Juno Recommends Drum & Bass July 2018

Review: Repress! Ingredients returns to Alex Eveson's DMC defining entry EPs with three highly limited repress series. "Farseer" was the final EP before he set up Western Lore and it still sounds as future and authentically classical as it did in 2016. Rough, raw, spit and sawdust rave, tightly wrapped up with layers of hardcore textures, each cut still slams as you probably already know. Highlights include surging soul in the vocal of "Obeahman" and manic rave panic of "Warehouse". Dead or alive you're coming with us.

Review: AKO... The clue is in the title. This is a knock out situation. But then if you've so much as microscanned at one of their legendary dances, or so much as peeped at their label output, you'll already know that. Four tracks from four of the most credible and respected names in modern jungle; Rupture co-founder Double O gets militant with his drum schooling on "The Lessons", Threshold pairs up some warm deejay bants with jerky detuned rave synths on "Crabs", Trax & Ricky Force take us to synth heaven on a turbulent amen rocket on "All You" while Greenleaf goes fully darkside with some fearsome cymbal smashing dark drum magic. Highly limited; this is knock out material.

Review: After getting us high on his "Jungle Crack" on Rupture in 2016, the one and only FDW returns to the perennial London label with more of his hard hitting, emotionally tort jungle constructions. Sharp and dense, "Set Free" debunks standard arrangements and hurls in trippy cuts and sudden drum splashes, "Nothing Else" will plunge you 20,000 leagues under the sea with its aquatic breakdown before giving you the bends as the kick-off torpedoes you back up for air. "Fiorina 161" takes us deeper into his psyche with much heavier atmospheric textures intertwined amid the drums, "Prism" is raw tightly coiled drum funk and "Never For Tomorrow" closes the EP with a severe tribal twist.

Review: More spatial exorcisms from the BFDM family. New and old faces alike, all French, it's the label's broadest and heaviest V/A wax to date. Basses Terres takes us deep in the machine with a well oiled slo-mo pneumatic break, Comic Sans-slinger C.R.K cooks up a spicy gumbo of militant apocalypse electro while Jonquera continues the electroid theme with a devilish pitched snare roll and wry synth slap bass pops and twang. Elsewhere Lastrack insists we travel to Jupiter by way of the Amazon while Daxyl's Jean Redondo closes the show on a schizoid broken techno freak out. Stark.

Review: Following the launch in March, LSB returns to his burgeoning Footnotes imprint with four more soulful sessions. "Space Between" lilts with a swinging jazz piano hook and cosmic vocals before kicking up a whole tonne of vibe dust, "Moonshine" hits with subtle notes of funk and a classic string and horn sample that conjures memories of 2003. For the darker side of LSB see "Potshot", a powerful nod to Marcus (RIP) with its plunging bass tones, technoid rises and precision two-step groove before "Roots" closes with a loose, dreamy hip-hop feel. Perfect.

Review: One of Break's most consistent and striking vocal collaborators, Kyo gets the Symmetry spotlight with this A-list collabo EP. "Who Decides" sparks up the dance with an electrified high voltage sneering bassline and loose percussion that only Break can cook up. "Murder Tonight" is a lot sexier than its title suggests thanks to Kyo's surging tones and Total Science's expert manipulation of the think break. "Where I Stand" sees Kyo teaming up with Mikal for the most stripped back and steppy affair while DLR and Mako's OneMind unit join her for the final, and darkest, chapter of the EP "Play To Lose" where Kyo hits her gutsiest, rawest soul notes. No decision necessary.

Review: It's here! After a digital release several months back, Spirit's barbed wire jungle blazers "Murderer" and "Cold Call" finally see the waxy light of day. The former is a rasping, rolling slice of haunted 94 style edginess with a wry Halloween feel to the atmosphere while the latter is all about that rich analogue bassline that bounces between the two-step spaces. Following the heat of his insane Dispatch EP earlier this year, Spirit really smashing 2018 to pieces.

Review: Due to his immense proliferation and consistent ability to hurt your soul just in the right spot, there are scurrilous rumours that Tim Reaper is actually a machine. Like some type of breakbeat $60 million dollar man made up of the perfect melting pot attitude, uncompromised junglist characteristics and skillish studiocraft, he's too good to be true. As is this new batch on 7th Storey. Ranging from the Krome & Time-style rattling drums and blissful chords of "Your Trip" to the outrageous chops and fizzy breaks of "Unrest", Reaper has just left us another load of rewards to reap. Man or machine? We don't care as long as bangers like these keep flying our way.

Review: With bandwagon-jumping producers continuing to gravitate towards jungle revivalism like flies to an open bin bag, Ingredients Records has decided to reissue a slew of vintage productions from 21st century jungle maestro Alex Eveson, better known as Dead Man's Chest. Nautilus originally appeared in stores in 2015, but remains one of the producer's punchiest and most potent EPs. For proof, check the fluttering ambient chords, gasping vocal samples and head-in-the-clouds riddims of "Liquid '94", the saucer-eyed, jumping-around-in-a-muddy-field madness of "Cut-Throat Hardcore" and the fuzzy punch of loved-up jungle roller "The Future".

Review: While Calibre's studio albums are invariably superb, his periodic Shelflife compilations of unreleased tracks and tried-and-tested dubplates are often even better. Predictably, this fifth volume in the series not only hits the spot, but also contains some genuinely grade-A material. Many will naturally gravitate towards high-class DRS hook-up "City Life" and the sought-after Marcus Intalex collaboration "Bluesday" (a typically warm, melodious and soulful affair), but there are plenty of other highlights amongst the 12 tracks on. These largely tend towards the more sun-kissed and breezy end of the D&B spectrum, though there are some tougher and darker workouts (see the low-slung sci-fi growl of "Jaboc") amongst Calibre's waves of dancefloor positivity.

Review: It's now official: Future Cut are back and they're not mucking around. After years in the pop game, making number one hits for more songs than you care to sing along to in the shower, the Renegade Hardware renegades return to D&B on wax with the able co-piloting from Bournemouth's do-no-wrong duo Ulterior Motive. The result is three cuts that cross the entire breadth of jungle's craggy landscape. "Flash Mob" an all-out, balls-out roller with menacing late 90s undertones, "Bagleys" is a Spirit-esque stepper with sublime percussive Q&A "Second Nature" closes the show on a beautiful Bristolian funk flex. Welcome back Future Cut, big up Ulterior Motive. History has been made right here.

Review: Previously spotted on 117 and Skeleton, DJ Future dents the AKO discog with four absolute jungle hell raisers. The doubled up drum slams on "Rebel Technology" will take years off your life and hairs off your head, "Twisted Fragments" plays the mentasm at a grade 10 level and "2 Pound Bet" wants to smother you in dubbed out horns and warm sweaty skanks. Need a cooler? Jump on the sweet soul of "Outside Looking In" and feel the sensual breeze. Welcome to the future.

Review: Two serious paths of momentum clash right on this hefty wax slab; Italian producer Enjoy has been enjoying a rich vein of form on labels such as AKO and Transmute while Criterion have just shelled us with 12s from the likes of Alaska & Paradox and Drum Cypha. Here the on point label and artist collide for two jungle insurgencies; "Switch" lulls us into a false sense of atmospheric security before throwing us to the breakbeat lions while "Sorrow" is much more of a slow burner that raises tension much more gradually by way of loose jazz drum layers and ice cold pads.

Review: Can't touch this: Belgian duo The Untouchables drop their debut album Mutations on the ever-sharp Samurai and it's every bit as immersive, dank and intense as we've come to expect from them. From the rifle dancehall kicks on "Blackout VIP" to the ricochet rimshots and shattered cymbals of "Cloak Of Levitation" via the demonic croaked out humanised bass of "Black Sheep" and the alluring rain forest dub of "Terrigen Mist", this is an album to get truly lost in and never want to find your way back. Get mutated.

Review: Icy's Entropy imprint hits its second outing and he's brought along his equally talented and uncompromising cousin Proxima for the ride. "Outer Planes" (with ex Pendulum MC Ben Verse) kickstarts the adventure with grainy, scratchy bass while Icy goes solo for "Dust Me Off" with a lolloping, technoid hypnosis jam and Proxima gets squelchy and savage on "Retrace". "Deep Dreaming" maintains balance with a final colab between the two... And it does so with serious wind tunnel harmonic drama. Feel the burn.