CALIBRE Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Calibre's brand new drum & bass album Rudy comes in a minty-fresh contrapuntal breath, following hot on the heels of a new white label reissue of his earliest and most enduring works from the mid-to-late 1990s. The sudden time-warp back into the present day proves just how far he has come since then, yet also just how much he has retained what worked, too; Rudy begins in an orthodox liquid jungle fashion with the likes of 'Stunted', before breaking away into impressionistic vocal free-associations like 'The Game' (with Dominic Martin) and halftime reese-swellers like 'Heaven'. All the tracks originate from the same aetheric stratosphere - imagine if drum & bass had kicked off not on a terrestrial, but totally gaseous planet - yet Calibre still gleans enough variation from this potent condensate to either pack both more vacuumy punches ('Cousin') or more laid-back but cerebral inhalations ('Dumb Bum').

Review: While Calibre's studio albums are invariably superb, his periodic Shelflife compilations of unreleased tracks and tried-and-tested dubplates are often even better. Predictably, this fifth volume in the series not only hits the spot, but also contains some genuinely grade-A material. Many will naturally gravitate towards high-class DRS hook-up "City Life" and the sought-after Marcus Intalex collaboration "Bluesday" (a typically warm, melodious and soulful affair), but there are plenty of other highlights amongst the 12 tracks on. These largely tend towards the more sun-kissed and breezy end of the D&B spectrum, though there are some tougher and darker workouts (see the low-slung sci-fi growl of "Jaboc") amongst Calibre's waves of dancefloor positivity.