LEEWAY Vinyl & CDs

Review: Born To Expire is the debut album by New York City band Leeway. Renowned as leaders of the crossover thrash charge in the mid 1980s, the local fountainhead, their early-days genius, was none other than that exalted club of legend, CBGB. Though the bands they ran with saw them as odd ones out for their originality - it was indeed their sweats that led to the coinage 'crossover thrash' at all - it was this very incongruence that saw to their popularity. In hindsight, lead guitarist and songwriter A.J. Novello described his delight at the album's success, boastful of its totally metallic sound and the one that "rewrote the book on New York hardcore".

Review: London producer Leeway has cooked up a brilliant album here that suggests he is obsessive about detail and magical about rhythm and groove. His tracks are super tight takes on techno and grime with elements of trance and plenty of bits for the 160 heads to get stuck into. It's one for the heart of the dancefloor or headphones alike - stoner rave for strobe lit settings, paranoid ideas fleshed out into fever dreams and alien lifeforms. It's got a hyper feel, AI feel to it but also plenty of ritualistic dance DNA that has got us mightily impressed. One of the most original albums you'll hear this year.

Review: Aside from the fact that this ultra-limited CD marks the debut of SELCHP Recordings, there's not much information floating around about Higher Reaction Sound. So what can we tell you? For starters, it's really good, with each of the three artists involved delivering two tracks apiece that blue the boundaries between heavy steppers dub, concrete-clad techno and the more immersive end of ambient techno. It's an appealing, sub-heavy sound that's tough enough to satisfy dancefloors, but enveloping enough for sustained headphone listening. Highlights include the heavy-stepping, deep space techno dubbiness of Conrad Pack's 'Volumes', the gently melodic shuffle of DJ Gonz's 'Calling', and the rhythmic dub sample collage that is Leeway's exotic 'Vouge Psy'.