Sneaker Social Club 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Over the course of his career to date, shadowy London producer Filter Dread has proved to be one bass music's most imaginative producers, offering up a range of EPs that snugly sit in the cracks between sub-genres. On "Ice Rave", his debut album, he continues this approach, romping through a collection of weighty, club-ready cuts that variously touch on dancehall/140 fusion ("Ice B8ass"), eight-bit electro ("Space Conga"), mind-altering post-grime intensity ("Time To Let Go"), hybrid hardcore/dubstep insanity ("Ice Rave") and mutant tech-funk (the skittish and doom-laden "Tekker Wave"). In other words, it's a sub-heavy sprint just overflowing with ideas.

Review: Breakbeat will never die, and we know this for a fact, so long as EPs like 'Breakbeater' continue to be released. Homing on the style's audiophilic edges, producer Paradox produces something squarely in the middle of classic breakbeat hardcore, drum n' bass and breakstep here, with the title track needing little but womping kicks, ultra-designed breaks and the occasional whispery vocal sample and bass lick to satiate our cravings for the sound. The B, 'Detronic', deconstructs the trope even further, dubbifying the break's metallic 2-stepping edge by plunging it into Basic Channel-esque ricochets.

Review: The always naughty Sneaker Social Club label taps up D3U5E for this fresh bass fiver tracker. It's a celebration of the UK's rich heritage of electronic music with the plunging bass and massive thwacking hits of 'Quasar' kicking off. There are dusty jungle breaks to 'Dust Particle', twisted dubstep contortions on 'HAL9000' and fizzing broken beats with a real urban menace on 'Deckman.' Closer 'The Abyss' is a collab with Gav that rides a more zoned-out and atmospheric groove and completes a varied and vital EP once more from this crucial underground label.

Review: Grime legends Trends, Boylan and Slimzee have made independent names for themselves over the years for their enduring contributions to the underground; the former two artists first cropped up on our radar after a string of horror-movie-themed grime bits which first proliferated virally on the internet. Slimzee, on the other hand, has been there from the beginning, co-founding the legendary Rinse FM pirate station among other things. We can't contain our excitement for this fresh, psychotic release for Etch's Sneaker Social Club; returning to the trio's penchant for oppressively trappy instrumentals, there are newer explorations in breakstep and garage, fleshing out the many teeth-gritted possibilities of the eight-bar rhythm. Haunting, atrophied sonic skeletons from a dream trio.