Review: Turin-born and raised artist Andrea has explored plenty of different genres across his wonderfully experimental sounds, but mostly they are couched in techno with hints of 90s breakbeat and IDM. "Living Room is his third album and finds him tapping into an introspective sound with reflective melodies and a cosmic sense of travel. Right from the off, you're cast adrift in a world of shimmering melody and plucked strings, cascading arps and widescreen synthscapes and it is there you stay for the whole absorbing duration, though sometimes lithe rhythms bring more propulsion. A magnificently accomplished and detailed work.
Review: Bristol producer Borai (Boris English) and London's Denham Audio (Peri Ashwood) pulled off a remarkable feat with 'Make Me/No Good', an unequivocal release put out on Higher Level Records in 2019. Repurposing the unmistakable hookline from Donna Allen's g-funk jacker 'Serious' from 1986 into a fully re-recorded sample all their own, 'Make Me' set alight the feet of the breaksy raver, striking serious gold in the classic formula of easily-recognised old-school-soul vocals and sculpted tearout heft. As anthemic as its original B-side, 'No Good', the original latter half of the record now comes substituted by Big Ang's Rave To The Grave mix, whose blooping trooper sound design and mains-hum Reeses provide an ecstatic alter. A can't-go-wrong reissue by the Room Two camp.
Review: Cologne-based Belfast boy Dominick Martin has been delivering deliciously good albums as Calibre for the best part of a quarter of a century, frequently departing from his trademark drum & bass sound to showcase his love of other sub-heavy and mind-bending sounds such as dub techno, ambient and dubstep. On Little Foot, his first album in two years and 22nd in total, he leans into this considered eclecticism. For proof, compare and contrast the tactile and dreamy 4/4 dub of 'Blame Dub', the dub-wise junglist bruk-up of 'Special', the mutant two-step delight of 'Ukrained', the angularm, sub-heavy UK techno of 'Threadvare' and the Mark Ernestus style spaced-out dub techno of 'Choosing Beggar'. And that's just CD1. A genuine triumphant from one of bass culture's most distinctive musical voices.
Review: NRG 4 is the latest instalment in drummer and producer Chiminyo's boundary-pushing series and it captures the raw improvisational spirit of London's jazz-adjacent underground.The album is a communal outpouring of pure energy that was recorded live at the iconic Ronnie Scott's with no rules, no scripts, just spontaneous creativity and featuring a powerhouse ensemble including James Akers, Marysia Osu, Daniel Casimir, Lyle Barton and Tile Gichigi-Lipere. The set moves between frenzied burners like 'Levitate' and serene pieces like 'Sonder.' With surprise guests like BAELY and Regis Molina, NRG 4 is a genre-defying celebration of live collaboration and musical intuition that's electric, ephemeral and deeply alive.
Review: Flexing the full spectrum of roots music and featuring vocals from an epic range of singers from Omar to Liam Bailey, Nia Chennai to Tills; Green Lanes is the debut album from Jamie Rodigan and Aaron Horn's impressive Crate Classics project and it sounds every bit as fresh as it did when it landed digitally last year. Here on long-awaited wax it's been given a new coat of arms by way of some exceptional remixes from three artists who have spectrum flexing tenures themselves. Originator Congo Natty brings the teachings, pioneer Potential Badboy goes old testament on 'More Time', 'Missing' keeps it dreamy and soulful while Tyke get ruff on 'Westside'. An essential accompaniment to the full narrative.
Review: Breakbeat wizard Fanu returns with another multi-genre mash-up diving deep into the sounds he's mastered over the years: jungle, drum & bass, hip-hop and beyond. His rhythmic versatility and fearless approach to production is present and correct once more from the off:' 'Strobelight' is a tightly programmed workout with dark bass blasts offset by heavenly vocal coos. 'Ether' is even more involving with a lurching rhythm and snappy hits, and 'Free Fall' then casts you adrift in the cosmos, floating on the swirling pads with a more airy, spacious atmosphere. 'Coma'(feat Arcologies)' is a blissed out closer with more gentle but still dynamic drums. Ether shows Fanu's still pushing the envelope, one break at a time.
Review: Rotterdam producer, vocalist and DJ, Skyes (Mike Everling) is one of Fokuz's favourite upstartists, this being his third contribution to the label after a brilliant opening Minos collab 'Looney Tunes', then followed by an equi-tastic toon jungle four-tracker from 2024, 'Never Say Never'. This time he's got a 'Jazz Hangover', with 'Holding Back' bringing crudely resampled bloops and vocal ohs, and 'Send Away' enlarging the junglist massive through filtered dub triggers and rousing brass. Don't sleep on the B-sides either, where the title track sobers us with a dose of breaks mechanisation following an implied overindulgence in jazz humanity.
Review: Having long since been making a vital contribution to the drum & bass landscape, On Rhythm marks the first-ever album released on Future Retro London. It was during a 2023 tour in Australia and New Zealand that the label head finally met Kloke in Melbourne after years of online collaboration. Visiting his studio, he discovered a massive folder of thousands of music files and took a large part of it back home, spending months sifting through to select favourites for this album. After much back-and-forth with Kloke, the final version is now pressed to three slabs of wax. They make for a full sale exploration of his sound, from dark and driving drum breaks to more journeying cosmic trips like 'Rebellion', ice cold steppers like 'Tomorrow's World' and melodic mind melters like 'To The Moon'.
Review: Ma?h is based in Berlin but makes occult techno inspired by Tikal, which is the ruin of an ancient Mayan city in Guatemala. He creates a sense of ancient ritual, tribalism, primaeval drums and otherworldly atmosphere across five fantastically evocative and escapist cuts here. They all go deep, with rubbery rhythms marbled with wordless vocals, chanting, eerie FX and absorbing mysticism that is all expertly done and hugely authentic. 'Acat' is a standout with its lolloping bass and tom-peppered beats, while 'Exorcismo' is more intense and heady. 'Caiman Ritual' is a humid and intense dub techno bumper, and it rounds out one of the most original EPs we've heard in ages.
Review: Machine Girl's debut album celebrates its tenth anniversary with a long-awaited reissue, which marks the first time it arrives on CD as well as vinyl. Originally released in 2014, WLFGRL fused footwork, jungle, digital hardcore and rave into a chaotic, euphoric sound that helped launch a global underground movement. The album's packed with raw intensity and plenty of breakcore influence so it introduced a new generation to extreme electronic music and to celebrate its return, a one-off livestreamed show at Brooklyn's Trans-Pecos accompanied the release. As we are reminded listening back now, WLFGRL is a real high-water mark in outsider music culture.
Review: Brenda's debut for Rupture LDN is a love letter to the dancefloor in all its phases, from early anticipation to late-night transcendence. Hailing from the UK and embedded in the country's long rave lineage, she draws on 4x4 jungle techno, deep d&b and spoken word to map out a personal and emotional arc. 'Come Undone' captures the energy of the night in full swingirushing breaks, euphoric pressure, the kind of track that commands the room. Elsewhere, 'Benda Brenda' and 'Total Danger' are raw-edged and jungle-rooted, while 'Rolling With Fabio' is deeper and more rolling. It all closes on 'A Deep Shade of Rave (Outro)', a poem dedicated to her long-running Ferry to the Underworld sessions at Corsica Studios. Spiritually full, physically rinsedithis EP nails what it means to live for the rave.
Mason Vs Princess Superstar - "Perfect (Exceeder)" (vocal club mix) (6:43)
David Guetta & Mason Vs Princess Superstar - "Perfect (Exceeder)" (3:45)
Mason Vs Princess Superstar - "Perfect (Exceeder)" (1991 remix) (3:25)
Review: 'Perfect' by Mason is one of those tunes whose melody everybody knows, but few, save for the timeliest of Eurodance heads, can recall the name of off the top. Later rehashed alongside American rapper Princess Superstar, the track invaded the Western collective cochlear cortex circa 2005, whence its plucky drive-lead roused dancefloors and iPod shuffles the world over; an eerily engineered earworm arising seemingly out of nowhere. This reissue from Armada hears a comprehensive set of interpretations from various EDM giants in the years after its release, perhaps motivated by the track's use in the 2023 film Saltburn. Aside from a David Guetta re-up, the 1991 pop-d&b is a sleeker slew of ultrafast beats, as though the original's distinctive pluck line had been pre-primed for shelling at faster velocities.
Review: Silent Force Recordings drops a heavy 10" teaser ahead of the much-anticipated The Last Transmission album. This sampler of it features two standout cuts from Pixl and Murder Most Foul, who ramp up the excitement for what's to come. Gritty, atmospheric, and razor-sharp, both tracks tap into the label's signature blend of deep breaks and futuristic dread. The sound designs are pristine and the beats heavy so it's a fine preview of the full-length project due later this year-raw, cinematic drum & bass built for dark rooms and loud systems. Silent Force isn't playing here.
Review: Refreshers is a little-known alias of Lukid, an underrated producer who has previously explored murky lo-fi sounds on cult labels like Werk Discs. With this alias, though, he makes drum & bass and jungle, and crafted the original featured here back in 2021 and dropped it into his Dekmantel mix. It was heard by the Future Retro label head who reached out to release it and we're glad he did. It's a hidden treasure that is dark, intricate and perfectly crafted. The surprise release feels like uncovering a secret moment in jungle history and it comes with Phineus II's powerful remix, which adds depth and drum rawness, which makes this a vital pick up.
Review: The debut full-length from Bangladeshi-Canadian producer Raf Reza fuses UK soundsystem culture with his own deep-rooted Bangladeshi influences. Raised in Tokyo and musically shaped in Toronto and Glasgow, Reza blends dub, bleep, breaks and jungle with Baul music samples and vintage Bengali film soundtracks here and it results in a brilliantly original style. The album explores sonic futurism and asks how diasporic and Dhaka-based electronic cultures can intersect. With a unique mix of field recordings, semi-obscured monologues and dubwise textures, Reza's identity-driven narrative comes to life and cements him as a bold, genre-bending voice in cultural fusion and sound.
Review: Zinc was a busy busy boy in the 90s. Especially those foundation years. His work with Hype and Bizzy B around this time was legendary but besides his UKG moniker Jammin' years later, less is spoken of his various aliases. Jack Ruby had a cool run of cuts in 94 and 96 including this almighty slab of breakbeat drama 'Ophelia'. Big pads and a breath-taking arrangement. It's your quintessential deep or atmospheric jungle cut that has all the hallmarks of a Good Lookin jam. 'Beyond Reality' (which came out in 95 under his Tyranny alias) follows a similar sweeping sense of triumph but a little jazzier and cooler in its roll-out. Timeless.
Review: A significant return to the core of Goldie's pioneering drum & bass project, here in collaboration with Bournemouth beatsmith Submotive. Since the early 90s, Rufige Kru have ve redefined breakbeat science, with Goldie's early tracks like 'Darkrider' and 'Terminator' laying the foundation for modern drum & bass. Now, over a decade since their last release, the duo's chemistry is palpable, revisiting their roots while steering the genre forward. The opening track, 'Alpha Omega', sets the tone with intricate beats and emotional intensity, while 'Goldikus' (feat. Cleveland Watkiss) layers jazz influence with expansive soundscapes. 'Still The Same' (feat. Casisdead) blends grimy vocals with atmospheric pads, reaffirming their connection to the genre's experimental edge. With tracks like 'Mercury' and 'The Guardianz', the album remains rooted in the soulful, deep bass culture Goldie helped create. A fresh chapter in the legendary Rufige Kru legacy.
Review: Rufige Kru, the legendary alias of Goldie, has long been a cornerstone of breakbeat enervation and innovation. First tizzwozzing dancefloors in 1992 with the hardcore classic 'Darkrider', Rufige Kru delivered pivotal tracks like 'Ghosts of My Life' and 'Terminator'. Now, for the first time since 2009, Rufige Kru returns with new LP Alpha Omega, featuring longtime collaborator and krumate Submotive. Leading the charge is 'Still The Same', a heavyweight single featuring CASISDEAD, fresh off his BRIT Award win, interceded by 'Goldikus' with Cleveland Watkiss, a chance early jazzstep pioneer from the far-flung realm of piano jazz and soul.
Review: Goldie revives his genre-defining Rufige Kru alias for Alpha Omega, a new double LP on London Records. The record secures the first new release under the name since 2009. Though the proverbial kru once consisted in Goldie (Clifford Price), Linford Jones and Mark Rutherford, Price characteristically dominated it. Rufige finally came to with the seminal 'Darkrider' release on Reinforced Records: the track was a handed down later version of what started as a plundering of Japan's 'Ghosts Of My Life', giving the classic new wave title the mood of a broken-window metropolis, and it became the object of much cultural theorising for its influence on d&b's reflection of class politics. Now, Goldie faces the city of glass again, exposing the dirt behind the neon with longtime collaborator Submotive, enlisted to propel the project further into the "rufige": classic roots crusted by high-presh, concrete crud.
Review: Seba & Paradox reunite on Metalheadz with their first joint release for the label in over five years, reaffirming the synergy of two of drum & bass's most distinct voices. Known alike for their brooding musicalities and breakbeat precision, the pair unite styles once more on 'Cypher' and 'Orlean', resulting in a razor-sharp two-tracker through surgical drum edits and cleaving depths; the kinds of immersions both artists are celebrated for. Their return feels both timely and timeless, reminding listeners of the subtle power in expertly crafted, uncompromising d&b.
Review: Once was a time the term settle down had connotations of easing back, cooling off and winding things down a little and maybe even consider aligning with some sort of normality (whatever that is). Nowadays thanks to Greg Hepworth it simply means - brock the heck out and tear up the dance! Seriously have you heard a bad tune from him since Ulterior Motive split? We haven't. And certainly not here... 'The Dun Dudda' is pure happy chopper with some big jungle flavours in the vocal sample and overall swagger of the cut. 'Wipeout' has more hardcore energy about it. Unrelentless rave chaos. What a wild way to launch a new label and change the meaning of another word. Once was a time when Guidelines had connotations of order and following protocol and maybe even consider aligning with some sort of rules...
Review: Shadow Child mints his new label TBC with a rave-ready release that taps into playful jungle influences with driving club rhythms that are likely to go down a storm over summer and beyond. Early support from heavyweights like Scuba, Horse Meat Disco and Gerd Janson mean you may have already heard some of these jams and also hint at the EP's broad appeal. Standout tracks are, well, all of them. 'The Street' is a nimble stepper with pruning basslines, 'In My Dreams' is a percussive fenny with another brilliantly old school low end, and an untitled gem brings rave-ready pianos and old school energy. 'Bubble' flips the script with a rugged bass-driven house workout.
Review: Rave friends Shadow Child and DJ Haus link up for more Rhythm Forces and the results are double edged sword; 'Mystik Vortex' is a straight up 3am junglistic nug that's more cosmic than the contents of a wizard's pocket after a night out on the astrals. '3030 In The Mist' brings us back down to earth with slow and stately breaks and atmospheric washes so startling and refreshing you'll feel like you'll never get dry again. Maybe you won't? The force is that strong on these ones!
Review: Originally dispatched to the universe digitally via Candy Mountain, Sun People's powerful 'Emotional Distortions' now enjoys a vinyl boost-up and is sounding all the better for it. Landing just in time for the summer, each cut startles and satisfies in equal measure. 'Seul' lights an electroid fire, hitting us in our most introspective feels before 'Runaway' takes things up a notch and adds much more techno urgency to the scenario. Flip for two more slightly slower tempo shock-outs... 'Rhythm Guitar' brings a little funk before 'Exhausting Care' closes with more angular electro sharpness. Time to get emotional.
Review: Bristol's Technical Itch returns with a long-awaited full-length on Over/Shadow and it serves up a relentless dose of darkside energy hot on the heels of the 2024 prelude single 'Fear & Fantasy. Here, Mark Caro dives deep into his signature sound which is a blend of moody steppers, cinematic dread and brutal amen workouts. It's everything fans have come to expect from the master of atmospheric darkness, all wrapped in precision engineering and raw intensity. With nods to techstep and futuristic jungle alike, this is Technical Itch at his uncompromising best and a heavy, immersive odyssey through the darker corners of drum & bass.
Review: French techno alchemist Vardae is the latest artist to feature on German experimental drum & bass label Samurai Music. Vardae has dabbled with 85/170bpm speeds before, most notably on his excellent 'The Kaipos' EP. This time we get a full EP's worth of deep techno-influenced drum & bass, a sound that is familiar to anyone following recent trends in the deeper scenes of techno: acid lines, forest drums, mystic vocals, etc. The opener 'The Light Motion' is a halftime groover with fluttering percussion propelling it forward. The second 'Chaeming Your Soul' has a more recognisable drum & bass rhythm underneath, bringing to mind Overlook and UVB-76's back catalogue with powerful acid washes over the top. 'Voices Of Depossesion' has a conventional four-to-the-floor beat but at a blistering BPM and 'Flaming As A Cloud' ends with an excellent drum & synth-ony. One for fans of Marco Shuttle, Pessimist, et al.
Intalex Productions Present The X - "Turn Da Lites Down" (5:54)
Mampi Swift - "Old Song" (5:46)
Dream Team aka Bizzy B & Pugwash - "Raw Dogs" (Shy FX Re-Lik) (5:42)
Intalex Productions Present The X - "New Dawn" (VIP mix) (7:02)
Remarc - "One Style" (4:44)
Dream Team aka Bizzy B & Pugwash - "X-Files" (5:14)
Mampi Swift - "Little Touch" (6:07)
Pascal - "Like Dat" (6:13)
Review: Essex rave pioneers and indeed, instituion, Suburban Base plunges into its 90s archive with the new Subbase Sampler, at first a CD-only compilation from 1997. Coming at an evolutionary moment in jungle and drum & bass, we hear the figureheads of said insurgency - Remarc, Dream Team (Bizzy B & Pugwash), Pascal, Mampi Swift, and Marcus Intalex presents The X (Mark XTC) - spread their audio ambits over two tracks per side. While 'Hardstep' by D'Cruze and Remarc's 'In The Hood (Shy FX Remix)' are omitted from the vinyl due to space, they're included in the digital package and available on other recent Suburban Base reissues. Most of the tracks featured here haven't been repressed since the 90s; and aren't 'Raw Dogs', 'One Style' and 'New Dawn (VIP Mix)' true soulful stars among them?
Review: South Korea junglists representing! Following a series of more house / beatsy focused missives, Sambo up the tempo for this Seoul breakbeat showdown. Local donnies Slowpoe and Kim Han get busy on 'Soju Skanking'. Big reggae licks and a sing-along chorus (even if you can't speak Korean), this is a warm-as-toast weapon ready for the summer. Setting the energy for the EP, the rest of the 12" stretches its legs in all directions; 'Groover Han' takes a deeper twist before more associate breakers join the fray... Noah1luv deconstructs the funky beat on the rock-inspired/early 90s inspired 'Def Leppard', SGSY remixes his jungle band Kom Agens into a super warm lick while DJ Funny lays down the real head-turner of the EP in the form of the heavily emotional 'Hot N Cold' before Yetsuby brings the EP to a dreamy-but-skatty close. Sweet.
Review: One of the flagship albums by Aaron Funk aka. Venetian Snares (alongside Songs About Cats, Higgins Ultra Low Track Glue Funk Hits 1972-2006, Winnipeg Is A Frozen Shithole and The Chocolate Wheelchair Album), Rossz Csillag Alatt Szuletett marks itself out in his sonography as a breakcore album which, aside from its lobotomising breaks, features mostly classical strings and brass. Gloomy and melancholic, the album's title translates from Hungarian to "Born Under A Bad Star", i.e. "cursed from birth", and the record transmits a superstitious chain of influence, with track 3 covering Budapest composer Rezso Seress' 'Gloomy Sunday', which was said to have inspired the suicide of the original musician's own girlfriend. Renditions of Mahler, Stravinsky, Paganini, Prokofiev and Edward Elgar all follow in morose but energetic fashion, demonstrating the Canadian IDM artist's quirkily sized collection of drill bits.
Review: The latest EP from Rotterdam drum & bass outfit Vibez 93 is a peaking roll-tastic high. 'Tokyo & Paris' spatters four liquid d&b tunes of various shape and size, with 'M38' opening on an anthemic note to contrast the dynamic liquid sub squirms of the A2's 'Green Eyes'. The B1 hears a sampled verse breezily cruise the Italian Amalfi Coast, before its foil emerges on the hip-d&b title track closes on a stoner-step homage to European travel, soundtracked by the sounds of a concrete jungle.
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