Review: When you look across the full breadth of garage music in 2021, there really aren't many people who have been putting in the work as consistently as Soulecta, who finally delivers the long awaited debut album with Garage Shared, entitled 'Soulecta & Friends'. It's a magnificent homage to the rebirth of garage music in the UK over the last few years, with the features including the likes of MC Neat, Shosh, Tuff Culture, FooR, Dread MC & many more top quality names. You'll be hard pressed to find a higher quality 10 selection, with our highlights including the beautiful soundscaping and piano riffs of 'Whistler', alongside Sushi Ceej & Nate Fox, next to the high energy chord runs of 'Cloud Nine' with Prozak. This is a huge moment in Soulecta's flourishing career and it's clear to see that for him, the only way is up!
Review: The Garage Shared team continue to do a fantastic job of showcasing both the best in UKG right now, whilst also platforming an exciting wave of newcomers, the latter of which this spicy new compilation takes a primary focus on. We begin with a sumptuous UKG summer anthem as Deja unveils 'Give It To Me', featuring Sydney Jane', kickstarting the project with a high ceiling as Sydney's beautiful vocals grace a delightful 2-step backdrop. We then move into Howden's 'Obsession' next, forming a tidy fusion of garage and bassline themes with its groovy melodic design, all before Green Deep ups the tempo on 'It's Alright', linking up smart horn riffs and a packed out rhythm section in style. To round off, we take it even more old school as Lewis Taylor delivers a skippy vocal chop extravaganza with 'Temperature', chased up by a top notch outro track in SOULSTATE's 'I Wanna', again using a stunning vocal & rhythm combo to seal the deal.
Review: It's always a pleasure to hear new, exciting music unveiled over at the Garage Shared camp, who this time pull something different out of the bag, exploring garage from around the world. This scrumptious selection sees them collect garage bangers from 9 different countries of origin, with the likes of Bowser, DJ Blaize, Kiefer Ian, and more all supplying heavyweight 2-step rollers. Indialman's groovy chord experiments in 'Arrival' are a perfect example of this project's natural versatility, alongside the epic string sampling and reverby organs of 'Ododdnt' and DJ Djegor's clean cut singalong in 'All I Need'. Hitch93 takes a highlight spot with his super groovy 'Hologram' original, alongside Keiju's glitchy drives in 'Blue Boy' and of course DubbalifE's quirky floor filler entitled 'Can't Help'. Wicked work!
