Juno Recommends Bass Best of 2019

Review: Last year Burial and the Bug joined forces as Flame 1, delivering an in-demand EP on the latter's Pressure label featuring two sizable slabs of industrial strength soundsystem science. Here they return as Flame 2, once again offering up a pair of weighty dancefloor excursions. A-side "Dive" is a loud and claustrophobic affair, as the duo wraps dystopian dub bass and sparse, mutilated post-drill rhythms in layers of apocalyptic aural textures and mind-altering dub techno style processed noise. Flipside "Rain" is arguably more suitable for dancefloor plays and sees the esteemed twosome combine pulverizing sub-bass heaviness with dancehall style drums that come smothered in mind-melting effects and paranoia-inducing aural smoke.

Review: We all know that the cry of the mandrake is fatal to anyone who hears it... But when its cries are being conducted by Italian bass fusioneer Piezo, we are safe from harm. In fact we're safer; Piezo's jams have been building up serious tension since his Artikal releases a few years back, and these are his most inventive yet. "The Mandrake" carries ghosts of his signature percussion but kick with a much heavier techno sensibility. "Tinned" then takes those mandrake cries, packages them in cans and rolls them from the nearest high hill. Watch them bounce, clatter and cause total chaos.

Review: We don't usually condone lying here at Juno, but when you tell seven of them across a beautiful nine track debut album, it's absolutely acceptable. Applaudable, even. Highlights across this deep, tightly woven bass adventure include the Portishead-style trippy dubtronica of "Comos Los Cerdos", the somnambulant drones and breathy washes of "Lies", the nagging techno loopery of "Dam" and the trembling graveyard soul of "Arcana".

Review: Hyperdub and Tectonic regular Walton finds himself on vital Munich label Ilian Tape for his next EP. The rhythmic innovator takes cues from the label's love of breakbeats in one track here. Opener "Before The Storm" is a suspensory bit of ambient with sustained pads and distant hits, crashes and pops speaking of alien life forms. "Rolla", a dusty and shadowy cut that skates along with a sense of uneasy menace. Last of all, "Depth Charge" is as it sounds: fathom deep bass lurches to and fro with machine gun like snares firing across the face of the track. It's boombing body music to make you move.

Review: After a strong and distinctive run of outsider electronics from artists like Meze, Plants Army Revolver and Nicolo, HomeMadeZucchero founder Giesse steps up to the plate with a deadly concoction that uses breakneck drum programming to whip up a feeling somewhere between technical jungle and hyper-modern dubstep. Where "GOJI" is all sharp angles and bold sound design, the mighty Demdike Stare are on hand to deliver a remix that shirks convention (would you expect any less?) by barreling into a noise-caked tunnel of intensity that opens out into a fractured breakbeat meditation broken up with flamboyant handbrake turns to keep the dancers on their toes.

Review: Busting open a brand new bottle of 2019 with his bare Mancunian hands, Walton returns to Pinch's Tectonic with his first fresh dispatch since his sophomore album Black Lotus. As always, it's a full-bodied assault as "Bullet 2" licks shots with technoid venom. "Inside" follows with a similar spirit but with even less layers of armour and a bouncier bassline, while "More Cowbell" does that toxic Pulse X style alien bass thing, gets all trippy with the percussion and seriously stampy with the kicks. Finally, we close with a bruked up G swagger on the spacious, foreboding "Gunshot Clap". Shots fired.

Review: Tectonic bossman Pinch on Berceuse Heroique? Now this is a match made in boundary-breaking heaven. Not even the lead track "Border Control" can keep things confined as we're hurled into a swampy, heady, paranoid and relentless stampede which is just as much techno as it is 140. "Fortune Tellers" brings us back down to even woozier 125 as layers of off-kilter percussion scuffle up and down the mix in a blurry, sense-deceiving way before "Loose Cables" turns us inside out with its tripletty off-beat, subaquatic pressure. A one of a kind artist on a one of a kind label; there are no borders here.

Review: This new one on Martyn's 3024 might be a various artists affair but the tracks sit rather well together, which is even more remarkable given the diverse backgrounds of those involved: Noire with his super hard drums, Metalheadz affiliates Gremlinz & Jesta who link here with Sin, and Parris who makes some truly bonkers club music. Martyn's own "Frozen Bread Snaps" is the opener that most impresses with its delicate and skeletal drum programming and heartfelt chords. Elsewhere, "Door Of Guf" is a high octane rough rider while "Ballas" is perfectly off kilter and funky. "Dusty Glass Bubbles" somehow sounds exactly like it should with that title.

Review: This Numbers debut by Lanark Artefax is an ode to a waterfall above the Scottish village of New Lanark and comes after his breakout offering on Whities as well as a busy run of live shows that make reference to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Bass heavy and melodic, with falling keys and glassy pads raining down the face of each track, "Moo Orphaned Drift" has a cosmic air to it while opening cut "Corra Linn" is an IDM drum flurry, but it is closer "Ferthenheap" which makes the most impact; it's an ambient, emotionally devastating neo-classical piano piece of the highest order.

Review: Man Band mandem Toma Kami returns to Livity with more sharp tools and insanity, this time in the form of "Negative Extasy". Each cut primed with big roomy broken beats, each cut more beguiling and trippier than the last, each cut rising in intensity; "E-Ache" warms us up with soothing harmonic stabs over a cavernous beat, "Aces" spins us round the stars with housey chords and pretty percussive vapour trails while "Suomi" is nothing short of a 24th century funeral march. For most the title track will be the highlight; more upbeat and bumping, with fat layers of percussion, it's Toma in pure peaktime mode... And everyone's invited.

Review: DJ Firmeza's 2015 debut, "Alma Do Meu Pai", was a gloriously bass-heavy, multi-cultural melting pot of 21st century dancefloor sounds that perfectly encapsulated the Lisbon scene from which he emerged. This belated sequel is equally as thrilling, with bombastic opener "Avan" setting the tone via heavy, Kuduro-influenced drums, layered tribal percussion hits, clonking melodies and urgent vocals. "Intenso" is if anything even sweatier and more percussively punchy, while "RRRRRR" is a thrusting chunk of wild tribal techno rich in dense drums and voodoo vocal yelps. As for "25", its another off-kilter drum workout just crying out for peak-time plays.

Review: "One More Time" eh? 10, 20 or maybe even 50 more times would be more appropriate as Sam Binga and Marcus Visionary lock horns over three table-style / UK funky riddims. The title track has a classic DJ Gregory vibe to it, all bashy, tropical and laced with intoxicating percussion elements, "Doubles" is pure carnival incarnate with its big sunny hook and hip-shaking bashment. Finally "Nexx" closes with a little rave element. Hoxton meets Detroit by way of Berlin; it's one of the tracks you could imagine being played and kicking off in any style set from techno to garage. Holy grail business - ring the Hotline today.

Review: Felipe Salmon and Rafael Pereira aka Dengue Dengue Dengue's third album is an exploration of Afro-Peruvian musical traditions laced with their usual sense of so-called tropical futures and off beat rhythmic patterns. It makes for hypnotic grooves that are loose and jumbled, organic and fully authentic especially when members of the Ballumbrosio family, who are experts in traditional rhythmic styles like lando, festejo and crioullo music, as well as traditional dances and instruments like the quijada, have helped create this album. Fleshing out the drums are fizzes and woodblocks, smeared synthwork and occasional Latin vocals that drift to the top as the bass roams down low. An intoxicating listen that transports you to another world entirely.

Review: Roska dusts off his rare Bakongo alias for a trip down Livity street with three technoid excursions. Every bit as sci-fi as they are bashy; opener "Momoweb" lights the touch-paper with angular android skittishness, ping-ponging back and forth as though Modeselektor have been given the keys to UK funky tank. "Disposition" twirls with a flourishing reverse loop and steppy hi-hats in a way that wouldn't go amiss in a Rolando set, while "Goulbap" closes on a more stripped back bashment trip, all creepy and laced with decaying harmonics. Goulishly good.

Review: There's plenty to get excited about on Silk Road Assassins' long-awaited debut full-length, which arrives some three years after their acclaimed debut EP, "Reflection Spaces". For starters, the trio has delivered something that neatly sidesteps convention, melding bustling, loose-limbed grime and trap rhythms with all manner of layered electronic elements. Some of these are dark and moody and others fluorescent, kaleidoscopic and tropical in tone. "State of Ruin" twists, turns and twists again on umpteen occasions, delivering a musical snapshot of our chaotic times that veers from paranoid intensity to rush-inducing bliss in what seems like the blink of an eye. OK, so we may have got a little carried away, but it's certainly a superb set that's more than worthy of your hard-earned cash.

Review: Sometime Arcola artist Basic Rhythm returns to action via a fine four-track missive on Hypercolour's rave-inspired little sister, Sneaker Social Club. As you might expect, he's hit the mark once again via a quartet of cuts that gleefully blur the boundaries between a myriad of bass-music styles. We're particularly enjoying the broken computer style electronics, scattergun drums and discordant sci-fi sounds of "Too Nuff" and the Actress style madness of "London Warehouse", though we could also make a case for the sludgy vocal samples, post-dubstep pulse and weighty sub of "Ready Again" and slightly more melodious "New Style". In other words, it's a very strong EP.