DUBSTEPREVIEWS Albert
Lucky EP Studio Rockers 7.5
Laurel Halo
Sunlight On The Faded Hyperdub
9.0
Ohh, what do we have here? An effortless slice of bitter- sweet pop electronica, which thankfully helps one to forget the pain of Mr Zarate and Stevie Neale’s woeful attempt at, I assume, something similar. Well Miss Halo nails it nicely — a swirl of decaying twinkles, warm synths and that delicately nonchalant, almost innocent voice, has produced a track that challenges the likes of Jessie Ware and Lianne Le Havas and is guaranteed to keep your cockles toasty over the colder months.
Clouds
Tannhauser Acid Works Pt 1 Turbo 7.5
If I’m allowed to skip quickly past the two concrete blocks of scabrous techno of both the original and Truss remix of ‘Those Cracks In Your Face, Do They Hurt?’, like a small frightened child past a rabid pitbull on a Hackney estate, only to stumble, bewildered, into the cracky stairwell of ‘Krafterah’, which starts out bleak as you’d expect a needle strewn junky den to be, only to get knocked on my arse by a monstrous acidic head rush, then I will. It’s all rather addictive.
Daisuke Tanabe & Jealousguy
Wana/Hydra Original Cultures 7.5
A charismatic two-sider here on this limited edition 7” vinyl-only release. Daisuke’s ‘Wana’ slinks along with a delicate and warm fuzz, gentle bleeps scattering, evolving intriguingly within its loose hip-hop structures. Very tidy and charming. Contrastingly, Jealousguy’s ‘Hydra’ is brash and concerned with showcasing its busy, futuristic arpeggios, crowded by heavy, scattergun synth lines and stabbing electronica that pummels your senses.
056
The Danish producer continues to develop as an artist, clearly growing in confidence as demonstrated on this release. A strong, convincing trio of songs with longevity.
Loops Haunt
Zenith Black Acre
Afriqua
Eliot F4TV 9.0
There aren’t many tracks that capture you immediately, but this 12” from Berlin resident Adam L Parker aka Afriqua came out of nowhere. The second release for the French techno/ dubstep label sees things move deeper and more minimal to superb effect. Stripped-back beats, particle percussion, subtle instrumentation and the confidence to let the groove do the talking, both ‘Eliot’ and ‘Moncrieff’ offer a delectable slice of tech house x bass music, some of the best you’ll hear this winter.
Other Echoes
Other Echoes EP Hospital Records 5.5
Poking their furry little heads above the parapet of their decent-sized castle, built on the foundations of fun drum & bass over the last 16 years, the Hospital camp once again realized there was more to life than 160- beats-per-minute, quickly signing up this cheeky chappy for some equally fun (post-ish) dubstep. Watery, harmless, accessible “bass” music.
Phat Chex
Can’t Stop Applepips
8.5 There’s a small personal connection on this one. Having lived in Plymouth for a couple of years back in 2001-2, Chex was one of the only DJs bold enough to play alternative sounds to the glut of d&b and trance fans dominating the Devon “scene”. So, it’s great to hear this pioneer
get picked up by Appleblim. ‘Can’t Stop’ is a widescreen beauty fused together with a mistral wave of static dub techno pads and synths that pulse and ebb narcotically. ‘Git Da Funk’ is its sterile, blunt(ed) brother, plodding hypnotically.
Rick Grant
Crossing Take Records 7.5
A skippy two-step undercarriage, skinned with heavy atmospherics and anaemic dub chords from Jack Dixon collaborator Rick Grant is all very nice, if a little uneventful. On remixes, Leftfield d&b/ Autonomic producer Consequence screws it up into a ball and fires it down a deep, dark, never-ending wormhole. Mr Dixon himself gets out the jump leads and sparks a super tasty house rub, using the dense dub pads effectively. All rounded off by Mr Lager (formerly) of Various Productions offering an epic 10-min beast, more score than single.
Throwing Snow
Aspera Snowfall 8.0
Now an eight-release veteran, Ross Tones aka Mr Snow crumples another icy missile to launch at the unsuspecting public from his revived Snowfall imprint. Yet, it would melt as soon as it touches, warmed by his clement, vaporous compositions. The chillcore is present on the title track, a whiff of boozy post punk on the breath of ‘Lingerwell’, while ‘Melium’ ratchets up an evocative guitar line as the beats mutate in a vortex with synths, fuzz and arpeggios, culminating in the codeine flatline of ‘Behest’.
www.djmag.com
8.0 Deranged snippets of cold breakbeats, tortured samples filtered through a kaleidoscope. Like DJ Shadow and an MPC tied up in a bag and dropped down some stairs. I like.
QUICKIES Starkey
Command Civil Music 7.0
Tough, grime-infused dubstep beatifications from the Philly resident, with no less than five remixes — and the best from Pedro123 is riddled with bouncy mayhem.
Warlock
Bad Boy Rag & Bone 7.0
Tough juke influences abound on this three- tracker. ‘Bad Boy’ nicely references dubstep, whilst ‘Pocket Dancing’ channels d&b, and ‘Ghetto People’ could be straight from Chicago.
MARKLE
THROWING SNOW SNOWFALL
01. LUKID ‘Tough At The Top’Werk “Definitely one of the best albums this year.”
02. MEMOTONE ‘I Sleep At Waking’ Black Acre “Stunning work from one of my favorite producers.”
03. WIFE ‘Stoic’ Left_Blank “Proud to have been involved in this beautiful release.”
04. 1991 ‘1991’ Astro-Dynamics “Can’t get enough of this smudged stuff.”
05. VESSEL ‘An Order Of Noise’ Tri Angle “Another of this year’s gems.”
06. KOUDEDE ‘Guitars From Agadez Vol. 5’ Sublime Frequencies “Straight from the Agadez guitar scene... love the grooves.”
07. GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend!
Ascend!’ Constellation “No words needed really — best band in the world.”
08. EMPTYSET ‘Collapsed’ Rastor-Noton “Really love how raw this is.”
09. FANU ‘Leave The Natural World Behind’ 13 Music “My favorite drumfunk track, so I had to put it on.”
10. ANDY STOTT ‘Luxury Problems’ Modern Love “Love how the vocals work on ‘Numb’.”
MONEYSHOT!
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