Review: Just how solid of a balance between highs and lows can you get? Fastidious research study into EQ optimisation seems to have gone into this shunter from Bladerunner, Chimpo and Sl8r, three new-gen juggernauts of the UK drum & bass circuit. Helping Philly Blunt achieve their lit-up ends, the pair kick off the label's latest subseries with a limited transparent red 12", nodding visually to its mid-90s heyday. Bladerunner vets suspected replicants with two empathic response tests, 'Chronic' and 'Straight Up', both cut from the same tough, emphatic cloth. On the flip, Chimpo & Sl8r make their label debut, swerving between grime and jungle with a distinct Manc slant, a sound refined across releases for Metalheadz, The North Quarter and Hospital. A sharp extension of the Philly Blunt legacy, which began in 1994 with rave-wrecking cuts like Leviticus' 'Burial' and Dillinja's 'Sky'.
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