Back catalogue: Drum And Bass

Review: Certain names in dance music do well to predict the future - and Digital Pressure is one such name. Originally released on A Guy Called Gerald's label Juice Box in 1993, this phonkout beast of an EP came via the joint efforts of producers SDR and Subsonic aka Adrian Lloyd and Kelly Bowers. The twizzling melody and tunefully sawing breaks delays that kick this one off reflect the "digital pressures" of today perhaps more so than it did back then; 'Watch Dis Space' and 'Strictly Drug Related' make unique use (for jungle) of glitching phone chip stinger sounds, reminiscent of the twinkly "coin get" sound effects one might hear on carting about an old Watara games unit. If only handheld games consoles and uncommonly sighted mobile phones were the extent of our digital woes; now we've a heck of a lot more to worry about, and doesn't the further ironically named 'Back 2 Da Future' know it with its Twilight Zone topline and clunky robo-vox! Limited run of 350.

Review: Living life in permanent reload, Flashback's 95 classics 'Gun' and 'Triple Six' are some of the crispest, sharpest, most spacious and far out examples of junglised beat-slicing of their time. Still sounding as disarming and militant as they did 30 years ago, both hit hard with clarity. Those who love a rich warm rootsical sample in the thick of the choppy choppy should head for 'Gun' while those who love swimming neck deep in fractures will fall in love with 'Triple Six'. A stunning reissue from the Vinyl Fanatiks crew.

Review: When we're vexed, we're incensed, we're angry, we're provoked... but when we're "vexxed"? Lord knows what the extra X signifies! First released together in 1993 on Blueprint Records, DJ Fokus' 'Vexxed' and 'Chill Out' scored a bipolar mood of "rage and disengage", revealing intermediary darkside energies in the process. Packed with 70s horror sound motifs, in turn set against crushing industrial breaks, breakbeat hardcore A-sider 'Vexxed' is just as invidious as it was in 93, compartmentalising any raw emotion in favour of pure, furious air-hornage and scattershot breaks. 'Chill Out', sad to say, is hardly a chillout tune, but perhaps the A raised the stakes too high: those FMs are bouncy enough to keep speed forever, and those Reeses could melt the hardest of ices.