今週

Review: It's easy to see why Loefah snapped up this single for Swamp 81. For starters, bass-heavy beat-maker Sumgii has already contributed a number of killer missives to the label's digital catalogue, and "Wanawake" contains one of his fattest beats to date - a sparse, warped, sub-heavy affair that sits somewhere between regular hip-hop and 21st century grime. Then there's the fine bi-lingual English/Swahili rap that sits atop it from Nah Eeto, a rising star of Kenya's blossoming underground. Her style and delivery is distinctive and on-point, working in perfect harmony with Sumgii's killer backing track. Loefah naturally supplies the obligatory remix, placing Eeto's vocal atop a crunchy bed of hip-house style James Brown breaks and stirring synthesizer chords.

Review: Look at what we have here... Two mythical nugs from dubstep's heartiest primordial soup courtesy of Croydon pioneer DMZ's Loefah. "Natural Charge" stutters with those clipped drums leaving stacks of space for those humungous iconic bass drones to bounce around while his remix of D1 drives a heavier plough with pushed drums, technoid bleeps and that gritty warehouse intensity. Both seminal jams from the FWD>> era, both on dub ever since... These have been sought after for many years.

Review: Repress alert! Wednesday: Hyperdub announce a new three track release from enigmatic producer Burial - his first solo work in four years. Thursday: Said records arrive on Juno doorstep. How's that for service (and secrecy)! The news came just a matter of days after the producer's collaboration with Radiohead front man Thom Yorke and Four Tet arrived on record shelves across the UK and promptly sold out amidst a frenzy of hype. There are three new tracks on offer here, namely "Street Halo", "NYC" and "Stolen Dog". First up "Street Halo" showcases the classic Burial sound; subterranean bass gurgles, trademark clicking beats and barely-there vocal snatches. A sweet childlike vocal pervades the sonic mist on "NYC" while "Stolen Dog" closes out with ethereal vocal harmonies buried deep beneath vinyl crackle. Stunning.

Review: Yes! It's high time Youngsta featured on his own label and it's happening right here with "Progress". Laying down a creepy graveyard groove laced with all precision balance of funk, space and swampiness, it's the perfect beat for Killa P and Long Range to do their thing. Extolling the virtues of hard hustling, investment and caring for those closest, both P and the Long man go in as hard as the track itself with some wholesome food for thought on life directions. "Progress" yourself today...

Review: Versa on System; it's a match made in dub heaven. Slower than the usual club-ready output V.I.V.E.K's label has often been known for, these are perfect home listening for the current lockdown era as Versa goes in deep; "Temple Song" is all about the subtle loopy insistencies while "Breakthrough" sinks us even deeper into our chair with its minimal ingredients providing maximum immersion. Finally "Biosphere" ushers in the kicks for a warm and rolling dub techno escapade. Stunning.

Review: Having built his reputation via a handful of fine EPs on Scrub A Dub, Foundation Audio and Natural Selectas, deep dubstep specialist Somah debuts on Deep Medi with his most high profile record to date. He sets the tone with title track "Dark Arts", where ethereal pan-pipe sounds, echoing vocal snippets and ricocheting percussion sounds ride a steppers style beat and a suitably weighty bassline, before joining forces with Rider Shafique on the hazy and soulful vocal number "Hebrew Flip". Turn to side B for the twin attractions of dubbed-out shuffler "How We Move" (look out for what we believe to be dialogue snippets from The Wire) and the hot-stepping late night bustle of "Binural" featuring Surreal.

Review: Nine years deep and still sounding as future as ever, Kode9 and The Spaceape's first album is historic in so many different directions... It's the first ever Hyperdub album, Kode9's sonic scope and barbed soundscapes and Spaceape's paranoid poetry and rhythmic narratives complement and tailor each other in a way no other dubstep-related producer and MC have ever sounded (before and since), the beats remain a unique, diverse, creative dynamic almost a decade later... And, sadly, the late Spaceape's stories now come laden with added portent poignancy. All proceeds from this reissue go to Stephen Samuel Gordon's family; if you haven't got this on vinyl you know what to do.

Review: Since launching in 2014, Portland's ZamZam Sounds imprint has offered up a string of beautifully packaged seven-inch singles from a mixture of big hitters and rising stars from the global bass music scene. Their latest missive comes from Dayzero, a Japanese dubstep producer best known for his outings on Wheel & Deal, Sentry and, most recently, Vomitspit. The two tracks here are weighty, intergalactic and otherworldly, mixing dub style rhythms with the kind of angular, razor-sharp sub-bass motifs more often associated with dancefloor dubstep. Both cuts are quality, though it's rolling A-side "Orbit Dub" - all lolloping dub beats, wobble bass, metallic effects and paranoid aural textures - that really stands out.

Review: One riddim track, three hugely distinctive voices; Dub-Stuy continue their riddim series with "Santa Muerte Riddim". Loose, spacious, mystic and led by cold steel string twangs, Jonah Freed's beat sings on its own merits but each vocalist adds their own touch. Rider Shafique takes the lead with his signature smoky tones and poetics, Jahdan Blakkamoore contrasts between his gravelly spoken word and musicality on the chorus before Pupajim lets the beat breathe a little more before going full harmonic ham. Holy moly.

Review: Fresh from tidy 2019 EPs on Sector 7 Sounds and System Music, Drone returns to the latter label with his first missive of 2020. There's plenty of highlights stretched across the EP's two slabs of wax, with our favourites including the creepy mix of deep dubstep rhythms and Autechre style melodies that is "20 K", the slow-burn headiness of "Flooded" - where picturesque watery melodies ride a skeletal beat and vibrating sub-bass - and the aggressive late night dancefloor paranoia of "Fear". SP:MC provides a tasty rework of that cut, focusing the action on a crunchier rhythm track and pulverising waves of distorted analogue bass.

Review: Blimey, if this isn't major meeting of musical Midas minds then we don't know what is. Alter Echo, E3 and Headland all collaborating with legendary dub flautist Diggory Kenrick. "Temple Duel" sets the scene in deep underground chambers, untouched by the sun. Reverb space is our only guide and ritual combat is the only way out as we make our way through subsonic 808 bass foundations, a near-industrial mid-range bass guitar groove, stiff snares, stick-fighting percussion and Diggory's torchlight melody. A truly fluid hypnotic narrative that arcs through the dark, if you're looking for an even foggier route flip for "Temple Dub" where the torch is extinguished and you have nothing but your sonic wits to take you home. Only Diggory knows if you make alive or not...

Review: Infernal hit the big two-oh and they've recruited Taiko to mark the occasion. Last spotted on the label around 009 by way of a Darkimh co-lab, this is his debut EP for Infernal and it's long overdue. Each cut gets darker and more uncompromising as we creep and writhe from the gothic haunted house bass harmonics of "Giant Big Man" to the lighter, ghostly flutters and gurgling bass of "Slingshot Dub" right through to the trippy, warped finale "Pen To Paper". A giant big release.

Review: Let's just list the amount of stone cold bass OGs on this collection: Krust, dBridge, Om Unit, Danny Scrilla, V.I.V.E.K, Von D, Moresounds, AU, Oris Jay & Chris Innasound and whole load more of soundsystem culture's most innovative craftsman working at the deepest levels of the low end coalface all feature on this immense and forward thinking document. Including the curator Amit himself. Every track is a highlight, each one and abyssal, immersive experience but essential highlights include the toxic bass bounces of Moresounds' "They Can't Handle It", the 23rd century UKG of Oris and Chris' "They Can't Handle It" and Krust's big screen masterpiece "Escape From Finland". Amit deserves a holiday. Or a massive trophy. Or both. Bass compilations don't get much bigger than this.

Review: James Blake's debut album is undoubtedly one of 2011's most keenly awaited releases, and its arrival via his own (major label funded) Atlas imprint ensures their is no lull in momentum for a producer who enjoyed a watershed 2010 with releases on Hessle Audio and R&S. The results here differ wildly from his previous sonic excursions - gone are the shimmering R&B soaked melodies of "CMYK" and the sheer experimentalism of the Klavierwerke EP, which saw the young Londoner depart from the confines of the dancefloor and enter a realm where there was only a passing reference to rhythm-based music. Instead we are treated to Blake's own yearning, raw voice, delicate pianos and an underlying sense of melancholy. Ubiquitous single "Limit To Your love" and the crackly sonic terrain evoked on "The Wilhelm Scream" are among the most immediately pleasing moments, but there is much to explore here. It's a fascinating opus and surely the catalyst to a long and fruitful career at the top.

Review: Samba's 26. RAIN label returns for the new year with this deliciously different couplet from Brizzle's Rygby. "Pasqualina" is total whimsy. All uplifting, animated harmonics, this genuinely sounds like nothing else around and sounds so refreshing for it. The same can be said for "Yu Me Us". Imagine a 2020 take on the purple funk sounds; there's some deep under-the-sea enchantment going on with high levels of funk and weirdness. This is a genuinely exceptional and forward-thinking 140 record, Rygby raises the levels again.

Review: Dub maestro Mala joins forces with prominent British writer, dub poet and Rastafarian Benjamin Zephaniah and Natty for this heavy hitting, hand-stamped 12". "I'm a bad man anyway, this is my sound" says Zephaniah with real passion as spaced out pads and delicate chords soften his battle cry, and his musings on the black man's struggle, righteousness and Rastafarianism play out in absorbing fashion. Best believe this one is going to become a real cult favourite, not least because of the exceptional sound design and sense of space inherent in any Mala tune.

Review: The original enfant terrible of the bass music world marks his second long player for 4AD with a sprawling opus of more than 30 skits and skirmishes daubed in his trademark colourful sonic scrawl. There is plenty here that reminds you of the early days of the producer's emergence when dubstep was a younger beast, from the spacious "Horrid" to the measured arpeggios of "Pray For Me", but you'll also find more intricate musings such as the dynamic and dramatic "Memories". Hype abounds on the creepy Funky of "VI-XI", while "Overdose" launches enthusiastically into a jungle tear out. At any given turn, you'll find yourself surprised, lurched from a serene mood into a manic one, only to be tempered again. There's a staggering range of ideas and styles to comprehend here, but would you want it any other way from one of electronic music's most outspoken upstarts?

Review: Epoch returns! And he's packing some of his rarest steez since "Soundboy Abduction". All air raid sirens, trippy widescreen basses and a scientific spoken word all comprise to form a brutal wall of sound slo-mo drama on "V1" while "Roacher" bubbles with a technoid sense of playfulness and unpredictability. Finally "Rib Cage" takes the surreal sensations to even higher levels with a melting intro, nagging hi-end percussion and the strangest harmonic strings ever to grace an Innamind release. Truly singular.

Review: Fresh in the chem trails of his Bandulu release, the inimitable Bengal Sound crash lands back into our psyches with his disarming, not-of-this-world take on 140 music. "Young Skeleton" arrives just in time for Halloween, scaring the dickens out of us with its warped humanised tones, dusty atmospheres and distant chimes. "Coroners" takes us from the graveyard to the morgue... But with these hazy arpeggiated trinkles and eerie shimmers are we stepping towards the light or simply waking up? That's for you to work out.

Review: Hyperdub kick off the vinyl side to their ten-year celebrations with this weighty four-tracker from some of the leading lights from the label's story. Mala is in a strident mood with "Expected, Level 10" carrying through that extra touch of melody from the Mala In Cuba LP. DVA cuts loose with the leftfield scattershot groove of "Technical Difficulties", reveling in tonal experimentation and jagged rhythmic flair to a stunning end. Still locked into the sci-fi trap tangent that characterised Severant, Kuedo turns out the haunting "Mtzpn" and Helix pops up for a remix of Kode9's "Xingfu Lu" that strips down to bare essentials with a little starlit soul rubbed into the framework.

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.

Review: Woof! Hyperdub bring together two of the most recognisable and enigmatic artists of recent times on this 10", as Zomby and Burial square down ahead of the former's new album for the label. Zomby's Ultra LP is undoubtedly one of this year's most anticipated albums and "Sweetz" suggests it may be a very moody affair indeed. Whilst rooted in UK dance, Zomby and Burial do look elsewhere for inspiration too. Just under seven minutes long, "Sweetz" veers through various sub-heavy soundscapes with intermittent rhythmic patters and a distinctive looped vocal sample whose pitch changes with dramatic effect.

Review: While he's offered up the occasional remix, William "Burial" Bevan has been rather quiet of late. In fact, this two-tracker marks his first original material for almost two years. Lead cut "Claustro" is an unexpectedly up-tempo dancefloor affair - a sweet and sticky chunk of future-garage that sees Bevan wrap sugary female vocal snippets, spacey chords and bubbly analogue electronics around snappy two-step beats - drenched in vinyl crackle and tape hiss - and a rock solid bassline. It will raise a few eyebrows given his previous work but nevertheless sounds like a summer anthem in waiting. Bevan returns to familiar territory on flipside cut "State Forest", a ghostly, field recording-laden ambient excursion where pedal steel style motifs slowly rise above opaque electronics.

Review: William Bevan has now been operating long enough under the Burial alias to be awarded a celebratory "best of" compilation by Hyperdub, the imprint he's been releasing on since 2005. This is no ordinary retrospective, though. It deliberately ignores the celebrated early portion of his career, with the artist choosing to focus not only on tracks made and released in the last eight years, but also those tucked away on B-sides and the darker corners of his EPs. It offers a fine snapshot of the subtle evolution of his sound, quietly creeping between the hushed field recordings and glacial synthesizer lines of "Nightmarket", the intensely up-beat breakbeat madness of "Rival Dealer", the haunting, near 14-minute melancholy of "Rough Sleeper" and the future garage rush of recent single "Claustro".

Review: It was only a matter of time before Boofy landed on Pinch's Tectonic. Both Bristol. Both magnetised to the fringes. Both responsible for untold low end hurters like these... "Back In The Box" is a heavy pressure cut with pneumatic kicks and ominous stretched brass textures while "Herbie" is a highly strung piece that's stripped back to just drums, subs and an eerie faltering lead and builds and twists when you least expect it. Flip for the churchy chords and rattled percussion of "In My Head" before "Perfunktion" closes with jazzier chords and a stone cold steppy kick arrangement. Classic Boofs.

Review: It's been another banger of a year for Ricky Kalsi with a string of releases on his own Nebula imprint plus the likes of Dream Eater, Rotpot and Green King Cuts. Here he makes a very rare appearance on N-Type's Wheel & Deal with two more dark juggernauts. "Bad Trip" cracks open the heavens before the melted bassline oozes out and rains pure prang. "Rolling Skies" continues the theme of heavy weather as Kromey and the bossman go toe-to-toe in an intense game of militant funk. Bad to the bone.

Review: It's 2019 and Chestplate bossman Distance is well and truly woke. Dropping his first officials since his outing on J:Kenzo's Artikal last spring, the whole four tracker is a pungent trip back to the stinker golden age. Rough funk, distorted and tailored strictly to kick the living peanuts out of the crowd, each cut is Distance doing what he does best. From the psychedelic dirge of "Awaken" right through to the orchestral darkness of "Settling Scores", Distance isn't mucking around here. Neither should you.

Review: Last spotted on Boka shotting "22 Ounces", Chad Dubz now returns to find us all fully fledged "Addicts" awaiting our next Bristol fix. The lead track is at once bouncy and subdued with a heavy pressure and filter on the riff fluctuations. "Out Of Here" gets us on the first train to rehab city, its tricky percussive rolls and deep space slowly cleansing our souls before "Teachings In Wub" diverts us with scholarly wobble-whipped subterfuge. The final stage of our program takes us deep into the wilderness to find ourselves; "Iggy's Castle" leaves us on a mystic finale, all cobweb sonics and strange shadows. Moreish.