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Vital Techniques
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Review: The Vital Techniques boys have been pushing a seriously high level of garage flavour over the last couple of years, with their efforts being rewarded by this fabulous appearance on DJ EZ's Nuvolve imprint. They let fly a barrage of bassy goodness, kicking off with the warbling low end scuttles and catchy melodic drifts of 'Deception', all glued together by an abstract approach to vocal sampling. From here, the party turns up a level with 'Losing My Mind' meshing together an eerie vocal lead with warbling bass notation and progressive chord designs for a summer sizzler, before 'Like This' then providing us with a party starting feeling, fusing anthemic vocals with a warbling bassline that will keep the rave alive until the early hours!
Played by: Vital Techniques
Played by: Juno Recommends UK Garage
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Review: Despite already being jam-packed with releases, the Garage Shared team have pushed even further forward in 2022 with another outstanding collection, this time seeing eight of their most popular releases face the remix treatment. The cast that has been assembled is pretty special to say the least, with the likes of Prozak, Deja, Hans Glader, Oh My Daze, Tuff Culture, K9 and more all getting involved with some colourful overhauls. For us, the release holds two clear standouts however, firstly with Mkjay's superb rethink of SOULSTATE's 'Come Home' original, delivering an old school feel, doused in organ chords and smooth drum production. As well as this, Howden's bubbling redesign of 'Judging Me' from Vital Techniques is a perfect stick of rave dynamite, again showing both the breadth and width of quality across the Garage Shared roster. Excellent stuff!
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Review: In the near 6 years Southpoint has been up and operational, we have seen them constantly supply us with wicked compilation sets, always looking to showcase the next big talent whilst also welcoming back their stacked roster for another outing. The collection they have pulled together for this latest drop is pretty powerful, with label regulars Cortese, Daze Prism, TVU, Drax, Earthnut, Hamdi, Jakebob, Kiddah, EM-Roe & KXVU all making solid contributions. They also welcome the likes of Demure, DV-US & Vital Techniques back inside, following on from some very exciting single drops, whilst also introducing us to one of the stars of the future in Clarcq, a Scottish UKG producer whose infectiously uplifting 'Siren' leads the way here. Excellent work once again.
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Played by: Juno Recommends UK Garage
Review: December is of course the time of year where every label starts to unleash their final compilation drop of the year, with the Garage Shared crew being actively hailed as one of the country's most valuable UKG platforms. This is reflected in their 2021 catalogue which is explored in great detail across this new compilation, with the likes of Gemi, Tuff Culture, Soulecta, FooR, Bar Li, Oh My Daze, Deja, Smokey Bubblin' B and many more top names all landing killer originals. The full selection features 23 of the label's most popular drops for the year, with some of our particular favourites including the niche-inspired LFO pulses and scattered drum slides of MKJAY's 'Recess', next to the big room chord progressions of WZA's 'Over Me, Over You' and the singalong flavours of Blakk Habit and Gid Swedgewick's sumptuous 'Solid Plan'. Awesome stuff as per!
Review: It's always a pleasure to see the heavyweight Leeds duo of Vital Techniques return to their home imprint of Second To None Music, this time delivering a six track epic across garage bass and breakbeat themes. We kick off with the euphoric introduction of 'Positive Thinking', which through nostalgia inducing piano chords and a bubbling breakdown, launches the EP into the stratosphere right from the beginning. We continue with the wobbly garage feel on 'Can't Trust', this time utilizing catchy auto-tuned vocals for some additional texture, before 'Pull Up & Play Back' unleashes a missile-like arrangement, perfect for the late night dances. From here, our personal highlight arrives in 'First Time', another singalong garage masterclass, encompassing everything we love about the Vital Techniques sound, followed by the well-titled throwback flavours of 'Back In The Day'. Finally, 'Never Be The Same' slows the pace significantly for a much more crunchy roller, giving us the perfect wind-down for a pretty outstanding project.
Played by: NAZA
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Review: It's always exciting to catch up with the 24hr Garage Girls imprint to see what they have been up to, with this latest drop proving to be a certified gem from the second it landed in our new releases box. They unveil a powerful new collection for their first compilation drop of 2021, including music from heavyweight garage faces such as Champion, MPH, Tuff Culture, Vital Techniques and more, whilst also introducing some of the most exciting new faces in Hans Glader, Oppidan & Zefer. The nine-track selection is seriously impressive, with Shosh's own 'Stick It Up' original proving to be one of the initial highlights, alongside the super colourful melodic slides and scatty drum work of 'Guard The Barrier' from Breaksmiths. Incredible stuff from an incredible team.
Played by: Mr Brainz, Skillz (PAR / SHAG / Rare Supply), Vital Techniques, Juno Recommends UK Garage, NAZA, J69
Review: As always with the Vital Techniques duo, they have gone all out on their latest drop via their home imprint of Second To None to deliver us six tracks of futuristic garage fire. We begin our delvings with a look at 'Euphoria', a floating, chord layden bubbling bop, followed by the lethal reese manoeuvres and catchy vocal hooks of 'Obsession'. From here, we move into the more broken beat rhythms of 'Nothing Matters', followed by the cleverly placed vocal slices and choppy synth plucks of 'Walking On Air' and the sumptuous sub-bass structures of 'Temptation'. Finally, 'Show Me How' sees the Vital Techniques team smash together an impressive collection of synth sounds for a big room round off.
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Various
Review: Well well well, it looks like CruCast are back up to their old tricks again as they assemble a weighty new compilation collection to fill out the fourth volume of their flagship series 'Shake The Bass'. As per, the heavyweights have arrived as we see some incredible creations from the likes of MPH, Burt Cope, NLMT, Massappeals, Vital Techniques and more. However, it is in the more underground names that have found the most excitement, with our highlighted features on this one coming firstly from Namena, who delivers a gnarly, metallic monster with 'Chains', alongside the techy influences of 'Honey Dip' from Foul Play and the charged up melodic bass-driven madness of Cooky's 'Behind'.
Played by: Juno Recommends UK Garage
Review: We have started to notice a bit of a pattern developing with the Leeds City veterans: Vital Techniques, that pattern being that whenever they join forces with long term associate: MC Pean, bangers tend to follow. This latest drop is a perfect example of that as we take in the high energy bassline roles and catchy toasted lyrical inputs of the A:Side 'Gassed', perfect for setting the party alight'. On the flip side, the party flavours continue, this time with a more rhythmic design on 'Way Back When', drawing on a combination of nostalgic lyricism and well processed bass warbles to stitch together a piece of rave-ready dynamite.
Played by: NAZA
Review: The run that Second To None have been on as a label has been pretty darn impressive when we sit back and take it in, with this latest drop from founders: Vital Techniques being another perfect addition. For the title track we see them link up with the potent vocal prowess of Graft, who gets busy over a lively instrumental structure full of rhythmic snare snaps. Following this, 'Amen' provides us with some classic sounding grimey fire, dripping in explosive horn riffs and lively rhythms, before the epic string and choir combos of '2020 Vision' unleash the perfect finale. Lovely stuff
Played by: RICO TUBBS, Mr Brainz, Skillz (PAR / SHAG / Rare Supply), Juno Recommends UK Garage, BURNIE, Juno Recommends Bass
Review: It's pretty clear that Vital Techniques have not let the lockdown period slow down their inspiring work ethic as they get busy sourcing four explosive remixes to their vibrant collaboration with MC Pean entitled 'Bun Up The Ting'. We kick off with J69's old school niche bassline rethink, adding extensive wobbly bass designs and high energy drum runs into proceedings, followed by Soulecta's nostalgic UKG flip, perfect for the sunshine. Next, Danny T & Tradesman switch it up with a crunchy grime recreation before Sublow Hz sends the acapella into the jump up blender for the final overhaul, giving this project a fantastic amount of variety from start to finish.
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Played by: Skillz (PAR / SHAG / Rare Supply), Juno Recommends UK Garage, BURNIE, NAZA, Juno Recommends Bass
Review: Second To None Music regulars Vital Technique return to action with the follow-up to 2019 General Levy hook-up "Give It To Dem". This time round they've got MC Pean in tow, a mic man who last featured on their 2017 EP "Gunfingers". He's in fine form on "Bun Up The Ting", a verified UK funky wobbler laden with wobble-step style bass, siren sounds, laden percussion hits and an ear-catching steel pan style lead line. The duo's tight production, bowel-bothering bass, twisted electronic noises and cheery melodies naturally come to the fore in the accompanying "Instrumental Mix", while the bonus acapella version is perfect for those inventive producers who feel like making their own remix (or DJs who just want to get busy in the mix for that matter).
Review: Two in two weeks? Yeah, why not. We return to Second To None here for the second edition of their 'Street Dubs' EP project, inviting the same cast of El Laurie, Hamdi and Vital Techniques in for a second round refill. We firstly check out the classic grimey flavours of 'Wet Up' from El Laurie, a nostalgic 2-steppy roller, packed with explosive horns and squarewave energy. Next, Hamdi continues down his unique dubstep-inspired path as the waspy tones of 'Wobbly' run riot, before label founders: Vital Techniques bring out the final piece of the puzzle with the abstract rhythms of 'Venom'.
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Review: It has been a brief minute since we took in a new drop from the Second To None team, but boy have they relaunched with a bang as we talk into three absolute heaters. Firstly, Brighton resident and rapidly rising DJ: El Laurie kicks us off, with his tight drum expressions and vibrant string work in 'Next Hour', before the chomping dubstep basslines of Hamdi's 'Caterpillar' roll into view, following on from an extremely popular Facebook reveal of the track. Finally, label head honchos: Vital Techniques grace us with the third original, another freezing 140 creation, built around shimmering arpeggios and 8bit drum switches!
Played by: Mr Brainz
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Played by: Mr Brainz
Review: Leeds based top boy selectors Vital Techniques return here to their home label 'Second To None' alongside long term collaborator: MC Pean, for four top draw creations. We kick off with an exciting collaboration project with Leeds mic legends Dialect and P Solja, who provide some heavyweight flows on 'Santander'. Following this, we dip into the garage-inspired switch ups and bouncy textures of 'Oi', before 'Militant' rolls into focus on a new school 140 flex, packed full of delicious synth energy and sharp drum smashes. We finish this one off with a look at the more experimental flavours of 'Write Him Off', which forms into an electronic hip-hop style structure, bristling with tasty distorted subs and Pean's strongest vocal of the project in our opinion.
Played by: Mr Brainz
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Review: Straight out of the heart of Leeds, Second To None Music has been setting some serious pace across the breadth of 2018. Headed up by founders: Vital Techniques, we see them assemble a mighty host for the first edition their band new 'Head Gone' compilation series, showcasing some of the best in bass music right now. We see inspired appearances from bassline heavyweights such as Deadbeat UK, Brent Kilner, Spectrum, Pavv and more, with particular highlighted flavours coming from man of the minute: Sammy Virji, on his super vibrant roller entitled 'Thunderclap'. Dr Cryptic also makes a stellar appearance on 'Little Roller', with Vital Techniques themselves supplying some skippy heat on 'Wasted'.
Review: Vital Techniques have had a top draw year so far, dropping some of the scenes biggest releases across both the grime & bassline spheres. Here they return for a high energy two track bass party, beginning with the old school sounds of 'All The Time' which smashes together electronic vocal slices and almost eski-like lead subs, resulting in a super groovy movement. On the flip, the more UKG inspired composition of 'Be Real'; takes hold, which focuses on classic organ chord progressions, vocal melodies and some seriously skippy drum arrangements, rounding off a great two track project.
Review: After a string of potent collaborations, Vital Techniques team up with the vicious vocal presence of MC Pean again for a weighty composition on their home imprint: Second To None. Across the introduction we are given grimey rhythms and smooth shells from Pean before sliding into a heavyweight bassline crescendo with lethal synth work and destructive drum processing. This a combo which seems to be able to do no wrong!
Played by: Juno Recommends UK Garage
Review: Vital Techniques continue their exciting start to 2018 with this fantastic box of goodies entitled 'Taking The Piss' via the Second To None imprint. Featuring 4 original creations the full project is full of rave-ready material and is guaranteed to get the dance moving. The title track features a high energy vocal from the ever-ready MC Pean which sits perfectly above grinding bass synths and euphoric synth chords. Pean features again alongside Leeds city grime legend: Dialect for more electric vocals on the 'Supply and Demand' VIP. Following this we hear the demonic bass sounds of 'Hold On' and moogy patterns of 'Shadow Boxing'. This is a great overall project that even comes complete with the 'Taking The Piss' instrumental track.
Review: Leeds bass junkies Vital Techniques are back to work on their Second To None imprint and, in fact, it would be fair to say that this new EP is a clear mark of their confidence and panache behind the mixing board. Calling any tune "Gunfingers In The Air" is pretty much a sure sign that you know what you're on about when it comes to deathly bass shots, and the same can be said for the more house-centric vibes of "Get Down". "No One Else" is a perfect hybrid" between dubstep and garage, all sped up and full of mutant dread, whereas "Prisoner" comes through with a much sexier, sleeker garage banger with that unmistakably early 00s r&b touch.
