Review: 6Blocc doesn't channel dancehall; he breathes new life into it. This EP is a joyful twist and skank through vintage vocal riffs and rose-tinted ragga sounds with the deceitfully dark edge of his perfectly tuned bass programming. Simultaneously as gritty as it is joyous, each track give listeners (and DJs alike) the choice of vocal and dub mixes - although we'd seriously recommend the former. It's rare that the roots of d&b are celebrated at the forefront of deep d&b and this release makes the most of the past to create a fresh sounding EP ready to take over dancefloors everywhere. Crank it.
Review: You shouldn't like things because people tell you're supposed to... But in the case of 6Blocc's two-part homage to one of the best TV shows to be made in the last 10 years we suspect you'll love it. If you know Blocc's MO, you'll already have this in your cart: a deep dig into the series haunted 80s sonic aesthetic weaved together with stacks of jungle motifs and mischief. No stone left unturned; cuts such as "Get Out" hit with deep dungeon finesse while others such as "Mindflayer" go straight for the soul with lavish pads and overwhelming amounts of emotion and others like "Portal" taps back into the original rave foundation that set the framework for everything we love today. 6Blocc smashes it again.
Review: The art of remixing jungle tunes is one that treads a fine line. On one side tracks come out warped and unintelligible, but on the other, when things go right, a new freshness is added to classic sounds, bringing relevance and a re-imagined heaviness to well-loved tunes. 6blocc spends his life doing the latter. A massive jungle fan from day zero, he's currently travelling the expanse of America on a tour to educate the masses about jungle etiquette. Revelling in pushing samples to the extreme, tunes like "Mexico City", "Down Low" and title track "Cumbia Bass" swing wildly between dancefloor smashing D&B and experiments in bassline sound. Listen to believe, you won't regret it.
Review: LA-based 6BLOCC is really the only dude making some straight up jungle mayhem in the Greater Los Angeles area these days and his Cali Jungle compilations are just about the only class d&b edits out there! This time he's back with round two of the series and it's another thrilling 25 cuts of break-ridden goodness for your Saturday night ruffage! Think Members Only but for old-school UK rave anthems and you're almost there...this is for anyone who is in love with the genre but requires that little extra diversity, that additional touch of funk. What a package!
Review: 6Blocc has never been busier... Released in the same week as his Cali Jungle LP, "Gritty N Grimey" showcases the slower, dubbed-out side to his repertoire. Eight tracks in total, here we find the prolific producer nestling comfortably in the 140 BPM realm. "Badbwoy Bass" is deep, minimal and coded with a subtle skank, "Deadly Techniques" is a strung slice of filmic wild west bass while "Afghan Memories" takes us even deeper into spacious territories as eastern twangs fuse with epic sub drones with mesmerising effect. Deeper again we hit more highlights such as the twisted vocal loops of "Brainwasher" and the Kryptic Minds-style amen stepper "Have No Mercy". Heavy.
Review: Longstanding west coast jungle informer 6Blocc comes correct with an album of chunky edits. Complementing the lower-tempo "Gritty N Grimey" parallel release with whistle-stop 170 ruffage, each of the 21 cuts take the London template and bake it in classic Cali sunshine. Highlights include the super-freaky Adina Howard reference "Freak In The Jungle", a gun-toting Blackstreet cowboy cut "Diggity" and the Marky-esque soulful roller "Time Flies". Capturing ever deft move of 6Blocc's commitment to the US jungle movement, Cali Jungle is the ultimate document of where both he and his fellow 170BPM countrymen are at right now... And it's a great place to be.
Review: Following crucial homages to Biggie and Sade, the inimitable 6Blocc continues to dig deep into his concept vibe, this time with an album built around the Steven Segal movie Marked For Death. As always with the Bloccster, we're nose-deep in jungle territory with a lot of savage breaks, gritty bases and neck-break cuts and edits and the paranoid, edgy sounds fit the samples; both "Johnnie 2019" and "Hatcha" have an especially unnerving 93 vibe to them, the Shabba-stacking "Roots & Culture 2019" hits with all skanks and sirens blazing and "Screwface 2019" doesn't so much as live up to its name but rather reaches out of the speakers and physically screw your face up. And that's just a very small selection from another exceptional and deeply considered collection. Does 6Blocc even sleep? Machine!
Review: Fresh from his rampant jungle and breakneck breakbeat excursions, LA vibe infuser 6Blocc takes respite in his dungeon for a series of deeper dub jams. Ranging from the super-minimal, slimy-walled sludge of "Dark Side" to the ricochet-rhythm and MC-peppered dynamics of "Illusion" via the steppier militancy and spoken word weirdness of "Wake Up Call" and the pure titanium rhythm of "Break & Eliminate", it's 6Blocc at his deepest and darkest. And yet more evidence of his versatility.
Review: There has been nothing released by dubstep stalwart Raoul Gonzalez under his 6Blocc alias so far this year, but now the Lo Dubs regular returns to the fray with this fresh bag of tricks for Digital 6. "Babylon Blood Sucka" is a slow-stepping jam with a great vocal sample, while "Rudeboy (Dub)" brings even more roots flavours into the mix alongside plenty of jungle break heat. "Arrriginal" is equally fuelled by reggae skanks and dub FX with some of the old-skool grit, before "Afrika (dub)" ramps up the intensity with some monstrous bass and tribal percussion. "Bad Attitude (Dub)" finishes the EP off with a heavy swanging lurcher that counts amongst the heaviest on the release.
Review: LA's most annihilistically prolific bass fiend 6Blocc returns with yet another full length collection (his fourth this year so far) This one pays special dedication to jungle's deepest foundations with twisted amens, mangled synths and raucous MC calls to action. All tailored for the floor and your chaotic creative mixing pleasure, highlights swing like gremlins from every snare roll and edit. Big moments include the traditional organ skanks of "Jungle Lick", the rubber-ball subs of "Original Junglist" and the chalice-chuffing vocal flexes of "Reggaematic Style". Bona fide roots business.
Review: Having paid homage to cult Mexican gangster film Mi Vida Loca last year, 6Blocc takes time to celebrate another classic movie Boyz In The Hood with another concept album. Taking samples from the film and weaving them into gully floor heaters, 6Blocc shows us his darkest skills with a palette of sounds. "Church Booty" refuses to quit with its relentless back/forth sub ripples, "Crenshaw & Century" is a Tom & Jerry level jungle joint full of twisted amen edits and Ice Cube freshness, "In The Hood" slinks and tickles with "Pulp Fiction" style minimalism while "Mark" flips the mean and moody halftime bird with cosmic grit. These are just a handful of highlights.
Review: 6Blocc's inexhaustible output continues... And it does so while poking and prodding new exciting areas. Here we find him paying homage to the mighty Wu. Unravelling their mysteries and messages and building them back around the breaks, Blocc busts a range from dubstep to D&B by way of prototype 160 jungle, paying respect to The Clan with authority all the way. Highlights include the added drama of "Chessboxin'", the classic jungle subversion theme to "WWO" and the really clever twist of Method Man's "Release Yo Delf".
Review: Wu homages don't come much classier than 6Blocc's recent all-genre bass chamber explorations. First came the full vocal refixes, now come the leaner instrumental twists where the Wu Tang love is still abundantly clear thanks to the fact RZA's sample craft is as sharp as their lyrics. Some hit hard from the off such as The Charmels hooks on "Ca$h Rule$" while others take a while to tease such as "Wwo" where 6Blocc's classic jungle breaks roll and flex before Method Man's smoky croaks are used as a percussive device. From dark dub ("Suicide") to breezy footwork/jungle ("Wrek Room"), 6Blocc has repurposed Wu Tang with well-crafted style right here.
Review: Last spotted messing with the Wu, 6Blocc takes us even further back in time for his own dub side of the moon. A true Floydian odyssey rebooted for the modern bass lover, subtly is the name of 6Blocc's game: the paranoid, way-ahead-of-its-time "Run" gets a lick of 303 and swinging breakbeat, "Speak" retains all its dreamy majesty while the iconic moans and cries of "Sky" are stretched out from midnight fumble to 24-hour marathon. Elsewhere the till-chiming riff of "Money" is smothered in blankets of sub while "Colour" is galvanised with a classic Dig Your Own Hole era big beat. To some this may err on heresy, but to others this is a trip like no other. See you on the other side.
Review: 6Blocc clearly misses the October fun times of Halloween, because they've come out with this Halloween themed EP in the month of...March. Either way, with the current state of the earth every day may as well be Halloween, so it's not untimely. What it is, however, is seriously moody and desperately dark, each inch of this release is laden with jungle stomps or low-frequency shudders and it all lands very well. 'Killer' is the heaviest of the release, the least jungle but the most aggressive with its grating, metallic conception of force. 6Blocc then runs through a string of junglist riddims, all of which deserve a look. Spooky stuff.
Review: Normally found making and releasing music inspired by his favourite films, here 6Blocc instead re-releases his classic Stay Strong tune (with a string of VIPs too). The original (first released on Booyakah Records) is total fiyah - a cacophony of sped up amen breaks that launches into some bouncy dub. The "VIP Vocal" is an even more spaced out Rastafarian homage to Haile Selassie, the "VIP Dub" is a percussion frenzy and lastly the "Battle Beats Version' takes us right back to the hardcore raves of the 90s. Boom!
Review: It was all a dream. You used to read Word Up magazine, Junodownload up in the limousine... And 6Blocc whipping up the jungle versions collection we've been waiting for. Known for his crafty bootleg science, here we find 6Blocc levelling up once again with 15 gully grinds of Biggie's finest. Hightlights front, max, flex and pack from every corner: the sublime soul of "Big Poppa" gets an upbeat lift, "Flava" is flipped into a low-slung purring roller with molten horns and woozy vibes laced deep into the groove while the seminal "Juicy" is given a poignant twist that hits just as hard Biggie's lyrics. And that's just the tip of iceBlocc; serious flavour in your ears...
Review: Wowzer! 6Blocc is on a roll right now as he follows up his hench Biggie versions album with another humungous package dedicated to an absolute legend. This time it's the unmistakable sunset dulcets of Sade. Come-to-bed eyes at the ready, any of these will get hearts fluttering but highlights include the Bungle-style star-gazing twist of "By Your Side", the light-footed skips and woozy sheen of "Haunt Me" and the big sweeping string lament and sudden twist of "King Of Sorrow". That's barely the tip of this soul iceberg and he's also included a fat stack of breaks from the originals. Get creative with 6Blocc by you side (not sorry)
Review: The Blocster is on a roll right now! The next in his recent slew of concepts that's included homages to Biggie, Sade and Marked For Death is this bulldozer set of Stranger Things-inspired jungle translations. It's business from the off as "Contamination" and "Demigorgon" hit with Hardware-like brutality and don't hint at the more celestial 80s synth themes Stranger Things is more associated with. The darkness continues throughout whether it's the nail-biting tension of the electroid thumper "The Exit", the pranged-out pressure of the Dread-style "The Lab" or the barbed dream arpeggios of the title track itself. And this is just the first part!
