Eight Weeks

Review: From the vaults of Reinforced Records come 11 full-on party bangers from rave and hardcore original Manix. The Manix combination of uplifting piano anthems, hard hitting breakbeats and hardcore synths was a winning formula for Reinforced from 1991 to 1995, and influenced numerous producers to get in on that dangerous combination of high-life vocals and dangerous beats. This remix album is a collection of remixes by Manix for artists from the Reinforced roster including Nookie, Tek 9, One II One and Delirium. A huge release for fans of rave, breaks and drum & bass fans, it's a history lesson and a fresh take on the modern influx of retro sounds all at the same time. Sorted.

Review: Russian jungle. We know what you're thinking - the largest, coldest country in the world offers some truly sterling dark drum & bass efforts to the table, in fact some of the scene's most heavy duty producers are from the darker reaches of Eastern Europe, but jungle has never found it easy to flourish. Of course behind every scene is a mouthpiece and Mashed Youths Records represent the hugely under-represented masses in this very region who live, sleep and breathe breakbeats. Featuring newcomers to the scene like Igit, Ekzo, Se and Smokah, this LP shows that jungle is alive and well way beyond the Balkans. Salute.

Review: Aquasky have always known how to pull off a great compilation and after fifteen years of bass-thrashing and break-sampling, they're finally back with an extensive collection of their own recent works, but also a healthy mixture of some of the gnarliest breakbeat producers on the scene. Although the group are synonymous with the drum & bass scene, their present concoctions of half-step-electro hybrids are truly powerful on the floor, such as the rolling squelches of "Make It Rain" featuring Sporty-O or the sci-fi harmonics of "Here To Eternity". The compilation is a painstakingly neat portrait of the current breakbeat setting and leans heavily towards its cutting-edge, most vividly on tracks like 601's "Strobelight", "War is Ugly" by RADIOKILLAZ and long-standing legend Ronnie Pilgrem's "One By One" - a head-nodding, stop-start motion jungle reminiscent bombshell. But these are just some of our own personal picks, so go ahead and explore this leviathan of a compilation for yourself - if you dig breaks, look nowhere else!

Review: Drumsound & Bassline Smith reinvent themselves as 2DB for opening track "Oxygen" and fans of the mighty trio will not be disappointing. Appearing on their own label they bolster up an EP filled with retro influences and heavy bass drops. Hashtag's "Don't You Want Me?" drops its 90s rave persona into place alongside paranoid retro synths and acid bass while Slovakian D&B obsessive L Plus' old-school gaming credentials come into play with some serious chiptune insanity. MaxNRG hangs on a junglist/dubstep hybrid flex as he maxes out his compression bonuses and smashes that "drop" button until his controller explodes. Rounding off the EP with two more blistering tracks from L Plus and 2DB, if you like your dance music hard, fast and SNES-inspired, you're onto a winner.

Review: Drum & Bass Arena has ruled on high for nearly 20 years, and in that time has helped to forge the careers of every drum & bass artist worth their salt. It's impossible to downplay the influence the site has had on the scene, as a club brand and an online resource, and this year their official compilation is a doozie. Featuring some of the largest tracks around right now from Friction & Skream, J Majik & Wickaman, DJ Hazard, Rene LaVice, Calyx & TeeBee, Original Sin and Optiv & BTK as well as bangers from fresh artists like Heist, Zen & Nitri, this is an essential purchase for any D&B fan. Focussing on the heavier end of the spectrum this 35 track behemoth is basically your 2013 compendium of bass. Don't leave home without it.

Review: Rotterdam's own Prospect Recordings enjoys a huge following and an even bigger roster of mashed-up, dark and filthy artists, and this family album looks to capitalise on some of this artistic wealth. Why not? If you had a back catalogue full of some of the most insane drum & bass on offer to the wider world, wouldn't you want to share it? Littered with breakcore, neuro, gabber and hardcore, it's a whipround through the neck-breakingly heavy side of drum & bass that many fear to tread. Track names like "Skullsplitter", "Total Confusion" and "Death Will Set Us Free" have rarely been so truthfully descriptive, and even label darlings Counterstrike and Bong Ra team up for "Possessed", a feeding frenzy of metal, breakcore and drum & bass. A horror movie for your ears. Nobody's lives were ever enriched by staying inside the chillout room.