Review: Birmingham's Jossy Mitsu and Bluetoof join headsy forces on their new collaboration for Tempa, colliding the former artist's rinsed, globetrotting UK-troit DJ sets the world over and the latter's "drum specialisms" formerly lent to labels the likes of Shall Not Fade. Transcending the one-forties for a deeper-shades descension, 'Metamorphic' and 'Acid' establish a mood of nightclub meets human biostasis facility, as sci-fi zaps meet brooding, high-sustain bass cues. 'H20' is the sole tune to heighten the mood, its stop-start rollerblade bass and necksnap 808s proffering a jammier digestif.
Season Seven (NVST Oldschool version remix) (6:20)
Review: Something very special here from Irish label Woozy as Carre makes her debut on the label with three beguiling works of dub. We're talking real subby, rich, ploughing dub that pushes forward low and slow. 'Meltdown' is more trad hypnotic dub with all the echoes and ripples while 'Crawler' stomps along with a technoid like wink while 'Season Seven' takes us into more broken beat territory. All springy and spacey. Throw in a really classy classic dnb remix from dBridge (which is a bit of a rarity from the big man) and an experimental twist from NVST and we really are melting down. What a trip.
Review: Cosmin TRG is a Romanian producer who crafted some of the underground's most innovative sounds a decade or so ago, before going off to work in other creative worlds. Here, for the first time, he links with countryman DYL for a special EP that is decidedly futuristic. 'Manevre' is Romanian for 'manoeuvres' and comes in three different parts. Each one is fluid minimal sound with deft rhythms, fizzing pads, eerie melodies, sub-aquatic motifs and always absorbing atmospheres. Tammo Hesselink also adds a remix that has more prominent drums, lurching loops and menacing dystopian energy.
Review: London's DJ Ojo makes a strong debut on Pain Management with a shape-shifting 12" of heady, system-ready dub music. Known for his murky and slow-burning take on the form, Ojo takes things deeper here. 'Tongue Tied' rides out on pitch-black sub pressure and a ghosted vocal loop, evoking that half-asleep state between the dance and the walk home. 'Oil Dub' warps percussive elements into a cavern of melted delays and filtered hiss - almost ASMR in its abstraction. On the flip, 'Cloud Suck' stretches out into a near ten-minute reverie: digidub's emotional potential pushed to its outermost edge, sun-bleached, swirling and strangely hopeful. It's that rare kind of low-end music that plays just as well from a stack as it does through headphones, carrying a woozy emotional undertow that feels both bruised and comforting. A masterclass in restraint from one of London's most low-key original voices.
Review: Facta's latest for Wisdom Teeth opens with 'Jets', a low-slung, sub-sloshed throb that's quietly become a DJ favourite-Ben UFO has spun it as an opener multiple times and you can hear why. It's bouncy, tactile and disorienting in just the right measure, setting the tone for a seven-track suite that finds the Londoner weaving through dubby techno, cheeky minimal and post-step psychedelia with that recognisably prismatic touch. 'On Deck' pivots into springy broken house, full of teasing builds and frayed edges, while 'Bunt' pairs heavy-limbed bass pressure with pointillist vocal chops. There's a skittishness to the palette that recalls his most textural club material, but these tracks feel leaner, more distilled-sonic matter reshaped mid-air. Even in the most playful moments, like the bleepy funk of 'Swish', there's an undercurrent of tonal oddness that keeps things slippery. 'Fang' and 'Snooze Alarm' slow the pulse, tracing soft arcs across rhythm and dissonance. As ever with Facta, genre markers are melted down into a coherent sonic vocabulary, full of negative space, strange hooks and glistening decay.
Review: Fast Castle opens up its 2025 with a five-tracker from Gent1e $oul that expands his bass-heavy sound into new club terrain. From the swampy overdriven bass of opener '4TC Boom' to the jersey-infused 'Paladin', which is a fine collab with Rolex3k, each track hits with intent. '+390' brings grimy M1 flutes to UK techno rhythms, while 'Steppe Lancer' channels dark, twisted energy for late-night floors. Closer 'Parthian Tactics' dives into introspective dubstep that is heavy yet hypnotic. With rich Bronze Age-inspired artwork by Jonas, Stable Units is both a superb sonic weapon and furtherment of deep dubstep.
Review: Following 'Happy Lovers' just over six months ago, Leo Gibbon returns with another inspiring collection. While the last EP flung its arms wide open to embrace the worlds of house, garage and soulful categories in between, this time we find him zoning in on the 140 grime vibe as he links with Trim for two exceptional messages. 'Orbit Step' is a woozy spacious stepper that gives plenty of space for Trim to flow out some ridiculously smart 16s. 'Danny & Darren' carries much more of a harder edge as Trim gets guttural and unleashes his inner yardman wisdom. Complete with instrumentals and acapellas, Leo and Trim have delivered something really special and super versatile right here.
Review: Sub Basics's Temple Of Sound is back with new music from Henry Greenleaf who appears under his new moniker, Greenteeth. It is a project he is clearly using to cook up smart back room minimal sounds going off this evidence: 'Loxton' is a slow motion and prowling groove but one with deep, menacing bass and nice louche percussion. 'Jungle Love' is another subversive sound with a snaking rhythm and dubby low ends, dusty hi hats and late night mischief. Last of, 'On & On & On' plays out over all of the flipside with shuffling drums that are light and airy and topped with wispy drones. It's delightfully hypnotic.
Review: PQ (Peter Jones) is known for his role behind the keys in Bugandan-techno ensemble Nihiloxica, but releases like these are where things get interesting. The term "key player" can of course apply to bass music bossmanship inasmuch as it can refer to actual chops on the plastic ivories. And oh boy does Jones know it, delivering a scattershot range of grime and minimal bounce-bass, skirting seemingly every tempo and shape. Not overthinking it, 'Ketty Stepper Anthem' - if we're to insist on using the word "unreal" - has to be the least real tune here, curling through arclit bass design and a mathy crossrhythm, evidencing his ability to keep up with shockingly fast percussive changes.
Review: After over 15 years and 60+ vinyl releases, Pugilist launches his own label, Ruff Kutz, with the debut EP Monumen laying out his diverse production style and melding of techno, dubstep and 2-step influences. The A-side title track delivers a 10-minute journey of soulful techno drenched in dubby chords, Latin percussion and melancholic pads. On the B-side, 'Mannequin' offers a laid-back half-stepper with staccato sub bass and delicate chords, while 'Run It' presents a hazy 2-step groove with hypnotic bass and off-kilter rhythms. This new imprint marks a significant step in Pugilist's career and is likely to reflect his subtle and ever-shifting evolution as well as a commitment to quality, not quantity.
Review: Wafffles kicks off a new series here writ Rev at the buttons and cooking up ride as you like garage with a dark late night edge. 'Dutty' gets underway with a supple low-end bounce and haunting pads up top then 'Dissolved' gets more blissed out with some molten chords and nice soft melodic progressions soothing the soul. 'Injured Love' then brings catchy r&b vocal samples and some neat chords to a 2-step rhythm with well-defined hits and a wobbly low end. Last of all is the Waffles Kru remix of the opener, which becomes a more future-facing garage sound.
Review: The debut full-length from Bangladeshi-Canadian producer Raf Reza fuses UK soundsystem culture with his own deep-rooted Bangladeshi influences. Raised in Tokyo and musically shaped in Toronto and Glasgow, Reza blends dub, bleep, breaks and jungle with Baul music samples and vintage Bengali film soundtracks here and it results in a brilliantly original style. The album explores sonic futurism and asks how diasporic and Dhaka-based electronic cultures can intersect. With a unique mix of field recordings, semi-obscured monologues and dubwise textures, Reza's identity-driven narrative comes to life and cements him as a bold, genre-bending voice in cultural fusion and sound.
Review: German electronic nerd and tactile techno master Skee Mask returns to Ilian Tape, the label run by the Munich-based Zenker Brothers, with a fresh batch of his club-ready throbbers. 'TR Nautila' rides on uneven drum breaks with claps loud in there mix, until they aren't, and a stumbling bassline that underpins a morph into jungle-adjacent madness. 'Panic Button' has springy sounds and sludgy low ends, precision-tooled drums and a celestial backlight that pushes and pulls you emotionally. 'MD25' has an industrial clang and clatter that evokes being lost in a strobe-lit warehouse and 'LCC Rotation' is a freewheeling percussive gem with moody pads for all-out assault in the club.
Review: Solitary Dancer reunites with adidas and Yohji Yamamoto's forward-thinking Y-3 imprint for this Fall/Winter 2025 collection. It continues to boldly explore the dualities of light vs. dark, analogue vs. digital and real vs. surreal. This 12" formed the evocative runway score that debuted at the Pavillon Cambon in Paris this past January and merges cutting-edge sound design with the tension found between harmony and its opposites. It's alive with flickering neon lights, ghostly pads and wordless vocals that drift in and out to leave you questioning whether they exist at all.
Review: Having previously advised us to Get Flutey and indeed sample her Brake Fluid - two particularly memorable track titles - the irony of this new release title from Aussie-in-London Surusinghe is not lost on us. It's also apt; it's hard to place a name on such an exciting fusion of styles. Technoid in nature but electro, bass and house in its soul and warmth, cuts like the unrelenting bash of 'FTRW!' and the sultry alure of 'Kinda Like That' deft genre containment and operate much more as a feeling and a groove than a boundary. And that is very much ok!
Review: Colombian producer JP Lopez aka Verraco delivers full-throttle techno gritted up with grime influences on his new 'Basic Maneuvers' EP for Tra Tra Trax, the label he co-founded. His offbeat, chrome-plated and heavy style has been heard on Blawan's Voam and Batu's Tiemdance before now and here Verraco blends Latin club energy with signature rhythmic invention. The title track drives with mind-melting techno and ragga-infused bass, while 'Total' fuses gqom and dubstep with holographic vocals inspired by Arca. The grime-tinged 'Sobe Sobe' features Ugandan MC Yallah over Orbital-like pads and gritty, Coki-style midrange. Verraco's genre-blurring mastery knows no bounds.
Review: The 15th EP from this prolific DJ and producer out of Havirov, Czech Republic, is a genre-bending journey through broken rhythms, dub textures and otherworldly soundscapes. Drawing on jungle, techno, dubstep and breakbeat influences, the four tracks are rich in atmosphere and sonic detail while keeping a reserved rhythmic intensity that proves very alluring. The A-side- opens with 'Organix', a moody blend of broken beat and dubstep, enveloped in thick atmosphere. 'Wolpha' follows, merging jungle's energy with tribal techno rhythms. Side B's 'Encoded' delivers crisp, dubby broken beats, its funky edge cutting through a fog of effects and sub-bass. The production is tight and detailed with the closing track 'Neurotikum' dives into alien territory with robotic vocals and eerie textures. Imaginative and innovative forward-thinking electronic music.
Review: An album with a capital ALBUM, Henzo delivers the body of work he's been hinting at for the last few years with releases on the likes of YCO and Worldwide and many an edit. Never sitting still and always being incredibly playful with rhythms, drums and time signatures, the LP format is the perfect playground for H to really stretch his poem pencil. And boy does he scribe us some beautiful yarns... The gritty snarls with the Emby-fronted 'Worm Grunting' rep the heavier, clubbier side but you're never too far away from sudden jolts of euphoria such as the wonky house strutter 'Rustica Slump' or the springy UKG bubbler 'A Bouquet Of Clumsy Words'. Laced and spaced with all kinds of textures and moments that really frazzle the senses (or at least make you pause and go 'wait, what?') The Poems We Write For Ourselves is every bit as curious, compelling and delicious as the brilliant title suggests.
Review: After years of silence, Colombia's Insurgentes, which is run by DJ Lomalinda and Verraco, is back for one final transmission, and we're here for it: la ultima vez is a superb swan song that comes in the form of Fiera, a powerful long player from Argentine producer Seph that was written between 2022 and 2023. It's his most daring work yet and takes the form of eight restless, shape-shifting tracks that dodge predictability and blaze through techno, 90s IDM, dub and ambient with finesse. Limited to 300 vinyl copies, Fiera pays tribute to Insurgentes' decade-long legacy of sonic rebellion and though it's a bittersweet ending, without Insurgentes, there would be no TraTraTrax and no roots for the future we're now living.
Review: Vegyn flips Moon Safari inside out, running Air's 1998 debut through his distinct anoxia of gauzy electronics and fleet rhythm. After tide blurring work with Frank Ocean and Travis Scott, Joe Thornalley approaches the source material not as a sacred object, but as raw clay to reshape, stretching melodies, reframing grooves, twisting moods. It's a full-album rework, track by track, with the French duo's ambient-pop blueprint softened and warped into something ghostlier and unstabler. Visuals get a similar rethink: original Mike Mills artwork is reinterpreted by Vegyn with Noah Baker. This version lands as a limited blue vinyl for Record Store Day - not a nostalgia trip, but a sideways step into a parallel listening experience.
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