Drum & Bass Recommendations November 2012

Review: Taken from the monstrous Way Of The Samurai 2: Code Of Honour collection, both of these cuts glitter and growl with the permanence and persistence that Samurai is known and loved for. Intalex's "Redan" is real star-gazer material with tingling synths, beefy drums and an endless groove. Meanwhile on the B-Side of this beautiful marbled vinyl Tokyo Prose dust off their jazz piano for a deeper cut that peeps into the edge of Samurai's most soulful abyss.

Review: The second cheeky sensation to come on Jungle Cakes this week, wherein the mysterious JFB gives The Luniz "Five On It" a savage bass battering and The Champs' "Tequila" a gentle breakbeat update. The former is a powerful dance smasher that wouldn't go amiss in Andy C's current Alive rampage. The latter is less raucous but equally bubblesome: Think warm up rather than the sonic showdown that's on the A.

Review: Clash of the modern day titans right here as Break and Survival collide for a sizzling workout of glitchy, steppy riddims. As you'd expect from the pair, "Stano" is sharper than a drag queen's put downs and full of interesting sonic twists and turns. Fans of both Symmetry and Dispatch output should go mental for it. Flipwise we find Survival going solo for "Going Over". A deeper, more quintessential rolling affair, check those meaty one-note subs and you'll be all over this. Heavyweight stuff.

Review: A delicious double banger here from Ulterior Motive as they pair up against other equally notorious players in D&B. First up is "Catharsis", a collabo with Lenzman. Riding with a perfectly processed vocal (think Riya or Diane Charlamagne) and a set of rattling drums, this grumps and grizzles its way through the groove until we get the dreamy drop midway. Elsewhere we find them going head to head with Hybris for a sharper, glitchier workout. With tripped out bass tones and all sorts of headbending processing play, fans of Xtrah or Foreign Concept will instantly find favour right here. Looking forward to Versus EP 2...

Review: Audio's third long player has been the topic of many D&B forum discussions since the early summer. Speculations over the tracklist and sneaky upfront bits people were hearing in his sets, this has arrived to a rapturous response. While each of these cuts grunt and grizzle in the way we've come to expect, there's deeper, more penetrating, and at points trippy sensation to the mechanical menace. The meowed synth tease on "Recon", the edgy sampler-bashing "Recluse" and of course the manic free-party flavoured chant on "Headroom". These are some of the richest, most textured sounds and grooves Audio's made to date.