Review: Wake up and smell the bake up, Walsh's Biscuit Factory have cooked a fresh batch from three relative newcomers and the results are highly scrumptious; Nottingham three-piece kick off with abyss plunged bass tones and more space that Professor Brian Cox's daydreams, Rufus!'s "Slug Crawl" lives up to its name perfectly with molten rhythmic elements and stacks of tightly coiled funk in the groove while Reaction closes the show on a mystic introspective tip. Grub's up!
Say A Prayer For Me (Alex Metric remix) - (7:12) 122 BPM
Say A Prayer For Me (Mazde remix) - (3:47) 120 BPM
Review: Australian outfit Rufus have taken the Modular/Presets model and made it all little bit more EDM-friendly. It's a method that's largely paid off, and here "Say A Prayer For Me", one of their hits from album Bloom, gets some even dancier remakes. MK is up first, delivering some beguilingly smooth electro-house, before looking to vintage Nightcrawlers for some retro dance-pop on his excellent dub. Alex Metric serves up some electric acid-disco for his standout mix, whilst Mazda goes the full Coldplay, which you will totally love if waving lighters in stadiums is your thing.
Review: Sydney trio Rufus continue on their quest for world domination, finally releasing their long awaited debut album on the late Ajax' Sweat It Out label. Things get off to a great start with first track "Brighter" which kind of sounds like Coldplay...if they went fully EDM! There's some gorgeous deep house on offer too, that will rock just as many clubs as they will stadiums this Spring like on "Be With You" or "Tell Me". Their lead vocalist Tyrone certainly has some lungs on him, what a singer! And don't worry, their recent hits such as "Like An Animal", "Say A Prayer For Me" and "You Were Right" all appear on here too.
Review: The word 'vimana' comes from the ancient term for mythical flying machine. Fitting: this is one deep space dub workout that should have your floor flying to all manner of uncharted territories. Anchored by the sturdy, steady bass croak, "Vimana" is home to an alluring spread of rises, whooshes and eerie reverberated FX. At first it doesn't feel like you're flying anywhere... then the repetitive kicks come in from nowhere mid-track and the explorations truly begin. "Vimana" - it'll give you wings!
Review: As one of the most consistent projects working in and around the thriving dubstep scene, we are always very excited to see what the latest Hatched release has in store, as we here see them introduce the underground sounds of RUFUS! to the table. We kick off with the super spacey arrangements and haunted vocal presence of 'How I', followed by the super swinging drum movements of 'Iboga', and the super gnarly bass twists of 'KTH'. This is then followed up by the regal horn structures and swerving sub dips of 'The Mighty', before RUFUS! gets into his remix back as he reworks Dubfreq's 'Back' into another more tearout masterpiece, led by crunchy bass designs and smooth harmonies throughout.
Review: Phil Weeks' long-running French house/deep house label Robsoul Recordings round up the best of their 2020 output in one high-VFM package. As per Robsoul's MO generally, you won't find a lot in the way of navel-gazing introspection or pointless, self-indulgent experimentalism here - Robsoul have always specialised in dropping beats to move your feets and this year's crop doesn't disappoint! The wonky, jazzy garage of The Mekanism's 'Signs', the raw jack of Joss Moog's 'So Good So Fresh', Demuir's strutty hip-houser 'Nice And Dutty' and Jade Cox's looping, west coast-ish 'Realise' are just some of the highlights of a fine collection.
