New releases last eight weeks: Breakbeat

Review: As well as being one of electronica's most distinctive, recognisable and long serving warriors, Richard James is a man of many surprises. From his massive Soundcloud dump in 2015-6, to this unexpected 2023 EP - which was his first fully released material for around five years and appeared without warning - he likes to stay several giant leaps ahead of his public. Across its four tracks, it showcases his unmistakable, queasily melodic touch while revisiting the roots of his drill 'n' bass sound with a modern twist. Opening with 'Blackbox Life Recorder 21f', the EP sets a reflective tone, its light breakbeat and melancholy melody underscored by 80s-inspired drum textures, evoking a wistful yet futuristic atmosphere. This track encapsulates the beauty of his signature style, fusing emotion with intricate production. 'Zin2 Test5' shifts the mood slightly darker, with crisp production and an optimistic undercurrent woven through its melodies. It feels like a contemplative counterpart to the opener, balancing light and shadow with finesse. The second side dives deeper into experimental territory. In 'A Room7 F760' is a fast-paced, broken-beat journey through eerie soundscapes and sinister rave melodies, teetering on the edge of chaos while retaining a hypnotic allure. Closing with 'Blackbox Life Recorder 22 (Parallax mix)', the EP ventures into dubstep territory with a deeper, growling bass and ominous undertones. a dubbier reinterpretation that offers a more textured, shadowy perspective. Black (box) ops indeed - as ever.

Review: Crash Party kicks off the new year with a high-energy return to Breakbeat Paradise's Toxic-Funk series. Fresh from his debut album Everything Happens for a Reason on Big Beat Sunday, he delivers two explosive party anthems. 'Tribe Called Wonder' blends classic breaks with an infectious groove and legendary rap flows for instant dancefloor impact. On the flip side, 'Break On' slows the tempo but keeps the funk alive with heavy grooves and old-school rap hooks. This one is packed with vintage vibes and modern flair that makes it stand right out.

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: Double B is Barry from 2-X-Treme and is surely the most famous rave producer to have come out of Portsmouth. The dance floor don wrote this one at the same time as his celebrated 2-X-Treme EP so brings back plenty of the scone pleasures of that ear. Now pressed up once more it blends breakbeats and UK hardcore across five unrelenting cuts that very much chime with the current leanings of the underground scene towards harder, faster sounds.

Review: The cornerstone of a certain (unforgettable) trance moment in time, Eden Transmission's 'I'm So High' was *the* tune to peg the LA and San Fran rave scenes indelibly to the PI's corkboard of dance music. Eden Transmission were only one alias of an ever-evolving, planarian duo - Michael Kandel, Tom Chasteen - whose works as Voodoo Transmission, High Lonesome Sound System and Up Above The World could equally have been deemed just as significant projects. But we prefer 'I'm So High'. One of the best to do it with breakbeats, the 'Ubud' mix of the title track hears what sounds like a bazaar gathering of psychic townsfolk, set against urgent whispers, which hydrolyse against a reso-peaked lead. And by far the best tune is 'Powertrance', which startles us with its wireless charge of mega-heavy breaks and robotic C-shell sendups, whisking us into psycho-cyberspace.

Review: Swedish twosome Genius of Time have made some incredible house records over the course of their 15-year career, with a handful of fine breakthrough records ('Drifting Back', 'Same Old Place') being followed by periodic doses of greatness. Last year, they decided to turn their hand to vocal house music for the first time, delivering two typically excellent EPs. Here they deliver volume three in the series, first joining forces with Ashar Khan on the two-step-goes-analogue-deep-house shuffle of 'You Make Me' and the rubbery breakbeat house warmth of 'Magnified'. Over on side B, the honeyed voice of Khan is replaced by the sweet soulfulness of Matinda. The track she features on, 'Kinetic', is darker, moodier and takes far more cues from the analogue-powered sounds of vintage Chicago house and Detroit deepness.

Review: Jamie 3:26, the Chicago house luminary, returns with the second instalment of his Danacefloor Damage series, a collection of re-rubbed disco cuts crafted with the dancefloor in mind, but possessing a depth that transcends the club. This time around, he's unearthed three gems, each an ode to his impeccable taste and his uncanny ability to breathe new life into forgotten classics. 'Flyin'' takes flight with a dizzying array of soaring strings and a groove that's as infectious as it is propulsive. 'Funkin' (Hardy Tribute Version)' pays homage to late disco/early house legend Ron Hardy, its driving bassline and soulful vocals a fitting tribute to his enduring influence. 'Jungle DJ Tool' injects a tribal energy into the mix, its percussive rhythms and hypnotic chants guaranteed to induce a state of dancefloor abandon. Jamie 3:26's edits are a masterclass in dancefloor manipulation, expertly balancing euphoric highs with moments of introspective restraint. A potent reminder that the classics never truly die when preserved in the right hands.

Review: Kito Jempere delivers a fiery four-track package that will electrify dance floors with his first outing of 2025. A bold departure from today's mainstream dance sounds, his New Life EP blends adventurous beats with a rebellious spirit and the lead track channels New Order's Technique era but is infused with early hip-hop breaks and a mix of acid, happy hardcore and ghetto tech. 'LoveFilter' takes a dreamy, chilled trip across electronic landscapes while 'Killer Line De-Part' combines trance, grunge and '80s analogue vibes for a thrilling climax. Closing with 'Put Love Into Your Heart (Club Mix),' Jempere leaves us with uplifting, feel-good energy.

Review: A chance to own this much loved pre-album classic from King Kruke aka Southwark-raised Archy Marshall on a neat 7". The track, originally issued in 2012 on the Rinse label, has all the hallmarks that would make Marshall famous, namely a lilting, emotionally direct vocal performance, some rather nifty guitar work and some rough cut breakbeats with a lovely whiff of bedroom production about them. The flip, meanwhile, is adorned with an instrumental version, making this quite the all round desirable item.

Review: Mega-sick big breaks from Brighton's Krafty Kuts, flipping undocumented verses from an earlier collab between the producer and verbalist TC Izlam, 'Ill Type Sound'. Every beat hits with huge plantar weight here, with kicks and reverso-claps rooting themselves in sonic continual soils. The original mix features here too, with twisty scratches, pan pipes and turntablist's kick rolls bringing a distinctively kitsch, jazzy, De Wolfe samply feel. "We got the groove, we got the sound, we got the vibe to make you get down!"

Review: Minds At Large are back on Vinyl Fanatiks with a second outing, this time to resist their 1993 bangers 'Futureworld' and 'Spinechiller' which only came on white label the first time around. 'Spinechiller' is possibly more well known for being the standout on LTJ Bukem's 'Hardcore Volume 9' mixtape from the mid-nineties. It's a pristine breakbeat workout with chopped vocals and rich bass, while 'Futureworld' pairs even more manic breaks with some ethereal vocals. Two stone-cold killers.

Review: It was way back in 1994 when original rave hero and genuinely foundational DJ Ellis Dee (real name Roy Collins) offered up his one and only 12" as Norty But Nice. 31 years on, that two-tracker returns to stores in remastered form via this coloured vinyl reissue from Vinyl Fanatiks. Lead cut 'Do You Want It' is spacey, intoxicating and - as you'd expect - breathlessly energetic, with Collins placing piano riffs, vocal samples and intergalactic electronics atop a jungle-style hardcore breakbeat and booming bass. On flip-side 'Give It To Me Baby' he opts for more deep space synths, rolling bass, deeply layered breakbeats and more rushing piano motifs. Both tracks are, of course, genuine breakbeat hardcore classics.

Review: Constant Sound is one of the very many labels that is headed up by Burnski and one that he reserves for club-ready tech house and minimal. Wodda steps up for the latest outing and brings some future garage energy to the opener, 'Reggae Fusion' (Deep mix) which is lit up with lithe synths and smart vocal samples. 'On My Way' has more infectious garage vibes to it with the squelchy drums and hits and some nice heady melodies up top. 'Changing Faces' gets more twisted and brings intergalactic drama to the ass-wiggling cyborg tech beats and last of all, a Tuff Mudda mix of 'Reggae Fusion' shuts down with a silky thump and throwback UKG bass.

Review: Amon Tobin's debut album under the Cujo alias is a sprawling, complex work that spans 21 tracks and blurs the lines between multiple genres. First released in the mid-90s, it introduced a unique blend of live instruments and innovative sampling that would go on to shape Tobin's entire career. This is first time all the tracks have been compiled together, providing a complete version of the album that had previously been scattered across different editions. From the moody, atmospheric 'Cat People' to the intricate jazz influences in 'The Brazilianaire', the album captures Tobin's knack for combining breakbeats with more experimental sounds. There's an almost cinematic quality to the compositions, with moments of ambient calm giving way to punchy, layered rhythms. The sheer variety of ideas packed into the album is remarkable, from the driving percussion of 'Traffic' to the rich, textural complexity of 'Cruzer.' Even now, nearly 30 years on, the album still feels fresh and ahead of its time, illustrating Tobin's pioneering approach to electronic music. This reissue is a fitting reminder of the innovative work that laid the foundation for a remarkable career.

Review: From Istanbul to Berlin flies producer Freedjom, whose current focus is footwork and juke. On their debut album for Beat Machine's Terra Tempo series, comes Freedjom's own spin on of the much-publicised, much jitted-over genre known as juke. The artist finds untapped expression in lending the crossrhythmic footworky sound a Turkish twist, with traditional Turkish instruments - darbuka, bendir, def - replacing your default 808 kick, snap and hat sizzle. The result is a marked softening of the footwork sound, where roll-it-loud hype and dispensate kicks are displaced by well-thrown percussive potteries (though the odd 909 clap occasionally finds its way in). Influenced heavily by the Turkish poet Attila Ilhan's work "Sisler Bulvari", the centennial spirit of Istanbul's street music and atmosphere is heavily channeled and redefined here, in modern hues.

Review: Phatness is new and so-far anonymous side project from two producers based in the Swedish capital and who have connections to soundsystem culture through Trensum Tribe, Soft Pace and Otonos. This is their debut outing and it's a fresh blend of original jungle infused with inspiration from a wide world of sounds. There are tropical but physical sounds like 'Diplomatico Dub' packed with smart effects, minimal head spiders like the sci-fi styled '$nkt Erik Jamboree' and experimental vignettes such as 'Olearie$ Dub' with well-worked vocals and snaking basslines. It's colourful, unusual, and perfect for late-night sessions.