Rinse At Juno Download

Review: With maddening infrequency, both Brackles and his sometime partner in crime Shortstuff pop up and drop cyborg funk tracks that instantly serve their contemporaries in the business of day-glo electronic music. On this new release, presumably the first in a series, "Spider" has a deliciously airy false start before dropping down into a cold-as-ice groove, while "Take Me Home" boasts rising and falling synths expelled with total deranged control. Brackles once again proves just how much flair and craftsmanship he has for tracks that are utterly bonkers and perfectly formed at the same time.

Review: Considering he's been releasing records for the likes of Planet Mu and Apple Pips since 2009, it would be something of an understatement to say that Brackles' debut album has been a long time coming - but it couldn't have been better timed. Although his sound - a rough hybrid of UK garage and funky styles with echoes of dubstep - is very much of the now, there's an obvious love for the classic sounds of 90s UKG which many of his more inexperienced contemporaries lack - assisted by the inspired vocal contributions from Lily McKenzie and Terri Walker. But it's not just a throwback record - be it the slightly offbeat bass and calypso vibe of "Walkin' Out", or the churning subs of "Squarehead", Brackles nevertheless manages to twist the template into weird and unique shapes. That this album has been released on Rinse isn't a surprise - he's encapsulated nearly twenty years of the station's sound into one record.

Review: Rinse FM regular Brackles takes his relationship with the station a step further with this, his first release for Rinse's own label, following releases on Planet Mu and Apple Pips over the years. Both tracks showcase Brackles' ear for brittle yet driving rhythmic shapes; "Spider" is a stripped back slice of rolling garage-infused funky. Utilising bright yet minimal melodies it skips through a myriad of African inspired melodies and rhythms, whilst a strained pad sound gives the whole thing an alien mood. "Take Me Home" meanwhile takes a soulful female vocal and puts it over a backdrop of deep, searching pitch-bent chords and deep spongy bassline, before breaking out into a rhythmic jam of snares and kwaito-inspired melody.

Review: Londoner Rob Kemp, aka Brackles, is a highly acclaimed DJ and producer whose leftfield take on garage and bassline has seen him wow crowds and parties like FWD>>. Teaming with female singer Cherri V, "Chasing Crazy" is a slow, grinding tale of unrequited lust (featuring such bizarre lyrics as '...went from grey to 50 shades of chocolate, now she's chasing orange...'). It's all about the vintage 90s R&B on DVA's silky smooth remix. Bonus track "Doing It For The P" eschews the vocals for an underground club workout with scattered beats and quirky synth lines.

Review: Huxley certainly seems to be enjoying a purple patch right now, and Lost Love, his first outing for Rinse, is another tried-and-tested banger. The title track is more straightforward than some of his releases, delivering a fluid mix of bumpin' beats, wobbly sub, deep stabs and pitched-down vocal samples. The deeper US garage flex of "Who Am I" offers more effortless groovery, though it's out-gunned by the next-level two-step-goes-deep house flex of darting floorfiller "Walk 2 U". With its jazzy keys and sparkling stabs, it's easily the pick of the bunch.

Review: Big release here from Roska! The UK F don drops the six track Jackpot EP on the one and only Rinse. It's hard to look past the tough percussive riddims and killer "go!" vocal on the title track, but there's much to explore here, from the abrasive synths of "Roskallion" to the screeching mayhem of the brilliantly titled "Blame The Speakers". The Mujava-esque melodies of "Leapfrog" and "4th Blind Mouse" lead into the 8bit textures and heaving arpeggios of closer "Wie Alt Bist Du". More essential jams from the king of funky.

Review: Can it have only been in 2010 that Rinse dropped the debut album of UKF's imperial don? Of course, the man known from his aural signature as "R-R-R-Roska" hasn't been work-shy, with a huge weight of releases for his own Roska Kicks and Snares label constantly impressing. Here though, Roska deliberately spices up his methodology - going in less for beat-driven loops of endurance, more for a developing and lyrical sound. One listen the sloping funk of "OnRinseSinceYearZeroEight", the bleeped-out "Metric", or the crunch-step of "Eleven 45" will make you agree with us that he's pretty much nailed it. Like most things from the man, this comes highly recommended.

Review: Almost mystically unable to do no wrong at the moment, Roska delivers four more stone-cold classic beats on this second volume of Rinse rarities, further enhancing his title as king of UK underground house. "Squark" is undoubtedly the big tune here, a tune which has been bubbling under the surface for months now. Its cheeky use of siren squeals that drop solo every four bars is grimy and funky to the max. Elsewhere though, "Tomorrow Is Today" is impressively urgent while "Hey Cutie" is a bubbly and irresistible soca-house jam. After an appearance on the first EP, Jamie George is back in the vocal booth on "I Like You" which sparkles with string-stabs interweaving with George's tones. Yet another essential purchase from the man of the moment.

Review: Rinse's own Royal T has been listening to UKG for as long as he started stealing bootlegs from his brother. With the advent of online mixtape technology and the worlds of grime, bassline and UK funky at his feet, the Southampton-based producer's latest offering is a filthy culmination of sticky dancefloors, hastily-printed rave flyers, pirate radio and the dawning of crisply ironed trap. There's a feeling of nostalgia about the whole EP for times when listening to grime at the back of the bus really was the pinnacle. Nostalgia too often comes with negative connotations - rather than stale Royal T brings his own modern edge to the retrospective bubbles he creates with each track. It's a celebration rather than a museum piece. Long live the spirit of the underground.

Review: Southampton-based bass head Mark "Royal T" Taylor has seen his profile rise dramatically in recent times, thanks largely to regular Wednesday night shows on Rinse FM and a production career that seems on the verge of really taking off. Here he drops his debut album, a full-length trawl through his various bass music influences in the company of some of his favourite MCs (and, in the case of one track, producer Roska). His take on dubstep, grime, garage, UK funky and bassline house is formidably floor-friendly, suggesting that a number of these tracks - most notably Dizzee-ish lead cut "Cruel to be Kind" - could crossover into the mainstream.

Review: Stepping up for the next installment from the pioneering grime, dubstep and funky label Rinse is Royal-T. First up is "Inside The Ride", a rough and ready swinging stepper, with booming bass, funked up 2-step beats and plenty of East End attitude in the bleepy SFX, stabs and snapping snares. "Cool Down" pairs a hypnotic garage rhythm with cooing, silky smooth vocal and pumping dancefloor beats to enormous effect. Another legendary release from the Rinse crew!

Review: Purveyor of old jungle and hardcore, Uncle Dugs, presents the twentieth installment in the Rinse series and in doing so attempts the unenviable task of telling the story of jungle in just 21 tracks. Well, you'll be glad to hear that the result is an awe-inspiring one. Expect to hear plenty of classic moments from the 90s across this selection; from the Long Dark remix of game-changing "Valley Of The Shadows" by Origin Unkown through some Leviticus, Conquering Lion, Alex Reece's iconic "Pulp Fiction" to artists who remain stars in the contemporary D&B scene like Andy C and Shy FX. There are so many precious moments re-visited in "Rinse:20" that old junglists will be getting misty eyed with nostalgia, and all of this, of course, expertly mixed live on vinyl by Uncle Dugs. Bring it!

Review: Steve Goodman drops the latest installment in the ever-correct Rinse series with a raucous selection that runs the gamut of lively, current bass mutations with as much party-starting intention as forward-thinking imagination. There's a healthy show of garage such as Alex Parkinson & Chris Lorenzo's "What Must I Prove 2 U", while plenty of funky gets aired from the likes of Funkystepz and DVA, but really it's hard to keep a handle on the styles as Goodman mixes fearlessly and swiftly between the vibes. Barely resting on a track for more than two minutes, the vibe rollicks through uptempo styles that at times get positively frantic (see Jam City), and other times get decidedly spaced out (as in Visionist's "Something Old Something New"). You can always count on Kode9 to bring the mind-bending noise like few others, and he's having a lot of fun getting bashy on this mix.

Review: The latest in Zinc's Crack House series boasts no less than six tracks, each one of them reminding us why the erstwhile junglist is one of the most consistently respected producers in London Town. "Only For Tonight" will hog most of the spotlight thanks to the emphatically delivered vocals by Sasha Keable, but it's the underground bass-busters that will cause the most damage on the underground with cuts like "Overdrive" "Family Riddim" and "Plugtastic" all riding on major sub-shock-out levels. "Forest Gate Funk" is a whole arena for Zinc and is waiting for a crack team of MCs to spit over it. "Feeling My Way" is the true treat for Zinc heads... It's his first D&B tune in years. But don't go expecting the Zinc of old; this dreamy melodic beauty is next level.

Review: It's quite a turnout for the books to see Zinc delivering a release for Rinse, and he weighs in heavy from the off with 'Sprung'. Deploying a fat breakbeat reminiscent of 'Fat of the Land' era Prodigy, he rinses out a fat mid range riff against a sample intoning 'let's go' repeatedly. It's not the most original material, but Zinc makes this irrelevant, with an ability to make the masses move in ways that other producers can't. Elsewhere, 'Unlike Me' utilises lots of loud tricks and plenty of gusto, while "Unlike Me" sounds like the perfect hybrid of big room electro and UK funky, with a hollow bassline that mines grime for its sound to great effect. Finally "Recovered" utilises a similar formula, utilising an ascending melody and aggressive vocal looping to round off a bombastic EP.

Review: Originally released last December, Zinc's Sasha Keable-fronted electro wriggler "Only For Tonight" gets the remix treatment from TEED (low-swung, sludgy bass jack session) and the up-and-coming Maison Sky (warped garage with trippy pitched down vocals, oddball percussion and waspish bass). In case you and the original aren't familiar yet, it's here in both its soul-coated vocal glory and naked bouncy instrumental state.

Review: Originally released last December, Zinc's Sasha Keable-fronted electro wriggler "Only For Tonight" gets the remix treatment from TEED (low-swung, sludgy bass jack session) and the up-and-coming Maison Sky (warped garage with trippy pitched down vocals, oddball percussion and waspish bass). In case you and the original aren't familiar yet, it's here in both its soul-coated vocal glory and naked bouncy instrumental state.