Review: Dom returns to his Dubs Dungeon once again and re-opens the Dillinja crypt for two more long-coveted dubplates. "You" is fresh from 94 with subs so thick and misty they'll freeze you to your bones and breaks so sharply edited you now have pierced ears just reading this short review, this was a major missile for the AWOL massive. "King Of The Beats" is a year or two deeper into Dillinja's unmatchable discography with a killer b-boy sample, rocket fuel drums and a waspy bassline that stings from a 10 mile radius. Jungle royalty.
Review: Two more stone cold artefacts from the golden era vaults: Dom & Roland continues to unearth more treasures in the form of "Phoenix" and "Tears In The Rain". The former is a Tech Itch co-lab from the mid 90s that charges with rusty drum edits and a drop into a stripped back sub groove and twisted shades of acid while the latter looks back to his "Mechanics" chapter with a rampant, heavily layered heads-down roll, spooked-out overtones and a classic Bladerunner sample. Just like the vinyls themselves, these are foundation-era gold.
Review: Oh boy... We should have known Dom & Roland had big things in store when the third release in this long-lost series came from Dillinja. Now comes the second hugely influential guest - the mighty DJ Krust. And he's given Dom two incendiary classics that have been the sole preserve of DAT and acetate for the last 20 years. "Ivory Puzzle" is the sound of Krust snapping up his (cloaking) devices while "Flip It" comes from the Soul In Motion era where a simple groove rolls out and its subtle variations maintain raw suspense and class. Two more total gems from the drum & bass's strongest foundation chapter.
Review: Dom's Dubs From The Dungeons series continues with more long-lost treasures from one of the most genre-compounding eras in drum & bass. According to legend "Invasion" takes root in a remix of Ed Rush before becoming the sci-fi odyssey it is now. Rolling on some deliciously loose and jazzy breaks, there's a latent funk beneath the foreboding veneer. "Revenge" takes a much more direct approach with its teeth-baring bass grunts and glacial pads. Like everything in this series (and pretty much everything Dom has ever released full stop) these don't stand the test of time - they reverse it.
Review: The big, bad Dillinja is back with some of his original vibes, and this is nothing but good news to those who've been feeling a little crestfallen with the current trends in d&b. This man deserves no introductions, but we feel compelled to say that he's been a leading figure in the jungle scene since the mid 90s, and his 'Valve' sound has constantly redefined and expanded the boundaries of the genre. The artist's amorphous sounds land on Dom & Roland's own label, another legendary drum and bass duo whose sound has equally kept on testing the scene, and "End Of Line" feels like a return to what Dillinja has always done best - a rickshaw of metallic breaks fuses ever so well to a mighty wall of bass with that inimitable crunch sound. It's a total chest-burster of a tune. "Acid Roller", as the name implies, proceeds to launch a devastating attack of break bundles over an evil, dubby concoction of sub-tones and short bursts of beats. Deadly.
Review: Ive always been a huge Dom fan so im always quite biased when it comes to his tunes. Here we have the second in his Dubs From the Dungeons series which is concentrated on unreleased dubs from his earlier years. The Trap features the classic Dom amen with that killer kick drum stomp that i was always enamoured with and it drives a completely twisted fucked up tune, the kind only Dom can master.
Swarm reminds me of Ed Rush's Subway which was released to great acclaim on Prototype. I believe Dom engneered that track as well. Buy it.
Review: If you don't manage to catch the limited run gold vinyls, here's your chance to take a big bite of history as Dom rolls out a series of some of his most sought after dub plates from golden era. We rewind to 97 for these, both made with Headz in mind and hammered by the biggest names at Blue Note, they speak for themselves; "Aliens" is a brutally dense weave of alien textures and tones while "Zodiac" licks with a little more toxic funk in the bass and sharpness on the chiselled two-step. You can literally feel the heritage heaviness as it pours from your speakers.
Review: Fresh from one of his strongest albums to date on Headz, the scoundrel returns to his own imprint with two elephantine collaborations with mates old and new. First up, long-time tech demon Fierce joins the fray with a tight, ever-morphing and mutating groove that could loop from here to eternity and never get boring. Next up, the seismic slab of raw design and devilish aesthetics "Ultraviolet" wherein Dom teams up with his protege Xanadu (who is now a respected craftsman in his own right) for some truly unique hair-raising 3am material. Monstrous.
Review: A year has passed since Xanadu took us through the clouds and he returns with a brand new couplet of weapons. "Save Yourself" is a Loxy-level roller with rattling percussion creating heaps of tension in the stripped back groove. "Maglev" retains that drum-heavy minimal style but with more wriggling psy elements in the sinewy acid. Think the The Book Of The Bad era foundation darkfunk - all funnel web bass and alien elements - and you're on the right track. Dom & Roland isn't releasing this guy's music for nothing.
Review: If the titles of these two new offerings from veteran Dom & Roland seem a little ponderous don't worry their music hasn't mellowed whatsoever. Heavy as always, "A Life Of Chance" kicks things off by perfectly recapturing the E-d up wild-eyed delirium of the early Metalheadz parties. "Natural Selection" takes things way darker however, combining industrial melodic squawks with brutal beats and general serial-killer's-basement vibes. Nihilistic jungle.
Review: Russian roustabout Mr Frenkie steps aside from his Phlegmatic Dogs house project with two pristine slabs of dynamic drum & bass. "Pathfinder" wouldn't go amiss in a Break or DLR set thanks to its spacious drums and well-placed synths. Less is most definitely more on this one. "Foundation" flips the vibe for something a lot harder and techier. Think Xtrah or Mefjus but a tiny bit more understated.
Review: Classic remix klaxon: Dom's 2007 terror-tech slammer was remixed by longstanding US bass-smith Hive a few years back but - in classic jungle form - it's only seeing the physical light of day now. Time means nothing when heaviness on this level is at play; Dom's original elements sound like no other while Hive's live electricity sound and hornet's nest angst will still sound futuristic and bold in 20 or 30 years time. Steroid soul.
Review: As one of the most exciting new talents to come out of London over the past 12 months, Xanadu has been championed by a list of game-topping artists so long we really don't have time to list them. Needless to say, this LP has been eagerly slapped out of Dom & Roland Productions' hands before the cover art was even dry. It's a blend of experimental beats and dark, determined basslines whipping up different worlds of texture and colour at a breakneck pace. Taking inspiration from sound design giants such as Aphex Twin and Amon Tobin as well as from the drum & bass elite, this is an album well worth seeking out. Have your mind expanded.
Review: How could "Get Up" - one of Dom & Roland's most unforgiving dance floor endurance races - get any better? Get some seriously twisted individuals in to give it a good rough-up, that's what, starting with LA-based E-Sassin, who has packed even more devastating neuro nuances and punchy drums into the mix. Italian badman Mr Frenk joins in for the other side with a similarly unadulterated rampage into the world of drumcore-meets-neuro, sound design-meets-straight-up D&B aesthetics.
Review: 2014 is a special year for Dom Angas. Not only is he turning 40, but it also marks 20 years since the release of his first single under the Dom & Roland alias. As part of the celebrations, he's handed over the parts to a string of classic productions to a veritable who's who of D&B talent. They provide a series of dark, pulverising, rolling and occasionally intense reworks, all designed to cement his reputation as one of the greatest exponents of the artform. Highlights are naturally plentiful, from the classic jungle breaks and rave-era rush of BTK and Optiv's rework of "Jungle Beast", to the exotic melodies, foreboding stabs and tech-tinged textures of Mindscape's mighty rub of "Mindfeeders".
We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you've provided to them or that they've collected from your use of their services.