Back catalogue: Bass

Review: Wherein Dutchman Vincent lays down a heartfelt study of the soul entitled 'Pre Melancholy'. His findings are as follows... Before the melancholy one can expect a wave of emotions and pressures, all of them ingredients for a tumultuous storm that flies in a whole flurry of directions. Technoid drum & bass causing anxiety with every rolling fill ('Mono No Aware'), timeless breaks triggering moments of unsolicited joy ('Agent Of Distraction') and spacious leftfield that's so disarming and abyssal that it comes in two forms ('Yonghegong Lama Temple Exit F'). Embrace the melancholy.

Review: Brand new Italian label Reflue launches with a remarkable five-track odyssey from co-owner Viola. A heady analog portrait of inner city intensity that ranges from electro to drum & bass - and blurring every possibly boundary in between - Viola's 'Sunburnt' takes us from the most visceral, physical body music ('Il Tek') to the most abstract, far-out head-tickling snapshots ('Yard II') with equal levels of style and sleaze, grittiness and prettiness. A bold opening statement.

Review: Dutch titan Orlando Voorn was always a European with a musical sound that linked us to Detroit and Chicago. As well as house and techno he can also do searing electro bangers too as this Outerworld EP on Trust shows. It's potent tackle for peak times, with 'Shockwave' a collision of drums and percussion and wild spraying synths, then 'Outerworld' taking on a ghetto flex with more kinetic drum funk. 'Reverse Psychology' then slows it down to a more atmospheric and spaced-out vibe and 'Space Trap' is an experimental broken beat that is the best track on the EP.

Review: Between 1986 and 1994, Tony Boninsegna released an insane amount of music under dozens of different aliases, offering up rave-ready tracks that variously mixed and matched elements of acid house, bleep & bass, hardcore techno and breakbeat. Yet he remains almost unknown. Notes From The Underground, a two-part retrospective of his career, is therefore well overdue. This second part, which boasts extensive sleeve notes from UK dance music historian Matt Anniss, is packed to the rafters with re-mastered treats, with highlights including the electro-tinged bleep business of Lab Technicians' 'We Gave You Life', the weighty acid breaks of Sykosis 451's 'Monsoon', the breakbeat hardcore funkiness of MI7's 'Show I', and the proto-jungle madness of Raggahead's 'Give The People What They Want'.

Review: At long last, a light has been shone on the career of one of the UK's true underground rave heroes: Bedford producer (and man of umpteen aliases) Tony Bonisegna. Cold Blow and Musique Pour La Danse have done a terrific job on the two-part set, offering up remastered killer cuts from Bonisenga's vast catalogue alongside extensive sleeve notes by Join The Future author Matt Anniss (whose book was the first to tell the producer's remarkable story). There's plenty to set the pulse racing on this first volume, including Bonisegna's earliest explorations of house in the late 80s (both as part of The Rhythm Squad), the clonking and bleeping shuffle of Original Clique's 'F (Whistle Mix)', the Pet Shop Boys-go-to-a-rave shimmer of 'Tonnere' by Pierrepoint, the acid-flecked breaks madness of Big Showdown's 'They're Here' and the sub-heavy early breakbeat hardcore of AEK's 'Lick It'.

Review: Get ready for some proper breakbeat tackle as Oil Gang reprobate Boylan recruits the troops for a heavyweight apocalyptic 140 BPM showdown. With the likes of Slimzee, Trends, D.O.K, U.S.F and Youngsta all on side, the mood is tense and the textures are rough. Imagine that sci-fi sternness of Virus, that old school rolling breakbeat bass of Koma & Bones or Evil 9 complete with the more modern neck snap abrasion of acts like Former or Coido and you're in the right rave. Mean, gritty and unapologetic.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Creasing to corner of outer sleeve but otherwise in excellent condition***


The third in Switzerland's best and truest retro dance throwback series; here the Mental Groove Classic series returns with a treasure trove of rare and hard to find tracks plucked from the personal collection of label founder Olivier Ducret, a pivotal figure in Switzerland's acid house and rave-era party scene. Only the best, brightest and most effulgent of house, techno, bleep and analog jams are heard on this series, bringing that heady, yet much sought-after, cross-section of dreaminess and rawness to our wanting ears. From the dreamy breathalizings and Himalayan hollerings of Uncle 22's 'Pain', to the deep ficus-bathed melodic blossomings of Point Zero's 'Coastal', it's clear that the ability to portray wateriness and fluidity in the otherwise (stereotypically) arid drum machine and sequencer form was something extant; a superpower shared collectively in the Swiss psyche of the time.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***


The Mental Groove Classics is a new series of reissues documenting the sweats and oversights of Olivier Ducret, a pivotal figure in Switzerland's acid house and rave-era party scene. Ducret's Mental Groove label collected and discographized many of the 90s' brightest and yet roughest gems of the time; as both Volume 1 and this follow-up demonstrate, there is an unabashed rawness shared by the likes of Airtight's 'Housewerks FXTC' and Techno Grooves' 'Hiawa' here, the kind of rawness in sound that the various music-makers of today may only emulate, yet may never truly fully replicate, if not for the simple fact of overproduction and/or the all-too-easiness of overindulgence and possibility enabled by digital audio tech. To contrast, this one's simple, drum-machinic grooves mesh rather effortlessly with a transcendent trance, one which reaches a dubby apogee on The Moody Boys' C-sider 'Jammin', not long before a wonky French touch leaves a lasting tactile impression on Nagai Eri's D2, 'Delta'.

Review: Exit Records wraps up its 100 series with EXIT100 Pt. Four, featuring an eclectic line-up of cutting-edge beats, drum & bass, techno and experimental tracks. Curated by label boss dBridge, it embodies Exit's forward-thinking ethos that brings together some of the most inventive names in the scene. From Tasha & Cadans' 'Soft Grimness' to Freedom Engine's atmospheric 'Welcome to the Pharmacy,' each track showcases a unique approach to the electronic dance scene. This final instalment perfectly represents Exit's progressive sound and vision, celebrating a legacy while firmly looking to the future.

Review: The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions a rare kind of affirmation, one that has the power to course-correct many a sensitive soul whose 'meaning well' might have more unintended negative consequences than good. It's also exactly the kind of title that London experimental electronic producer Vegyn would choose for a mixtape-album; it inspires a kind of wisdom-starved curiosity in those who might seek to plug that gap via the music of an artist more experienced than they. But in this case, beyond this title, Vegyn has no further wisdom to impart than reams of his signature trip-hop and IDM glossouts, featuring fellow London regulars such as Ethan P. Flynn, Lauren Auder, Lea Sen and John Glacier; the album is transcendent in timbre, seeming to constantly push at the limits of Vegyn's stereotypically snappier and sparser sound.

Review: After a flurry of announcements and teasers comes Vegyn's latest record The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions. Arguably more of an aesthetic regrounding compared an long spell of style-establishing wonders, this record hears Joe Thornalley revive his original alias, and is unabashed in its involving of several London-centric all-star vocalists including John Glacier, Matt Maltese, Ethan P. Flynn, Lea Sen and Lauren Auder. All are heard banding together to ruminate on themes of faith, self-acutalization and eternity, together spanning multiple registers and gliding serenely over Vegyn's various dream-jungle, trap, pop and post-everything beats. Even the non-featured tracks contain vocal delights, with highlight 'Everything Is The Same' pitching up what we can only assume to be Vegyn's own, in a glitzed-out take on a Jai Paul-esque beatscape.

Review: "Decay and loneliness can serve a purpose. Depression can teach you things. To feel deep sadness also means the ability to feel profound emotions," says Stefan Vincent. The Dutch artist has a point, and based on the appropriately titled Post Melancholy, certainly knows how to make it with strange, beguiling, slightly manic but overwhelmingly captivating music. Drawing on some of the cornerstones of rave culture - breaks, electro, IDM - the record is a true journey through an emotional spectrum, often conjuring the reflective 6AM moods that we can't quite put our finger on, but associate with those warehouse moments, but then filtering this out into something more joyful, or at least lighter. Overall, it plays out like the very reason you fell in love with electronic music in the first place.