Review: It feels like they've been delivering the good for a lot longer than two years but here we are... Invicta Audio have only been a legit label for 24 months and look at all the artists they've brought through and bangers they've given us so far. Here's a little reminder in the form of this short, sweet but extremely banging 'Best Of' collection. Featuring the likes of Harley D, Jam Thieves, Magenta, Scuffed and vocalists like the inimitable Devilman and Aleya Mae, it's a great way to get up to speed on the damage Anton Bailey's label is causing right now. New generation fire!
Review: Having just released ex Jam Thief Dunk's album, it's seems right and fair that the now solo Jam Thieves gets a turn at the Dispatch controls. Especially when it sounds as good as this. 'Savana' sets the scene - a spacious plain of bass that's hot and intense. It's backed by a crucial collaboration with Nymfo 'Machine Gun' where the kicks hit like bullets, 'Mandrake' goes full on maximal with a caustic decaying bassline and robo-funk drums, 'Mind Control' brings the funk and 'Moonrock' finishes with a blend that's just as much cosmic as it is gully. See you in Herbology class.
Review: Winner of the Best Newcomer Label in the Drum&BassArena Awards last year, Onyx celebrate two years as a full legit label with this excellent 20 track retrospective collection featuring some of the most exciting and forward-thinking names in new-gen D&B. From Jam Thieves to Hoax, AC13 to T95, Trex to DJ Gaw, Invert Era to Lavance, the tracklist reads like the line-up of any contemporary D&B connoisseur's dreams and it sounds like one too. Highlights include Hoax & Skantia's electrifying 'Space Invaders', Invert Era's thundering 'LND' and Kontakt's sublime 'Shotcaller'. A great place to get up to speed or fill any gaps in your collection, Onyx deserve all the props they get right now.
Review: What a way to sign out of the year! DJ Hybrid's Audio Addict look back over a killer 2021 with the help of one of the most exciting rising DJ talents to emerge in recent years - Invicta Audio's Anais. Whether it's the mix you're after, or the epic clutch of 25 tracks, one thing is certain: you're going to have a lot of fun. All styles, all sounds, all shapes, all sizes, Audio Addict lays it all down in front of us from dark heads-down sweepers (Acuna & Madrush MC - 'City Lockdown') to mystical head-benders (Xav & Zach - Bristol Sound) to dramatic, bass heavy floor fires (Hexa - 'Hot Amps'). All this and plenty more, both Anais and Audio Addict have smashed it right here.
Review: Now rolling solo, Jam Thieves continues to hurl bassline muck around the place, this time on Serum & Benny V's Souped Up. 'Bogota' is a stripped back vocal piece with an unyielding tech-teased bassline that belongs in a high security space weapons stockade while 'Don't Kill' takes us even deeper into the jam pot with very sleek and contemporary futurist paranoia. Darker than usual Souped Up flavours but still a perfect ingredient for any sets where the wobs are heavy on the gaf.
Review: Invicta Audio is a record label and events company currently based in Bristol. For their next release they have tapped Brazil's Jam Thieves, now operating as a solo act, who is hot off a recent release on Hospital Records and drives into 2021 with the aim of levelling up on the Holy Plant EP. Features the drum 'n' bass ragga swagger of the title track, followed by some deeply meditative dubstep in the form of "Mista Lava Lava" which showcases the diversity within this talented producer's reerptopire. Elsewhere, you have got the fierce techstep roller "Dub Cali" and the seething vocal infused neurofunk of "Madona" which closes it out.
Review: Boom! DJ Hybrid's Audio Addict hit the big 100 and they're celebrating in true style. Here's part one - a 22 banger collection featuring the label's brightest and gulliest talent and close friends. Highlights lurk around every heavyweight corner from the off as T>I flips Hybrid & Haribo's 'Raised In The Jungle' into a riot. Mountains of carnage follows with highlights coming from all angles - Diagnostix gets ice cold with the venomous 'Depth Charge', Para flips Erbman's 'Ride Or Die' into a lesson in tension while Kalum reminds us of the label's deeper side with the barbed euphoria of 'Enough'. All this and so much more, the Audio Addict guys have taken things to the next level.
Review: Future Symptoms is basically Hozzy doing what Hozzy does best... Championing new talent and bringing them to as many ears as possible. For this edition they go in deep with a brilliant selection that ranges from Newcastle (with Nectax's stunning liquid jungle piece 'Gold Soul') to London (with MYKOOL & Lost Child's stirring piano-stroker 'Self Made' and the gilded soul of Mr Joseph and Phoebe Freya's 'Why Try') via Sao Paulo (with the grizzly future fire of the now solo Jam Thieves on 'Bahgkok') The future's bright.
Review: As selected personally by label bossman Break himself, Symmetry Selects is an exciting new talent collection that crosses the full vibe and D&B flavour spectrum. 12 tracks deep, the album takes off where the inaugural edition left us back in 2018 as a whole range of acts vie for our attention with their fine-tuned grooves. Highlights include the thundering subby hammer-out 'Coppola' by newcomer Boycot, Siloh's soul hurricane 'Fields Of Green', Reflektor and Leo Wood's beautiful cosmic stepper 'Slow It Down' and Funkware's curmudgeonly grizzle fest 'Tarantula'. Seleccy!!
Review: Time flies when you're smashing out high grade new-gen bangers: Invicta already strike up a year of business and celebrate with this powerful V/A collection from friends and familiar faces. As always with Invicta the range is right across the board as we slide and glide from smooth soul (H8TO - 'This Place', Refracta - 'Touch') right the way to utterly gutterly filth (Gonda - 'Bulll', Harley D - 'Forever') and all banger styles in between. Other highlights include Phizical's super-slinky 'Feeling', B-Plexx's soaring vocal work-out 'Too High' and Jam Thieves' moody creeper 'Black Light'. Happy birthday Invicta!
Review: Invicta Audio are doing us all a massive solid with this release, simply because compilations featuring incredible artists are just the best and the more music we get towards our ear drums the better. The Echo LP is a jump up inflected, minimalistic release that doesn't take many prisoners. 'Bad Bitch' by Harley D, featuring Scotty, is a perfect example of this, as his vocals lead you in with a distinctive tone before a broken drop emanates with some serious force, subterranean wobbles abound and it's an all-round moody listen. The rest of the LP is just as strong - big up the whole team.
Review: Invicta have been making some serious waves the past year or so and with a growing recognition that they're one of the best labels releasing a consistent slew of music, they're celebrating their evolution with a multi-part LP. This is the first instalment and a whole crew is on things with a six-tracker of frightening proportions, packed full of solid percussive strikes and flowing basslines. 'Dance Girl' has a seriously funky rhythmic pattern and a slick array of basslines, whilst 'Life' takes things in a funkier direction with ragga sampling and a fluid concoction of sub-heavy bass magic. There are also more melancholic, deeper sounds, as B-Plexx nails the liquid vibe on 'Too High' - top.
Review: Jam Thieves are a prolific duo with a history across a litany of labels, and this time around their immediately recognisable style is landing on Serial Killaz. That style consists of punishingly stripped back percussive lines that give ample room for jagged basslines to breath, a minimalist take on jump up funk that's designed for the club. The title track is a breakier version, with rattling hats and stumbling snares that weave through a concoction of low frequency force with the grace of a gazelle and the energy of an elephant. 'Heavy Duty' is the other standout, its snare is obscenely good and the bassline ripples with metallic textures, a sharp, pointy track that'll double drop with the best of them. Brilliant.
Review: Jungle Cakes always tend to put out music that rests on the foundations of UK underground, the cross-over influences of soul, reggae, jungle and D&B. it's always a fresh sound and it always brings up connotations of Boomtown, free parties and sunny afternoons. This is a monster album curated by Aries and Kelvin 373, who have taken tracks both old and new to form a banging compilation. Bou nails it on 'Music Takes Me Higher', a rustic revisit to classic jungle sounds; Aries and Nicky Blackmarket roll things out in a tight way on 'Champion'; and Chimpo slams the brakes on 'DidDieDoThat'. We don't know the answer to that, but we do know this is fat. Big ups.
Review: We all know Jam Thieves bang hard. We all know they're canny with that minimal, grunting, dirty funk style. But do we know what flavour Jam these pilferers are? Has anyone ever asked them? Let's see if we can find some clues... 'Outbreak' is sharp and citrusy with a bite like a gooseberry. 'Johnny Cash' has a dark charm to it, all slinky and mysterious like a black cherry. 'State Killer' has a spicy vibe to it that creeps out of nowhere like a good chill jam while 'Crystal' tastes like machine oil and bassline napalm, cooked to perfection like mamma used to make. Still no idea on their flavour but boy do they taste good on the ear. Stickiness guaranteed.
Review: Jam Thieves are the Brazilian duo who have developed a reputation for their unique blend of skipping minimal and gargled jump up funk, and this single on Invicta will not disappoint fans of that sound. 'Joker' blends a fearsome sub bass with well placed ripples of twisted low frequencies, which scream across the range with all the energy of red hot shrapnel. 'Blunt' is well named, as it has less sharp edges but instead swirls and percolates with muddy force that's focused in the lows and based on minimal, tapping percussion. Awesome.
Review: Deeper Vision Recordings outta NYC returns with the worldy, instrumental and broken beat sound of Lungomare. Spearheaded by Ted Ganung - dropping memorable numbers like waltzing slow dance "Dream Connection Project" to the filtered and pitched calpsco of "I'm Grateful Riddim" - there's downbeat hip hop instrumentals in Jam Thieves "New Balance" to some subtle and sassy salsa in Rum Guzzler's "Cuban Goods". Find the chilled out dub reggae funk in Quincy Jointz' "Echo Chamber" and a sweet staccato piano house loop in the Wu-Tang reminiscent "Loaded Question".
Review: Pick any of the most exciting new-gen names in D&B and we bet our bottom dollar they're repping in this collection. A debut V/A from Hedex's By The Producer brand, Collected 1 is bulging with the seams with fresh talent: Hexa, Disrupta, Dreadnought, Stokka, Klay, Bruk, the list goes on. With cameos from more established Gs like Total Recall and Jam Thieves - and a deep, rumbling, futuristic contemporary mood and sound running throughout - this captures 2020 in drum & bass perfect. Agitated, dark, moody, but hungry for a better future... And not afraid to have a little fun. One of the best V/As we've seen in a long time. Get collecting.
Review: Jam Thieves are the Brazilian duo who thrive in the murky ecosystem of minimal drum & bass with serious attitude, music that's slick in its production but nonetheless full of anger under the surface. This time around they're on Jungle Cakes for a top-notch single that's in their trademark style of solid sub bass and snapping snare drums. Their sample game is back on point too and it shows on 'Mista Lava Lava', where they bring a well-known vocal hook into action above a penetratingly minimal back end, a pattern recreated on the flip, 'Bad Chargie'. Top work.
Review: Can we get a 'wicked?' Jungle Cakes continue to team up with some of the biggest donnies in the game with this latest Welcome To The Jungle collection. This time curated and fronted by the General himself, as you'd expect this is a full-on jungle assault that covers every single angle and every single era. 47 tracks and one killer mix, hosted and toasted by Levy himself, this is one of Jungle Cakes most comprehensive collections to date: From the foundation-setting, historic vibes of "Incredible" through to contemporary bangers from the likes of Kursiva, DJ Hybrid, Jam Thieves, Benny Page and all things in between, everyone involved has delivered something special. Massive.
Review: With Hazard rounding up another killer year for Hype and Pascal's label with his first release in five years, Playaz take stock of 2019 with this savage showdown from all their main mandem. From the eerie gurgles and scraps of Annix & Kanine's "Jackpot" to the flabby wobbles and groans of Limited's "Soldier" to the sweet seduction twist of Jam Thieves' "Love Forever" this 25-track pack covers the entire spectrum of proper rave-primed drum & bass with all manner of curveballs and boundary-pushing badness. No compromises, a healthy balance of elder statesmen, new headliners and young talent and a sound that's distinctively theirs, Playaz are about to bulldoze into a new decade... And this is how it all begins.
Review: Jam Thieves are the Brazilian duo who make simply sumptuous, minimal, rough and tumble rollers and they do so with an excessive amount of power and finesse. Love Forever is their latest EP and it's four more slices of sub heavy techy goodness, each individually packaged in an attempt to get your head moving in the dance. Title track 'Love Forever' is our favourite because it samples Marvin Gaye, but also because it's just proper minimal naughtiness, with in point drums and a chest-bashing sub bass. Excellent stuff.
Review: Jam Thieves are arguably two of the freshest talents currently residing in the Playaz camp, their less-is-more approach to the Playaz jump-up orientated ethos injecting every one of their tunes with an elegant sense of power. On this occasion, their music is being given a reworking by both TC and themselves. TC's remix of 'Minimal Funk' - the title track to their 2016 debut album on Playaz - is amped-up and outrageously aggressive, it's glitched out synth stabs and oily run of low-frequency energy suitably tailored to the original's minimal force. On the flip, 'After Blast' is given the VIP treatment and, despite the original being a heaving mass of bass, is made even heavier with added emphasis on the heavy. Two big tunes these.
Review: Sticky-icky-icky! The JTs are back from their Sao Paulo kitchen and they're packing some of the tangiest, sharpest fusions you could ever spread over a dance. Highlights across this sweet sextet include the bluesy twangs and industrial strength drums of "Next Generation", the frazzled, loose-drum space voyage with Fre4knc "3rd Dal Universe", low-blowing groans of "Get Out Of The Way" where there's not even so much room for a please and the blink-and-miss neuro twists on the rattling sub-shaking Playaz homage "Brooklyn". Yum.
