Review: Fire in the hole! For the first time in 23 years, Future Cut & Marcus Intalex's 'Plastic' gets a revisit. A historic record that dates back to one of Future Cut's first ever releases (Three The Hard Way on Renegade Hardware) and it's from two exceptional Seattle talents - Quadrant & Iris. The perfect candidates for such an operation; that classic late 90s / early 2000s Hardware/Quarantine vibe is in the duo's DNA and they absolutely smash it. Proceeds go to the Marcus Intalex Music Foundation.
Review: Another touching update on Marcus's indelible legacy; Jubei steps up to Metalheadz with two immense collaborations. "Lubbly Jubbly" is a true blueprint jam; eerie, weighty, weird and spacey, it builds with a percussive momentum that's so tangible you can feel Marcus fingerprints on it. "Fanny's Ya Aunt" flips for more of a dreamier slice of both men's psyches and styles. Every bit as deep and classy as you already know it is. Marcus Intalex Rest In Peace.
Review: Releases don't come much deeper or more heartfelt: These two Spirit collaborations are the first posthumous Marcus Intalex tracks and there are likely to be more in due course. Naturally they're savagely heavy in every possible sense of the word. "Untitled MCR" hits with this amazing drone bass that sweeps in like a fighter jet, "Acid Monday" lives up to its name with skeletal acid writhing and flexing around a rough tribal step. Both timeless, understated, unapologetic and essential. Marcus Intalex rest in peace.
Review: Drum&Bass Arena: The longest-standing, and one of the most respected, platforms for all things jungle D&B celebrates an impressive 20 years in the game with this ridiculously hefty document that pays respect to the genre's every twist and turn. From scene-shattering megahits ("Tarantula", "Feel The Love", "Rock It", "Afterglow") to unarguable historical underground scene-smashing megabangers ("Machete", "Aztec", "Nasty Ways", "The View", "Champion Sound", "Turbulence", "Up All Night", "Deadline", Ram Trilogy's remix of "Pacman") by way of tracks that may have slipped under the radar ("Defcom 69", "What's Wrong", "Song For Lovers") the whole album is loaded to the lips with some of the most important records the genre's enjoyed in the last 20 years. Time to get nostalgic, time to fill those holes in your collection, time to educate your dancefloor. Here's to another 20 years!
Review: It's about time... Fresh off the heat of his Trevino album, Marcus returns to the D&B source with a full-fat foursome on his label's spotless Four:Fit series. Each cut a 24 carat diamond, shining in its own special way: "Mixed Bag" is a DRS-polished soulful addition to the ever-growing halftime annals, both "Step Forward" and "Stingray" are brittle two-step heads-down headbutts while "Jupiter" is an amen-rattled jungle shake-up. Timeless, deep and spacious; Marcus never fails.
Review: We've been waiting for this since Doc Scott fired up his old ThirtyOne machine just over a year ago. A 24-track collection of stone cold exclusives, this bucks any expectations of the label and its remit and celebrates the very best creativity in all shades of drum & bass. Littered with the best names in the game (Calibre, Nucleus & Paradox, Bungle, Loxy & Resound, Scar, Marcus Intalex and many many more), each cut pushes the bass and riddim envelope with stark, uncompromised creativity and production muscle. The ultimate document of where the best D&B is at, this is nothing short of essential.
Review: Does drum and bass get any better than this? Two of the finest names in the genre club together for "Run Away", met in the middle by the man like Fox who puts his vocal stylings into the mix. Rolling out smooth, it's that lulling bassline and softly-spoken chorus that takes the edge off punchy drums and signature Intalex-style strings from the pad section. Fans have been waiting for a release on this for some time now - finally, it's ownable. Showing that they can still deliver tastier goods for the dancefloor, "Something Heavy" is a funk-fuelled hips-mover with Fox sending out his raggamuffin sounds over down and dirty bass. You've heard it in the dance, now get it on repeat.
Review: There's no such thing as a drum & bass set without an inclusion of Marcus Intalex somewhere along the way. The Mancunian producer and DJ has proved his mettle so many times over the past decade and more that it's almost impossible to imagine what the genre was like before his techy nuances and intelligent rollers came to be. Appearing on Metalheadz for some hard-hitting set smashers this time, "Riots" owns that kick drum like it's the last one on earth. Keeping that trademark Intalex style it's a fairly minimal piece of straight-up dirty d&b. "Hell 2 Pay" picks up the snares in a jungle style on the flip, making use of that famous pinpoint production precision. Add some doomsday bass and you've got yourself a winner.
Review: A man renowned for giving a masterclass in soulful, deeper D&B steps up for his next release on Psylence's ever-impressive Ingredients imprint (a label which has been impressing with both the quality and quantity of its output of late). First up is title track "Cabal" with its long, echoing intro full of clop clop beats and eerie atmospherics, dropping into a meditative roller with wailing bass and ticking breaks. Accompanying this is "Mud" which is another cracking track full of murmuring SFX, rolling b-line and gentle, delicate details.
