Review: Next up from the ever-ready Liondub International, a throwback filled to the brim with lethal flavours as Conrad Subs touches down to deliver four tracks of pure dancefloor fire. We open up with the unpredictable synthetic twitches and reesey rumbles of 'Rave Report', setting the tone of the project nicely before 'Dough' gives us a more minimal fusion of growling bass notes and sharpened drum designs. Next, 'Big Chungus' opens up the roof for an even harder hitting sub-line, upping the ante even further as we move forward, with Speaker Louis providing some additional work on the well thought out rhythmic arrangements of 'Shots Fired'. Another tidy collection from the Liondub dynasty.
Review: Usually known for more jumpier takes on D&B - especially with his 2Ton project - Corrupted Mind follows up the Jungle Jam single with a full EP of the same gully, uncompromised and blistering breakbeat jungle style. Each cut gnarlier than the last, Nuusic's signature fizzy energy has been reimagined in an exciting way as CM goes in on all the little details: 'Rinse Out' comes with serious tension, 'Murder Tune' is all about the militant percussion while 'War Cry' is just pure bassline aggression. What an EP!
Review: Mysticism's Dubplate series has got a couple of great drops lined up at the moment and this is one of them, from German digidub pioneers TVS aka Trance Vision Steppers. This was a project that never made it out of the studio but still cooked up some brilliant sounds, which in the case of this collection come from their earlier period between 1995 and 1999. Fans of Adrian Sherwood, Dennis Bovell and Mad Professor will be head over heels of these dub delights - they are deep and atmospheric with lush ambient pads, downtempo vocals and stoner synths next to more twisted rhythms.
Review: Selecta! Sub-liminal bossman Agro rolls his sleeves up and gets stuck into his label vaults, drawing out persys and reminding us just how on it his label has been since morning. Ranging from the twisted bass bubbles and trippy warped sounds of Warhead's 'Tread Carefully' to the interplanetary bleep drama and sweet bubbling subs of Kumo's 'Trick Shot', Agro is explicitly telling us how versatile and timeless his label has always been. With some of these cuts going back to the 2016/17, he's proved it. Get stuck in!
Review: Northern banger brigade GTA are marking a big old decade in the game with this walloping collection of beats across the spectrum. Delivered in 10s over five different themes from classics to remixes to floor-scorchers, the end result is an excitingly varied and feisty 50-strong spread of drum & bass perspectives where vibes range from Conrad Subs' utterly gully jungle vibes on his remix of Sl8r's 'Facking Jungle M8' to the thundering dancefloor wallops of Cliques' remix of the label bosses 'Pico De Gallo'. No strong is left unturned throughout the collection as we're just as like to be refreshed by liquid (Pyxis & Maykor's 'Guardian Angel') as we are flattened by venomous, laser-kissed neuro blasts (ICU's remix of 'Rip The Roof Off') Crash bang wallop what an album.
Review: Four typically solid contemporary funk jams here from Sound Exhibitions regular Funk Windows, coming just two weeks after his/her/their last release, the 'Africa Funk' EP. This time out, the Afro stylings are put on a back burner; instead you get the slow-building title cut (which would make a fine set-opener), 'Roller Night' which has a slightly more wonked-out/off-kilter feel, and then 'Bisca' and 'Low Down', both of which up the jazz ante somewhat, the former rocking some fine sax and a cut-up, chipmunk-y vocal while the latter has a similar MO but busts out the flutes. The EP as a whole is a headnodder's delight.
Review: Calling all 90s RnB and hip-hop heads! Following amazing deep dives into the works of Keith Sweat and scores of films like Friday, US jungle OG 6Blocc continues to writhe in Cali chams of BT&H with this second volume of Amen flips. Maintaining the soulful flavours and feels of the originals, while giving them a good old gully boost, highlights include the slick funk and golden grooves of 'Thuggish' the big disco feels of 'BNK' and the biggie fronted finale 'Notorious Thugs'. What a collection!
Review: Serbian disco fruit from Tonbe, a producer releasing candy-heeled dance wares for some 15 years now. For Disco Fruit yet again he brings the heat, with the title track kicking off heavy and deep before those righteous chords roll in. Heavier and dubbed out still is "Weekend Fever" with its thick filters and French house sampling twist. Funkier numbers come from "Too Far Away" next to a minimal '70s electro cuts in "Robot Drivel" and '90s R&B via "Groupie Love". Get your west coast sh*t from "Turn It Up" next to the solid states of "Unchained". When life gives you lemons make lemonade.
Review: In a musical landscape that's drowning under a sea of often quite lazy re-edits, it's refreshing to find a producer who's made the effort to pay musical homage in slightly more inventive fashion. Step up Beatconductor, who here serves up another motley collection of covers, mash-ups, sample-based tributes and yes, the occasional straight-up re-edit that draws on sources as varied as Teena Marie ('Chemical Flashbacks' bites the vocal from 1980's 'Square Biz'), the Human League ('Human Emotions' marries a Mariah vocal to the 'Don't You Want Me?' riff), Fleetwood Mac ('Dreams (Again)', obviously), The Beatles ('Fixxin A Hole'/'I Can Fixx A Hole'), Hall & Oates (ditto), The Who ('Who R U') and Gladys Knight & The Pips ('Goodbye' reworks 1973's 'Neither One Of Us').
Review: Never a dull moment on this eight-track, 10-mix collection from Sweden's Ture Sj?berg, AKA Beatconductor, which finds him in a re-edit/mash-up frenzy as he reworks a range of classic cuts in often highly unexpected style. Donna Summer's 'Love Is In Control' gets a 60s lounge jazz infusion on 'Finger On The Trigger', Beyonce's 'Crazy Is Love' is given a reggaefied makeover, Angie Stone goes head-to-head with the Steve Miller Band on 'Fly Like A Stone', and so it goes on. Along the way you'll find nods to Stevie Wonder and Tom Jones, before the album's completed by three different mixes of 'Good Vibes' - the Beach Boys if they'd formed in Kingston, JA rather than Hawthorne, CA!
Review: El Paso has become quite the Katakana regular of late, having helmed vols 115, 116, 122 and 129, and now he returns for a fifth instalment with four funk reworks in tow. 'Ms Fine Brown' revisits Syl Johnson's 'Ms Fine Brown Fame' from 1976, while James Brown's much-sampled 1973 classic 'The Payback' becomes 'Revenge'. The sources for 'Baila' and 'Tutu' - both featuring Spanish-language vocals - will sadly have to go unidentified, but the former has a Nu Yorican, boogaloo/barrio funk kinda vibe about it while the lower-tempo 'Tutu' is much more tropical and lounge-y in feel.
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