Back catalogue: Bass

Review: One of the bass world's most enigmatic and interesting artists returns to Planet Mu with his fourth and arguably most beguiling album. Completely void of genre-trappings or tempo formats, each cut seems like an unbounded meander through BR's thoughts. Slow, spacious and free-spirited, as with his previous works, it's a deeply woven tapestry of references and influences that range from his formative days on pirate radio ('Harwhich Road') to his interest in literature ('Palace Of The Peacocks') to tongue-in-cheek sonic fun ('Larkin Around') Welcome to the labyrinth.

Review: Not content with releasing one album on Planet Mu this year, the excellent Hive Mind, Ital returns to the label with another. While Hive Mind was a patient listen, filled with deep, leftfield grooves and cosmic undertones, Dream On feels like a more urgent, fragmented affair, like listening to a half-remembered night in a club; opener "Despot" combines chopped up vocals and rattling percussion and feels like several different club tracks playing at once, while "Boi" employs hyperkinetic footwork rhythms with searing dub techno textures, and "Enrique" provides an immersive trip into distant industrial rhythms. "What A Mess" perhaps encapsulates the album best; a cluttered mass of indistinct voices, textures and loose rhythms that somehow come together to make a fantastically listenable whole. Highly recommended.

Review: Planet Mu usher in the return of Ital Tek and a new sonic approach for the long-term label associate, as Hollowed finds Alan Myson switching up his approach. The chance to immerse himself in a new studio set up was the impetus for Myson to engage in laying down countless hours' worth of loops, drones and textures. It is apparently a method he used as a teenager, but armed with years of recording experience he was now able to make the record he had then envisaged. Fans of the crisp style of dubstep Ital Tek made his name on might be a bit taken aback by this new direction, but there is plenty of fine music to explore here for those that like their sounds abstract and impressionistic.

Review: One of Planet Mu's most celebrated artists returns to the label with a 25 minute mini LP offering. Ital Tek, aka Brighton-based producer Alan Myson, has a long and storied production history with Planet Mu stretching across three albums and numerous 12? releases since debuting in 2007. Control arrives roughly a year after Myson released third LP Nebula Dance on the label and it's eight tracks find the producer nestled snugly in within the 160BPM crawlspace between footwork and drum & bass. As the decidedly Utopian cover art suggests, Control finds Myson operating under a strong, thick set sci-fi influence and a few listens demonstrate that Planet Mu are still pushing the eminently experimental sonic barriers in a manner that helped establish the label.

Review: Brighton-based synth-step explorer Alan Myson is nothing if not prolific; Nebula Dance is his third full-length in five years. Like previous excursions, Nebula Dance sees him attempting to join the dots between dubstep rhythms, synth-wave melodies, clattering IDM grooves and the shimmering sweeps of classic electronica. It's a sound dripping with positivity, and the result is an album that somehow manages to sound both self-consciously grandiose and impressively intimate. Tracks like "Intercruise" and "Glokk" bristle with retina-sharp melodies and glistening electronics, all atop rhythms that are seemingly pulling you in different directions. It's a delicious combination, that's for sure.

Review: Following on from his debut artist album Cyclical in 2008, Brighton based producer, Ital Tek brings us his sophomore outing, Midnight Colour on the highly respected Planet Mu imprint. Kicking off with "Neon Arc" - a deliciously fuzzy broody number, with a nod to the Joker-style 'Bristol Sound' in the synths - it's a promising start to what soon unfolds into a magnificent album. Moving through the melodic, reflective Mount Kimbie style "Talis" with its evocatively drawn dripping and chiming, and hollow textured soundscape, to the more abrasive "Moonbow" and "Babylon", it's easy to see why Ital Tek has garnered such a reputation for himself in such a short time. Midnight Colour picks up on the sound that has come to define Ital Tek, taking the whole 'post-dubstep' tip to new lengths, weaving 2-stepping garage rhythms round sonic textures with plenty of moody atmospheric melancholy.

Review: Wow, this is quite some album from Planet Mu! You may not be so familiar with Jlin, a footwork producer with a couple of contributions to the second Bangs & Works compilation Planet Mu released, but the Indiana based artist is quite the talent on the basis of Dark Energy. Jlin has gone on record to say this album has been in gestation from some time and explores darker themes than you would usually get on a footwork album. There's a real confidence to her productions at times on this album, "Black Diamond" in particular has a wonderful swagger to its syncopation, and in "Expand" Jlin offers an intriguing collaboration with RVNG Intl's resident voice manipulator Holly Herndon.

Review: Jamie Vex'd returns to his Kuedo project after several years working both underground and commercial sector as an engineer, sound designer and composer. His return couldn't have happened soon enough. "Slow Knife" is anchored by a strong sense of score-like sci-fi throughout as tracks such as the spectrum creeping alien trains of "Slow Knife" and the smouldering twangs and pensive vibrations of "Love Theme" create a dense, sense-blurring narrative. Elsewhere Jamie finds time to escape into raw futuristic soul ("In Your Sleep"), wry broken beat dancefloor procession ("Floating Forest") and overwhelmingly immersive sound design ("Broken Fox") This is just the tip of a sonic iceberg that will take many exciting listens to get acquainted with.

Review: After the massive impact of Vex'd in the breakthrough years of dubstep, it was big news when Jamie Teasdale chose to swerve in his own direction and emerge as Kuedo. Released in 2011, Severant was a bold statement of intent which didn't wholly shirk what had come before, but placed emphasis on the kind of romantic synthesis you'd readily associate with Vangelis and saw trap and other influences sneaking into the mix. In hindsight, Severant is typical of the times we live in, drawing on a glut of influences and presenting its own idiosyncratic vision, but above all that the emotion and intent of Teasdale's ideas make it an enduring, captivating listen.

Review: Drew Lustman has gone back to basics on this latest full length excursion, dropping his now familiar Falty DL moniker for a set that Planet Mu claims was made "free of conceptual constraints". In some ways, it's a smart move. The Crystal Cowboy is effectively Lustman at his most playful and dancefloor focused, eschewing the impressive, far-reaching complexities of his Falty DL work in favour of straight-up dancefloor jams - and occasionally dreamy IDM workouts - that pay tribute to the halcyon days of British hardcore, early jungle and 'intelligent techno'. This freedom seems to have brought the best out of Lustman, who has shameless delivered the sort of set guaranteed to put smiles on listeners' faces.

Review: Travis Stewart has been producing under the Machinedrum moniker for more than 10 years; in that time his sound has gone from IDM through hip-hop and ghetto house, but on Room(s) he takes the blueprint of the subgenre of 150BPM Chicago house known as juke (which has been an underground phenomenon for the past 10 years) and runs with it. Despite the album's 150BPM plus pace (which is never anything less than a complete adrenaline rush, even during it's more sedate moments), fatigue never sets in. This is primarily down to Stewart's rhythm programming. While juke would typically utilise untreated drum machines, Stewart isn't afraid to use organic drum samples. "Come1" for example contrasts euphoric piano chords with a freeform jazz rhythm; he gives the track just enough syncopation to give everything enough room to breathe, similarly, on "Lay Me Down" he employs clattering percussion and reverb in a similar fashion to Burial. Stewart also swathes an impressive palette of colour and texture across the album's whole. His grasp of melodic balance is exceptional; any chords he employs in the tracks add just the right amount of emotional pull without negating their ferocity. In short, one of the best albums you'll hear this year.

Review: The current health of the instrumental grime scene can surely be measured by the number of excellent albums issued by artists integral to it. Along with the Slackk and Yamaneko albums on Local Action, Gobstopper boss Mr Mitch has delivered a masterpiece in Parallel Memories which really showcases his diversity as a producer. Issued by Planet Mu soon after Mitch debuted with the excellent Don't Leave EP, this 12 track album sees Mr Mitch grasp the chance to explore his minimalist, heavily melodic style in a more comprehensive fashion. There is a concept too with Parallel Memories seemingly driven by the producer's ability to visualise snapshots of his life when listening to his music. "What if the images I'm seeing are memories from an alternative version of me in a parallel dimension?" Mr Mitch asks, but you don't need to fully invest in the concept to enjoy this fulfilling album.

Review: Footwork pioneer (and many would argue founder) RP Boo delivers his second Planet Mu album Fingers Bank Pads & Shoe Prints. Two years have passed since his Legacy album and here we find him at pin-point sharpness, re-shaking and reshaping the genre once again. Instant club fire hangs off most tracks like a supersized suit but it's the subtler, more reflective beatwork that really stands out such as falsetto-flickered Dilla-isms of "Your Choice", the operatic madness of "Sleepy and the cinematic sample dynamics of tracks like "Daddy's Home". Another foot-provoking document that will serve as a reference anchor deep into the future.

Review: There's plenty to get excited about on Silk Road Assassins' long-awaited debut full-length, which arrives some three years after their acclaimed debut EP, "Reflection Spaces". For starters, the trio has delivered something that neatly sidesteps convention, melding bustling, loose-limbed grime and trap rhythms with all manner of layered electronic elements. Some of these are dark and moody and others fluorescent, kaleidoscopic and tropical in tone. "State of Ruin" twists, turns and twists again on umpteen occasions, delivering a musical snapshot of our chaotic times that veers from paranoid intensity to rush-inducing bliss in what seems like the blink of an eye. OK, so we may have got a little carried away, but it's certainly a superb set that's more than worthy of your hard-earned cash.

Review: After his first album marked a decisive step forward for footwork as a music form, Traxman is back with a second volume that builds on those successes with even more exotic sound sources that reach far beyond the ghetto house roots of footwork and juke. Opener "Time Slip" is a fine case in point with its complex spread of jazz samples that take on a truly sci-fi level of exploration in the hyper tempos of their host track. The lineage of black music weighs in heavy on Da Mind Of Traxman 2 as every track lives and breathes its roots and influences, sometimes brazenly, but always imaginatively, as has always been the case with footwork. For a deeper exploration of where the Chicago-birthed sound can head in the future, look no further.

Review: Forever a label looking to explore the boundaries of forward thinking electronic music, Planet Mu's investigative streak falls upon the post-internet productions of Eastern European collective WWWINGS. A prime example of modern-day music production, WWWINGS is formed of three musicians - Lit Internet, Lit Eyne and Lit Daw - based in Kamchatka Peninsula, Siberia and Ukraine who met using the Russian networking site VK and began dabbling in production together. Through the power of music blogs and online communities the trio started making tracks and getting some recognition, which has ultimately led to the album PHONEIXXX, picked up by Planet Mu. Some twelve tracks deep, this is very much a product of contemporary music-making with razor sharp sound design crafting some brutal club structures which sound like the Night Slugs crew in a particularly rotten mood.