Review:
Finally! After what seems like an eternity, Souped Up bossman Serum unleashes one of his most long-awaited dubplates 'Lumberjack'. Often topped with a killer flow from Inja, here it is in all its hooky, ever-mutating glory. It's backed with an equally riffy wriggler "Square Root". Bleepy and weird but a hell of a lot of fun, it's like spending a night camped out in a transistor radio with some high quality rum. Serum's a lumberjack... And we're okay!
Review:
Benny Page's Dub Shotta heads to Belgium for some savage laser blazing hellfire courtesy of Basstripper. As always with Mr B, there's no messing around as brutal cuts such as "Lifeforms" and "Your Correct" rip and shred from the off with toxic textures. "Tortured" takes us down a more classical route with a Clipz style use of harmonics and hookiness while "Exhibit 9" sends us off packing more nightmares than you've had in your entire life so far. Filthy!!!
Review:
Cor blimey, Jungle Cakes aren't messing around with their Welcome To The Jungle series are they? Hot on the heels of Ray Keith comes another stone cold OG; Nicky Blackmarket. Digging deep across the classics and sparking up a whole forest of fresh fires, it's a 40 track, 2 mix, 10 FX tool trove of pure jungle magic curated with the wide-armed style you'd expect from an originator. With classic ranging from well known such as "Incredible" and "Pulp Fiction" to cult such as "Keep It Raw" and "Gangsters" and upfront jams flexing from all the right names (Serum, Aries, Serial Killaz, Drumsound & Bassline Smith), Blackmarket has absolutely smashed this out of the mark.
Review:
Just look at the list of titans on this album.... The Prodigy, Sub Focus, Spor, Chase & Status, dBridge & Skeptical, Icicle, Benny L, Artificial Intelligence and so many more have all contributed to this worthy compendium from brand new mental and physical wellness festival Getahead. Not one contributor disappoints across the set as we're treated to 100 percent exclusives from across the board. From the rampant late 90s tech twists of Chase & Status's "All Crew" to the delicious halftime vibes of Proxima's "Trek" right through Halogenix's sense-melting remix of Koiya, this really is a massive piece of work... And proceeds going to Music Minds Matter. This is such an important release!
Review:
With statures as high profile and influential as Maji and D, you'd expect the criminal behaviour to be a bit of a no no. But no, these D&B titans are out on the teef every night, keeping things real behind another man's steering wheel. And this is their soundtrack; a bruising Bristol style shredder with an epic elongated harmonic bassline, slamming drums and some on point spoken samples. The result is criminally heavy. Play it like you stole it!
Review:
Who 8 all the pies? Judging by the naked obesity of the cuts on the latest instalment of Cre8's latest V/A EP, these guys did. Highlights from this unashamed gully feast include the harmonic chimes and razz bassline of bossman Blackley & Meladee's "WDYP", the squelching Krustian bassline weirdness of Dutta & Jammin's "Say My Name" and Sublimit's darkstepping ricochet bass rips on "Snake Pit". With plenty more to chow down on, this Cre8ive banquet is gonna feed you for months on end. See you l8a m8.
Review:
We've been waiting for this one for a long time... After almost two decades in the dance, Ego Trippin deliver their highly anticipated debut album and, as the duo's star continues to rise to new heights, it couldn't come at a better time. A powerful 17 track package that stretches their style from slinky worm-like minimal funk ("Mind Bender"), disco darkness ("Bite It") and sweet soul steppery ("Moving On") to frazzled sandpaper funk ("Ghetto Code") and straight up rolling toxic grit, this leave no gully stone unturned and places them right at the top of the Low Down Deep table. Thrilling.
Review:
Oi oi! Document One cement their arrival at the Shogun estate with this deliciously bendy, switchy multi-shade bass flashback. Fittingly loaded with myriad ideas all compounded into one epic, precision-barbed freakout, it is - unquestionably - Document One's best track to date with perfect levels of funk, fury and outright trippiness. Get on it.
Review:
Why are pirates ravers? Because they arrrghhhh. Now we've got that out of our system, here's the low down on this six-track loot: "Proceed With Caution" is a stripped back cutlass stepper, "Bastard" stamps with two wooden legs and a Serum-style groan harmonics, "Pirate Selections" wobbles with the strength of 20 gold doubloons, "The Feeling" is a Q&A bassline cannon ball battle while "Wicked Plan" gets natty with its bling eye patch. Finally we have "Gutterskank" that hits with a big hook hand bass sweep technique. Hearty.
Review:
Since launching back in 2012, Brooklyn imprint Razor-N-Tape has been responsible for releasing some of the finest reworks the re-edit scene has to offer. For proof, check out this second trawl through the label's rapidly expanding back catalogue. There's nary a duffer in sight, with highlights including the mid-tempo, eyes-closed disco brilliance of Michael The Lion's "Any Time", the swirling deep house/disco fusion of Junktion's "I'm Wishing" and the tactile boogie throb of Deep&Disco's sought-after "So Tight" (the best Thelma Houston rework we've ever heard), to the spiraling saxophones of Tom of Brooklyn's tasty "Summer Jam" and COEO's wonderfully evocative and slightly beefed-up Escort rework, "Light Star".
Review:
Crazy P main man James Baron returns under his Ron Basejam alias, with more liquid nu-disco jams. Started as a casual side project 12 years ago, Baron wanted to 'capture the more diverse and quirky sides of his musical tastes', creating underground music that he incorporates with character, personality and humour. The After The Rain EP sees him return to Bristol institution Futureboogie, for the first time since 2016's "The Carrington Spirituals". Featuring the very soulful and near spiritual title track, the lo-slung funk attack of "The French Exit " and the late night acid express of "Raise" (featuring some vocals reminiscent of the legendary Daryl Pandy) among others - each one is a a sure shot and will light up the dancefloor.
Review:
Their second release deep and still we're none the wiser as to who Nazca Linez are. But when the music is as sharp as this, who are we to argue? "Acid Fashion" rolls out at a refreshingly stately six minutes, shoots from the hip with a venomous 303 line that warps and gurgles beneath a spacey dubbed out overlays "Silly Putty" continues that raw, warm, distorted analogy feel, switching out the acid for a much more drawn out moaning foghorn bass texture. On-point and future-focused, this is up there with the work of Need For Mirrors or Spirit.
Review:
After an incredible showing at Parklife festival and a very popular Rinse.FM takeover, Crucast return to their release schedule with a stack of weighty remixes for TS7's 'Motion Shift'. We begin with TS7's own VIP mix, which combines pounding subs and gliding synths over punchy 4x4 rhythms. The legendary of AC Slater steps up with his stripped back 2-steppy redesign, followed by Livesy's gritty overhaul. Finally we finish up on Annix's jungalistic jump up fusion of a remix, set to turn dances into zoos up and down the country. Crucast have certainly delivered another classic with this one!
Review:
In our eyes, prolific re-editors and party-starting mash-up merchants Ed Wizard and Disco Double Dee have always been "top of the chops". The Editorial imprint thinks this, too, hence serving up this expansive collection of some of the duo's finest reworks. There are gems aplenty to be unearthed throughout, from the loved-up, delay-laden mid-tempo dreaminess of sultry opener "Summer Love" and the 80s soul-with-filters lusciousness of "Boogie Flight", to the gentle house drums and disco-boogie horns of funk-fuelled favourite "Feel Good Jam". There's more straight-up celebratory disco to be found elsewhere on the compilation, too, with the parping horns and soaring strings of "People's Groove" and the low-slung flex of "Like U Do" standing out.
Review:
From Russia with love, Impish tells us all to be quiet so he can whisper his own sweet nothings into our ears in the form of his debut album Hush. If you've been listening on vinyl or CD then he's been whispering these sugary murmurs for several months. Now fresh to digital, they sound just as tantalising from the opening soulful vocal workout "Can't Feel" to the last sultry calls from Julia Marks on the closer "Solid". Highlights include the Intalex-nodding "Let Me" (with Zero T), the jazz haze of "That's Right" and the raw jungle slammage of "Shadows". A highly accomplished debut. Make some noise.
Review:
Weighing in at a naughty seven tracks, Liondub have effectively squeezed the best part of an album out of Raz right here for their 26th "Street Series" volume. Unlike most albums, however, this is 100 percent floor damagement. From the metallic robobloodclart call to arms on opener "Blood" or the sudden drop into dusty orchestration on "Not Ready" through to finale fire pieces such as the sci-fi shoot out "Short Cut" and the glitched-out drum wriggles of "You Make Me" via dubbed out technoid synth ripples of "Murder You", Raz is on the roll of his life right here. Enough bangers to keep you sweet till Christmas.
Review:
Young Marco and A Good Christian draw the curtain down on their brilliant Italian dream house retrospective series, Welcome To Paradise, with a third and final instalment that's every bit as good as its predecessors. After opening with the previously unreleased brilliance of Jacy's "Resounding Seashell" - the kind of cut that deserves to be played at languid, laidback afternoon pool parties - the Dutch duo variously serves-up sought-after gems (Leo Anibaldi's Larry Heard-esque "Universal"), humid and intoxicating early morning anthems (the tribal chants, kaleidoscopic chords and New Jersey organs of Green Baize's "Tramp Heart"), early ambient house anthems (Deep Blue's "Deep Blue (The Inner Part of Me)") and stone cold classics (Don Carlos's "Overture").
Review:
To kick-start a fourth year of disco-fuelled madness, Hot Digits chief Fingerman has put together this sizeable compilation of previously unheard exclusives. As you'd expect, there's far more killers than fillers to be found amongst the 28-track deep selection or re-edits and original productions. Highlights include the clarinet-laden electrofunk-meets-disco bounce of Frank Virgilio's "It's Your Boogie Baby", the disco-goes-hip-hop flex of Tony Disco's delicious "Rolling Paper", the sparkling nu-disco goodness of "When It Comes To Funk" by Stephen Richards, the driving disco-house bump of Ash Reynolds' "Cold Girl" and the fuzzy electrofunk wobble of Don Dayglow's "Many Things". Throw in fine contributions from Chewy Rubs, Le Visiteur, norse man Jarle Brathen and, of course, Fingerman, and you have a must-buy collection of cuts.
Review:
Whiskey Disco continues with its juicy 2018 with something of a sweaty beast, with a quartet of producers stepping up to deliver some sticky dancefloor heat. Label chief Sleazy McQueen joins forces with Vagabundo Social Club with edit "Boh!", a slamming rework of a Bohannon-esque disco-funk jam rich in hard guitar riffs and crunchy Clavinet lines. The Rejected takes a different approach, serving up a rolling, delay-laden tweak of celebratory, soccer-themed Brazilian club jam "O Craque De Futbol". Sunny, funky and low-slung, it's accompanied by the gently housed-up swamp funk of Pontchartrain's "Have a Little Taste". Given the quality of the EP, we're more than happy to follow that instruction.
Review:
Strike it lucky, strike it gully, strike while the iron is hot; Featurecast returns to the mighty party purveying imprint Jungle Strikes with two tasty treats. "Lose Your Mind" is a family affair with some exceptional vocal slicing and drop into the original sample while "Trigger Finger" will have your floor dusting off their gun digits and firing blanks in every ceiling available with its early 2000s style Bristol wobble Q&A. Strike the blood!
Review:
Suol's weekly open-air parties at IPSE, Hallo Montag, have become a summer fixture in Berlin over the past few years. Like the parties, the accompanying series of EPs showcase "sunny tracks" from the label's roster of artists and like-minded guests. This second part of the 2018 edition contains some suitably bright and breezy cuts, with Jimpster's "Lightshine" - a carnival-ready chunk of deep house dancefloor bliss rich in dreamy chords and Latin percussion hits - standing out. There's plenty to gently warm the soul elsewhere across the EP, though, from the snappy, low-slung grooves, toasty chords and CeCe Rogers vocals of Atjazz's remix of Chopstick and JohnJon's "What Is House Music", to the sparkling, life-affirming goodness of Zepherin Saint's "Take You There (featuring Divinity)".
Review:
Roller King and all-round G Bladerunner returns on his own Hi Resolution imprint with four more fat slammers. "Power Up" is as close to neuro as you'll find the London artist. All rasping and waspish, it's a high voltage scenario from the slippery breaks to the sinewy reese. "The Crazy Dragon" flips the coin for a riffier jam where the bassline provides a strong melodic bullishness to the blend. "Electric Dreams" is the naughtiest monster of the set with its savage distorted reverse bass warps and wry 2000s-era BC stabs. Last but not least "Bulldozer" brings the curtains down with more of a junglised break and a no-nonsense 1.21 gigawatt bass sizzle. Power moves by name, killer moves by nature.
Review:
You can say a lot of things about Uncle Grav but one thing is undeniable; he brings you down to earth with his every nature. It's the law. Making his debut on DJ Hybrid's ever-on-point Audio Addict imprint here he delivers some serious matters of the day: "Space Exploration" is hookier than Serum's riff-filled coin purse, "The Life Stream" groans like its OD'd on a fog horn collection while "Chasing Clouds" flips for a breezy uplifting Hozzy-circa-2007 vibe. Audio Addict badman-in-residence Kumarachi joins the fray for the finale: the warped and weirded-out bassline bender "Get Up". Get down more like. Time for a slice of good life (stream).
Review:
When it comes to crafting lengthy, disco fired dancefloor treats, DJ Koze has previous form. His "Extended Disco Version" of Lapsley's "Operator" quickly became a White Isle anthem in the summer of 2016, and we fully expect "Pick Up" to be one of the disco-house hits of 2018. Based around spine-tingling samples from a heart-felt, orchestrated 1970s disco treat - think Tom Trago's "Use Me Again", and you're close - the veteran producer slowly builds the pressure before really letting loose in the closing stages. Then "The Love Truck" is an altogether deeper, dubbier and dreamier affair, seemingly designed for leisurely warm-up sets and gentle, early morning shuffling.
Review:
As the old saying goes.... When life gives you lemons, call up Evil Smarty and make a bunch of sweet sweet funk edits. "The Groove To Make You Dance" lives up to its name and pays full respect to the sauce with a fizzy uptempo twist and a percussive drop that froths up like you've shaken the bottle for days. "Let's Do It" is equally thirst-quenching with its SOS-sending falsetto funk flare while the title track-inspiring "Sweet Like A Lemon" closes on a decadent bubbly twist. Tuck in and feel fresh; there's enough vitamin C here to keep you alive until at least the age of 128.
Review:
If your fame is built on delivering rock solid dancefloor cuts, should your subsequent albums stick to the same approach or mix it up a little? It's a conundrum that many artists have struggled with over the years. Smartly, Detroit Swindle has decided to hedge their bets with High Life following 2014's Boxed Out. As full length albums go, it's a bit of a peach, and sees the acclaimed Dutch duo flit between sensuous, home-listening fare, jaunty, instrumental-laden workouts (see the cheery, smoky pop-soul of Tom Misch hook-up "Yes, No, Maybe" and Afro-fired bounce of "Call of the Wild" featuring fellow Dutch combo Jungle By Night) and tried-and-tasty club tracks (Seven Davis Jr collaboration "Flavourism", the driving disco-house of "Freeqy Polly" and "Cut U Loose").
Review:
Biomorph is the debut album from Enrico Sangiuliano, an artist who has previously featured on Adam Beyer's label. As the industrial drones of "Functional Basic Unit of Life" and the rugged electro on "Generative Model" and "Arboreal" all demonstrate, he has mapped out a route that stops off at many diversions. However, at his heart, the Italian producer remains a dance floor techno lover - and he expresses this passion most eloquently on Biomorph with the epic, trance-influenced "Cosmic Ratio" and "Hidden T" as well as "Multicellular", a storming big-room affair that is led by a tearing, system-levelling bass.
Review:
As ever, the Bomb Strikes imprint delivers an awesome package to us with this brand new 25 track compilation entitled 'Funk N' Beats Vol. 5', To be honest, it's exactly what it says on the tin as The Allergies head up waves and waves of funkadelic rhythms and crunchy riffs. For us the highlights have to be the futuristic drum processing and subtle percussive movements of 'Loose Gardner' from Flevans, along with the classic breakbeat fusion of 'Fire' remixed by Smoove but originally produced by the Renegades Of Jazz. With the sheer depth of the project it's easy to get lost within the tracklisting, which is always a good sign on a large scale compilation.
Review:
Two titans from two sides of the bass Atlantic team up for a seriously sticky situation: "Gorilla Glue". Hairy, scary and endangered, this will have you beating your chest for years to come. The other three tracks are equally beastly. "World 8" is a classic dubwise affair, all stripped back and spooky, "Close Chatter" is real hurricane of ice, skanking and stepping with dramatic mischief while "Crypt" wakes up the dead with its creepy organ textures and abyssal subcraft. This is prime mate.
Review:
Long term Night Bass flag flyer Taiki Nulight returns to the ever-impressive imprint with his long awaited Broken Ribs' EP, which is stuffed to the brim with bass heavy goodies. We begin with the title track which is a dancefloor weapon, from the high intensity build ups of the intro to the incredibly unique synth design of the breakdown. Next we move into the more stripped back 4/4 arrangements of 'U Know' before landing on the highly anticipated sub heavy collaboration with Inkline entitled 'Cynic'. Finally the EP rounds up with it's second collaboration, this time with Stranger, as the pair pull together a selection of weird and wonderful synth sounds and skippy drum patterns resulting in a high energy banger.
