Juno Recommends Breakbeat: July 2024

Review: "Breakbeat" means many different things to many different people; perhaps among Juno's customers, the term signifies hard-edged apocalpytic bangouts against judderingly dark soundscapes, completely missing the trick of the fact that its earliest form was a kind of hip-hop that simply emphasised the funk backbeat as a central part. The Breakbeat Junkie are more than worthy reps of the latter category; they here bring the whopping 14th instalment of their Toxic Funk series to the fore, with two funky cuts from the beat master The Breakbeat Junkie himself.

Review: Dark breaksy brain-addler Colombo proves his mettle on latest 12", 'Your First Lesson'. A primal pedagogy of pitiless percs and brash breaks, Colombo nonetheless maintains a really rude sense of rollage here, one that other breaks producers would perhaps find themselves too impatient to maintain. 'To The Situation' pits a deeply muted Reese against a skin-snagging beat, over which a vixen voiceover muses on the antagonisms and war stances of life. 'Reedown' and 'Your First Lesson' seem to express the same grim sentiment - as though life must be fought to the death for - evoking womping militancies and cavernous streetside nether-regions.

Review: Virginia's Stimulator Jones channels all things jungle on Valley Center, his debut album on Craigie Knowes. Sam Lunsford is multi-talented genre-spanning artist; from songwriting to singing, programming drum machines to drumming, performing live to DJing, Valley Center flaunts it all; Lunsford's seamless genre-hopping skills with the outcome an LP packed with tracks that wouldn't sound out of place on LTJ Bukem's Logical Progression series or in the Metalheadz archives. From the skittery, airy and scratchy off of 'Submersible' to the more-than-deep abyssal movements of 'Kinda Deep' and the penultimate jump-up swang of 'Valley Winds', Valley Center is a full-length swim through a preternatural valley, whose meandering river flows with not only brackish waters, but also impossible liquids.

Review: ROGGTRAX is a project that has been helmed by Matthieu Roggwille since 2020 and it encompasses diverse influences from early 80s euro disco to sub-Saharan Africa disco, new-wave, and global pop. Here he collaborates with Consortium on a new EP that brings all those influences and more. 'Steel Feather' is a disco-house cut with playful bass and suggestive melodies, 'Crazy Wilhelm' sounds like a lost Metro Area cut and 'The Duke' ups the energy with a more percussive and upright house sound that still has plenty of characterful melodies and guitar twangs. 'I Come To You' shuts down with an Afro wiggle, lush xylophone and summery vibes.

Review: Guachinche Records captures the best of the Andalusia and Tenerife breakbeat scenes led by the renowned groups Mutantbreakz and Bubble Couple. Their debut vinyl release, GUACH001, is a compilation that perfectly embodies their musical essence and quality. It kicks off with 'Old Groove,' a standout track by Rasco and Bubble Couple and featuring memorable piano and basslines. Suga 7 follows with 'Hideaway,' offering a taste of the Canary Islands with high tempos and playful bass. The B-side includes Mutantbreakz's intricate track with guitar, piano, and vocals, culminating in Raverman's epic 'Sayonora' which is a stunning piece of acid electro-trance.