New releases last eight weeks: Drum And Bass

Review: Calibre's brand new drum & bass album Rudy comes in a minty-fresh contrapuntal breath, following hot on the heels of a new white label reissue of his earliest and most enduring works from the mid-to-late 1990s. The sudden time-warp back into the present day proves just how far he has come since then, yet also just how much he has retained what worked, too; Rudy begins in an orthodox liquid jungle fashion with the likes of 'Stunted', before breaking away into impressionistic vocal free-associations like 'The Game' (with Dominic Martin) and halftime reese-swellers like 'Heaven'. All the tracks originate from the same aetheric stratosphere - imagine if drum & bass had kicked off not on a terrestrial, but totally gaseous planet - yet Calibre still gleans enough variation from this potent condensate to either pack both more vacuumy punches ('Cousin') or more laid-back but cerebral inhalations ('Dumb Bum').

Review: Tides is the brand-new studio album from Hybrid Minds; a veritable challenging of the status quo and drum & bass orthodoxy with the best-produced, most pristine sonic vanguard yet. Presenting 13 incredible tracks, including the hits 'If Love Could Have Saved You', with venbee and 'Lights', with Charlotte Plank, get ready to sit back and enjoy the sonic journey that Tides takes you on, transcending listeners beyond the genre's more typical environments with their own unique Hybrid Minds take on the drum & bass style. This edition is primed for the tuntable, coming to a shortened 2xLP splatter-vinyl edition.

Review: Unstoppable next-gen junglist Nia Archives presents Silence Is Loud, her forthcoming debut album following an introductory onslaught of bangers such as 'Crowded Roomz'.AIn keeping with the contemporary torch-bearer's take on jungle, Archives' sound is cuter and, dare we say, more original than many Terminator-helmeted old-heads would dare allow themselves. Lead single 'Silence Is Loud' demonstrates this as much, with its expository beat drop marking a return to and cogent awareness of, jungle tekno, with its 4x4 undergird topped up by a floaty trip-hop vocal line, its lyrics evoking city reminiscences and staying afloat in troubled times. Promising both banger delivery and sentiment, Silence Is Loud is poised to pave the way for the very next incarnation jungle.

Review: Nia Archives has burst through and made a gigantic impact that now stands her at the forefront of the latest jungle era, and pretty much has done since she first made waves in 2020. Her collagist soundscapes have brought an all new sense of energy and rejuvenation to the genre that has in turn brought in plenty of new fans. While some may label her a revivalist, she emphasises that that aspect of the genre has never really gone away. The 24-year-old's debut album has been much anticipated by fans who have fallen in love with her weightless jungle tracks and intense basslines and they aren't let down here as those sounds resonate throughout.

Review: Probably the largest project that could possibly be classified as an EP that we've come across this year, Om Unit's latest record 'Fragments' is an exemplary case of bass music vacillating between two referents that newcomers might mistakenly oppose: "atmospheric" and "banger". Once again released as part of his new spate of ongoing "off-label releases, which began with his titles 'Submerged' and 'Atlantis', this is a maximized, nebulous, glassy, spectral, constellatory EP verging on ghost-notes of UK hardcore and breakstep (check our fave, 'Moonglade'). Every drum hit is EQ-scooped, polished, glossed and preened to the max, evidencing Om's achievement of a sound that few dance music producers can hack without a burnout-inducing mixing session or ten.

Review: The mysterious Oxvac is only credited with one EP back in 2019 and a few digital releases in the years since, so this new album is a significant body of work that belies his relatively newbie status. It comes on recycled green marbled vinyl and collides IDM, jungle and breakbeat into all new drum &bass frameworks across ten new and original tracks designed for the club. The rhythms come thick and fast, the basslines plunge into the depths of space and the pads are as soulful, jazz and cosmic and you can imagine in what is a serene intergalactic trip.

Review: Not too many artists can create a buzz quite like when word spreads of a new album more than Squarepusher. Dostrotime is the first album for Tom Jenkinson in nearly four years, one of his longest breaks between albums. Proceeding the album release, the video for the hardcore acid banger Wendorlan has been making the rounds on the internet. If this is any indication of the rest of the album, then expect some serious heat. Audio samples have been tightly secured to protect leaks online until the release date. This album will be spread over a 2x12 and nicely packaged in gatefold form and no doubt contain some great gallops through the genre spectrum like only Squarepusher can do.

Review: We're not sure where the phrase "blissed out" but whatever its origins, London's Blank Mind Recordings have caught on to its signification of a certain kind of jungle and breakbeat hardcore, prevalent in and around the given timeframe, 1991-1994. This new compilation charts just eight tracks of miasmic atmospheric breaks pressure-releases from the likes of DJ Mayhem, Luxury and Skanna from the time, with the star track in point being Mayhem's 'Inesse', around which the rest of the compilation was put together. Linking the record to a turbulent political climate, with 1994 being the year in which the harsh anti-rave Criminal Justice Act was passed, the record and the juddering pieces making it up are reframed in a resistant, socially just light.