TAPES Vinyl & CDs

Review: Tuck in your napkin and get seated comfortably for six plates of delicious broken beat and nu jazz funk from Tapes on the small but already well-formed Mida label. These superbly cosmic studies in sound are packed with finely tuned frequencies, cymbals and drums, silky spacecraft arps, video game sounds and playful keys that scatter through arrangements to trippy effect. All of that is underpinned by the sort of hefty low end that locks you in and the whole thing is an ever-shifting sound world that sounds both ancient yet futuristic. Sublime.

Review: Jackson Bailey AKA Tapes has long been able to producer masterful, memorable music with some of the cheapest-sounding electronic equipment around. He's at it again on 'Sauna Research', a picturesque and ultra-deep fusion of slow-motion dub and bittersweet electronica that's guaranteed to put a smile on your face despite the melancholic nature of the track's drifting synthesizer chords. He continues in a similar vein on the slightly more squelchy flipside 'Aquarium Trousers', where lilting lead lines and immersive chords bubble away atop a lo-fi drum machine beat and tactile, electrofunk-influenced synth bassline. These won't hang around for long, so grab one while you can.

Review: Sometime Jahtari and Sex Tags sort Tapes (real name Jackson Bailey) is on fine form on this tidy ten-inch for Japanese imprint EM Records. "Summer Jam" more than lives up to its title, with the on-point producer peppering a rich, analogue-heavy electronic rhythm track with lo-fi sounding synthesizer flute solos and cheery, sun-kissed melodies. His digi-dub roots come further to the fore on undulating, delay-laden flipside "Salavere", where echoing electronic melodies seemingly drift above a sparse, clicking drum machine rhythm track. It too is rather fine, albeit in a deeper, woozier and altogether more spaced-out way. In a word: ace.

Review: The in house label at West London vinyl emporium Honest Jon's has really hit on a rich strain of releases for the electronic music connoisseur this year with that Sotofett album, the Villalobos and Kassem Mosse remixes of Insalar and Simone White respectively and now this gem. Datura Mystic is a wonderful soundclash between the unheralded Drums Of Wareika Hills Sounds and Tapes, a London based artist whose unique brand of cassette manipulations have featured on Jahtari, Sex tags Amfibia and Astro Dynamics among others. Quite separate to anything anyone else is bigging up right now, both the title cut and the accompanying Dub roll to their own beat and its great music to soak up in the spring sun!

Review: Next year sees both Tapes and DJ Sotofett debuting on Honest Jon's in one shape or another, and the pair close out 2014 with this rather fine 10" for the lesser spotted Sex Tags Amfibia operation. Those adventurous selectors out there wanting some house paced sonics laced with digidub fx will be all over Topp Tonn, and anyone that's been in the dance whilst Sotofett or Fett Burger were at the decks will probably be familiar with these two cuts. As usual with a Sex Tags release, this one is all about the curveball moments like where a killer synth line appears out of nowhere up top and leads "Topp Tonn" down a whole different path. In true dub tradition, the flipside Version scoops out the guts of the track for a skeletal riddim perfect for the early morning dancers.

Review: It's a total joy every time the Workshop label releases a new EP. After all, they've only released the likes of Kassem Mosse, Lowtec and Even Tuell, among others, in their fine catalogue. This time, however, they've decided to spice things up and put out four tunes by lesser known but rising talents in the house-techno-electronic sphere. The mysterious Willow drops "Feel Me", a hazy, heads-down house joint; London's digi star Tapes comes through with a rather epic jam that is "Somebody's Baby" - Hard Wax themselves have branded it as 'special' - "Villager" by The Horn is a downtempo drum machine flex with moody pads, and meandyou's Herron drops the "Lost Track", a winding, chuggy dub-house cut that'll go down a storm in Manchester's Soop Kitchen! Another winner, quality guaranteed.