Review: Upfront drum & bass behemoths The Upbeats smash into the public consciousness like a meteor through the roof of parliament with their fourth LP. Seemingly convinced their previous works just weren't loud or complex enough, this album is an exploration of not only how explosive the duo can sound, but how their sound has changed since their early days. Even with the techno and grime influences in "Again I" featuring Armanni Reign, chiptune in "Falling Into Place", dark, dread-dripping haunted rhythms in "Alone" with vocals from Tasha Baxter, minimal bass noodle-ry in "Castles", hard-hitting neuro and jump-up run straight through this release like an electric heartbeat. Fans have enough meat to satisfy their subwoofers, newcomers and naysayers can sink their teeth into the deeper cognitions and apparitions. What's not to love?
Review: New Year doesn't officially kick off until Viper smack you silly with their yearly "Drum & Bass Annual". 2017's edition smacks even harder than usual with no less than 10 exclusives including a Culture Shock/Dimension style roll out from Misfit, Halflight's "Communication Failure" that has enough power to cause a civil war and North Base's "Woman" that has so much seductive soul power to cause a mess in your trousers. Elsewhere The Voss & NC-17 pay respect to the Book Of The Bad on "Mojave" and Blaine Stranger sends you off to cosmoses unknown on "By Your Side". And that's just a handful of the unreleased cuts amid some of the label's biggest releases in recent times.
Review: Besides cameos on Shogun's 100 series with Proxima and Sotto Voce with Spor, this is Icicle's first full body of work since his critically celebrated sophomore Entropy. Four tracks (and one instrumental) deep, it's loaded with all the meany mannerisms and characteristics we know and love the Dutch scientist for... Tasha's Bjorky delivery on "The Nothing", stark techno loopery and FX on "Differentia", the electrified robot romp of "Ego" and the unforgiving halftime badlands of "Push Back". No one does it like Icicle.
Review: From Prolix to Technimatic, Total Science to Was A Be by way of Icicle, Joe Ford, Fourward, Spectrasoul, Phace, Ed.It and many more, Friction's label digs deep from the genre's most innovative corners and eras. As we prepare to close off 2016, they've taken a detailed look back over the last 18 months of crucial output to not just represent where the label is at, but the genre itself. An ideal opportunity to fill any holes in your collection cuts such as Fourward & Linguistics demonic stomper "Storm", Was A Be's rudeboy-slewing halftime damager "Blind" or Break's sparkling "Emerald" and complete with a journeyman mix of the tracks themselves, this rounds up yet another serious year at the very forefront of drum & bass.
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