BORAI 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Since breaking through with the colossal 'Anybody From London' on Hotline Recordings five years ago, Boris English AKA Borai has proved to be one of British dance music's more cultured hardcore and jungle revivalists. He's at it again here, too, filling his Vivid label debut with a quartet of sub-heavy, breakbeat-driven bangers dripping in saucer-eyed, rave-style samples. He begins with the sharp riffs, pitched down Amen breaks and booming bass of 'In My Life', before upping the tempo on bustling breaks roller 'Dead Drop'. English doffs his cap to spacey early drum & bass on loose-limbed flipside opener 'Keep Steppin', while closing cut 'C'Mon' is an insanely weighty, pitched-down hardcore bomb.

Review: Sound the alarm, Borai is back with another essential drop of rough n' tough breakbeat business on his Higher Level label. In the same vein as his celebrated Club Glow work with Denham Audio, these are well-schooled rollers with sonics to make the sternest soundboy shock out. 'Sanctuary' calls to mind the earliest strains of Good Looking Records in its dreamy moments, with ample space afforded for the amens to get gnarly too. 'Carpet Bagger' strikes a deadly blow in the hardcore vein, piling on the darkside synths for a rave-ready showstopper to get synapses tingling and jaws clenching.

Review: Formerly Halo Cyan Records, Halocyan was rebranded and renamed in 2014. It is a sublabel of Phthalo, launched by LA musician Dimitri Fergadis. It's had some great artists appear recently in the form of Paul Woolford, Extrawelt and of course the legendary Dave Angel - who presented the last two releases as part of the Incoming series. Next up is Bristol's Borai, who has had releases on top local labels like BRSTL and Happy Skull in addition to internationals Tasteful Nudes and Retrofit. Dark Of The Sun features a variety of moods that are all expertly executed for whatever the occasion. From the evocative opening track "On The Horizon" which has a Detroit hi-tech soul type of vibe which we really enjoyed. The title track is more straight ahead with its Berlin style warehouse stomp, complimented by suspense filled dub chords, pounding drums and hypnotic pads. Finally "Wetware" takes it down a notch or two on this retro-flavoured deep tech house number - which is perfect to play just before the lights come on.

Review: Art-Aud invites us to return to their "Secret Rave" and dance the night away to a five-track selection of warehouse-ready club workouts. Denham Audio and Borai join forces on opener "In Love", a left-of-centre, UK garage-influenced slab of bass music insanity blessed with seriously deep sub-bass, before Etch reaches for the pots-and-pans percussion on the wild-and-weighty brilliance of "Hearth Transplant". Elsewhere, Kreggo delivers a slice of jungle-influenced heaviness ("1 2 3 4"), Hooverian offers up booming techno beats, weird noises and creepy melodies ("Montanita") and Nothus takes sweaty breakbeat hardcore to moody and twisted places on revivalist darkcore jam "Finding Apachu".