Back catalogue: Drum And Bass

Review: Releases like this demonstrate the utter vanguard of British drum & bass. It's as if this were a G20 summit for some of the genre's most eminent lords, as we hear Goldie, Jubei, Submotive and Lenzman all team up for a four-way rampage. Both tunes on this lethal weapon, through well-placed Reeses and complex metallic snare rebounds, convey the mood of utter dark fantasy. The mood is that of being graced by the presence of monstrously regal higher sonic powers.

Review: Ice cold collabo business from two strong compadres in the game: Gremlinz & Jesta. Following extensive output on the likes of Metalheadz and UVB-76, they return to Droogs with two spine-tingling slabs of pure breakbeat tension. 'Drain Clog' takes the lead on the A with its highly strung pads and spiralling drums that seem to cascade deeper and deeper into the sonic black hole. 'Hellion' takes things even deeper again with a much more minimal approach to the drums and long gurling bass drones that hit when you least expect them. Think Krust and you're in the right orbit.

Review: J Majik is of course a drum & bass don who not only knocked out killer DJ sets and productions but also headed up his own Infrared Records and made it into one the bastions of the scene from the mid-90s onwards. Thelatest from the label finds the man born James Spratling serving up the crushing breaks and doom laded synths of 'In The City', all designed meticulously and sure to make a massive impact. He then goes long on the 11-minute B-side epic 'Fantazia/Thanks & Praise' (feat Salva) which is a dark and hard hitting flurry of amen breaks and rave vocals.

Review: Reloading back to 2019 to an album that reloaded us back to the mid 90s... J Majik's Full Circle album marked a major league return for one of the jungle foundation's youngest mavericks. Having risen to fame at the age of 15 on labels like Reinforced and Headz during jungle d&b's most seminal eras, Majik had taken a break but reminded us who's boss with Full Circle and now these remixes echo the same sentiment. Kid Lib goes in on 'The Crow' with its ice cold mentasms and ghostly stretched samples while Msymiakos brings heavy waves of feeling to 'Red Moon'. Once again paying full respect Majik's original but maintaining his own timeless signature, it's another exceptional remix of an exceptional rave weapon. The circles keep spinning...

Review: There's just no stopping Vibez '93 at the moment - the Dutch jungle label is swimming in legit gear and sharing it with the world. We're still reeling from the anonymous Punkrocker and Self Aware EPs. This time around there are names on the plates, as four artists throw down in maximum style. Janaway is up first with the ragga jungle badness of 'Reaching Out', while InnaSelf brings some more introspective pads and synth touches to their amen trickery. Evasion weaves a plush tapestry of ragged breaks, dreamy vocal licks and atmospheric flourishes for a curly advanced slice of jungle perfection and then Cheetah rounds the record off with the truly snare-rushing 'Bunnin' Up'.

Review: This new 12" jungle splatter record marks a return for JLM Productions, best known in d&b circles for appearing on 4Hero's Reinforced label in the early to mid-90s, although closer research reveals JLM aka Jamie Myerson to be behind a myriad of releases of different hues for everyone from Josh Wink's Ovum to his own, prolific but unnamed 'own brand' label. Flaunting the artist's longtime talent for atmosphere incantation and breaks wizardry, all the tracks from 'Theia' to 'Translight Velocity' end up achieving the transcendental superluminality its title boasts of.

Review: ASC's Spatial imprint looks west for inspiration this month as they welcome a certified Reinforced OG who made a return last September after a 25 year break from this particular project (and many years from the game): New Jersey's JLM Productions. Also operating under aliases such as Sky City and P.E.P during the 90s, the JLM name was synonymous with the deeper, atmospheric sounds of jungle. And that's exactly what we have here. Four blissful, subtle and restrained atmospheric jungle cuts. Highlights include the swashbuckling breaks on 'The Navigator' and the dream-like haze of opener 'The Cartographer'. Welcome back JLM.

Review: UKJ keeps the flame of old-school breaks and jungle afire with its latest four-track V/A 12", with contributions from label co-boss Junglord, Supa Ape, Sully, OmniRhythm and Simply Dread all in tow for the inflammatory sacrifice. Unlike your usual jungle, these four cuts verge on the insane, thanks to this label's commemorative grounding in the earliest days of jungle in its hardcore breaks and graff-adjacent days. We wager that back then, there was more room for experimentation before the "sound" got standardised and fetishised. Here's a cogent recollection of that time - a time of vocal one-shots, dramatic classical music samples and rave stabs, sure - but above all, just a generally wilder and more rapacious indulging of the promise of what was once called breakscience; Junglord's 'Ready For Retaliation' and Dread's 'Hard To Tell' tend towards UK hardcore on this front, ultrafast breaks-drilling and buzzsawing away, with glee.