Juno Recommends Bass: June 2024

Review: Upsammy's 2023 stonker Germ In A Population Of Buildings now comes to vinyl via PAN. Continuing in one very particular aspect of the Amsterdam musician's craft - her interest in architecture and environmental design, and how that plays into and informs on sound - this LP evinces ideas of a rewilded modernist edifice, avoiding static textures in favour of a 'constantly shifting' sound. An IDM record teeming with electroacoustic textures, all of which sound "alive" - wood, brick, steel, ceramic, concrete, you name the building material - it seems that Upsammy's intent is to physically model almost every possible foley impact on the planet and arrange it into a single whimsical symphony. A digital audiophile's dream.

Review: London producer Vegyn lays down a fresh cassette reissue of his early cut Text While Driving If You Want To Meet God!, throwing back to simpler days of BPM-tagged beatmaking and heartbreaking. Coming fresh after the producer found lasting fame as Frank Ocean's trusty go-to, Vegyn broke all the rules with this one, digitally offering up over 70 short mix-ready electronic cuts. All the bits on the record played duly by the rules of lo-fi beatmaking that populated the online world at the time - trap production hallmarks and producer tags ("did I ever tell you that I'm Vegyn?") aplenty - yet also did something to transcend them, with the artist's establishing style predominantly revolving around extra-organic textures, skittery humanised drums, and detuned synths. The new cassette edition already serves to nostalgise the record, reflecting just how fast herbivore has moved.

Review: Ghost Phone has always been an intriguing label with a great aesthetic that pairs casper the friendly ghost with second-wave Nokia mobile phones, suggesting it is inspired by the late 90s and early 00s. The sounds testify to that too - often drawing n the UK hardcore continuum, bass and garage with their skeletal rhythms and shimmering pads. Pitched-up r&b vocals on "Want U' make it a real standout while opener 'Hologram' is more about shifting tones and eerie moods. 'So Gone' brings dusty jungle breaks as heard second-hand down the phone and 'Darkness Finds Home With U' closes out with yet another idiosyncratic yet familiar sound.

Review: Cashmere Cat made quite the splash when he dropped Wedding Bells on LuckyMe back in 2014. In its deft balance of pristine hyper-pop, plaintive classical piano and sneaker-scuffed bass, 'With Me' confirmed his maximalist, misfit appeal in the fine tradition of LuckyMe artists, by going on to work with top tier artists like Ariana Grande, The Weeknd, Sophie, Major Lazer... the list goes on. This small but perfectly formed EP captures a moment in music perfectly, when the past decade of stylistic splintering had left the playing field pleasingly wide open and its more than deserving of a repress ten years on.