Review: James Bangura steps into the ring with his new Shadow Boxing EP which is named in honour of his grandfather, Carroll Daniel Smith, who boxed for the US Army in WWII. It's a punchy take on tech house from the off, with 'Hazy Recall (Airdrop mix)''s off-grid beats swinging in from all directions with same the potency as a Mike Tyson uppercut. 'Drown It Out' has a garage swing to it as it slips and sides as fluidly as Mayweather's defence and 'Shadow Boxing' floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee. Last of all is 'Analyze, Socialize' which will have you on the ropes and sweating in no time.
Review: Batu has long been in a class of one when it comes to crafting meticulously hi finely rhythms and sounds. He now steps out to launch his own new label A Long Strange Dream, with a five track EP that runs the stylistic gamut from ambient to raw and futurist techno. Churning bass and hefty hits one up 'Traverse' which rides on a menacing bassline and is action packed from front to back. 'In Tongues' is a thumping technoid banger and 'For Spirits' is a wild rhythmic work out with disrupted low ends and groaning synths. 'Through The Glass' is the Beatles closer that allows you to catch your breath.
Review: Blawan is not only the most notable electronic producer to have ever come out of Barnsley (as far as we know, anyway_ but is also one of techno's most relentless innovators. He's done it all from heft, swinging bass to the most caustic and experimental techno. For this one on XL he aims at the club once more. 'Fires' is our pick - an unrelenting, tightly stacked rhythm with alluring vocal hooks swirling up top and weird synth sounds adding even more unusualness.
Review: Long dormant has laid the tried but true practice of dubstep and garage artists sampling classic horror movie dialogue, pre-drop. We're thoroughly happy to hear that new Peaky Beats sublabel Brainjuice have gone and resurrected this zombie for us. This four-tracker from the label hears label heads Peaky and Vel carefully and creatively work in as-yet unknown samples to the stew; some kind of Frankensteinish exclamation on the dubstep A1 laments the feeding of a monster "human brains", while the breakstep A2 'Bacon Dance' hears more timestretched, dystopian vocals amid wobbles. 'Don't' leans more into the kind of melodic dubstep that likes to sample R&B acapellas, and is the most refreshing of the lot.
Review: Brother Aten debuts on Bruk with a minimalist masterpiece featuring the detached vocals of Ze R. This tidy 10" is influenced by cult sci-fi and early 80s no wave so naturally presents a stark, synthetic soundscape devoid of excess. The title reflects its mood: Aten's mechanical mantras are crafted with precision on outboard instruments and explore gritty, futuristic worlds. On 'Unavailable,' resonant drones create a platform for Ze R.'s initial deadpan delivery which reveals deeper humanity as the track unfurls through crisp drums. The brief yet impactful two-parter, 'Fragmented Dystopia' is a taste of Aten's cyberpunk vision while Ze R.'s words oscillate between structure and chaos.
Review: Get ready for a wholesome spread as Coco Bryce makes his debut on the cult BXL Underground and feeds us our supper this eve. First up a little liquid refreshment in the form of 'Bubble Tea'. Zesty, punchy and reviving; this 'Soca Tek' vibe is laced with a dizzy array percussion all hitting in harmony or counterpoint. Pure natural energy. Need to line your stomach? Chow down on the techno flavoured 'Tiger Bread'. Rich in all your favourite 4x4 vitamins, this one stamps so hard you might just lose your appetite.
Review: Cashmere Cat made quite the splash when he dropped Wedding Bells on LuckyMe back in 2014. In its deft balance of pristine hyper-pop, plaintive classical piano and sneaker-scuffed bass, 'With Me' confirmed his maximalist, misfit appeal in the fine tradition of LuckyMe artists, by going on to work with top tier artists like Ariana Grande, The Weeknd, Sophie, Major Lazer... the list goes on. This small but perfectly formed EP captures a moment in music perfectly, when the past decade of stylistic splintering had left the playing field pleasingly wide open and its more than deserving of a repress ten years on.
Gavsborg - "Did Not Make This For Jah_9" (feat Shanique Marie) (4:33)
Review: Techno arriving on 7" is not an all too common sight, but why not? This release from the fledgling Dispari out of Germany suggests it works well. Cloud Management and Gavsborg take one side each, starting with the former. Their 'Tempentary Dance' pairs thudding and broken kick drum patterns with dreamy and rising synth sequences and spoken words. It's brilliantly beguiling. The flip then finds Gavsborg offering 'Did Not Make This For Jah_9' (feat Shanique Marie) which is dark and moody, dubbed out and dystopian deep techno.
Review: Adam Curtain makes a fantastic debut here on the Alien Communications label as he collides come classic bleep-laden and highly danceable electron grooves with plenty of hefty basslines. 'Slipped Disc' quacks off with some ice cold atmospheres and electro-inspired rhythms, 'Whistling Wizard' is another ice-cold blend of crisp rhythms and tiny hits with sci-fi motifs and whirring machine details. 'DRM' then brings a winky and hiccuping rhythm with some superbly stark hits and 'I Want, Want' is a stripped back rhythm with dry synths and rasping sounds that are abstract yet infectious.
Review: Lighting up the dance! Toronto / Tallinn tag-team Dima Disk come correct with their most comprehensive and substantial body of work to date. A sprawling web of heavy breaks and even heavy atmospheres, there's an old Botchit & Scarper style eeriness and tension here but brought slap bang up to the modern age. Digging into elements of prog, techno and trance just as much as it nods towards hardcore and jungle, highlights include the relentless bounce of '2kSamba' and the dreamy beatless finale 'Betty'. Ooh.
Review: More funk for your trunk! Brussels most provocative player DJ Elephant Power stampedes back into the mix with more subversive, fully uncategorisable gold. Pick a genre, any genre and we guarantee you won't be thinking of what's here as we gently melt from the nifty ravey breaks the opening title track to the sleepy, woozy tension of the finale cut 'Infinity'. In between we have bumping bewitching house ('I Got You') and strange slow-mo electro ('Shades'). Thinking of sleeping on this? Tusk tusk tusk on you.
Review: DJ Plead & rRoxymore make for a fascinating duo and take aim squarely at the floor on this new outing, Read Round City, for Smalltown Supersound. Opener 'Celestial' is a loose-limbed rhythmic jumble with hand claps, trippy xylophone patterns and deep bass that lulls you into a trance while 'Read Wrong' is a more reggaeton-inspired sound with snappy snares and warped synth sounds. It's gluey and gloopy and subtly colourful. 'Round Echoes' is a third and final cross blend of techno, dub and house that picks up the pace and heads off into the cosmos but retains an organic feel thanks to the marvellous wet hand claps.
Review: A melting pot of UK garage, house and bass, DJ Swagger's latest release on Berlin-based label, 777, is a fascinating exploration in structure and chaos. Opening track, 'Thanks Felix', moves at lightspeed - a thrilling race through a gritty arrangement of blunted kicks, shifting in and out of focus, moving between order and disorder. 'Fingerclut' emerges with an instantly more house-facing feel - a satisfyingly hypnotic groove spirals in a circle motion, featuring a cyclonic gathering of subtle flecks of percussive variation over the course of the track. Offering a spliced, glitched-out take on contemporary bass, 'Final Bout' journeys through moments of airy weightlessness before being thrown back into the growling, driving bass section of the track. The perfect tension builder, 'Full Cycle', is an ingenious tease of a track, skillfully building up to, you guessed it, even more build.
Review: Dogpatrol returns to Sneaker Social Club with four more tracks of gritty, genre-bending rave damage. Despite hailing from Offenbach in Germany, his sound blends UK influences like breakbeat hardcore, dubstep and garage and that results in a mutant style that's uniquely his own. '1200kcal' features jagged UKG drums and cosmic bass arps while 'Baby Flame 'channels warehouse electro with a heavy synth splat. 'Ya Playin Yaself' delivers a dubstep roller with playful keys and 'Offgenbach HBF Riddim' adds a breakbeat twist with echoes of The Blapps Posse. Dogpatrol's irreverent, misfit approach to rave shines again here.
Review: Dreamlogicc and SW are two standouts in the outlier world of leftfield house music, and they find a perfect home on the equally out-there label that is Kimochi. This is the first time they have been on the same bit of wax (though both have been here many times as solo artists) and hopefully, it won't be the last. There is plenty of unusual rhythm work here with wonky grooves that are enriched with a world of superbly futuristic sound designs. All of these hard to define cuts are serious curveballs that bring a great element of WTF to any set, so do not sleep and add them to your arsenal ASAP.
A Dam Will Always Divide (Lew E Asks The Dust remix) (7:55)
Review: This remix EP invites Young Marco, Minor Science, Ineffekt and Tornado Wallace to offer up their own reworks of Avalon Emerson's recent works. First up is 'Karaoke Song' (Ineffekt's Two Day version) which is shuffling, dense and club-inspired rhythms, then comes Young Marco's rework of 'Entombed In Ice' which is lit up with bright and bubbly arps, while Minor Science keeps it dusty and mid-tempo but heavy with his rework and Lew E closes out with a psychedelic trance-techno flip of 'A Dam Will Always Divide.'
Review: Wisdom Tooth co-founder Facta has always brought plenty of colour to his blends of house, bass and club music. Both rhythmically inventive and dancefloor-ready, his work is also always full of playfulness and emotion. So is the Sun is another EP that follows in that fine tradition with opener 'A X I S' laying down bumping drums and warming sub-bass under crisp hits and whimsical neon pads. 'Innsbruck' is another sugary sweet blend of thudding, rubbery drums and naive melodies that truly captivate. Add in two more charming club cuts and you have a superb return from this ever-green talent.
Review: From San Fran to London, US beat-sculptor Farsight follows the likes of Rnbws and Oldfield with this debut on the burgeoning underground imprint Dead Beat. And what a debut! Picking up where cuts like 'Triangulation' and 'Renegade' left us last year, the full EP ranges from abstract, deconstructed club vibes ('Sorry Mate!') to the more robust and venomous electroid spikes of 'Runneth Over' and the bright and bashy bumps of 'Empty Agent'. Complete with a series of links with kindred beat-splicing spirit Eradicate, this is an unmissable full flex across the beat spectrum. Essential.
Review: Ghost Phone has always been an intriguing label with a great aesthetic that pairs casper the friendly ghost with second-wave Nokia mobile phones, suggesting it is inspired by the late 90s and early 00s. The sounds testify to that too - often drawing n the UK hardcore continuum, bass and garage with their skeletal rhythms and shimmering pads. Pitched-up r&b vocals on "Want U' make it a real standout while opener 'Hologram' is more about shifting tones and eerie moods. 'So Gone' brings dusty jungle breaks as heard second-hand down the phone and 'Darkness Finds Home With U' closes out with yet another idiosyncratic yet familiar sound.
Review: Yaleesa Hall wastes no time setting the tone on this Timedance release, delivering a weighty fusion of UKG, electro and sub-heavy pressure. Opener 'Halfway Gone' lurches forward with a heady mix of swung percussion and cavernous bass, its tension building like a slow-motion collision. 'Light Headed' dials up the energy, its restless breakbeat patterns and distorted low-end hitting with unrelenting force. On the flip, 'Voices' leans into dubbed-out textures, letting ghostly vocal snippets drift through the haze as tightly coiled rhythms keep the pulse locked. Closer 'Still Here' brings the release full circle, with fractured beats and rumbling sub-bass weaving together in a hypnotic finale. It's a bold statement from Yaleesa Hallione that feels tailor-made for dancefloors that thrive on weight and space in equal measure.
Review: Bristol's Hodge is one of those producers with a signature style no matter the genre he makes. He's an adept studio craftsman who designs sounds in a way few others do and he shows that again here with this fresh 12" on the mighty Timedance. 'Voice Crash' opens up with clanking great hits over minimalist beat frameworks that are always on the move, and you will be too. '151' is a more manic and dense arrangement with malfunctioning loops, knackered synth mutations and whirring effects all making for something fairly mind-blowing. Last of all is 'Fussyhead', a percolating and potent rhythm underpinned with lashings of UK bass.
Review: The artist himself admits that The Glory Days EP marks a new era for Alan Johnson after a decade of sporadic releases. Building on last year's Stillness EP, this release features entirely new music which has been made over the past two years as the creative process has been refined and moved towards a simpler storytelling approach. Assembled for the YUKU label, the EP showcases a shift in sound that blends past influences with new experimentation and danceable, glossy playfulness. Divided into two distinct moods, it reflects both a nod to a chaotic past and a glimpse into the future with earthed low ends and kinetic rhythms run through with fizzy electronics and menacing moods.
Review: Sneaker Social regulars Alan Johnson return to the label with more unclassifiable gems. All flexing that bewitching, beaty brew of percussion, smoking 808s, shattered beats and crafty sampling, each cut hits with a direct physical groove. From the System-level dubsteppy title track to the more organic haze and swoons of the finale 'People Of The World', the UK duo have once again weaved a fine line between so many genres without committing to any. Tonnes of love..
Review: French producer Kaval reinvents UK funky on this intricately constructed four-tracker. The opener is an energetic blend of syncopated percussion and shuffling rhythms that builds momentum with a tight, layered arrangement. The second cut introduces an off-kilter melodic touch, balancing dynamic grooves with a more playful sensibility. The flip explores a much darker, sonic territory, leaning into moody atmospherics and spacious drum patterns. Closing the record, the final track layers hypnotic loops over driving basslines, offering a satisfying finale that exemplifies Kaval's ability to push the boundaries of UK funky while retaining its rhythmic essence.
Review: It almost seems redundant, writing something about the latest fabric Originals release. If you could think of a more enticing double-header for fans of bass, Leftfield techno, and UK-hued alternative electronic music then we want to hear it, with both producers here moving well beyond cult status and into the world of households names in homes well beyond their original audiences. And yet, remarkably, neither have strayed too far from where they initially set stalls. Hyperdub boss Kode 9 proves this first, with the sightly dizzying 'Infirmary'. Born from a combination of loose, open, galloping UKF and organic techno, with its foundations rooted in footwork, it's a bounding high-energy body mover that refuses to quit. Flip it and find Burial edging closer to 'dance music' than many might be used to, although it's a deep, moody interpretation packed with the spellbinding vocal flourishes of a mutant garage and suppressed, fidgety drums so subtle they're close to background noise.
Review: Le Motel, le hotel, les Holiday Inns. Wherever you choose to stay after your raving trip, be sure to pack this wonderful collection from the innovative Belgian craftsman Le Motel. Delivered by the ever-impressive Yuku collective, the whole EP flexes the spectrum in terms of tempos and influences. From the deep ploughman techno swing of 'Raving Crew' to the electroid funk and percussive fire of 'Helix' via the cumbia-inspired and turns of the minimal head-bender '429 Too Many Requests', this is an exceptional journey into the more esoteric side of breaks and club music. Essential.
Visited By Astronauts (SHERELLE Had A Groove remix) (4:32)
Echo Paths - Ebb & Flow (6:25)
Review: Matt Cutler has made many great records as Lone, with recent album Always Inside Your Head being particularly impressive. This similarly laudable EP offers fresh, alternative takes on album tracks. The headline attraction is arguably SHERELLE's B-side opening take on 'Visited By Astronauts', a wonderfully dancefloor-centric fusion of pulsing ambient chords, bittersweet lead lines and skewed D&B beats. Predictably, Cutler hits the spot on each of his three reworks too. The 'Mouth of God Part 2' version of 'Nautical Aerials' is a rush-inducing slab of colourful breakbeat dreaminess - sunrise-ready for sure - while the 'One Thirty Mix' of 'InLove2' adds ambient techno style acid motifs and stirring pads to an extra-percussive house beat. Throw in a terrifically meditative ambient mix of 'Echo Paths' and you have a great all-round EP.
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