A Soft Mist Production - "Upside Down Rainbows" (5:01)
Dr Sud - "Zaffiro" (Jazz cut) (3:59)
DatSIM - "Influx" (4:40)
The Rabbit Hole - "Tail Groove" (4:27)
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: Back to 93! Two OG pioneers are deep in the lab, cooking up the future - Bizzy B and DJ Zinc. These are two of many blueprints from such a turbulent, primordial era in jungle history. 'Dex Flex' is a sci-fi movie epic in the form of a song... The eerie intro, dramatic militant breaks and the wide screen way it rolls out and develops are powerfully ambitious. We're unsure if it ever actually came out or not, too. 'Getting Down' did come out, however. But not under this title. Due to Zinc being signed with another label, it came out as Bizzy's 'Break Of Dawn'. Still breaking things up to this day, it's a bubbler that never quits. What a flashback.
Review: Uppers & Downers tap the raw, yet-to-be fully processed talents of Yerevan's Dave N.A., for a stunningly angelic nu-breaks come jungle come acid outing. Having co-founded his local Armenian ABC Community DJ collective, Dave N.A. attests his non-applicability to the normal, formal rules of dance music, declaring himself diplomatically immune to boring tempi, drab beats or morose melodies. Instead, the likes of 'Radiance', 'XL', and 'AIR' subject us to some of the most riveting soundscapes and shellages imaginable, drawing on a frenetic confluence of rave and hard bass traditional sonics.
Dead Man's Chest - "Living Real" (Artificial Red remix) (5:41)
L Own X Response - "Rumination Cycles" (7:59)
Eusebeia - "Affinity" (5:44)
Esc - "Hot Hands" (7:11)
Review: Dead Man's Chest is about to unleash all kinds of breakbeat mayhem with the third volume of Western Lore's Blunted Breaks series and here's a little taster of the full flavour experience to expect. Artificial Red kicks off with a hazy-but-heavy remix of DMC's 'Living Real' before L Own & Response's 'Rumination Cycles' enshrouds us with rasping tendrils of acid and loose live drum breaks. Flip for two more breath-taking moments in (blunted) breakcraft as Eusebeia captures that early Good Looking magic on 'Affinity' and ESC closes the EP with the powerful, cobweb blast celebration of hardcore's influence on 'Hot Hands'. Get blunted!
Review: Alex Eveson aka Dead Man's Chest is the man behind the Bristol-based Western Lore label, which is a trusted source of some mad cap jungle. The man himself is back with more such sounds here, starting with the impassioned vocal cries and soulful pad work of 'How U Wanna Do This Baby?'. The vibes keep flowing when 'U Don't Know Me' drops with some old school piano energy and unrelenting amen breaks. It's controlled chaos with great filter work building the tension and 'How U Wanna (Jungle edit)' shuts down with hyper speed drums and devastating snare work while the angelic vocal tones soar.
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: Exclusive! Over Shadow unleash these two super-hot rarities from around 93/94. Both big tunes on dubplate at the time, especially 'Close Your Eyes' which was a big tune in Fabio's early Speed sets, they finally see the vinyl light of day after all these years. 'Close Your Eyes' is a beautiful atmospheric whirlwind while 'Destroyer VIP' lived up to its name. Still sounding heavier than a helicopter over 30 years later.
Review: Reissue! Future Retro's 2023 wallop session from Professor Turbo himself Dev/Null get a repress and you'll have to be speedy to cop it. Grounded in more of the breakcore-type circles, 'Deep Love and 'The Cut' are slightly slower than his usual fare, but they sound just as furious and heavy as you'd expect. 'Deep Love' is a big hurricane of tune while 'This Cut' is more techno than it is jungle. Complete with remixes from Sonar's Ghost and Dwarde, this is a veritable rave volcano.
Review: Strap in for another blistering ride thanks to the Sonic Force crew who has tapped up Dissect and Abstract Illusion for a series of new tunes and remixes of one another. 'Tengoku' (Dissect's Heaven mix) is first up with some thrilling breaks that float just above the dance floor amidst nice lush pads. Dissect's 'Cosmos' then rides a lurching beat with more raw percussion and Abstract Illusion's 'Tengoku' ups the ante with crashing snares and hi-hats, plenty of turbulent rhythms and planning basslines. Dissect shuts down with 'Black Hole' which is a darker stepper with a menace undercarriage that might make it the best cut of the lot.
Review: Living life in permanent reload, Flashback's 95 classics 'Gun' and 'Triple Six' are some of the crispest, sharpest, most spacious and far out examples of junglised beat-slicing of their time. Still sounding as disarming and militant as they did 30 years ago, both hit hard with clarity. Those who love a rich warm rootsical sample in the thick of the choppy choppy should head for 'Gun' while those who love swimming neck deep in fractures will fall in love with 'Triple Six'. A stunning reissue from the Vinyl Fanatiks crew.
Review: When we're vexed, we're incensed, we're angry, we're provoked... but when we're "vexxed"? Lord knows what the extra X signifies! First released together in 1993 on Blueprint Records, DJ Fokus' 'Vexxed' and 'Chill Out' scored a bipolar mood of "rage and disengage", revealing intermediary darkside energies in the process. Packed with 70s horror sound motifs, in turn set against crushing industrial breaks, breakbeat hardcore A-sider 'Vexxed' is just as invidious as it was in 93, compartmentalising any raw emotion in favour of pure, furious air-hornage and scattershot breaks. 'Chill Out', sad to say, is hardly a chillout tune, but perhaps the A raised the stakes too high: those FMs are bouncy enough to keep speed forever, and those Reeses could melt the hardest of ices.
Review: Hospital Records' latest outing is a welcome return to releasing from DJ Hazard, pioneer of ostentatious jump-up drum & bass (of the second, not first, kind; heads will know there might as well have been two movements bearing the name, with the blurring point between them somewhat indistinct, yet the former more definitively jungly than the latter). Here we get stuck in to a four-track lesson in the jump-up sound that most know today: rolling basslines, eerie atmospheres & crunchy drumwork galore. From the opening horror film-sampling 'Behind The Mask' - on which wheezy leads and syncopated snaps steep and wring the mix to a high twisted heaven - to the mid-section sonic dentata 'Drill Bit' and 'Cloud Drift' - on we're met with an illicit power-driven (hopefully just dental) procedure and a clouded liquid miasma respectvely - and to the final 'Break The Silence' - which brings an anti-violence hip-hop sample to a playful excruciation of imp-bass and spit-snare - this is everything befitting of a contemporary Hazard EP, a sure health hazard if we know one.
Review: UK garage goes increasingly wonky on DJ Jackum's latest EP for Time Is Now. Working in Skrillexy sound design - nasal growls, puffy metal snares, thin but heavy mixes - the enigmatic Jackum makes a real racket of a debut here, delivering four genre-poking bangers of a difficult-to-peg style. 'Vibe' is especially anthemic, being a rare example of a garage tune centred largely on the second and fourth beat handclap and not the kick; 'Push Dat' veers more into hooligan rave territory, pushing the to bass bus to redline; and the final 'Pimpin'' offers a crazed shuffle and vocal sample; this is a bold and creative expansion of an existing sound.
Review: Astounded at the beauty of the universe around you? You will be once you've chowed down on this hardcore homage from DJ Persuasion. Benji Roth/Semtek's ravey alias, Persuasion deals strictly in the white glove gestures. Swinging breaks and vibrant synths, 'Jameela' comes in a variety of modes; an OG Bizarre Inc style original, an Ant Miles inspired mid-90s d&b twist ('Liftin Spirits') and a foundation acid house classic flex (88 Heat). Need an extra wonky edge to your classics? 'Robin Gets Revenge' scorches across the wrong side of the tracks and burns down the whole of 28th street. One doesn't need much persuading to get on this.
Review: A rare slice of authentic breakbeat hardcore to be threshed among many chaffs, DJ Rap & Aston's premier collab from 1993 hears a perfect remaster and reissue via Suburban Base, who initially released this gemstone just two years into their publishing career. A powerful rave rouser which commands an almost equally reassuring quality, the leader is Freestylers' remix of 'Vertigo', which irons out the OG tune with a breathaking, synth pipe organ-powered view out and above the squat party; the track soothes the collective listener with repetitious "baby, we're fine" affirmations, providing august contrast to the much nimbler, spryer 1993 version, which humours us rather than quashes us: "show me... show me... show me how you laugh!" Then, of course, Rap & Aston prove how far they've come with a wild UK hardcore version of an unprecedentedly fierce, post-Kaybug weight.
Review: Suburban Base Records opens the archives with a heavyweight double release from DJ Rap & Aston, spotlighting some key moments in drum & bass history. 'More Time - Boomshaka Dubplate Versions' brings the original 1993 track back into focus, complete with unreleased dubplate and demo cuts that have taken on near-mythical status among jungle enthusiasts. These versions don't just resurrect the past; they bottle that raw, frenetic 90s energy and let it loose once more. There's something visceral about these tracksian unfiltered sound that defined a scene, now repressed for those who live and breathe the genre's legacy.
Review: Marking the 14th chapter in their Swinging Flavors series, Beat Machine Records call on Helsinki's DJ Sofa for a two-track offering that digs into the shadowy depths of drum & bass. A longtime purveyor of intricate, emotionally charged productions, DJ Sofa channels the breakbeat grit of late 90s UK rave culture with a distinctly modern twist. 'Drums For The Lost' is a tense, heads-down roller, its dense percussion and cavernous basslines creating a hypnotic sense of momentum. Paris-based Siu Mata reworks the track into a peak-time pressure cooker, adding a restless swing and rhythmic urgency that reshape the original's brooding energy into something more propulsive. Beat Machine Records reaffirms its ear for boundary-pushing club music.
Review: It's a Finland thing! One of jungle music's finest new-generation representers, DJ Sofa returns to ODJ Dizzy's Straight Up Breakbeat with two understated, cold as ice work-outs. 'Love Hurts' gets you all mushy in the cardios thanks to some dreamy harmonies before those Amens come crashing in and flipping the joint. 'T4T' keeps the authentic feels flowing but in more of a jazzy kind of way. Think 'Casino Royale' but played in a disco deep under the sea and surrounded by bongos as far as the eye can see. Sofa ain't lying down on the job! Serious class.
Review: No one is doing jungle quite as ruthlessly as Finnish queen DJ Sofa. One of a kind and super faithful to the craft, every cut of hers smashes whether it's a deep and dreamy one or a heavyweight dark style Dread-esque one like 'Hypervigilance'. Loaded with powerful Amens and big booming subs, this is as moody as Sofa gets. 'Ferry To The Underworld' takes us to Digital & Spirit territory. Nasty stabs and gritty breaks... Setting us up nicely for the more uptempo dnb, Headz style romp 'Sinister Sound' (with fellow Finn firebrand ODJ Pirkha) and deeper, ice cold remix from ESC and Mineral. Refreshing as ever, Repertoire.
DJ Sofa & Tim Reaper - "Helsinki To London Connection" (4:53)
Ready Set Go (Dev/Null remix) (6:31)
Review: Repress! DJ Sofa's crucial collection for Tim Reaper's Future Retro gets the reissue treatment and you can hear turntables around the world giving a massive sigh of relief. One of the best jungle sorcerers in action right now, each cut on here does the business and will do for at least another 50-100 years. From the hardcore splices and dices of 'Panic At The Disco' to the northern sea traversing 'Helsinki To London Connection' with the bossman Reaper, Sofa's sharp ear for soul and high energy is so full strength on this collection you can almost taste it.
Review: More dark arts from the man and his machine; Dom & Roland tears 2025 a new one with four powerful drum & bass compositions. Provocative and unapologetic, 'Under The Spell' snaps the firmest of wands and does so for the best part of 10 minutes. A real hypnotic showdown. 'Re-Resistance' meanwhile takes us into much more industrial, abstract territories in a way that you might imagine Krust or Amit might. 'I'm Here To Stay' is a much more placid, spacious affair laced with lush pads and a smouldering vocal that induces euphoria at 50 paces. Complete with a tearing remix of 'The Storm', it's another essential 12" from one of d&b's most consistent artists.
Soundboy Killa (feat Natty Campbell - The Allergies remix)
Jump On It (feat Top Cat - Guadi & Don Letts dub remix)
Review: The proverbial 'Soundboy Killa' is an enduring trope in soundsystem culture at large, referring to the apparently inherent enmity and villainy of the turntablist. Said to have originated in the days of system clashes, the assassin in question presumably refers to the opposing MC, whose barraging verbiage may pack enough semiotic punch to K.O. the opposition through mere utterances alone. Here Natty Campbell and the Freestylers pay tribute to the theme as progeny of the 90s big beat scene; having come up in the age of Fatboy Slim and Chemical Brothers, the supergroup first faced off in a whirl of tricky dub and armour-plated cold cuttage, dispatching two honorary tracks in the style of each artists' respective greatest scene-hitters: Dub Pistols' 'Cyclone' and Freestylers' 'Roughneck'. Now 'Soundboy Killa' and 'Jump On It' in turn hear a remix from Allergies and Guadi & Don Letts, the latter of which is especially experimental in its use of a peaky, 2-step shuffle.
Review: Polish dub home-brewers Moonshine Recordings have commissioned an exceptional new release here from Bukkha, Dubbing Sun and Burro Banton; 'A1 Sound' really is more than worthy of its pronounced place at the top of the list, thanks to its unique fusion of heavyweight steppers dub production and a hardcore, doubletime beat worthy of any warehouse rave. The track bares an unusual push-pull, and it seamlessly introduces the A3 jungle mix too, whose tempo and pace matches the first two versions' dragged weightiness. But here it's all three artists' productive synergies that shine, the original mix flaunting a restlessly fickle fencing between hardcore techno, brusque rap-jaying and nu system dub, never totally settling on either sound.
Law & Kola Nut - "Symptoms Of Love" (Krugah Blue Power Strain mix) (6:13)
Law & DJ Sofa - "More Bells" (6:12)
Law & Haste - "Give Me" (5:31)
Review: The R Whites label is back with a fifth self-titled new various artists EP and it finds Law collaborating with a range of fresh talents on four standout jungle cuts. First up it is with Kola Nut on 'Lost Time' which is all high-speed hits and drunken percussive sounds and soulful pads. Then comes a Krugah Blue Power Strain mix of 'Symptoms of Love' which is kinetic and textured, with serene pads softening the toughness of the drums. Law & DJ Sofa then get all harmonious and liquid on the brilliantly deft but devastating 'More Bells' before Law & Haste shut down with the soulful vocals and lovely piano chords of 'Give Me.'
Review: Unknown To The Unknown go full jungle as Shadow Child makes his debut on the label with two killer collabs with the bossman DJ Haus. 'Brain Rays' is a genuinely unique track as it goes full melty and woozy right down to the pitching of the beats. 'Computer Controlled' is a little more conventional but still whacks out with a slightly edgy vibe to it. Deep in the bleeps and mean with the beats; Shadow Child and DJ Haus was a collab we didn't expect to have on our bingo card, but we're so glad we did.
Review: Launched late last spring via an EP of nostalgic, spacey and sub-heavy breakbeat science, Shadow Child and DJ Haus's collaborative Rhythm Force series returns for a third instalment. This time round, the long-serving duo have opted to explore bowel-bothering bass of vintage UK garage and the late 90s drum and bass explorations of liquid superhero LTJ Bukem. Check first 'Night Lights', where twinkling electronics, glassy-eyed pads and rewind sound effects ride a crunchy two-step breakbeat and powerful sub-bass motif. 'Icy Moons', meanwhile, offers a lusciously spacey and rhythmically breathless take on the post-jungle early d&b sound, naturally underpinned by a seriously weighty, speaker-shaking bassline.
Review: Reload! Ruff & Tuff re-up their 001 by popular demand. Courtesy of the label bosses Stekker and Sofa, the vibes are as authentic as you'd expect them to be. Slightly hazy, off-grid and woozy, 'We Must Proceed' is all about the choppy fills, wonky pianos and zippy, stretchy hardcore elements while 'On One' is a bit of more subversive as a cool counting sample wraps tightly around the chops beneath a dense sea of FX and samples. Solid jungle business!
Porter Brook - "Three Things You Can Watch Forever" (5:58)
Ayu - "Light & Reflection" (4:51)
Atavic - "Subconscious" (5:30)
Tammo Hesselink & DYL - "Accent Award" (5:10)
Plebeian - "Gowanus" (5:05)
Review: Aaron J's Sure Thing kicks on towards its tenth release with a superb new 12" packed with fresh techno jams. Myriad different mods, grooves and tempos are on offer here starting with the puling rhythmic depths of Vardae's 'Pahlevan' then moving on to Kick21's 'Bright Interface', a dark and haunting low-end wobbler. Atavic's 'Subconscious' is a heady one with ambient cosmic pads over deeply hurried, supple rhythms then while Tammo Hesselink & DYL combine to mesmeric effect on the carefully curated broken beat brilliance of 'Accent Award.' A forward-thinking EP for sure.
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