Back catalogue: Drum And Bass

Review: Proper pristine, technical drum & bass here from the Transmute crew, expending far more effort than most junglists in fleshing out the body, weight and polish of each constituent sound. Mostly forgoing sampled breakbeats, the 'DUOS' EP hears refreshingly unusual sound design choices dance over a more straight-up rollage in the rhythm section(s). From the opening washer pads of Abstract Drumz & Optimystic's 'Energy To The Universe', to the closing techstep clanks of Sicknote & Escher's 'Trouble Part 2', this EP brings a variety of emotions to a gestalt whole, unified by its consistently clean production.

Review: Five new elysian liquid come techfunk tracks from Rotterdam's Fokuz Recordings, the cornerstone of Dutch drum & bass since 1999. A relentlessly dreamy energy is immediately conveyed on the pragmatically named 'Remix EP', led up by Alpha Rhythm, Ritual and Rezilient with 'Venus Fly' and 'One Day At A Time' on the A-side and Etherwood, Subwave and Natus on remix duties of former releases 'From The Ashes', 'Subarctic Signal' and 'Tranquility' on the B. This is liquid drum & bass of a certain character; the handicraft is impeccable, each track giving off an ultra-sleek yet still impactful post-singularity character.

Review: Alphonse pens a love letter to jungle on this new EP for Klasse Wrecks. It's a flurry of drum breaks and powerful rhythms all served up through a classical lens with hefty bass underpinning each tune. This is a real journey into jungle with epic 12-minute plus opener 'Android Mash' twisting and turning through a flurry of tumbling snares, police sirens and yearning vocals. 'The Eagle' is a more soulful sound but still dense in its arrangement and tense in its rhythms. 'Elevation' closes down with plunging basslines and dark soul atmospheres.

Review: Heads will know 'As We Enter' as the name of the Breakage tune that set the stage for many more things halftime to come - not to mention a Damian Marley & Nas song released around the same time - so we're more than pleased to learn that one next-gen producer has taken on the name as an alias. However, something in the aura of this release tells us this artist is no debutante; 'Lover To Lover' brings wubbing Reesebound rollage and summery fluting funk together in quick step, with complementary numbers 'So Gone', 'Come Again' and 'Shifting Gears' flaunting a respect for the many different facets of drum & bass, from techstep to early jump-up. This one gets more and more sinister as it progresses; despite the cover, whatever's entered the room feels more elephant than pigeon.

Review: Mind Over Matter', the latest release from ASC, continues his explorations into atmospheric, breakbeat-driven soundscapes with striking results. Opening track 'Desire' sets the tone with a lush beat structure, punctuated by sharp cymbal strikes. Subtle whale song samples are woven into the mix, accompanied by a warm bassline and tender piano melodies, while swirling strings ebb and flow, creating an almost tidal sense of movement. 'Voidscaping' follows, launching immediately into crisp, striking breakbeats. The throwback pads recall the heyday of Good Looking, but ASC's meticulous sampling and deep reverb work keep the track fresh, merging nostalgia with modern complexity. On the flip, 'Let Go' brings in the sounds of nature, with metallic bongos and a restrained choral vocal riding over playful, energetic hi-hats. The atmosphere builds, layering strings, synths, and ASC's trademark vocal elements, each listen revealing new intricacies. 'Meltdown' wraps things up with a darker, more anxious vibe. Minimal breaks and elusive hi-hats give the track a creeping tension, while ambient pads and a yearning female vocal add a layer of emotional depth. It's a finely balanced track, blending melancholy and intensity in a way that ASC has mastered.

Review: Originally released on the cult V4 Visions label in 1991 & 1994, Ashaye's 'Dreaming' and 'What's This World Coming To' epitomised the essence of street soul, a genre blending soul, r&b, and hip-hop that resonated across London's pirate radio stations in the 1990s. With the surge in UK soul's popularity in recent years, DJs and tastemakers have championed these tracks which has in turn elevated their demand and value. 'Dreaming' has become nearly unattainable on the second-hand market, while 'What's This World Coming To' commands prices upwards of L50. Snap up this fully licensed RSD release however and you will have both tracks for an affordable price.

Review: Okbron Records welcome Atlantiq to the roster, and in so doing reccy an uncharted subaquatic terrain, in which drum & bass production requires specialist handling. Limited to just 350 copies, and bundled with the statement "No repress."- full stop duly noted - Okbron are implicitly aware of the (anti-)gravity of this release. 'M33' sounds as if its liquid jungle source deposits housed a yet undiscovered respiratory gas for an unidentified life-form; its all-to-easily recognised breakbeats are the only orthodox productive choice on the title track, whereupon every other element sounds born of a hidden underwater civilisation, not a mere synthesiser, and surrounds the mix as though we'd embarked on a serene coralline safari. B-sider 'Nothing To Lose' takes a seedier turn in terms of vibe, with sistrum rattles and brooding crime-drama basses hearing whackout breaks set to an otherwise ruminant sonic mystery.

Review: Aural Imbalance is in a super productive and super good run of form that has seen him serve up a wealth of great EPs over the last year. Now he is back on his own Spatial platform. This latest one comes on translucent grey smokey and green splattered vinyl, starting with the busy and unrelenting amen breaks workout of 'Spacewaves' then pulling back into more suspensory and delicate synth realms on 'Tranquil Sea'. On the flip, the crisp snares and underlapping drum loops of 'Concordia' have you in a state of meditation and then last of all is another sublime bit of ambient laced and dreamy jungle in 'Fading Fields'.

Review: Simon Huxtable's Aural Imbalance is one of drum & bass's most cultured projects. It's a pretty prolific one too, with great new music coming on a steady basis on labels like his own Spatial and Okrbon. It is the former he returns to now with a lush translucent blue vinyl 12", Retrospective Feelings. 'Blue Sky' is a deft mix of ambient cosmic synth work and meticulous drum patterns that suspends you in mid-air. 'Starburst' douses you in dazzling light and 'Frozen Tears' is deeper, tighter, more melancholic. 'Moonlit Clouds' is the classy closer which again pairs a lightness of rhythm and melody into something heavenly.

Review: Everybody's favourite drum & bass disorienter Aural Imbalance (Simon Huxtable) swats the sonic spirit level out our hands with 'Coded Frequency', dizzying our sense of poise on the dancefloor with four cosmic jungle numbers. You'd think the likes of 'Deep Sea' and 'Echoes In Time' would quell the soul, but to our ears they'd seem to combine stress and relief in equal measure, their crack combo of histamine breaks and zoneout pads seeming to portray the experience of having one's spacesuit tether snapped, thus confronting the aural astronaut with the voidal cosmos: do you thrash against its cold oblivion, knowing you're going to float endlessly, or do you accept the situation? Just when we think we've settled on the latter, Huxtable reintroduces a 'Sense Of Space' on the B1, opening up the breaks texture to a farther distant vanishing point, whilst the closing 'Regolith' hears us rejoice, having landed on civilisational (yet alien) soils with the celebratory rattles and stasises of 'Regolith'.

Review: No matter your particular preference in the deep house world, this various artists' outing from Q1E2 Recordings is sure to have something for you. Mike Riveria & Marco Ohboy, for example, tap into an early sound on 'Euphoria' with its big, brash piano stabs and whistles, while A Soft Mist Production keeps it all cuddly and deep with languid chords draped over gentle drums on 'Upside Down Rainbows.' DatSIM brings in some space-tech vibes for a deft rhythm and neon infused sound on 'Influx' and The Rabbit Hole's 'Tail Groove' has a mad double bass sound jumping about beneath frantic jungle breaks.

Review: On a mission to "make d&b great again", Finland's Straight Up Breakbeat pass through once more with the second of three EPs formed to showcase modern junglism. Kicking off, 'Mystery Machines' sees Glastonbury's Dead Mans Chest slam down some deadly amen choppage reinforced by haunting vocal FX and paranoid drones. Aeon Four & FFF's 'Look Inside' is a jungle-tekno roller, served with chunky hardcore style amens and a side of warm old-skool pads. Keeping the mid-90s vibe alive, the tripped out 'Green Fields Forever ' from Fanu - which drops hot on the heels of his greatly received remaster of Source Direct's 'Stars' - delivers airtight amen trickery, weaving synth washes and blissful dubby basslines. Esc & Mineral round things off with 'Photosynthesis', a pensive stepper highlighting cut-up breaks waltzing with cheeky synth nudges and a wide, rugged bassline. If the pioneers had buried some beefed-up tracks in a time-capsule to inspire future generations, they would probably sound a lot like 'States of Art II'.

Review: UK up-and-comers Eusebeia and Aisatsaana team up for an incredibly deep, bass-conscious, nigh sonar-systemic new drum & bass EP, 'Transnformation'. Few artists in this circuit dare to delve quite so abyssal; if anyone's ever seen the nuclear subnautical sci-fi thriller The Deep, one will know just how risky, how odds-bucking the attempt to plunge the deepest of the ocean's depths truly is. Clearly, only the best sonic submersible wearables will have cutted the mustard in aid of salvaging the jetsam-makings of this thriller; frankly, we're blown away by the ear for layering and bass heard on this EP, whether on the snareless impacts, shock-absorptions and depth-charges of 'Shed A Light' or the dim but angelic underwater intellibreaks lodestar that is 'Wayfinder'.

Review: Those of a particular vintage will remember well the jump up sounds of Mickey Finn and Aphrodite which found particular favour with Mary Anne Hobbs in the early days of her Breezeblock show. Released in 1996, "Bad Ass" was perhaps the most ubiquitous track from the duo and its dragged all the way into the 21st Century thanks to this pair of remixes from perennial red liners Slum Dogz and Serial Killaz. As you'd expect when Doctor P is involved, the Slum Dogz effort is caked in epicness, successfully balancing their own distinct production touches with elements of the original. The Serial Killaz effort takes an industrial approach with equally screw face inducing results.

Review: Okbron Records carry out the divine task of reformatting an early yet rare Micky Finn and Aphrodite tape cut onto vinyl. 'AWOL' is a clever pun, serving as an acronym for both the wartime connotations of the phrase "absent without leave", and the spiritual paths implied in the phrase A Way Of Life, which also happened to be a leading early jungle night that produced multiple Micky Finn tape packs recorded in East London. 'AWOL' and 'Dark Selector' have likely existed for decades, serving as lost tunes from the rough point in time when Finn and Aphrodite laid down their timeless Takeover Bid mix for Mixmag. Packed with funk licks and gulping basses, all tunes heat the dancefloor stovetop in no time.