Critical Music Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Ivy Lab get their mucky paws on two of the many highlights from Binga's ever-growing, impossible-to-categorise repertoire. "Greatest Distance" gets murked with trippy glitches and twitches before dropping into a salubrious two-step roll-out. Meanwhile on the flip last year's bash-anthem with Redders gets a deep space subversion with bulbous bass shots and sounds so stretched and twisted they could give the sturdiest minds some serious nightmares.

Review: A piquant side-dish to the epic feast that is his debut album Dispositions, Emperor delivers two delicious VIPs that aren't on every format of the LP. "Control VIP" subverts the bassline while our emphasis is still fully squared on the mechanical snare slaps. "Mindgames VIP", meanwhile, is just mental incarnate. An absolute molten lava belter of a track, the levels of distortion on this are just unreal. Obscene.

Review: A tasty little teaser piece from his album Machines, here Enei calls up Eastcolours and Noel to revisit their 2011 hit "Cracker". Spacing out the darkness with a pneumatic bass plunge and more emphasis on the percussion it's more than worthy of its VIP status. Meanwhile on the B we find a brand new, non-album track "Crawlers". A tag-team with Mefjus, there's added edge and paranoia that gives it more than a faint whiff of Black Sun Empire. Tasty!

Review: Critical Music has always operated in its own unique niche within the drum & bass world, and label founder Kasra's own output has been largely responsible for that. This cheeky new 10" is a real heart-wrecher. The drums are sleek and minimal, rubbery and kinetic and make for a seductive groove that is embellished with super soulful vocals from Catching Cairo. On the flip side is a much more dark and deadly stepper: crunchy breaks get you moving and monstrous bass sprays about the mix with real menace. A brilliant two tracker with very different tunes on each side.

Review: 2014 sees Kasra's Critical Music reach its twelfth year of serving up crucial future thinking drum and bass for the heads and the hips, and the label are opening proceedings for a landmark year in requisite fashion. The 19 track Underground Sonics label compilation is out later this month across various formats and features contributions from Noisia, Dub Phizix, Enei, Phace, Sam Binga and Kasra himself. This 12" sampler is a nice vinyl shaped taster for that compilation and long term Critical Music fans will be pleased to see the Kasra and Enei collaboration "Breath" sitting on the A Side, with the track a long time request for release! Down below Emperor drops the pressure with the low riding roller "Control".

Review: Following up some great releases recently by Levela and QZB, Serum returns to London based label Critical. He is a triple award winning drum and bass DJ and producer, one third of Kings of the Rollers and owner of Souped Up Records. Here with his first ever solo single for the label, there's raw beats and bass, and sounds that are firmly tongue in cheek. Featuring the mellow yet moody stepper 'Gator' on the A side which is followed up on the flip by the DJ Krust influenced 'Tokyo Rose'.