Back catalogue: Deep Dubstep

Review: Bengal Sound is a rising star in the Bristol bass scene and now he makes another mighty fine statement with this two tracker on Wych, the increasingly essential label run by K-LONE. This one comes after his various standout tunes from self-released cassettes fusing dusty old Bollywood samples to red hot club bangers. 'Solace' is the opener and is heavy on the rubbing and cavernous bass with icy leads and on the flip is 'On My Mind' which is just as atmospheric.

Review: The deep dubstep revival continues to roll on and turn out ever more crucial sounds from the underground and back streets. Bukkha's latest for Innamind Recordings is a perfect case in point - it's primed and ready to blow out the basins of any system it is played on. Opener 'Deliverance' has some serious weight to it while the low-end wobbles keep things rolling under crispy, long tailed hits and hissing synth mystery. On the flip is 'The Time Is Now" (feat DPRNDRP)', a more crunchy and broken beat overlaid with squealing synth motifs and bad man vocalisations.

Review: Of all the artists past and present who claim to let their music do their talking for them, Burial is one of the elite band of whom this truly is the case. In fact, so reluctant is he to engage with the cult-of-personality hoopla that surrounds almost every modern producer and musician of merit, that he remains a genuine recluse; he has never appeared live, only one obliquely-angled publicity photograph is known to exist, and the number of interviews he has given can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Yet despite this, his music speaks loud and wide, and the world has been listening ever since his 'South London Boroughs' EP debut on Hyperdub in March 2005. His eponymous album, which began life as a low-key release in May 2006, is now widely regarded as the benchmark release of the ever-widening dubstep genre, picking up unanimous critical acclaim along the way, and ending the year heavily featured in many 'best of' polls. Now Burial returns with 'Untrue', a new record of weird soul music, which lovingly processes spectral female voices into vaporised R&B and smudged 2step garage. Vocal lines are blurred, smeared, pitched up pitched down and pitch bent until their content is cast adrift from their original context and they whisper their saccharin sweet nothings into the void. The album continues with the debut's crackle-drenched yearning and bustling syncopations, haunted by the ghosts of rave, but also reveals some new Burial treats with a more glowing, upbeat energy. Kicking off with the skittering 2step syncopations and vocal science of 'Archangel', 'Near Dark' and 'Ghost Hardware', before long it descends into a space of radiant divas and ambience. Where 'Burial' first was humid, suffocating and unrelentingly sad, 'Untrue' is less sunless. Many of the tracks are so sweet, they become toxic, underscored by the almost geological rumbles of growling basslines. Unlike the overpoweringly melancholic prevailing mood of before, Burial's sound is now better defined as a downcast euphoria typified by the epic, muted optimism of the album's last track 'Raver'. Forget central heating the radioactivity of this album is all that you'll need to keep you warm this winter. 'Untrue' is available as full 13 track digipack CD, including recent underground hit 'Ghost Hardware', and 9 track DJ friendly double vinyl set, from which some of the beatless pieces have been edited.