Critical Music レコード& CD

Review: Bristol-based basssmith Binga comes correct with his debut long one: a tightly-stitched suite of beats, flavours, cultures and vocalists, it's an immense listen whether you come at this from a jungle perspective, a beats point of view or a straight-up D&B angle: from iced-out instrumental rollers such as "Dark Day" and the chubby-bass ridden "I Tol U" to twisted future dancehall like the title track "Wasted Days" and trippy turbo grime "Badman Skin". Complete with an all-star cast of mic caressers - TT The Artist, Rider Shafique, Warrior Queen and Binga's long-term compadre Redders - this is a heavyweight document that really showcases both Binga's capabilities and the creative potential of future genre smelting. Don't waste any more time.

Review: From the label: Jakarta based Jonathan Kusuma delivers a new EP on Cocktail d'Amore Music. After his European debut on Cosmo Vitelli's I'm A Cliche, followed by a successful EP on Berlin's imprint Love On The Rocks, the Indonesian artist keeps carrying the vessel of the Far East sound. The title track Black Magic is a fat disco-tribal inspired groove that builds fast, eventually climaxing with a cloud of acid synths and mystical vocals. Japanese duo Mascaras, Chida and Cos/Mes' 5ive, straighten up the groove giving a 4/4 beats restyling. The result is a Proto-Techno, Trance influenced soundscape, for foggy late-night dancefloors. Urban Sorcery is an Italo inspired maze of proto-acid synthesizers, sounding like an enchanted concrete-covered forest. 90's house inspired Redvox is an experiment of cosmic influences. As the vocal becomes part of the groove, the long pads fuel this spaceship pushing it to the borders of time and space.

Review: St Petersburg drum and bass producer presents us with his fourth album of high tech engineered drum and bass, guaranteed to deliver some serious future shock. There's some real dystopian themes overshadowing this album, but Aleksei Ergachevnov has the right knack for sound design to pull of the concept and album as a whole. There's some undeniable influences from some of the masters of the craft, such as Ed Rush and Optical and Peshay, but he's definitely representing the new garde of breakbeat science pretty damn well. Highlights include the subterranean sonar transmissions of "Iron Curtain", the jazzy liquid breaks of "Moment Of Now (feat Frank Carter III", the evil futurist minimalism of "Just One Look (Feat. Charli Brix)" and the peak time destroyer "Between The Split". One for the heads.

Review: First there was Machines, then there was Rituals, now comes Enei's third album Humans and it's quite possibly his best and most accomplished one so far. Flexing from all-out rave fire ('No Man', 'Acid Shot') to slinky heads-down bubblers ('Move In Silence') to purring soulful vibes ('Show Me') to percussive hypnosis hurters ('Falling') and back again via massive grizzly dancefloor blow-outs ('Calm'), the London-based Russian maverick has delivered a serious trip that keeps things 100% dancefloor, fully heavyweight, fully DJ friendly but totally sick to listen to as an album experience. Nine thumbs up.

Review: After 16 years as a DJ and label owner, Kasra only released his debut EP in 2018. Now he's dropping albums dripping in high grade collabs. Gardna, Riko Dan, Yaano, Slay, VISLA, Killa P, T Man and Enei all play a role in this gully-fest as the Critical bossman rolls out a session of timeless styles. Highlights include the A.W.O.L style dark stepper 'Platinum', the Digital Soundboy flavoured 'Shatter' and the mesmerising smash of 2023 - 'BB.OO'. Dreamy. .

Review: Two of the most rated men in D&B's next generation league, Emperor and Mefjus collaborations are always worth your time. Neither happy to conform to the rules established by peers, both relish in ending tracks with wry skits, both seriously on point with everything they've done in the last few years, naturally this follow up to their collaborative debut "Hello World" is just as firesome. All loaded with heavily sprung bass funk and oddball noises and designs that come in from nowhere, both originals are as original and distinctive as you'd want them to be. Comes complete with two long awaited versions; Emperor gullying the dickens out of "Dissuade" and Mefjus taking a hammer to "SMPL", rebuilding it in his own twisted way. Gloriously dark.

Review: What's better than a Phace record? A Phace record the features some of his most exciting creative contemporaries. Each track tells its own unique tale; "Bang Bang" leads from the front with its great use of rhythmic vocal shots and dynamic arrangement, "Drawback" is as heavy and teeth-clenching as you'd want a Phace and Noisia record to be, "Wild Thing" is more understated than you'd expect a Current Value collaboration to be while "Yes!" sees Rockwell and Phace counter their four-year-old banger "No!" to great effect. Genuinely epic; buy this and you'll have friends for life.