Dubstep charts

Review: Longstanding London deepsmiths Insight reissue their beautiful ten year anniversary retrospective X from 2021 for those of us who missed it the first time around. A powerful collection that reaches back to some of the label's earliest releases, the strong themes of ambience, emotion and depth that the label has always been renowned for breeze and tease throughout. Weave between trembling keys on gentle cuts like Pensees - 'Mist' and the hazy two-step of Magisterium - 'Metamorphosis' as we reacquaint ourselves at how timeless and evocative Insight have always been.

Review: Skid Row is a carefully composed six-tracker of modern club and soundsystem oriented Bristol-influenced bass music. Believe it nor not, all basslines on this release are created by the same untypical hardware device, the Benidub DS71 Dub Siren. The tracks fuse grime and techno, picking up early reggae and 90s warehouse toasting - far from shiny algorithm optimization. 'Rictus' attunes the listeners to a playful, deeply swinging bassline embedded in reduced drums and comfy pads. 'Cockatrice' unfolds a technoid, almost trancelike impetus - dressed in broken beats and thoughtful vocal samples. 'Weedlot' sticks more to the funky side and cavorts with witty sonic effects, while the flip meets with 'Clodbuster': a conscious, truly demolishing badass tune in the spirit of only-the-rawest UK bass and grime; 'Suttree', finally, slows things down to a wide and wry space garnished with reggae horns and contemporary dance music samples. The record closes with growling drums, reverberant chords, tripping vocal snippets, and a sub-bass targeted on blurring your sight: 'Calico'.

Review: Swiss label Dub Colony Music Switzerland looks across Europe to Mob Killa from The Netherlands for this fourth release after fine early entries from Sentient and TCP. '70 Degrees' opens up with a sense of late night mystery and urban loneliness. 'Kill A Boo' brings some gentle piano tinkles over earth-shattering bass that has you lurching from one foot to the other. There is more duality to 'The Mansion' which has a hypotonic lead flute up top and more weighty bass down low. 'Elitist' shuts down with a further mix of elegant and heady melody and more physical drums.

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Review: Powerful hypnosis sessions from south UK artist Tom Woods AKA Sub Basics: Foundation Audio return after a short break with two stunning adventures. Both heavily groove-based, 'Tribal Flex' and 'YY' roll with percussive momentum, sitting somewhere between contemporary 140, timeless dub and universal dancefloor dynamics. The former is all about that bouncy kick and its sweltering tropical sound elements while 'YY' is on more of a mystical tip. Both flex hard, there's nothing basic about this operation whatsoever.

Review: Nadia Struiwigh's Pax Aurora was a standout ambient techno LP in 2022, and now Nous Klaer Audio have returned to the project to commission a grip of remixes which respond to the source material in distinctive ways. DJ Nobu takes a delicate, mesmerising approach to 'Nana', while Jakojako plumbs the depths of immersive, feathery techno. With Om Unit and Julia Gjertsen representing with equally hypnotic, elegant versions on the flip as well, this is the perfect example of a remix EP which truly adds weight to the original release.

Review: Vinyl only and lucky if we see one release a year; Moonshine's Dubwise Revolution always keeps us keen with their white label 10s. This is no exception. Crafted by an anonymous source, these spicy versions join the dots in a contemporary, high grade way. Sleng tenging it out with plenty of molten low end, 'Garnedd' brings the soul while 'Ghetto Living' slugs it out with swagger. Grab it while you can.

Review: Peaky Beats is a great name for a label that serves up such irresistible house and garage jams as it has so far over its first eight EPs. This ninth outing is no less desirable, coming from the in house production team in collaboration with Breakfake. 'Life In Stereo' hits a perfect note between kinetic drums and soulful, jazzy chords deigned to melt the heart. 'Rat City' is more filthy - a warped bassline screws about beneath more sleazy broken beats. 'Chapel Town' brings low end dubstep wobble to the party and 'Dub The Acid' is another filthy dirty skanker with echoing hits and mutant bass.

Review: Burial drops his latest two-tracker on XL, two chaotic breakbeat balancing acts firmly rooted in rushy UK 'ardkore and day-glo 80s freestyle respectively. The A is a nail-biting, cavernous tweak out, which Burial pipes out into the darkest, most paranoid corners of the rave, exhuming frazzled dancers and inducing a queasy euphoria that any seasoned hedonists will recognise all too well. 'Boy Sent From Above', on the other hand seems to chart the passage of an obsessive, icy winter graff mission, with tinny drum machines, saccharine squarewave arpeggio hooks and spraycan samples harking back to the heyday of B-Boy electro, Miami freestyle and NYC breaking with devastating efficacy, albeit seen through Burial's unmistakeable misty-eyed LDN gauze; chrome and black over day-glo. Dreamfear marks yet another welcome switch up in Burial's artistic direction, and makes for one of the most evocative, moving and transporting entries in his much pored-over catalogue.

Review: The bad news? We're all absolutely doomed. There's no way back from where humanity has taken us. We seem drawn like moths to a dystopic light. The good news? If this is anything to go by (or the inaugural one back in 2018) then hell has a ruddy sick soundtrack. Deep, beguiling, disarming; vibes on this black mirror menu range from the pure drama and stern soliloquy of Rider Shafique over 'Iceman' with Karnage and the tribal hypnosis of Sofa's 'Lost' (which is a really interesting departure from the jungle she is best known for) and plenty of dubby reflection rippling throughout. See you on the dark side.

Review: Manchester's Kali returns to White Peach with four delicious dubwise treats. 'Scurvy' dodge the limes in favour of a big squeezy accordion and what it lacks in vitamin C it definitely makes up for in weight. Elsewhere 'Sober' hits on more of an instrumental grime type of vibe, 'Stripey T-Shirt' brings out the squeeze boxes again for another woozy oddity while 'Cop Something' brings the whole experience to emotional conclusion. Stunning.