Bass

Review: Pigeonholing the work of Ruben Uvez AKA Konduku has always been tough, as anyone who has tried to describe his brilliant releases on Nous'klaer Audio and Idle Hands will happily tell you. His renowned ability to not only blur but bend boundaries is once again evident on the Seker EP, which marks his first appearance on Diskant. For proof, check the polyrhythmic, strangely swung beats, dub techno flourishes and creepy melodies of 'Sekersin', or the dubbed-out brilliance of 'Sekerli', whose intricately programmed percussion hits tend towards the tribal. This reliance on mutilated South American and African rhythms, reprogrammed and re-played on drum machines with added UK bass percussion patterns, continues throughout an inspired and predictably off-kilter EP.

Review: Although he's now resident in London, Laksa will forever be associated with his former home city of Bristol - in part because his bass music mutations draw more influence from the hybrid sounds of that city than anything else. He's at it again here too, delivering a high quality Hessle Audio label debut. Lead cut 'Fire Kit' sets the tone, wrapping mind-mangling electronic noises and tribal style hand percussion around a warped bassline and beats that sit somewhere between post-dubstep and the polyrhythmic techno of the Livity Sound crew. He ups the tempo on the brilliant 'Belly Brocka', adding exotic vocal snippets and transcendental motifs to another loose-limbed, off-kilter rhythm, before repeating the trick on the trippy, hard-to-pigeonhole paranoia of 'T's Tent'.

Review: Maya Jane Coles returns to her hip-hop / beatsy / dark side alias Nocturnal Sunshine with a special vinyl release of two of the many striking tracks from last year's album Full Circle. Linked up with Gangsta Boo and Young MA, both 'Pull Up' and 'Riding Solo' bring trappy, Atlanta style rap into Maya's deep, glistening space-bound mix. Complete with instrumentals and the previously unreleased drum & bass odyssey 'Hi', it's another great chapter in the Full Circle story.

Review: J. Dugdale returns under his Sumgii alias for Swamp 81 again with some meditative and minimalist rollers. Judging by the pic on his Facebook page, he definitely likes the green, and the collection of tracks featured on Who Is Genre Anyway are perfect for getting blunted. It's total fire on the A side, from the deep, down and dirty grime of 'Absurd' followed by 'Chunks' and it's bouncy wall of sound. On the flip, things get more hi-fi on EP standout 'Skanker' before deconstructing nefarious techstep sounds of the late '90s on the fittingly titled 'Dark Side Burns'. The jagged and off-kilter bass experiment 'Wollop' closes it out.