Review: London's 1-800 Girls brings cleanly garage and bright breaks to his All My Thoughts label, riffing on the combo of infectious aural hooks and brutalist sonics fashionable among the present chart doyens of UK dance music and techno. 'How I Feel' sounds like an innocent admission of affection in techno-garage form, pairing the flunky inter-jabs of 2-step garage with the cute-aggressive seethes of a repetitious sampled vox; the track centres on a nostalgic, airtight sequence of parapractic phonemes, onto which the listener may project their longings and amours. 'Signal' embraces both big beats and biomech squeaks verging on sports-whistles, while 'Like You Do' returns for a comparatively brooding burbler. Finally, 'Guy's Salmon' rounds things off on a dense sequence of yeahs and ohs, as ever building up a slow-burn of cool wonderment and openness.
Review: Digital Tape Recordings take it al the way back to 1994 here with the timeless early garage sounds of Dub Essentials Part 1 from 24Hour Experience. It captures the essence of UKG at the time and was first released on the definitive Nice N Ripe label. It has a range of sounds from the soothing depths and soulful samples of 'Feeling's Mutual' to the more clipped and bouncy 'Deeper (5am mix)'. 'Scatter' then layer sup jumbled perc and US house styles with rich organ chords and 'Mantra' again keeps it deep and rather sleazy with some filthy bass. Last of all is the slinky sound of 'Gone Loopy' to round out a classic.
Review: Digital Tape Recordings kick out another vital 12" on wax here, this time with a third part of their on going and excellent Deep Dub Essentials series. 24HR Experience is at the helm here with a quartet of house and garage collisions that bring the good times. 'The Heaven Track' is a classic US garage cut with stiff snares and low slung drums, and 'Touch The After World' is just as deep and warm. 'Just A Vibe' is the highlight at the end - nice New Jersey drum with warming organ stabs and a carefree groove that effortlessly sweeps you up off your feet.
Review: A six-track UK garage smorgasbord comes courtesy of Supervision, making it very clearly known that their artists are masters at replicating the time-honoured practice, at least in garage, of 'not overthinking it'. From the off - BOn's 'Coal-Mining' - we're struck by the charmingly loose rhythmic quality of this EP, which rails against the glossy pomp of 'nu-garage'. Familiar names such as MJOG crop up with dark breaks-inflected fillers, while further highlights include the bassliney 'Here Come The Pretzels' by Glockta and the glitchy, sultry, stop-starty wobbler 'Tell Me'.
What You Want (feat Colonel Red - DJ Crisps remix) (7:14)
Let's Get Wild (Orlando Voorn remix) (6:30)
Review: Bouman is looking to establish itself in the deep house world and made a fine start with its first EO, This second one is another head-turner that comes from Benx with a couple of sweet remixes. 'What You Want' (feat Colonel Red) opens up with some soul-drenched sounds and lively drum programming topped with a great original vocal. 'Beautiful' is more warm house with smoky chord work that calls to mind early Kerri Chandler. A DJ Crisps remix brings some real bass weight and garage percussion and last of all, Orlando Voorn remixes 'Let's Get Wild' into a bulky techno roller.
Review: Following February's Popit EP on Hotflush, Cardiff-based Luke Welsby and Olly Howells aka Bodhi's Laurus Ascending is another accomplished musical adventure that delves into UKG, r&b, bass, house and more. 'All I Want' kicks off t with its warped bass and precise drum programming while the title track features fluid synths and a pitched-up r&b vocal sample that creates a compelling hook. Elsewhere, the likes of 'Reforma' merges jungle, techno, and bass into a dynamic rhythmic journey, while 'LFO2' is another heart of the rave gem amongst many more potent weapons.
Review: For those with their ear to the ground, 'Make Me' has been an underground monster hit for Borai and Denham Audio for time, but now it's getting a proper 12" release on Room Two with some heavyweight remixes. Taking a classic 90s vocal sample and giving it a thorough ruffing up, the original is hard to top, but Big Ang and Mani Festo turn in suitably rowdy versions which continue the theme of hardcore revivalism in fine style. Meanwhile bassline legend Paul Sirrell steps up for a flamboyant version which harks back to the original mid-90s cut that inspired 'Make Me' in the first place.
Review: REPRESS ALERT!: Admirably no-nonsense house duo Dungeon Meat kick off a new label here, Slabs, which aims to serve up only the chunkiest hulks of wax aimed squarely at the club. Borren takes charge of the first platter and is the latest fast-rising talent to emerge from the ever-fertile Dutch scene. He has come up on a diet of Bret and Slapfunk parties and that shows in the tunes he presents here. 'Up Next' is heavy but silky, with gliding grooves and splashy cymbals next to cut-up vocals that will amp up any party. 'Beat My Shit' is another no-frills hardcore house assault with drums that have just the right amount of swing under old school chords and busy melodies that never rest. A fine first release.
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: British producer Burland and Ghanaian vocalist Zongo Abongo join forces here for UK to GH, a new collaboration that collides the respective backgrounds of each artist. Reggae, highlife, dancehall, UK bass and rave all meet in a world of fresh rhythm and melodic invention. 'Telephone No Wire' opens with a feel-good highlife sound on a 2-step beat with vocalist Adotey Johnson in fine form. 'Nyura' heads to the club with weighty bottom ends and enchanting melodies then things get darker on the flip with 'Try To Test' exploring another take on 2-step with hints of UKG and grime overlaid with catchy vocal hooks. 'Last Chance' pairs dancehall vocals with downtempo breaks for a superb conclusion.
Review: Constant Sound co-owner James 'Burnski' Burnham delivers a stonking pair of garage-flecked house tracks that offer up no nonsense dancefloor attitude in spades. 'Shout' is all about its monster rhythmic framework, with economic splashes of synths on the side simply maintaining the flavour and a properly full on old skool breakdown. Flip track 'Remember' leans a little further towards UK garage with its sugar sweet female vocal snippets, but the central groove hustles and bustles along with maximum weightiness, making it suitable for any number of differing dancefloors.
Review: Burnski and Kelper are two of the hottest artists in the game right now - their output is relentless, and their quality is always high. It is now on the former's Constant Sound that they appear with three fresh new collaborative cuts aimed squarely at the floor. 'Follow Me' has nice hooky drum loops and subtle synth stabs under a seductive vocal. It's fun and functional in equal measure and on the flip things get more naughty with hints of a dirty speed garage bassline under 'Frequency'. The vibe flips again on closer 'Frequency' which has disco-tinged loops and more laidback groves that bring a little warmth and sunshine.
Review: The Plastik People label has been going along nicely for its first few releases, with label head Marc Cotterell stepping up and coming correct last time out. Now he calls upon various artists with Dave Charlesworth taking care of the a-side of Nice Ripe Cuts. He offers two super slick garage cuts that cannot fail to make their mark on the club and it's no different on the flipside except D Lux & Y No combine first for '25 Miles' and then S R offers the irresistible 'Pressure.' An essential 12" for anyone looking to bring some fresh garage flavours.
Review: MYOR hits a quarter of a century here with a delicious slice of deep house and garage from Chavinski. A-side jam 'Take U There' has an old school feel with the dark, humid bass drill gin down deep, but the r&b vocal is utterly fresh and contemporary, as are the pixelated synths which add texture and more heat to this heart-felt late-night roller. On the flip is another shady garage jam rooted in the OG sound with its dusty breakbeats and muffled but cavernous bass. Again the vocal is sweet as sugar, a lush r&b and new soul viber that brings real emotion.
Review: Endangered Musique kicks off with a high-quality reissue of an EP that deep house heads will either already know or soon grow to love. It was written by Jose Chinga in 1994 and is an alias of an artist better known as Brothers' Vibe aka Tony Rodriguez. The opening tune 'Love Is What You Need' is also the most well-known - it's US garage with low-slung drums and grainy pad work with a simple but effective vocal. 'I Got You' picks up the pace with shuffling drums and a grinding lead before the warm 90s house sounds come to the fore again on 'Let It Go' and 'Riding On A Cloud'. Lovely stuff.
Review: Shanti Celeste's Peach Disc sure has served up some juicy club ready fruits over the last couple of years. Often it comes from breakout new names who impress with their inventions and now it is Cloudsteppers at the buttons with this Aqua Hotel EP. The cut gets going on a hurried garage beat with warped bass and nice balmy synth work that is colourful and soulful in equal measure. 'Control' then cuts more loose with warped synths and neon colours, clipped vocals and real garage house drive, 'Duckstep' is pure bait with its old school FM basslines and tin-pot percussive clatter and 'TDG' shuts down with a deeper but no less brilliant garage vibe defined by clipped bass motifs and kinetic kicks.
Review: Midnight EP brings another four heavyweight cuts from the London based Club of Jacks production duo showcasing their varied sound. 'Midnight' opens up with deep, haunting chords and a lush reworked vocal laid over a smoky 2 step beat. 'Let It Ride' brings the 4x4 house vibe, mixing infectious synths, catchy lyrics and a rolling bass groove. On the flip, 'Remember This' digs into the garage house sound, infusing jazzy organ chords and solos with skippy drums and tasty vocal chops. To finish off, 'Smokers Dub'' takes us into a darker, speed garage inspired vibe, with weighty bass and dub reggae flavour.
All That Shaking (Marc Cotterell Plastik Factory mix) (6:57)
All That Shaking ('23 Refix) (6:28)
Review: Club Of Jacks digs deep here to serve up some classic tracks from the archive that have not been available on vinyl before. First up is UKG royalty Jeremy Sylvester with a remix of 'Waiting For You' that is pure party. The drums and bass bounce and plunge low with sustained chords and a honeyed vocal getting the vibes going. A deeper, dubbier and more laid back but still emotive 23 Remix follows then Plastik People boss Marc Cotterell serves up a soulful remix of 'All That Shaking' that is full of steamy sax and sunny day goodness. A Club of Jacks 23 Refix brings a deep vibe to close a superb EP.
Review: The Fabric Originals label continues to establish itself as a place that is just as reliable for fresh sounds as the club it is named after. This latest outing is a 21st such EP and comes from the one and only garage great that is MJ Cole paired with new school innovator K Lone. They make a perfect partnership, in truth, with opener 'Stand Up' pairing balmy pads and rich bass sounds with a hooky little vocal. It's brilliantly sensuous with tender keys finishing it in style. Cole then goes it alone on 'Lay It All On The Line' which has a more broken post-dubstep style beat and K-Lone's 'Bonez' is delightfully airy, cavernous bass brilliance.
Review: It's always a good day when the Blahh label rises up from the streets to drop a new bit of true school garage. This is a various artists release which brings together core label members Beforethebeatsbreak, Ronaldo and Crazy Bank, who have all served up their own solo EPs before now. It's the latter who kicks off with the tightly coiled bump n grind of 'So Good' before Ronaldo gets your feet moving on 'Get My 319', another dry, clipped garage shuffler with pent up energy to spare. There are good time piano-led vibes to Beforethebeatsbreak's B1 then 'Why You Wanna' from Crazy Bank is defined by its pitched up vocal sound.
Review: Bang on trend grooves from the Vivid camp, exploring the current fascination for all things that intersect both the garage and breaks genres. Lead track 'Wicked & Wild' is the one that leans furthest into UKG territory, its bumpy bassline and MC-style vocal giving it heaps of energy and attitude. Flip side instrumentals 'Push Past It' and 'Ronin' meanwhile, evoke the early 2000s spirit of breaksteppers such as Horsepower Productions, the latter especially maintaining the bassline pressure and adding it to the more hardcore vibe of rawer, sampled percussion. Maximum respect!
Review: It would be fair to say that Roy Davis Jr and Peven Everett's "Gabriel" (originally written "Gabrielle" on early pressings) has become a timeless dance music classic - a track that both soulful house and UK garage DJs reach for in times of trouble. Should it not be in your collection already (and it should be), Large Music has decided to re-master and re-press the original 1996 12". It does, of course, contain the now ubiquitous "Live Garage" version - the groovy two-step, trumpet-laden mix that became popular with early UK garage DJs - plus a trio of lesser-known remixes. The Tambourine Dub, in particular, is something of a tough, warehouse-friendly deep house treat.
Review: Mr G is of course an untouchable producer of dubby house and techno rollers. Whether or not he is the inspiration for the title of this EP we do not know but it's a fittingly good one either way. Dewey Decimal is the man in control and opens with a naughty garage cut with filthy low ends. 'Cha Ching' is another killer cut with sensuous sax notes over turbocharged bass and prickly, percussive drums with a cheeky two-step swagger. 'Wag21' brings some smart r&b vocal samples to another raw, hard hitting garage house groove and 'Treat Me Right' closes out one of the best EPs we've heard in a while with some busty drum loops and dirty bassline brilliance.
DJ Doggo - "In My House There Will Always Be House" (5:43)
DJ Doggo - "Let Me See You Dance" (5:14)
Review: There's lots of love about this bold and richly designed new EP on Welt Disco out of Portugal. Diogo kicks off with 'I Need U' which is all lithe synths and choppy drums under yelping vocals. Yakuza's 'Aileron' (part 2 - Diogo remix) is a kinetic workout that is overloaded with deft sounds and pinging bass that darts about the mix. The flipside is taken care of by DJ Doggo who offers two great cuts. 'In My House There Will Always Be House' is a vibe house cut with plenty of characterful samples and a sweet as you like bassline that pulls it onwards. 'Let Me See You Dance' has a filthy low end that is smeared, naughty and sure to get faces screwed up in mock disgust.
Review: DJ Crisps taps into a menacing garage vibe on this no-frills, all-killer new EP via South London Pressings. Opener 'Styla' has naughty low ends and punchy drum programming with plenty of post-dubstep wub-wub goodness and eerie urban melodies. 'Hold Tight' will have the gun fingers firing off left right and centre with its rude-boi vibes and 'Adolphy Sax' then channel masters like Groove Chronicles with its dry, dusty drums and hits, lush chords and sexual sax lines. 'Too Shy' (feat Ell Murphy) is perfectly sleazy yet sultry vocal garage closer.
Review: DJ Crisps is starting to make some handy garage moves after a couple of various artists' appearances and a fine EP on Time Is Now Germany in July. Now they link up with Oldboy who appeared on Burnski's other label Vivid back in 2022. As you should expect these are four hardcore and rudely garage cuts with plenty of swagger, naughty samples and bass-face potential. 'On My Way' is the standout with its shuffling one-two drum punch, distant police sirens and warped basslines underneath a timeless and irresistible female vocal full of soul. A summer scorcher for sure alongside three more very useful weapons.
Review: A melting pot of UK garage, house and bass, DJ Swagger's latest release on Berlin-based label, 777, is a fascinating exploration in structure and chaos. Opening track, 'Thanks Felix', moves at lightspeed - a thrilling race through a gritty arrangement of blunted kicks, shifting in and out of focus, moving between order and disorder. 'Fingerclut' emerges with an instantly more house-facing feel - a satisfyingly hypnotic groove spirals in a circle motion, featuring a cyclonic gathering of subtle flecks of percussive variation over the course of the track. Offering a spliced, glitched-out take on contemporary bass, 'Final Bout' journeys through moments of airy weightlessness before being thrown back into the growling, driving bass section of the track. The perfect tension builder, 'Full Cycle', is an ingenious tease of a track, skillfully building up to, you guessed it, even more build.
Review: From Germany with a sledgehammer, man like Swagger returns to Dr Dubplate's Original Pirate Material with a feisty four-pack. 'Fleg' (which rather sweetly translates to 'nursing' in his mother tongue) runs the gauntlet between boshing house jams ('Sssweat', 'Ghos') dubby steppery ('Confu') and all-out, smoking 808-driven, body shaking mayhem ('Crotch') If you know Swagger's sound, you'll already be all over this. If you don't, you're in for a treat.
Review: Enrico Dragoni knows a thing or two about the new wave of garage sweeping across the club scene. Under his 2 Hot 2 Handle alias he's been seen on a split release with Introspekt, while with Charles HAF he's graced Moodswing and Vibesey as The Stab Mechanics. Under his own name, 2023 has been a breakthrough year via labels like Bubbling Fresh and Pirate Cutz, and now he's landing on Ordinaire with some pitch perfect 4x4 bumpers. 'Double Berries' is an especially slinky joint marked out by sweet chord stabs, while there's a rougher swing at work on 'Boomerang', all adding up to another high-quality drop from a devotee of the nu-garage wave.
Review: Reissue of in demand classic.Dubtraxx was new on the scene back in 2019 when they dropped this EP which has since become something of a mini-classic. It came on their own label Rhythm N Vibe and now this is seriously heavyweight gear gets reissued. 'Soundbwoy Request' is especially dangerous, working plenty of dub, reggae and jungle motifs into a rugged garage structure and sounding utterly ruff in the process. 'Towards '99' is no slouch either, albeit on a slightly housier tip than the raucous A-side. The "2000 Tribute Mix" of 'Next Millenium' meanwhile sneaks out a few of the eerie tones you'd expect to hear around the time that dubstep first started to emerge.
Review: UK's All My Thoughts label has built up a strong reputation the past half-decade. Fans of the label point to it alongside a few others as the perfect blend of house and techno music. Edmondson is equally as strong with a handful of releases that have also garnered high praise for. Vanarama houses four examples of deep house that bridge garage music and dance music to make them both futuristic, deep and fun. We really like the wide range of moods in this EP. All My Thoughts has another winner! Only 80 copies in total so be quick!
Review: FOXBAM INC is back to build on the momentum of their first EP with a second one that packs a mighty punch. This one kicks off with EBY, who this year has been cooking up acid for 40 years and here offers the warped low ends and garage-techno power of 'Goldtooth'. Foxtrot vs Ma Bla then mashes up old school samples with earth-shattering bass on 'Deep Down Inside' and bRz vs Stije is a double-time hard techno stomper with warped synths and twisted bass that is inspired by and named after ISCO, a concept from Einstein's general theory of relativity that makes predictions about the dynamics of black holes.
Artispure - "Chicago Underground" (feat The Remedy - Andrew Emil Dreamix) (8:49)
Change Request - "Sunday's Best" (Andrew Emil Dreamix) (9:59)
Elbert Phillips, Andre Espeut - "Sunlight" (Andrew Emil Dreamix) (6:31)
Review: Yore's latest release is a little different. It features Chicago-based producer and sound designer Andrew Emil delivering his own 'dreamix' versions of a trio of little-known cuts. There's an epic, nigh on 10-minute revision of one his own productions as Change Request, 'Sunday's Best', on the flip - a gorgeously bumpin', summery and melodious chunk of life-affirming deep house sunshine with added US garage swing in the beats - plus two tweaks of cuts by (we think) lesser-known acts. His take on Artispure's collaboration with The Remedy, 'Chicago Underground', is a more spacey-sounding chunk of tactile deep house hypnotism, while Emil's take on Elbert Phillips and Andre Esput's 'Sunlight' is a superbly soulful, garage-influenced deep house workout that more than lives up to its title.
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