Footwork/Juke charts

Review: RP Boo is a footwork originator widely credited as being a pivotal and foundational figure. He started producing in 1995 inspired by the house sounds of Chicago and broke through in 1997 with 'Baby Come On' which is credited as being the first proper footwork tune. Legacy Vol.2 is a collection of cuts created between 2002 and 2007 that tell the story of Boo's musical evolution as well as that of footwork itself. There is everything from the darkness of 'Eraser' inspired by visiting club War Zone on the west side of Chicago to 2005's 'Pop Machine', which was made when Boo worked at Speedway Oil Change and made use of a temperamental soda/pop machine. This is vital music history, frankly.

Review: Inimitable footwork titan Jlin returns for yet another challenging take on footwork and juke, Perspective. A pivotal follow-up to her 2017 album Black Origami, it comes as a comparatively terse mini-album, and consists of electronic versions of her compositions for the percussion ensemble Third Coast Percussion. Something about Perspective seems to appreciate footwork's rhythms as rhythmic "impossible shapes", owing to the genre's loose and sometimes off-kilter triplets. On the likes of 'Fourth Perspective' and 'Disonance', she seems to equate juke with minimalism, introducing Reichean additions and subtractions, not to mention a glassy, surreal timbre overall.

Review: The return of Jlin is always a cause to celebrate. In the eight short years since she first emerged, the US producer has firmly positioned herself as a fearlessly inventive, sharply focused artist who never misses. Her fourth album for Planet Mu continues her considered sonic evolution, maintaining the needlepoint percussive programming she's made her name on but broadening the source material to take in some more harmonically rich tones. As ever, you can hear a hint of footwork influence in her work but she's moved beyond obvious links to the Chicago sound, instead occupying her own space where brittle drum science can be a catalyst for rich, continually evolving electronics of the highest calibre.

Review: Johnstown, Pennsylvania isn't the first town on everyone's lips when it comes to deep dive electronics. But then, sadly, most people still don't seem to have encountered Nondi. Better known to some of those who have as Tatiana Triplin, the US producer and head of the 'net label HRR has developed a cult following for her experimental takes on some already quite leftfield electronic genres: breakcore and footwork, alongside Detroit-hued techno. What's remarkable about all this is the fact she confesses to only really having direct experiences of these genres online, as oppose to amid the sweat and frenzy of the situations they were first intended for. While this might lead some to assuming her work lacks authenticity, nothing could be further from the truth - it's all so authentic because the interpretations are entirely hers.

Review: Planet Mu has been one of the breeding grounds for juke and footwork even before many people over in Europe had cottoned on the hyper-rhythmic US style. They continue to put out the genre's fresh sounds, this time with Chicago man DJ Manny pushing the template into fresh new realms. He climbs high on the BPM counter here with his 160+ beats staying soulful, with plenty of hook melodies and well-treated and deployed vocal samples adding character to the physicality. Minimal techno, r&b, jungle and more are all referenced in this brilliantly driving album.