Back catalogue: Drum And Bass

Review: ScruScru is a name you might well recognise but it is fair to say you might not recognise his work on this first release from Talkbox. He shows a very different side off the back of plenty of top edits that bottle up plenty of disco and Bossanova vibes. Here he has teamed up with Russia's dubplate don BR Selecta for an EP full of energy and joy. 'YEAH YEAH' is happy-go-lucky garage with pitched-up vocals and lively drum, 'Get My Gruv' is a kinetic two-stepper and 'Cyberrave' is just that with its all-out synth madness and flurries of breaks, then 'Serious Talking' closes out on a darker jungle tip. A varied and vital 12' for sure.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***


Mako's Utopia label continues to be an essential outpost for anyone hungry for the latest steps forward in drum & bass, and here the man himself links up with the mighty Seba for two razor sharp excursions into moody, precision-engineered club gear that wears its experience out front. 'Brotherhood' is an absolute massive tune, holding down the pressure for an extended run time and getting crafty with the edits without ever over-cooking the recipe. On the flip, 'Stockholm Syndrome' takes a more atmospheric approach led by overcast synths and driven by a crisp-as-you-like beat - all the better to let the leads do the talking.

Review: Sawteeth's Growing Sprout EP is a captivating journey through the vibrant and energetic world of jungle music. The EP opens with the title track, a jungle anthem that seamlessly blends Eastern melodies with a mysterious and mystical atmosphere, transporting listeners to ancient and otherworldly realms. 'The Silk Road' continues the journey with a hypnotic old-school vocal jungle track that weaves enchanting melodies around a pulsating beat. The EP closes with 'The Missing Link,' a melodic and spacey breakbeat track that showcases Sawteeth's versatility and takes listeners on a soaring sonic adventure with its fast amen break. Overall, this album delivers upon the roots of the genre and the future aspirations of the style all mixed into three heaters.

Review: Oh gosh! Since Ulterior Motive disbanded, Settle Down has gone from ravey strength to ravey strength. Lowering the tempo just a smidgeon, he's found himself painting from a vibrant palette that isn't governed by the tight rules of drum & bass, aligning himself more with the Biceps and Special Requests of the world and the sounds really shine as a result. Both of these have been on dub for some time, 'The Special' nods sweetly at Sade before burying its head in the biggest bass scoop it can find while the brilliantly titled 'Twos On A Pack Of 10' dives into dreamier breakbeat pastures - before breaking into a serious venomous bassline. Get down!

Review: In the realm of electronic music, Silver Fox's Dread by Dawn emerges as a captivating time capsule from the golden age of jungle and hardcore. Originally released in 1993 and meticulously reissued in 2024, this rare gem has lost none of its potency. The album's four tracks exude a haunting and otherworldly atmosphere, characterized by ominous doom-infused soundscapes and unmistakable jungle and hardcore rhythms. Central to the album's allure is its masterful utilization of the iconic "amen break," a drum loop that has become synonymous with the genre. Silver Fox weaves this pulsating rhythm into a mesmerizing tapestry of dark and melodic samples, including ethereal voices and haunting sci-fi elements. The result is a deeply hypnotic and immersive listening experience that transports listeners back to the halcyon days of electronic music's boundary-pushing experiments.

Review: Sindh combines old and new worlds on his latest mystic hymns, this time kicking off the A-Biotic label with his dark and alluring four-track EP 'Andaman'. He manages to fuse organic and synthetic materials here as he heads down a darkly introspective path where minimal and IDM, dub and techno all collide in mutant form. 'Jangil' is a real standout with its bubbling halftime rhythms and icy synths backed by distant angelic chorals. The bewitching sounds continue on 'Galathea' which rides back and forth on its heels as subtle sines, scurrying synths and menacing pads all interlock before 'Hinam' locks you in a dense synth stasis and loopy sense of lurching rhythm.

Review: Deep atmospheric jungle is definitely having a moment right now with labels such as Omni Music and Codename RCRDS and Deep Jungle incubating some outstanding art, Kid Drama and DJ Trace's Nine Windows project setting benchmarks and, way ahead at the forefront, Soul Intent doing what he's been doing for the best part of 20 years. Atmospherics is the perfect example. His deepest and most cosmic of albums, the full trip is an epic sci-fi odyssey that sucks you in on an iMax level. These four cuts are some of the most clubbier-minded cuts, especially for the vinyl heads. From the hurricane breaks of the title track to the jazzy rolling drums of 'Dying Star', this is an exceptional snapshot of an incredible album.

Review: UKJ keeps the flame of old-school breaks and jungle afire with its latest four-track V/A 12", with contributions from label co-boss Junglord, Supa Ape, Sully, OmniRhythm and Simply Dread all in tow for the inflammatory sacrifice. Unlike your usual jungle, these four cuts verge on the insane, thanks to this label's commemorative grounding in the earliest days of jungle in its hardcore breaks and graff-adjacent days. We wager that back then, there was more room for experimentation before the "sound" got standardised and fetishised. Here's a cogent recollection of that time - a time of vocal one-shots, dramatic classical music samples and rave stabs, sure - but above all, just a generally wilder and more rapacious indulging of the promise of what was once called breakscience; Junglord's 'Ready For Retaliation' and Dread's 'Hard To Tell' tend towards UK hardcore on this front, ultrafast breaks-drilling and buzzsawing away, with glee.

Review: Not too many artists can create a buzz quite like when word spreads of a new album more than Squarepusher. Dostrotime is the first album for Tom Jenkinson in nearly four years, one of his longest breaks between albums. Proceeding the album release, the video for the hardcore acid banger Wendorlan has been making the rounds on the internet. If this is any indication of the rest of the album, then expect some serious heat. Audio samples have been tightly secured to protect leaks online until the release date. This album will be spread over a 2x12 and nicely packaged in gatefold form and no doubt contain some great gallops through the genre spectrum like only Squarepusher can do.

Review: Given the uniqueness of his madcap and mind-altering trademark sound, the release of any new album from Tom Jenkinson AKA Squarepusher is big news. Given that his last new full-length landed four years ago, the arrival of Dostrotime has got an awful lot of experimentalists in a bit of a lather. Like many albums that have surfaced in the last couple of years, it was apparently inspired by the "novel, eerie, sublime silence of lockdown", with the title being a reference to "how time passed differently". Quite how this plays out within the music itself is open to interpretation; for the most part, what's on offer is prime Squarepusher - all distorted, full-throttle acid lines, mutilated experimental D&B beats, analogue electronics and rasping, strobe-lit nods to raves,