Garage | 2Step | UK Funky | Bassline 35 Items

Record is slightly warped but still enjoyable.

2XM are back on our shores with another sun kissed and emotive EP.
Four new tracks covering 2-step garage, deep percussive house and synth laden electronic grooves with a powerful vocal performance from rising star Neil Macleod.
These two are really developing their own signature sound and we’re all in.

As cassette tapes are making a comeback it is time for us to revive Intrauterin Tapes after a 15 years hiatus with a new release by Intrauterin Recordings mastermind baze.djunkiii who is bringing on his latest mixtape outing “The Gangster Files” for all lovers of original and classic UK Garage / Sublow as well as real Jungle / Drum’n'Bass headz featuring a massive vinyl selection of rare whitelabel cuts and essential classics. The history: Originally launched in 2001 and operating until 2004 the Intrauterin Recordings sister label Intrauterin Tapes released eight volumes in these first years, making a previously unprecedented move in German mixtape culture in focusing on studio recorded, MC-free vinyl only DJ-mixes for true bass music lovers, covering a musical spectrum from Drum’n'Bass, DarkJungle and UK Garage, put together by both hot, emerging talent from the local Hamburg underground as well as a special final edition featuring US-based (Dark)Jungle legend and scholar Larissa Mann a.k.a. DJ Ripley for a preliminary closing in 2004.

Sticker on label.

Copy close to VG+

Here comes a welcome reissue of a rather in demand classic by the widely revered - and rightfully so - DJ Perception. Opener 'Reverse' taps into a US garage vibe - dusty low slung drums with a four to the floor pattern, plenty of swing and a well treated vocals all finished off with a melodic bassline. 'Flyby' (feat Opus) bumps along to a crips broken beat and sub bass that needs to be heard on a loud system. 'Loose Ends' is raw warehouse music with irresistible bounce and then the soulful vocal smoothness of 'Gonna Make You' might just steal the show at the end. Timeless tackle.

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.

White labels

Next up is Josh Brent - revered throughout the globe for releases on his own Schatrax label, Josh has been releasing records since 1994 and has built a back catalogue of exceptional consistency. Stepping aside from his habitual sound Josh turns in 'Then Again', a 4-track collection of tumbling Breaks and Garage shuffles that have been tried and tested on Fabric's system.

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.

Marvin Jupiter is an 18 year old artist who mainly makes hip-hop music, using bass lines as rhythms more associated with funk. He uses and creates the sound of the modern day interpretation of trap adding his own personal twist.

Two are surely better than one. Following Lory D and Fadi Mohem, Toronto based producer Graham Bertie aka Nautiluss also steps up for his second outing on Seilscheibenpfeiler, marking the label’s 10th overall release. Once more, Nautiluss is transforming playful and rhythmically intriguing bass music into prime dancefloor cuts, encompassing a rich array of sounds and moods ranging from upfront rave action to delicate deepness.
„Guccifer“ kicks things off with a dark, shuffling beat, creating a subtle hardcore/jungle vibe with atmospheric overtones. „Snakes And Ledgers“ is a percussion-heavy tune led by a fat and thumping bassline and completed with muffled chants by Toronto rapper Matthew Progress. Next up is „WiFi Oasis“, again fronted by a memorably melodic and reverberating bassline while the track explores airy and enigmatic IDM territory. „Moment Of Clarity“ rounds off the EP with ethereal synth pads and big breaky beats, providing an ideal closing track for every extended club night.

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

Inspired by a long lost tale from dark and cold northern lands, written many ages ago, ‘Neida‘ is the story of a young boy who one day noticed an eerie call, so peculiar and odd that he could not resist but to follow it. While it resonated through remnants of ancient settlings, the boy had to overcome many obstacles and solve numerous quests, journey through mystical forests, foggy mountains and ghostly villages, battle the forces of nature and lose himself in this adventure. Finally reaching the ocean after an exhausting voyage, a mysterious invisible force drew him closer and closer to it, suddenly entranced in a state between consciousness, floating underwater, lured by the siren of the sea.

Airplay on Tom Ravenscroft (BBC Radio 6 Music), Re:lax w/ Re:ni, Laksa & Biggabush (NTS), Gage (NTS), From The Depths with Drakeford (NTS)
Premieres of Four Feet and Blasphemy on Trax Mag and Ransom Note
Review on 2 Hungry Ghosts

Limited edition.

rRoxymore's long-anticipated debut album, Face To Phase, was born of her annual creative hibernation practice. Whereas her previous appearances for Don't Be Afraid - Thoughts Of An Introvert, Parts 1 & 2 - revealed inner worlds of saturated colour and natural expressiveness, she retreated into her studio at the turn of winter 2018 occupied with the idea of dismantling the dancefloor-centric pressure paradigm.
The resulting album, Face to Phase, finds rRoxymore methodically and mindfully stripping back to fundamentals: rumbling minimalist dub, sparse polymetric drums, boldy unpredictable melodic narratives and subtleties which hover out-of-reach or disappear into vapour. Forged by the spirit of club music cultures, Face To Phase favours deep listening; resisting the temptation to reflect on the past or project towards the future, it's an album that is firmly rooted in the contemporary.
Sparked by her own archive of field recordings, and produced primarily but not exclusively in the box, Face To Phase adds several facets to rRoxymore's already wide repertoire. The pensive and beatless opener "Home Is Where The Music Is" was inspired by her longtime friend Planningtorock, while "Forward Flamingo" is a spiraling dream-state of house music dissociation; elsewhere "Energy Points" remains anchored to the ocean floor, radiating heavy dub waves, "Passages" is a ghoulish skeleton of UK break beats, "What's The Plan" closes the album in a blissfully blunted fashion, while twisting, shape-shifting rhythms push and pulse "PPS21" into series of ever-evolving shapes and forms.
Through and in between the eight songs of Face To Phase, rRoxymore fortifies her status as a seasoned artist, grounded by over a decade of live performance and touring, collaboration, composition and experimentation. With a new live performance collaboration with a percussionist set to debut the LP at Atonal on 1st September, rRoxymore is primed to expand her reputation even further as one of the most vital and distinctive artists on the fringes of contemporary club culture.

close to NM

Cover is close to NM.

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!

Rua Sound is pleased to announce we are back in action with our first release of 2019, and a welcome return to the label of Touchy Subject.
Fast becoming one of the go-to producers for rootsier takes on up-tempo 160-170 bass music, his second four-track 12" on Rua ups the ambition and knocks it so far out of the park it's broken windows in the next parish across.
The General EP veers wildly between neurofunk-but-actually-funky takes on dusty 90's boom-bapàla DJ Shadow on "Shudder" and 'Turnt Up', cavernous soundsystem workouts on "Seek and Find", and febrile halftime (just) jungle (barely) masterpiece in the shape of "General". Goosebumps. This is soundsystem music par excellence; cerebral, heady, and rousing - suffice to say we reckon it's sicker than the plane to Lourdes.
We apologise profusely to those of you whose resolutions for 2019 involved losing weight, but this is one of our fattest releases yet so you'd better go get them bassbins rumbling instead.

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.