Breakbeat

Review: The Atlanta based B Boy Breaks series continues with another drop of serious cuts to get beat jugglers, sample diggers and just straight up funk lovers going hog wild over the lashings of drum breaks. First up on the A side there's some widescreen, expansive beatdowns taking place with the massive "Show Me The Funk Breaks" - a fela esque sax screaching ,hammond organ swirling classic you already know from the many times it's been lifted for its treasured sonic ingredients. "Harder Breaks" on the flip is another monumental jam, presented here in instrumental form most recently used for the theme tune of a UK TV show . The evergreen groove is just crying out for someone with the skills to drop some serious turntablism all over this one.

Review: Last year Breakbeat Paradise inaugurated the Toxic Funk series of mash-ups, reworks and party-starting sample jams via a tidy seven-inch single from BadboE and Tom Showtime. Here the series returns with a similarly fiery "45" from Edinburgh-based DJ/producer Gramophone Soul. On side A he smashes together elements from soul classic "Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay", Beastie Boys raps and bombastic, loose-limbed breakbeats. The results are as effective as you'd expect (IE it sounds like a bona fide party-starter). Turn to the flip for "Fire Cracker", a tooled-up, stomping soul affair that stays closer to its soulful source material whilst also re-framing it a little for contemporary dancefloors.

Review: It's now accepted that label anniversary compilations and EPs should be stacked with high-grade cuts, preferably offered up by sizable or notable artists. Even so, there's something extra-special about this first part of Digbeth-based One Records' 10th anniversary EP series. Fittingly, it begins with a fresh cut from label stalwart Subb-an, a suitably heavy chunk of locked-in, early morning techno titled "Sunrise Mood", before continuing via the cut-up breakbeat fills, spacey electronics and warehouse-ready analogue bass of Adam Pits' "Pungent Method". Over on side B, Los Angeles-based Steve Urulu serves up the groovy, percussion-rich deep house/techno fusion of retro-futurist treat "Mollare Qualcuno", while Yamen & Eda drift their way through the deep breakbeat-house shuffle of "Last Dance".

Review: There's plenty to get the juices flowing on Ukrainian duo Hidden Element's second full-length excursion, which lands in stores four years after their debut long-player "Together". They hit the ground running with the live-style breakbeats and booming bass of "Sound Of", before exploring slightly slower and moodier breakbeat pastures on "The Content Has No Sense" and reaching for the rushing electronic riffs on hybrid breaks/house cut "Rplctr9". Over on side B, they brilliantly mangle mind-altering bass music and jungle on "Strayed In Comparison" and mess around with moody bass and trance-like riffs on "Being Nervous Is Just Fine". As a tasty bonus, Norwegian producer Andre Bratten turns "Strayed In Comparison" into an icy slab of drowsy IDM bliss to round off a rock solid set.