Review: The Garage Shared crew have remained one of the most exciting imprints in the UK for exploring the very best of new school UK garage, with this latest seven track LP from Soulstate being another fantastic addition to the catalogue. We open up with 'Don't Think', a sizzling introduction silkily woven between tidy vocal chops and groovy drum drives, before 'I Can't' unleashes classic sounding vocal lines with nostalgic organ chords and a bag of skippy percussive inductions. From here, the title track 'Backstreets' darkens the textures with a much more moody backdrop of grizzly reese slides, before lightening up the arrangement again with 'How Long', another glittering combination of skippy rhythmic pockets and vocal dives. The emotive soundscaping of 'Judge' then arrives to add a touch of the epic to the EP's arrangements, before finishing off with two lively bubblers, with the Sharp One arriving for a high energy verse on the self titled 'Razor', next to the more Burial inspired backdrops of 'Together', rounding off a classy collection in style.
Review: The Garage Shared team have landed again, this time delivering a spicy second edition of their extremely popular 'Around The World In UKG' series, exploring garage from across the globe. We open up with the jittering piano runs of 'Wind' from Mar'One, which sets the tone nicely, before the bulbous moogy basslines of 'Leep Stick' from Unknown David leap into view. From here, the gnarly LFO sweeps and unpredictable rhythmic chops of Pligfig's 'Wake Up' arrive in style, followed by both the stuttering acidic basslines of 'Nostalgia' from Tripleset and Lincoln Baio's nostalgic masterclass in 'Fallin', which utilizes a fabulous vocal sampling to conjure up images of a yesteryear. Finally, NEVE & 5thSuite link up with Connie D for 'Flex', giving us euphoric exploration to round things off, topped with cowbell-like percussion and hard hitting horn stabs for good measure, signing out on a very successful collection!
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!
Review: So when it comes to UKG, there are few labels who have been able to keep it as consistent as the Garage Shared crew, who return once again with another fabulous box of remixes, this time working with the second edition of 'Soulecta & Friends' With the original project being a fully collaborative episode, this new collection allows a wider range of guests to make their appearances, with bassline and D&B versions being slipped into the tracklisting for an extra dash of spice. The full list of remixers includes the likes of Howden, IndiAlman, Ollie Weeks, Drax, D:Tune K9 and more, with our favourites having to be Hans Glader's luscious rethink of 'Something About You', next to Tengu's high octane overhaul of 'Tell Me It's Over'. Fabulous work!
Review: As Garage Shared continue to impress across the start of the year, they keep the intensity up as they launch this fabulous new four track display entitled 'Ones To Watch 2022'. From the title you can see that this is a very exciting exploration into some of the future talent the label has to offer, kicking off with the bubbling synthetic pounces and groovy drum designs of 'Astronomer' from Ben Hydro, closely followed by the quickened pace and almost 80's style soundscapes of 'Penthouse' from DJ Jackum, a name who is already attracting a lot of attention. From here, Laura Alice arrives for a burst of nostalgic energy on 'Get Up' utilizing catchy female vocal samples to give a serious groovebox, with Plipfig then unleashing a combination of grimey and mechanical energies on 'Can't Deny It', rounding off this wicked selection with a real slap.
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: At this point, it is genuinely quite difficult to keep finding words to describe just how impressive the Garage Shared output has been over the course of 2021, This latest compilation project sees them banner up the full collection of artists they have been working alongside with a monstrous tracklisting, featuring 15 original scorchers for us all to enjoy. The tracklisting itself features the likes of Oh My Daze, Soulstate, Deja, Bear Like, Howden, Lazy Susan and a bag of other Garage Shared regulars who have all had pretty impressive 2021s. The highlights and immediate standouts however have to include the sunshine-laden swings of 'Temperature' from Lewis Taylor, drenched in nostalgia and old school 2-step energy, alongside the charming vocal chops of 'All I Need' from DJ DJEGOR and the futuristic rhythmic switches of '1 Touch' from Sub Templa.Big up the Garage Shared crew for another wicked project and a wavy way to round off the year.
