Garage | 2Step | UK Funky | Bassline 297 Items

Established Berlin based producer Carsten Aermes, aka PHON.O, delivers his latest EP ‘Afterglow’, bringing the Vorsprung Durch (to) Tectonic. Having dropped a number of acclaimed releases on Modeselektor’s dynamic imprint 50 Weapons over the last several years, PHON.O has also had a variety of singles and EPs for the likes of Kompact, BPitch, Shitkatapult and Detroit Underground, as well as remixes galore.

‘Mercurial’ kick starts the EP at 137bpm, melting the boundaries between techno, dubstep and footwork with effortless grace. The track sets a mood with an initial sense of ominous tension, before embarking on a strange, cosmic journey, narrated by polyrhythmic layers of percussive interplay. Kick drums bounce, snares crack, hats and the melody builds with mysterious intent.

Flip over then for the first of two further tales in dubwise beat science. First up is ‘U8 Phunk’, taking it’s name in part from a Berlin underground metro line, it represents a tougher, harder edge to the EP. Recalling echo’s of jungle music alongside techno sensibilities, ‘U8 Phunk’ follows on again at 137bpm with a series of hyperactive drum hits and twisting percussive manoeuvres, charged with a reese-like bassline and grimy bass stabs.

‘Bell Blender’ closes off the EP, further developing themes of broken breakbeats and grimy sci-fi atmospherics, this time at a tempo more accessible to techno dancefloors. Dubbed and spacious, smattered with crashing remnants of breakbeats and scorching synth sonics - it’s a fine way to round things off!

Essential club pressure from Her Records, courtesy of label co-capo, MM (fka Miss Modular), including a dancehall flip of CYPHR’s Brace and arriving hard on the heels of Kid Antoine’s Bodypaint killer.

Uptown, with Why You All In MY Face, he essentially picks up where their last white label, Fraxinus’ flip of DJ Diamond’s B-More classic Hey You Knuckle Heads left us; warping a bouncing B-more chassis with eye-quivering FX, handbrake turns, and the kind of sustained subbass tremors that make your clem fandango.

Downtown, he performs dancehall voodoo on CYPHR’s Brace, screwing the ting to a slower tempo meshed with I-Octane & Bounty Killer’s vocal to Double Trouble for maximum danger.

Trust these are tried and tested for all DJ and dancer...

B.Riddim is Luis Sequeira, a Portuguese living in London. Magic My Ear is his second ep for Third Ear, following the (In) Theory ep in 2012. Formerly a driving force in the influential Portuguese rap group G-Ward under the name Bellatur, Luis followed his love of Jamaican Dub using electronics to arrive at a sound which is identifiable through the sum of its parts but which is quite unique. Music like this might reasonably be expected to come from Bristol, given Bristol's musical history. The 4/4 groove is slightly more emphasized here than the tracks on (in Theory) but it is a subtle pulse most of the time with the bass and drums providing the groove and the rhythms under cascading old-skool rave melodies and arpeggios, with live melodica played by Luis. Dub and psychedelic sensibilities are to the fore on Transformed Love and Magic My Ear, carefully controlled acid-house echoes through the towering bass and whiplash drums of Dropping Your Soul. Twisted electronica floats a nd weaves through the rolling bass of Left Side.

DJ Rashad / Djunya / DJ Spinn / DJ Earl / Quarta 330 / Champion/ Ikonika etc.

The second of the Decadub vinyl-only releases dedicates three of its four sides to a volley of woozy and twisted footwork from most of the key members of Chicago's Teklife crew. Side One starts with DJ Rashad and Gant Man's squiggly 303 banger 'Acid Life' and moves onto Taso & Djunya's Darwinian banger 'Only The Strong Will Survive'. Side Two descends into DJ Spinn's bombastic 'All My Teklife' and then Earl, Rashad & Taye's 'Bombaklot' which takes Hyperdub full circle with a yardcore bomb like a 2014 upgrade of the label's early days. Side Three leads with DJ Earl's immaculate diva vocal cut-up of 'I'm Gonna Get You', then moves on into DJ Taye's fizzling R&B jam 'Get Em Up’ and the stone cold, warped humour of 'Icemaster' by Heavee. On the fourth and final side, Tokyo-based ally Quarta330 returns to craft ‘Hanabi’, an epic, uptempo synthesiser jam. Young gun Champion follows with ‘Power Cut’, its minimal, energetic and militant kicks and bass molded with cowbell and lots of tight edits, before dropping some neat keys and a warping bassline two thirds in. Ikonika finishes things off with the solemn march of 'Tug Zone', opening slow but building in flickering high hats and gaseous cymbals into a track which could have emanated from Battlestar Galactica.

Kyle Hall back on Hyperdub for our 10th Anniversary? - Yes please. In fact this is more or less a long delayed EP from the vaults, recorded around the same time as his 2010 ‘Kaychunk’ EP … which just goes to show how ahead of the curve the young Detroit producer is. Starting with 'Girl U So Strong', the track riffs on a distorted arpeggiating bassline, seasick organ and a dubbed out voice, and a flicking metronomic note, starting slowly before shuffling drums give the track some rhythmic focus. Soon a warm melody builds over some happy arpeggios, and the whole track feels like a product of brilliant spontaneous energy. 'Take Me Away' works an 8 bit bassline, bleeps and throbs into an off beat shuffle over a pulsing bass drum, loose and happy, dosed with sunshine and space.

Fatima's debut album is called ‘Asiatisch’, and as the track titles suggest, the record provides a simulated road trip through an imagined China. Musically, the album is an homage to that quietly influential sub-strain of grime, often loosely termed 'sinogrime' due to its preoccupation with Asian motifs and melodies, pioneered by the likes of Wiley and Jammer at the beginning of the 2000s in East London.

'Asiatisch' is a provocation which asks more questions than it answers. The title is the German word for Asian. Unlike its title, however, the music on 'Asiatisch' revolves around the fantasies of East Asia as refracted through pulpy Western pop culture, in particular Hollywood, literary fiction, music, cartoons and advertising. Fatima asks what is meant by the term 'Asian' in a digital age of viral interchange and the hi-speed trading of cultural bytes; the concept of 'shanzhai' proves pivotal, a term whose meaning stems from a wild, out of control zone of banditry, but which has come to be used to refer to the Chinese counterfeiting of Western brands and goods.

While a number of producers have made takes on 'sinogrime' over the last few years, 'Asiatisch' is really the first record that attempts to articulate this weird complex of sonic interchanges between the West and China.

Ltd edition 300, vinyl only release.

The Duke of Juke returns with a smashing 10", his first release on dutch imprint ANUS Records. Here he shows his variety of musical knowledge fitting our philosophy - be odd, be future, be not too serious. Get to know!

The Scottish techno veteran with some forward-thinking & energetic pumping house/bass tracks!

Originally produced exclusively for the Japanese domestic market. All six tracks in their full length versions, totalling 50 minutes of music not previously available on CD, packaged in full size jewel case with Japanese obi-strip overlay.