Back catalogue: Dubstep

Review: Both an intriguing and very cool release on Hyperdub, Philly producer King Britt surfaces after a long absence with this new project that goes beyond his traditionally lush and funky nu-jazz and broken beat releases into a darker and chillier place. The Gary Numan-meets-Prince spank of "Chasing Rainbows" is a great starter, while the off-the-wall drum programming of "The Chase" and the filmic swathe of "Lilloo's Seduction" show a breadth of talent that can only come from being in the game for 15 years plus.

Review: With his own album twitching at the gates, Kuedo brings his synth-laden delirium to King Midas Sound's "Goodbye Girl". He starts proceedings on a tart melodic line underpinned by some monolithic bass tones. The mournful quality of the original wafts through, acting as just the right counterbalance to Kuedo's day-glo styles. Mala opts for a bleak, dread fuelled take on "Earth A Kill Ya". A menacing, drawn out intro peppered with ghostly tones kicks into gear with a minimum of fuss over a persistent sub stab. If you appreciate music written to conjure up demons then this track has everything you need.

Review: Kode 9 may have been widely lauded in the past, but those reactions are nothing next to the deep shudder of awe that greeted this jaw-dropping single with the enigmatic raw-throated Daddy Gee. Kode 9's musical virus is a constant mutation of Jamaican dub & dancehall, German micro techno, and moody UK garage & drum & bass. Accurately describing the effect of this beatless dub cover of Prince's 'Sign O' The Times' with lyrics slang scribed by Gee into yard patios is near impossible, but these gents of the press were among the first to attempt it.

Review: A Hyperdub repress of 2005's anthemic "Kingstown", on which dread vocalist Spaceape scratched a bleak dubtronic portrait of Jamaica's capital over a top-ranking Kode9 riddim populated with melancholic synth riffs, delayed tablas, and enough surging sub-bass to sink Babylon.

Review: Kode9 and The Space Ape step up with a couple of very different cinematic riddims tracks. Pure funeral march material, descending into grimey synthetic bass, phased snares and deep, deep subs.

Review: Announced back in September, news of the first release of substance from Kode 9 and The Spaceape in three years was naturally roundly greeted given their status at the top of the pecking order for apocalyptic producer-MC combos. Of course the release of Killing Season has been massively overshadowed by the recent passing of The Spaceape (aka Stephen Samuel Gordon) after a long battle with a rare form of cancer, but his commitment to music has remained undimmed despite health issues and this five track EP is as good as anything the pair have worked on. It's as dark as ever, but "Devil Is A Liar" too shows a lighter, more limber approach to the finished product, not so leaden in British urban dread. The minimalism reaches a peak on "Heart" with its slithering smatterings of trap and plush chords, while The Spaceape rips the human condition to shreds, and the later into the EP you go the more adventurous the tracks become.

Review: After a summer spent deep within their own customized black hole, Kode9 & Spaceape emerge with this all-new single, the only vinyl outing for 2 tracks providing a preview of their feverishly awaited incoming full length CD 'Memories Of The Future', due at the front end of October. Featuring one of Spaceape's most direct verbal performances yet, 'Curious' opens in the wind tunnel - laced by the lush vocals of new recruit to the Hyperdub Kru, Ms. Haptic - and refrains with the infectiously ambivalent chorus "Maybe we will save you... Maybe we will kill you". Rushed along by its bustling hi-hats, 'Curious' drops into Hyperdub's customary wall of sub. While both tracks feature Kode9's distinctively offkey combination of melodica and synth, and an equally upfront vocal, 'Portal' swerves into another orbit altogether with deranged, alien synths skewing an accelerated, rollin' half-step groove, as Spaceape flows from outer to inner space. A wake up call to dub zombies everywhere. "A truly original ska-tech probe. Jettisoning dubstep's sludge step dirge for levitational piano chords, hallucinatory melodica loops and disorientating fx vapour trails, they've stepped up their game admirably. And with Spaceape moving out of LKJ's shadow into his own regal kingdom, there's an air of befitting confidence, and that's brilliantly heightened by Ms Haptic, sounding like Nicolette locked in the echo chamber.

Review: After the widely acclaimed Burial debut album, Hyperdub throw out another tangential long player, a mutant satellite to the grime/dubstep scenes, this time from label boss Kode9 and resident vocalist Spaceape. 'Memories Of The Future' features 14 dread filled flash-backs and flash-forwards from a world trembling in an ecology of fear. The album brings together the long sought after Hyperdub debut single 'Sine Of The Dub' from early 2004 with other minor classics such as 'Kingstown', recent singles 'Backward' and '9 Samurai' and 10 new tracks of uneasy, sometimes queasy listening. Time scrambling dubtronic poet, Spaceape circulates around the lyrical black hole he calls home with tales of cultural addiction, urban paralysis, bioterror, smouldering flesh and psycho-affective meltdown.