Breaks | Breakbeat 13 Items

Virginia’s Stimulator Jones channels all things jungle on ‘Valley Center’ for his debut album on Craigie Knowes. Sam Lunsford is multi-talented genre-spanning artist; from song writing to singing, programming drum machines to drumming, performing live to DJing. ‘Valley Center’ showcases Lunsford’s seamless genre-hopping skills with the outcome an LP packed with tracks that wouldn’t sound out of place on LTJ Bukem’s ‘Logical Progressions’ series or in the Metalheadz archives.

Beaming in from Tokyo with the kind of deadly new bass configurations to fully shut down a dance, Sneaker Social Club are very proud to present a five-strong shockout from T5UMUT5UMU.

You might have caught the breakthrough producer bringing their wayward signals to Hakuna Kuala for their debut 12” Sea Of Trees, but a dive into their Bandcamp shows a prolific studio head turning out beats with laser focus and unstoppable flair. Messing with the physical essence of Gqom, Dubstep, Grime, Trap, abber and more besides, the T5UMUT5UMU sound flexes between styles to make up its own soundsystem language, and this new EP on Sneaker is the perfect demonstration.

Deadly square wave bass punching into the dead of night, granulated speech patterns and whipcrack drums, grimey flute stabs and dramatic percussive rolls all spill into the soup at various points and the mood remains heavy at all times, but it’s never morose. The drops are too fiery to keep your head down, and there’s space for more than just sullen sonics (check the rousing melodic refrains hovering over the tumbling taiko drums on ‘Ikusa’ and you’ll see what we mean).

This kind of inventive progression of the bass music idea is exactly what Sneaker is built on, and it’s our pleasure to bring it to your ears.

Brighton-based Harry Smith's debut release as Thought Trails sees him capture breaks and garage at its most contemplative potential. Whether it's through broken drum phrases, acid melodies, dark garage atmospherics or ice clips borrowed from grime, 4AM EP skillfully builds moods without sacrificing an inch of danceability.

4AM EP drops 30th September via Time Is Now

Reflex Blue debuts on Spectral Bounce with The Bleeps, a five-track EP that weaves a somber yet captivating late-night ambiance. Over a string of releases in recent years, Reflex Blue has been sculpting a distinct and evolving sound, blending the core minimal aesthetic of UK Tech House with influences from his homeland.

This homage to early 2000's Tech House captures its essence while infusing it with a fresh, pulsating perspective. The opening track, 'Dracula’s MPC', sets the tone with its club-ready elements: crisp drums, deep bass lines, and captivating vocal samples that command attention throughout. On the B-side, "Interlude" offers a glimpse into Reflex Blue’s large palette with its boppy and quirky breaks. It's a spectral record in every sense, making it the perfect sophomore release for the label.

Written and produced by Cooper Fraser
Artwork by Susanne Janssen
Words by Hervé Kacou

Bakey has been smashing out hit after hit this year, sharing beats cooked up with his brother, Breaka and collabing with Bristol head Sam Binga. The young producer comes back to Time Is Now, following up the best-seller Take It Further EP from last year with a tasty five tracker of UKG experimentation.

Title track, "Bring It Back", uses a playful sound palette of 00s grime that swirls into a hardcore onslaught of breaks, bassline and screeching ruffage, kicking of the record with a statement. Manchester vocalist Slay joins the party on "Vibing Season", building up in long atmospheric chords before Slay's bars spiral into play, pacey, dirty and clever over explosive glitches and ear candy pops. Bringing it right back down to minimalism with sparing two-step, "No Name Groove" features Kasia's soulful piano echoing throughout with call-and-response sampling, a classy take on early garage tracks.

On "Reduced Vision", otherworldly sub bass chases down vocal stabs, rumbling underneath this expansive heads down number. "Poison Dart" rounds off the instant hit EP with sirens, dnb tension and ragga mc lines.

Fabio & Grooverider have been at the forefront of UK dance music for over 3 decades. This is the roots of their story told through music. The 2 London DJ's are part of the DNA of the global Jungle / D&B movement and they have remained relevant, cutting edge, authoritative and essential to this truly underground art-form since it's inception. RAGE could arguably be the ground zero of Jungle. The party was started at London's cavernous Heaven club by Fabio & Grooverider in 1988, at the height of Acid House fever that was making it's way up and down the motorways, slip-roads, fields and warehouses of the M25 and further beyond every weekend, troubling the nation, the police, your parents and the press as it went. RAGE was a different beast, it certainly channelled some of that Acid energy but pitted it against the new and exciting sounds emanating from Belgium, Amsterdam, Detroit, Sheffield, Essex and Hackney and in turn created a new style, a new sonic attitude and energy in the process. Rumbling bass-lines, narcotic synth rushes and roughly chopped and sped-up breakbeats all merged into a style that we now know as Jungle. Nothing like this had been heard before, this was a brand new style and it was coming out of London's West End and Fabio & Grooverider were the people firmly behind it.

Guachinche Records is a label that has taken on board the best of the Andalusia and Tenerife breakbeat scenes. Led by the experienced groups Mutantbreakz and Bubble Couple, the label is known for its good taste, variety and good judgement when it comes to selecting the music that makes up its catalogue. All those years experience of broken beats have inevitably led to the release of this brilliant Guach001 The label first vinyl offering is a compilation album that offers a perfect summation of its essence and quality.

The record opens with a sure-fire hit by the legendary Rasco, who, together with Bubble Couple, has created Old Groove. Featuring piano and the kind of baselines to stick in the memory and make your hair stand on end, it's a track that many of you have been waiting to get hold of in vinyl format. The trip continues in the hands of Suga 7, who offers a true taste of the Canary Islands on his classy track Hideaway, a sheer delight with the high tempos and playful basses so beloved of the Islanders.

We then move on to the B-side, which features an absolute gem of a sound by the duo Mutantbreakz. A musically elaborate track with quality touches and passages of guitar, piano and vocals, it grabs you right from the start of a sonic trip that will prepare you for the final denouement Raverman brings things to a close with the epic Sayonora and a slice of acid electro-trance. This striking ending rounds off the kind of record that doesn't come along every day.

Humanoid Gods offers Fixed Rhythms four dark breakbeat, dubstep tinged, heavy padded stuffers from the temporal Aside. Hark!

Confronting the status quo...how can obscene wealth be more important than human lives? Where have the humanoid gods come from, and who do they serve? Did we create them? Are they a construct of our own imagination and desires?

Extraterrestrial transmissions cut to Earth's club-preferred loudness, replicated on 300 copies of 12" black vinyl.

Bookending a year of Time Is Now releases, close label affiliate and master of the UKG revival scene, Yosh returns with The Warning. The London-based producer is skillful in his creation of break-heavy, dubbed-up tracks to fire up the party, and blown up with releases on Dansu Discs and Holding Hands under his belt this year. This EP hits from the start; hyper breaks meet down low sub bass on "How We Roll" in a minimalist roller. "2 Times" goes back to the classics with a stylish two step groove and expansive diva vocals, one for the old schoolers while the frenetic energy of "It Goes" will rumble easily through a club. Yosh slows the pace for "Shape The Future", which grows from a staccato rhythm into a cheeky distorted stinker that rolls smoothly into "Pigments", the playful bassline closer with an explosive drop which requires a reload.

Ships in a generic sleeve with hype sticker.

DJ X-cess & Ghost Unit fire up their samplers again with another new 4 track Ep covering Old Skool Hardcore Rave to Jungle.