Juno Recommends Drum & Bass May 2020

Review: Let's dance! One of Dom & Roland's most brazenly funky tracks turns 20 this year and he's given it a cheeky limited press 1-up. With its crucial sample craft, oceanic waves of breakbeats and 1.21 gigawatt bass shreds, "Can't Punish Me" is still an absolute weapon two decades later. As is the previously unreleased dubplate version that gives the track a whole new suit of drum armour and much more dramatic and fleeting use of the sample. What do you live for?

Review: Dynamic duo Seba & Paradox follow up their brutal Metalheadz release at the start of the year with another doublet of raw, uncut drum & bass jungle. The second release on their collaborative label, once again it's a blizzard of textures and emotions. "Come Again" is all about the bumping bassline and sheet metal switches in the breaks while "Lifeform" takes on a much more atmospheric, emotional character thanks to the swooning chord progression and surges in the bassline. Ageless.

Review: Sticky times call for sticky beats. Not content with delivering one of the highlights on his mate Degs' album, gully boy wonder Unglued returns with another full-blast, wide-range EP. "Zen" counters the ruff with the buff as Cimone's soaring vocals are coupled with the smelliest bassline possible. Elsewhere "Algorithm" is a gritty techno-influenced thumper, "Mic Strangler" will be a highlight for many thanks to the tremendous skills of GQ and squidgy Zinc-style basslines by Gluey himself. Finally "Datafile" takes us deep into the rave with a savage array of breaks and layers on layers of darkness.

Review: Rudeboys unite! Kemet Records has linked with DJ Lewi to bring you a remastered repress of this hugely sought after jungle classic. It's fetched around 600 quid on the second hand market before now so grab this red hot slab that packs a real punch before it's gone again. "After Hours (feat Daddy Freddy)" is a hustling tune with some big MC work and a silky baseline, "You Better Run" is a real face melter with smeared bass and rinsed out breaks while things get hazy on the flipside with "Ganja (feat Angie Angel)", which is built on cavernous bass booms and vocals that pay tribute to the herb.

Review: Bristol's most mischievous rusty button-pushing trio The Sauce return with more tongue-in-cheek fun. "Kiss The Ring" says it all; layers of bass grizzles and a spacious steppy arrangement, it nods heavily at the Dope Dragon style their hometown spawned 25 years before. "Wut" is just as naughty. Reserved, unhurried but smellier than a month old bottle of mayo, it's so good it will cause you to forget how to spell words like 'what' correctly. The brown vinyl is a nice touch and all. Stay clean, stay safe!

Review: Teased with a few cheeky copies at Clashmouth last year, these two unreleased puppies from Adam F's kennel finally get fully let off the leash. "Apocalypse" has a Twin Peaks / "Go" flavour to its chords and eerie feel while "Eastern Spirit" has more of a hardcore feel to it thanks to its stripped back breakbeat nature and iconic psychedelic vocal sample that peppered raves throughout the early 90s. Delivered on J Majik's Infrared, it's another precision excavation from the very source.

Review: The remixes we've been waiting for! Ray Keith follows up his exceptional album "Prophecy" with two of a whole collection of classics about to hit us over the coming months. First up: T>I and Benny L. The former takes the essential air-piano slapping 94 anthem and juices it up with his flabby bass and attention to hyperoid drum details, the latter takes his 97 weapon and turns it inside out with one of the fartiest, smelliest bassline he's committed to wax so far. Absolutely Dread-full... And we wouldn't have it any other way.

Review: Bring Back keep their flawless run of white label junglisms up with this fresh drop from an unknown operator who sounds more than comfortable dicing up breaks in a strictly old-skool style. The A side leads in with "Salute", a rough n' tough roller laced with atmospheric keys that help it come on like the gully end of the Good Looking legacy. On the flip, Dwarde and Tim Reaper come correct with a remix of "Sweet Murda" which originally appeared on BRINGBACK002. Their take is a rolling, deep diving tripper with a rugged drop where it counts. The record rounds off with a nervy trip out in the shape of "Badman Biz", which gets into a more experimental frame of mind, but not at the expense of the beats.

Review: Album number eight from the big man himself monsieur Dom et la Roland, and it's got mighty big shoes to fill as it follows his incredible "Last Refuge Of A Scoundrel" on Metalheadz. Never one to tread the same old path, it doesn't just fill the shoes, it goes and buys and a whole new pair. Much more stripped back and militant than its predecessor, tracks like "Sandcrawler" and "Zeppelin" take us right back to the Moving Shadow source in their austere, grizzlesome steppy nature while "A Broken Heart" recalls Dom's more emotional side. All bases covered and all eras touched on, once again Dom's delivered a timeless, authentic body of work.

Review: It may have taken 15 years, but Michigan bass-head Greg "Submorphics" Axelrad has finally offered up a debut album. He teases us in with a deep, string-laden, scene-setting intro smothered in heady spoken word samples, before jazzily skipping towards the dancefloor via drifting vocals, rich bass, sustained organ chords and smooth liquid D&B rhythms of "Luminosity". He continues in a similarly dreamy, life-affirming fashion throughout, occasionally delivering something a little more soulful (see the superb "Memories Of You" and Big Brooklyn Red hook-up "Daydreaming"), hip-hop influenced (the colourful "The Prize/Golden Roots" with rapper TRAC) or slow and seductive ("Morning Alarms/Waverley Place"). Arguably best of all though is "Find A Reason", a seductively soulful broken beat number that's every bit as good as anything from West London.

Review: Seminal business from 1994, Kemet dust off the original "Borderline" EP which comprised the names Brain Killers and Family Of Intelligence but was all the engineering work of DJ Lewi. The man behind so many sounds on Kemet during their most pioneering years, his touch is on all of these cuts... The still-pristine and quintessential rave anthem "Screwface", the raw drum funk and breakcraft of "Jungle Love", the big raw ragga chat of "Champion Of Champions" and the chaos of "Bonus Beat #1". Lewi we salute you.

Review: Crucial power jams from longstanding Finnish duo on thriving Finnish jungle imprint, Aeon Four are a perfect fit on Straight Up Breakbeat. Four cuts in total, each one explores a different side of the spectrum. Opener "Silence" praises the rave and the hardcore elements, "Essence" smacks of that authentic Goodlooking feel with its pads while "Lion Awakes" takes a well known vocal for a classic jungle feel. Last but not least "Babylon" closes with the ruffest card of the hand as happy slapping breaks keep us running to the very edge.

Review: It's another Headz special! Bristol's finest Utopian, the man like Mako, delivers his debut solo album and it's every bit as deep, detailed and sense-slapping as you'd expect it to be. From the brilliantly brutalist "One Reality" to the rave-melting halftime switching "Flip It" via the bouncy harmonics of "Hoxton Home" and the depth plunge bassline and Subtitles-style rawness of the stripped back arrangement on "Offline", like all Metalheadz albums - and indeed Mako productions - this is a properly considered, thoughtful and detailed body of work. Essential.

Review: Headhunted once again! Jungle don Chatta B, alongside long-time amigo Potential Bad Boy, delivers more treasures or yore. "2 Night" is classic early Kemet with its big dubby washes, tightly trimmed organs and rubber ball bass while the flip "Here We Go" is just pure bloodclart jungle. Obese reverse-warp bass sounds, wig-blasting drums and a funk that just won't quit. We could chat about Chatta for days mate.

Review: Say hello to V's new Legends series... A new platform for some of the scene's biggest pioneers to unleash a little unreleased fire of yore. First up, Bristol professor Krust who serves up two heroic jams from around the mid 90s era. "Unit 23" is a tense, slower breakbeat exercise, all rusty and clanky and uncompromising while "Pentacle" hurls us right into the tech-trenched jungle. Industrial strength power and brute force funk, it's mad to even consider how long these have remained on DAT. Let's hope there are many more long lost gems to come!

Review: B Traits unleashes a brand new alter ego: Baby T. Catapulting herself back into the breakbeats she came from, via the mighty Samurai, her entrance is brutal. "Portra" is an ice cold slab of dark jungle that comes in a whole range of flavours and forms from the militant jungle mix to the breath-taking ambient mix via Homemade Weapons' war-primed twist. We can't wait to hear what Baby T's got lined-up next.

Review: UK producer Killaklan 001 takes care of the inaugural release on the new Prototype label in fine fashion. The tasteful two tracker rolls deep on both sides, with shadowy grooves and late night atmospheres drawing you in from the off. Opener "The Assassinator" is the moodiest of the pair, with a hunting lead that encourages you to follow it down a deserted urban metropolis in the dead of night. "Visible Thief" has more hard hitting, crashing drum loops but plenty of breaks in between to allow the darkness of the landscape to really sink in. A fine start to what is set to be a fine label.