New releases last eight weeks: UK Hardcore

Review: The revered DJ Stephano delivers his signature unconventional style on this blistering new outing for Kiteforce and manages to skilfully blend and bend genres while maintaining a razor-sharp focus on fierce and innovative jungle beats. He is already well known for his unique use of samples and experimental formats, and again here Stephano manages to pay homage to old school jungle but also adds his own fresh twist. The result is Love, an EP packed with creative energy as well as plenty of clout for jungle heads old and new.

Review: OG rave producer DJ Terrace was half of the Hyper Crew with DJ Roughcut way back in the early 90s and it's clear he's never lost his touch as he continues to develop make his comeback moves on Kniteforce. As you'd expect, this whole EP is loaded with unruly breakbeat charm with big smiley samples. Highlights include the oceanic breaks and the pitched up vocal swing of 'Final Goodbye' and the snarling, hoover-blazed finale 'Toxic Rider' but the whole EP bangs like it's 30 years old if it's a day. Bumping.

Review: Serendipitous that a duo comprising two artists named Justice and Mercy should come together. With the 'Concrete Jungle' EP first emerging in 1992, under the name 'Mixed Concrete' on the pioneering White House Records label, this is no less one of those records whose ongoing reputation by and large matches its quality. It's no surprise that it should be so lauded; we expert listeners can really tell the extra care and attention poured into it, with which it continually anoints itself. Lead track 'Soothe My Soul' is especially great, having been made infamous, for the way in which its otherwise run-of-the-mill breaks-chuggage opening finds itself dashed into oblivion by a momentous breakdown, of howling pitched-up vocals and legato stringed, bowed caelum. Such a heavenly breakdown is an essential feature of the breakbeat / rave uplifter form, in many cases otherwise unfairly passed over. Then the polysynths and backing peals of 'Doin' What You're Doin'' command an almost equal sheen, with the track featuring the clearest-as-day instance of a "hey hey!" jungle sample as we've ever heard. The closer 'Experience' is just as divine, seeming to transcend its initial breakdance sample-looper with yet another quarter-noted, dove-winged eclat elapsing over time.

Review: UK Hardcore will never die, especially with labels like Remix continually kicking out the jams. Their latest high grade weaponry comes from Kingside who does indeed super-size the beats here. 'The Right Time' is pure piano-laced euphoria with big breakbeats and a heart-tugging vocal. 'Coming On Strong' then gets more physical as it ups the speed of the drums, works in yelping vocal snatches, kills things dead with filters and generally causes utter carnage. 'Happy Hardcore Track' is an archetypal version of just that. Pure vibes that cannot fail to explode any party with big smiles and hands-in-the-air energy.

Review: By now, almost everyone knows what to expect of the sight of the collective image that is the rave smiley: on sight of its semicircular grin, its jaundiced jowls, and we know we're in for an ecstatic treat. So too does the Suburban Base long-timer known as Mark XTC understand rave music to be un-ownable by a single person; it takes a Hacienda veteran and rave flyer staple to know the true collectivity of the UK hardcore diaspora. XTC's latest EP 'Old School Massive' betrays his many decades' worth of expertise, his borne witness to the musical mass, by pairing two early 90s creations with two further, more recent drum & bass works. Both pairs of tracks work well side-by-side and the titular 'Old Skool Massive' stands out as the revving breakbeat ransom demand, to which we all owe payment in the form of a pinging dance.

Review: This new one on Aphrodite Recordings offers a rare chance to own some previously unreleased hardcore history. Crafted by Urban Shakedown founders Aphrodite and Kaukuta, these two unreleased Moonwalk tracks date back to 1993. ever since they were made back then at the height of hardcore's popularity, though, they have remained forgotten on a DAT tape. After being recently rediscovered, they have been pressed up to this 12" with 'Meditation' offering a blitz of pulsating drums and funky bass, thrilling breaks and sci-fi melodies that reagin down the face of the track, while 'Outer Space' is more raw and direct with a menacing low end and plenty of kinetic drum programming.

Review: Nookie's The Rest Is History Part One is a highly sought-after boxset that is now getting pressed up to several different 12"s, starting with this one on nice blue wax. Nookie is a storied artist who has long been a key part of the rave scene from the very early days of hardcore right up to more modern drum & bass worlds. Across these four cuts and one Cloud 9 Remix, we're treated to a selection of his best early work from a time before genres were so clearly delineated, which means you get a real melange of everything from breaks to rave, hardcore to techno, acid and plenty in between, all with a healthy dose of the old skool sound.

Review: Word is from the label itself that this will be the last ever vinyl outing for this project. It has been a fun ride and one that has melted faces and busted bass bins since day one. Volume 5 from Pillz, whoever he/she/they are is a cracker: '1 Am @ Bagleys' is all old school rave with whistles, a madman on the mic, dusty and unrelenting breakbeats and plenty of sweat in the synths. It's a hardcore party like no other once the pitched up vocals come in and then there is no relent on the flip. 'Hardcore Confusion' is another one for peak time parties and fairground rides alike. It's thrilling, strobe lit hardcore madness with plenty of character.

Review: Greg Hepworth works under the Settle Down alias and has deep roots in UK dance music. From his early days listening to pirate radio to putting on his own illegal raves with Dreamscape, he has done it all after starting his journey age 10 with the sounds of Fantazia leading him into the rave world. He has released music as Ulterior Motive for Metalheadz and Reinforced before rebranding as Settle Down and Voyage chronicles his evolution through UK breakbeat culture, from house to hardcore and jungle. The release serves as a celebration of his deep and proper connection to the game.

Review: First released as a six-track, digital-only EP in the summer of 2023, Jay Glass Dubs' DJ Humble makes its bow on CD in freshly expanded form. The release was considered quite unusual on its initial release, moving away from the fractured electronica and opaque experimental dub recordings of his earlier years towards a more intense and energetic sound inspired by the formative years of breakbeat hardcore and jungle. Of course, the sometime Berceuse Heroique artist's experimental instincts still hold sway, leading to such dystopian - but admittedly thrilling moments as 'Seconds Away', where hectic beats are smothered in layers of melodic electronics and weird noises, the fiendishly avant-garde d&b insanity of 'Packing Someone Else's Fire', and the hallucinatory jungle-IDM fusion of 'Wing It'.