Back catalogue: All genres

Review: PRSPCTV aka XENTRIX is an emerging Belgian techno talent who steps out here with his first release on Musik is Egall. His moody and atmospheric original 'Perspective & Surface' is found on the B-side. It's a hunched-over, stripped-back deep techno and dub fusion with grotty synths and vast incendiary hi-hats hurrying you along. Label co-founder Oliver Hess steps up with his own remix on the A-side and flips the track into something as deep as they come, with dubbed out chords and warm, edgeless but driving kicks and smeared pads all laced up with muffled vocal mutterings and rising synths. It's one for early-evening groove sessions or late-night zone outs.

Review: Peoples Potential Unlimited or PPU, is one of the freshest funk labels out there, whether serving up new funk sounds that sound old, or reissuing classic funk sounds that seem bang up to date. Often lo-fi in design but high in emotion, they make for party-starting gems with real swagger. This latest limited 7" is a reissue of a classic from The X-Man, who has apparently been locked away in the Detroit Psychiatric Hospital for the last 30 years. His aggressive funk style pairs driving drums and taught synths with libidinous vocal delivers and plenty of great guitar riffs. Here we have the driving 'That Body' paired with the more deep and bumping 'Fire Up'. Both bang.

Review: X Press 2 have long been bastions of the UK underground but despite their venerated veteran status they are also still knocking out proper good house music. They have a new album on the way that proves that, and this is one of the singles from it featuring Kele from Bloc Party. 'Phasing You Out' is everything Rocky and Diesel from this outfit have always championed - sweaty grooves, no frills, effective synths. It's perfect for amping up a dancefloor with its subtle vocal hooks and then it gets remixed by the legendary David Holmes into something a little more lavish and melodic but no less effective.

Review: X-Ray Ted's 'Talkin' EP' finally hits vinyl, a format perfectly suited for its timeless classic vibe. On the A-side, 'Talkin' weaves strings, horns, and guitar riffs over rolling beats and bass, topped with soulful vocals. On the flip, 'So Much' exudes infectious energy, blending vocal refrains, guitars, and horns for a soulful groove. These tracks offer a glimpse into X-Ray Ted's upcoming debut album, showcasing his talent for blending old-school sounds with a modern twist. Limited to a run of 7"s on Bombstrikes, these vinyl grooves exude sunshine vibes and feel-good warmth, destined to fly off shelves.

Review: MELMAK's new 12" is entitled All Stars: The Rave Years which gives you an idea of what to expect. These are high-tempo, dense and rave ready sounds from the drum & bass vanguard. There is plenty of space out cosmic energy to the exploratory leads of X Termal's 'Tragnal Kozze' then 'What If' (The Doulo Klan edit) is a tightly coiled stepper. Bugger lays down a hyper speed rhythm with drilling bass and slapping hits on 'No Silence Now' and Umbra's 'The Big Dumb' is a real slow-motion churner with textural synths and alien sound designs. All four are ready to get the party going in different ways.

Review: The Supervision (garage) label has put together a crack team of artists here on a sizzling six tracker that digs into many different forms of garage and 2-step. Xander's 'Save Me' is a minimal bumper with metropolitan sound effects giving it some edge, while Yosh explores a more dry and crunchy percussive sound on 'Quest.' Alvva's 'Lost In The System' is in a hurry to get you locked in and the three flip side joints take in the low-end wobble of Hermit, Phasmid's sweet vocal cut 'Better Than Never' and Dunman's blissed out 'Summer Breeze'. A very useful garage outing with shades for everyone.

Review: Goettingen's long standing dub techno servant XDB takes us to Chicago At Midnight with this new 12" on Pariter. 'Fenders' is one and is a deliciously elastic rhythm with rolling kick drums setting a hypnotic groove as the bubbly synths rise up through the mix. 'Cagomi', more edgy and amped up with gritty hits and swaying bass, gets a new lease of life after first surfacing on XDB's Metrolux Music back in 2009. The same cut gets a remix from Delano Smith that's more rooted to the floor in the Detroit man's usual textbook style. A classy outing from all, then.

Review: Great deep techno with two respected artists bringing their favourite cuts on this collaborative split release. Goettingen's finest Kosta Athanassiadis aka XDB delves into the sublime sound of resonance on the hypnotising dub techno cut 'C.O.N.' on the A-side. Over on the flip, you've got Dresden's Stephan Schindler - better known as Kryptic Universe - with 'Cloud Riders' an emotive deep cut for the late night. Limited copies on blue wax.

Review: X Press 2 are dons of the UK house scene. They have turned out everything from sleazy underground house anthems to Ivor Novello Award winning dance-pop crossovers with David Byrne. Unlike many of their generation, they are still full of fresh ideas too - rather than churning out the same old sounds or copying whatever is du jour, they have really nailed a smoky, strobe-lit and club-ready house sound with new album Thee. It is full of their signature chunky grooves, seemingly simple but effective hooks and rock-solid baselines that will get any floor in a right old state.

Review: X-Ray Pop play live at Rockomotives Festival in 2020. The cult band was first formed back in 1984 by Didier Doc Pilot and Zouka Dzaza and are said to be inspirations for the likes of Beastie Boys and Stereolab. Their set at Rockomotives marked a triumphant return to the stage for the group with Charlotte Barfuss and Zouka Dzaza providing vocals, Doc Pilot on space guitar and Olivier Gicquel on drums amongst others. The setlist takes in tunes from four albums - Surrealistic Pilot, Fuzzy Soundtracks, All that Jazz and The Dream Machine - with psychedelic jazz mixed with novo beatnik overtones.

Review: Re-pressed on vinyl for the first time in 15 years, La Foret hears a full reissue via 5 Rue Christine. As conceptual as Xiu Xiu's fusion of post-punk, gamelan, synth pop, folk, and noise might seem, the group's music never feels overly cerebral or detached. On the contrary, it's usually brimming over with often contradictory emotions: love, hate, sex, violence, fear, and humor cling together so tightly in Jamie Stewart's songs that they can't be separated. Harsh and beautiful words and sounds remain intertwined on La Foret, which ranks among Xiu Xiu's subtlest - and scariest - albums.

Review: Modern G-funk star artist XL Middleton curates a compilation of his favourite artists of the moment, affirming the tastes of this veteran MoFunk stalwart. Middleton's motto is, "Whether you're on or off the dancefloor, it's always on the one", reflecting his emphasis on funk as a music for grounding oneself "on the one", despite the style's emphasis on swing and syncopation. It's the electronic element that provides this groundedness; every track here - highlights including Milk Talk's 'Sayonara Alpinist' and Middleton's own 'Awn-N-Crackin' - is backed by a regimented, hotly processed production, fleshing out the style's readied catering to the dancefloor.

Review: Talk about being ahead of their time. Not only did XTC get the jump on everyone else (inadvertently) by predicting the letters XTC would change the course of Western European youth culture from the mid-1980s onwards, they also offered a very early stylistic premonition of the sounds that would, temporarily, usurp rave and associated genres as the pre-eminent adolescence, teen hood, and early adulthood music.
Formed in 1972, XTC are one of those examples of why we shouldn't really listen to what the hype men and women are saying. Struggling to break ground during their formative years - arguably their most fertile creatively - nevertheless the cult followers could see what was there. Most of the rest of us waited for another decade or so, at least, before realising this combination of elaborate pop, punk and art rock was actually prepping us for post punk, power pop and Britpop. Go 2 makes that very clear indeed.

Review: The third volume of the Members Only mixtapes would serve as the final addition to the saga released during the lifetime of controversial experimental emo-hip-hop artist XXXTentacion (real name Jahseh Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy), who would tragically lose their life in a botched robbery/shooting just under a year later. Known for his genre-bending fusion of hyper aggressive trap interspliced with emotive displays of tortured catharsis, these collaborative collections, originally formulated with friend and regular collaborator Ski Mask The Slump God, became a highlight for fans of the young artist's seemingly endless and expansive discography. Extending the banner to incorporate a myriad of like-minded alternative rappers such as Wifisfuneral, Bass Santana, Robb Banks, Craig Xen and Killstation, Volume 3 is regularly commended for its collective vision, dynamic production and ever-shifting moods, while Onfroy's charisma would still commend the focal point spotlight across its weighty 23 tracks and hour-long runtime.

Review: American hip-hop collective Members Only is led and presented by XXXTentacion. Members Only, Vol. 4, was released on what would have been XXXTentacion's 21st birthday on January 23, 2019 and is the only record to have come since his murder. The record debuted at number 23 on the US Billboard 200 chart and was well received by fans and critics alike with production taken care of by the likes of Flyboy Tarantino, Denzel "Heartbreak" Richards, Courtney "AyooiNk" Jenkins and several others. The record samples the likes of Billie Ellish and Mort Garson and now makes its way to vinyl for the first time.

Review: XY0815 is as electro as it gets, and that's been proven plenty on the string of releases for brokntoys reaching back to 2018. As is common with the prolific label, this is electro to sit up and pay attention to, taking the blueprint of machine funk and giving it a fresh twist which stands out from the glut of soundalikes. Gates Need Inputs arrived in its first iteration last year and we're swiftly treated to this follow-up volume of eight new tracks which edge towards braindance territory in the plaintive synths which shape out the atmosphere of each track. There's analogue warmth and sonic detail edged in everywhere, but equally nothing feels cluttered or necessary. Very classy gear from a trusted stable in the modern electro scene.