RONI, Gayance, and Jordan Rakei under his Frank Liin alias step forward to show where the label's heading, blending genres and moods seamlessly. What's special about this release is that it never feels like it's trying too hardiit's a reflection of the organic growth that's made Rhythm Section what it is today. Ten years in, and the label's as forward-thinking, alternative and grounded as ever.