BREAKBEAT/BASS MUSIC REVIEWS
hype hip-hoppy driving cut that’ll ignite any floor. Black & Blunt from Australia add elements of old skool breakbeats, pow-wow cut-ups, Major Lazer beats and dirty Dutch bleeps for something a bit more squeaky and rowdy.
Various
Ruffneck Rydims Vol 1 Warehouse Wax 8.5
Peo De Pitte
Easy White Boy U&A
9.0
One of this page’s favourite producers starts ‘Easy White Boy’ with one of his trademark intricately woven beat lattices before an “Easy white boy” sample sets up a main body of raspy electronic bass and homespun organic percussion. Leaving space for jiggery body movements, Peo sets up a great build that drops into a pared down but devastatingly effective payoff. The Plump DJs add early ‘90s old hardcore stylings, a “Can you dig it?” sample and clanging electro and phased crowd noises towards the end for a near-perfect complementary overhaul. Savage Skulls’ fidgety electro house mix is way cool, too.
Splitloop
Come With Me Toast Club 7.5
As breakbeat swings back into fashion again, so back come one of its noughties stalwarts — the amiable Splitloop boys from Dublin. The original here is a gurgly, big room anthemic peak- time affair that edges a bit too close to the Beatport Top 10 EDM middle ground for these ears. The ‘Full On Mix’ introduces a dubstep bassline, shrill electronic tingles, sprouting wrought-iron springs and fizzy FX. Turning the track more manic, it’s all the better for it.
Knightfreak Princess Mononoke’s Moon Rave
EP Rub-A-Duck 7.5
Formerly known as Circuit Breaker and operating at the tear-out end of the breakbeat spectrum, Knightfreak’s beats are decidedly on-point here. Not really digging the high-octane trancey synths of ‘Rave Safe’, but otherwise it’s a cool mid-tempo groover, while ‘Mononoke’ is a spooky drumstep steppa with a mangled Count
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Radiokillaz utilises platinum Metalheadz breaks on the intro to ‘Skyscraper’ before it unfolds into an ace ruffneck jungle breaks piece with proper complimentary polyrhythms, epic old hardcore synths and fills, and brostep bass. ‘Music 4 The Soul’ by Strange Rollers has a righteous Rastaman vocal intro, but is then a bit future jungle by-numbers. KamBelt’s ‘Step Inside’ is more like it, sounding suitably 1995 in the intro before going growly ‘n’ hammering radio rental, and Electrux ‘Primer’ also enchants with vulnerable female vox, LFO bleeps, grindcore bass and skibadee breaks.
Aems
Dracula on vocals. More drumstep with big bro bass blurts on ‘Princess Mononoke’, too — it looks like the new darkcore Knightfreak has found his calling.
Pete Jordan
Cuzeyeneedat Bass=Win 8.5
Since moving from Nottingham to London, Pete Jordan has been busying himself with promotions duties (he runs the award-winning Spectrum nights) and his Weird Science parties, but he manages to find time to squeeze one out for Terry Hooligan’s label here. ‘Cuzeyeneedat’ is a knees-up punky rush of a bass music beast, featuring an M.I.A soundalike on vox. Pared down in a Diplo stylee, the hype cut reads like a genre- busting old skool Baobinga piece — and all the better for it. Rebel Sonix turn it moombahton-shaped — slower in tempo, but still huge.
Janette Slack & Kickflip feat Javone Prince
You Can’t Stop This Slack Trax 8.5
The ever-wonderful Janette Slack hooks up with uber-producer Kickflip from Sheffield for rolling electro breakbeat anthem ‘You Can’t Stop This’. Featuring vocalist Javone Prince, who appeared in Phoneshop and Ricky Gervais’ Life’s Too Short off the telly, it’s a
The New Dawn EP Top Drawer Digital 8.0
Aems is a dude from the North- east of England, as much known for his MCing as his production duties, but he has excelled here. Simply constructed but devastatingly effective, the Kafkaesque title track has a motorik linear topline that recalls the stylophonic ‘Style’ by Orbital or some trippy looped thing by Spacemen 3. The Weekday remix is pretty similar, but doesn’t reverberate in the same way — by foregrounding the shrill scintillation, it loses impact. The other two tracks, ‘Prometheus’ and ‘Touch & Go’, are decent dubstep.
RadioKillaz & Highly Strung MC
Future Junglist Rkz Recording 8.5
The cats involved in this release are spearheading the underground future jungle movement, and on the original, the on-fire RadioKillaz throws down a skanking, ruffneck junglist plate that Highly Strung rhymes commandingly atop. It’s like dropping in on Kool FM circa 1993 — this is almost the signature tune for the 140 future junglist massive. Sanxion refracts it through a muffling filter, while Vinyl Junkie supplies the lowdown and dirty scrape-them-off-the- floor non-stop party posse one more tune junglist rave up.
www.djmag.ca Backdraft
Revolution Remixes Bassrock Audio 8.0
Davip re-televises ‘Revolution’ as a tear-out piece with a massive skanked-out breakdown, while Vinyl Junkie offers up a restrained 140 jungle breaks take that’s more fly than bombastic.
D-Funk vs Angie Stone
I Wish I Didn’t CDR 7.5
“I can’t eat, I can’t sleep anymore.” D-Funk, now based in Aus, takes Angie’s heartfelt vox and re-plants it into a rolling, burbling breakbeat cut — good early doors gear.
CARL LOBEN,
carlloben@hotmail.com QUICKIES
Imperial Brothers Breathe (Strange
Rollers Remix) Bad Habit 8.0
This rap electro piece is given a rolling hip-hop/ breakbeat flava by the Strange Rollers, and makes up the latest release from this happening new label.
Fatso
Midnight In Citrus Surfer Rosa
6.0
An Italian DJ/producer, who rocks up on Tim Healey’s label with a noisy EP. The title track is migraine-inducing noisenik electro, while ‘Distance’ brings the acid breakbeat crunk.
CUT LA ROC ROCSTAR
01. B-PHREAK ‘Watch Dis (VovKING Remix)’ Dusted Breaks “‘Watch Dis’ is an unrelenting breakbeat monster of a track that works every
time, and this remix takes it that notch further.” 02. THE PLAYFELLOW & GORDY FEAT ROISIN BROPHY ‘Start A
Riot (Davip & Teddy Killerz Remix)’ Rocstar “Breakbeat largeness from Davip and Teddy Killerz, this remix smashes you round the chops — and then some.”
03. MONSTA ‘Holdin On (Skrillex & Nero Remix)’ Owsla “Ouch! The formidable teaming up of Nero & Skrillex means this track is pure
d&b gold. Good time vocals mashed with bassline pressure = win.”
04. CUT LA ROC ‘Roll The Dice (Breaks Re-fix)’ Rocstar “Cheeky re-edit of my latest single ‘Roll The Dice’ takes it away from the 4/4
dancefloor and plants it well and truly into the breaks arena.”
05. AFGHAN HEADSPIN ‘Protect Your Neck’ Cheap Thrills “Full on Afghan Headspin assault ahoy! A passing nod to their tear-out breaks
hit ‘Cocaine’, this updates the formula.”
06. THE UPBEATS ‘Undertaker’ Vision “‘Undertaker’ is a full-on d&b roller that has the power and sophistication to
100% keep the floor jumping.” 07. FREQ NASTY FEAT TIPPA IRIE & SOLAR LION ‘Not Givin’ In
(Tenkai Remix)’ Skint “Very nice EP package from Skint. The original mix is pretty tasty, but head to the Tenkai remix for some breakbeat goodness.”
08. DRUMMATIC TWINS ‘Rumpshaker’ Sugarbeat “Solid beats from the Drumattic guys, production is always spot-on and
‘Rumpshaker’ is FUNKY.” 09. CALYX & TEEBEE FEAT KEMO ‘Pure Gold (Wilkinson Re-
mix)’ Ram “Kinda dubstep rap-funk with elements of old Ultimate Breaks loops, Kemo delivers a powerful vocal that jels well with the remix. Tasty!”
10. BACKDRAFT ‘Revolution Remixes (Davip Remix)’ Bassrock “Davip killing it again, crowd-pleasing breakbeat madness!”
MONEYSHOT!
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