Juno Recommends Breakbeat: 2024

Review: "Breakbeat" means many different things to many different people; perhaps among Juno's customers, the term signifies hard-edged apocalpytic bangouts against judderingly dark soundscapes, completely missing the trick of the fact that its earliest form was a kind of hip-hop that simply emphasised the funk backbeat as a central part. The Breakbeat Junkie are more than worthy reps of the latter category; they here bring the whopping 14th instalment of their Toxic Funk series to the fore, with two funky cuts from the beat master The Breakbeat Junkie himself.

Review: It's testament to the enduring quality and far-sighted nature of Future Sound of London's iconic 1991 single 'Papua New Guinea' that it keeps being 'rediscovered' by new generations of DJs. It has been a while, though, since any new reworks dropped - hence this 'Rebooted' edition. L Major kicks things off with a suitably cosmic, psychedelic and slow-building proto-jungle style offering, before Nishiesque flits between passages of hot-stepping, synth-laden d&b and slo-mo 4/4 chug. House heroes Soul Central reach for vintage hip-house breakbeats, ambient electronics and the original version's most life-affirming elements (the bassline, twinkling synth melodies and heady vocal samples), while Dee Montero re-casts the cut as a proggy, tribal-tinged tech-house roller.

Review: Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned sees producer Liam Howlett deliver a hook-ridden album that nods to the British rave scene with uninhibited bass and bleeps, but plenty of blazing guitars that maintain The Prodigy's bridge between rock and dance. Hollywood glamour shines with Juliette Lewis on standout track 'Hot Ride,' channeling PJ Harvey's energy. Lewis also appears on the opener 'Spitfire,' an alluringly sinister track. The Gallagher brothers bring aggression to the closing track 'Shoot Down,' with Liam on vocals and Noel on bass, showing Oasis's punk side. Howlett's battle with Kool Keith on 'Wake Up Call' and the exuberant 'Girls,' featuring disco-punks The Ping Pong Bitches, showcase The Prodigy's willingness to experiment. Fans might miss Keith Flint's ghoulish presence, but the album's flair remains strong. Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned is a storm of apt samples, grumbling percussion, and memorable riffs, reaffirming The Prodigy's place in the dance-punk genre.

Review: Those oh-so-rude and too-cool-for-school cats at Red Laser have tapped up the ironic provocateur DJ Absolutely Shit for another quartet of club cuts that are designed to blow the roof off. These tracks all make use of a bold sample and bring some hefty breakbeat energy starting with the loved up r&b vocal hooks of 'Bridge To Your Heart' and then upping the level for the more raves and synth-laced 90s menace of 'Bolivia'. 'Rocking You Eternally' is a pure jungle frenzy with icy synths and deeply buried vocal soul then 'Gong' shuts down with some shiny 80s sounds that bring to mind shellsuits and old Fords.

Review: UK producer NJOI delivers the white label goods with 'The Dubs', allegedly after "unprecedented demand from fans". Through four full instrumental mixes of formerly unreleased Hidden Gems tracks, the bits here range from gargantuan acid to close-up deep Chicago house to acid trance, making for a thoroughly enjoyable exercise in house versioning and flippage.

Review: Mike Bandoni's new outing on Village Live Records is a super good drum outing that has been doing the rounds amongst some top-tier funk DJs. Bandoni is a talented multi-instrumentalist and is also the former drummer for the Craig Charles Fantasy Funk Band so knows his sound inside out. Opener 'Kool Trippin' is an uptempo classic with energy to get any floor going. On the flip is another bit of pure bait for B-boys and girls with irresistible funk breaks and catchy hooks. Both tracks are taken from 'Rhodium Breaks' and come in limited quantities.

Review: Salford's finest DJ Absolutely Shit delivers part two of his 'Memoirs Of A Crust Monster' series, this time entirely disavowing that the series is even named as such at all. Why the sudden change of heart, we don't know; perhaps it's an attempt at committing the good times to memory. Aiding these mnemonic sonics come four new utter heaters of the yellow-grinning variety, whether that be the opening 'Higher' - which blows us away with its candid echoings-out-before-the-beat-drops - or the high-reg bleep-breaks 'Out On Love', a truly experimental rib-tickler of a track that proves the experimentation inherent in breakbeat, one that only geniuses of the sound could attest to - should they move beyond its surface cliches and go on to nail the essential form.

Review: Meat Beat Manifesto have released more than a few classic albums in their time, but their fourth album Satyricon is surely one of the finest. Originally released on Mute in 1992, it saw Jack Dangers push his voice even further to the forefront as he tackled a wide spectrum of social issues, while the production continued to find them keyed into the developments in rave and hip-hop as they were unfolding. The breakbeat structures are absolutely in keeping with the pace of the emergent hardcore sound, but of course Meat Beat Manifesto reached beyond purist dance music to take in industrial elements which made a hugely influential brew of its own.

Review: Dark breaksy brain-addler Colombo proves his mettle on latest 12", 'Your First Lesson'. A primal pedagogy of pitiless percs and brash breaks, Colombo nonetheless maintains a really rude sense of rollage here, one that other breaks producers would perhaps find themselves too impatient to maintain. 'To The Situation' pits a deeply muted Reese against a skin-snagging beat, over which a vixen voiceover muses on the antagonisms and war stances of life. 'Reedown' and 'Your First Lesson' seem to express the same grim sentiment - as though life must be fought to the death for - evoking womping militancies and cavernous streetside nether-regions.

Review: Manchester's Tys is back on the Simpler Times label he runs with Archie Gray, Tay and David with his third EP of cinematic, crisply rendered techno melancholy. If you're into the likes of Jon Hopkins and Four Tet you'll find much to savour in Tys' sound, dealing as it does in lingering emotive composition as the primary focus. There are plenty of deft drums driving the tracks along, but this is delicate music aimed squarely at the heartstrings, whether it's the endearing warble of the lead synth on 'Prism' or the sweetly spiralling shuffle of 'Antalya' you find yourself blissing out to.

Review: Virginia's Stimulator Jones channels all things jungle on Valley Center, his debut album on Craigie Knowes. Sam Lunsford is multi-talented genre-spanning artist; from songwriting to singing, programming drum machines to drumming, performing live to DJing, Valley Center flaunts it all; Lunsford's seamless genre-hopping skills with the outcome an LP packed with tracks that wouldn't sound out of place on LTJ Bukem's Logical Progression series or in the Metalheadz archives. From the skittery, airy and scratchy off of 'Submersible' to the more-than-deep abyssal movements of 'Kinda Deep' and the penultimate jump-up swang of 'Valley Winds', Valley Center is a full-length swim through a preternatural valley, whose meandering river flows with not only brackish waters, but also impossible liquids.

Review: Meat Beat Manifesto's sprawling 1996 opus 'Subliminal Sandwich' is finally reissued by the good people at PIAS. Compared to much of their oeuvre, this one is a touch rougher round the edges, with serrated guitar licks layered over achingly resonant bell loops and typically crunchy percussion. Though most of the tracks on the LP are characterised by lax tempo and an ominously warped soundworld, the unique cocktail of styles and influences which MBM draw on shine forth one by one: dub, new jack swing, jazz, noise, punk, breakbeat. Percies include the smoked out dub nausea of 'Assasinator', and the bleary chug of 'Addiction', which sounds somewhat like if Christophe Goze ate one too many tabs and decided to compose a Buddha Bar single for the tweakers. While it isn't MBM's most accessible work by any means, it is an essential entry in the Jack Dangers catalogue and a must for anyone seeking a more charred, freaky body of work which doubtless went on to inspire some of breakbeat and trip hop's key players.

Review: Breakbeat means many different things to many different people but in the case of this new EP from Aggresivnes on Electroshock there is something of a turn of the millennium nu-breaks feel. Synths sounds like video game effects from a retro future world with crisp drum funk powering each track along. Spoken word samples, sirens, rave-ready piano stabs and warped leads all add extra personality to the playful beats. 'Popcorn' is our pick for the sheer neck-snapping crispness of the drums and hits.

Review: Serendipitous that a duo comprising two artists named Justice and Mercy should come together. With the 'Concrete Jungle' EP first emerging in 1992, under the name 'Mixed Concrete' on the pioneering White House Records label, this is no less one of those records whose ongoing reputation by and large matches its quality. It's no surprise that it should be so lauded; we expert listeners can really tell the extra care and attention poured into it, with which it continually anoints itself. Lead track 'Soothe My Soul' is especially great, having been made infamous, for the way in which its otherwise run-of-the-mill breaks-chuggage opening finds itself dashed into oblivion by a momentous breakdown, of howling pitched-up vocals and legato stringed, bowed caelum. Such a heavenly breakdown is an essential feature of the breakbeat / rave uplifter form, in many cases otherwise unfairly passed over. Then the polysynths and backing peals of 'Doin' What You're Doin'' command an almost equal sheen, with the track featuring the clearest-as-day instance of a "hey hey!" jungle sample as we've ever heard. The closer 'Experience' is just as divine, seeming to transcend its initial breakdance sample-looper with yet another quarter-noted, dove-winged eclat elapsing over time.

Review: Rave R's 'Good Feelin'' delivers two tracks that tap straight into the core of UK rave and breakbeat. The title track, 'Good Feelin''. drives with piano-led, peak-time energy, blending techno with that unmistakable rave spirit. It's a hands-in-the-air anthem built to lift the crowd. On Side-2, 'Heart Break' ups the tempo with a high-energy house-breakbeat fusion. A classic rave breakdown and emotive piano lines give it a timeless feel, ensuring it hits the sweet spot for dancefloors. 'Good Feelin'' is a great choice for anyone craving that classic rave rush with modern punch.

Review: Contemporary bass music up-and-comer Pîrvu returns to Meander with a clever take on breakstep, breakbeat and electro, the 'Skylark' EP. With the little brown job of a bird held firmly in mind - its avian grace matched well by the light, but also hot-winged determination of the title track - we find ourselves compelled to dance with both light and hot footing in equal measure. Following that up, there's 'Edge Of A Strange Euphoria', with its phat FMs and murky narration proving that some if not most states of ecstasy are mixed bags, provided they do the proper job of challenging our inner status quos. Finally 'Zuzu' ends things on a franker note of gaslamp-lit acid, with Dan Andrei also lending a hand to produce a neat 4/4 version.

Review: Guachinche Records captures the best of the Andalusia and Tenerife breakbeat scenes led by the renowned groups Mutantbreakz and Bubble Couple. Their debut vinyl release, GUACH001, is a compilation that perfectly embodies their musical essence and quality. It kicks off with 'Old Groove,' a standout track by Rasco and Bubble Couple and featuring memorable piano and basslines. Suga 7 follows with 'Hideaway,' offering a taste of the Canary Islands with high tempos and playful bass. The B-side includes Mutantbreakz's intricate track with guitar, piano, and vocals, culminating in Raverman's epic 'Sayonora' which is a stunning piece of acid electro-trance.

Review: Baby Blue strikes again here with another high-energy mix of club-ready sounds that draw on old-school rave but imbue them with new-school sounds. 'We've Got The Power' is a big, bold, electro-techno banger with retro synth stabs and 'Basic Basiss' then layers up a flurry of breaks and glistening celestial synths in euphoric fashion. On the flip, 'This Is The Night' slows a touch and brings textual drums, slapping hits and a wonky bassline, then last of all, 'I Need You' shuts down with a final barrage of rave-ready piano stabs and scintillating drums all offset by a seductive bassline and vocals.

Review: Will Hofbauer and Igaxx collaboratively expand the all-too-easily received palettes of electro, techno, garage all in between, and even more yonder, proving to us that the boundary edges of each genre may be blurred without worry. Sharing three groove-bays each on this latest 12", Hofbauer indulges an across-the-pond sojourn, guesting on Japan's Ladybug label, which is managed by the also eminent Igaxx, who occupies the B with equal grip. Hofbauer's 'Cricket', 'Clod' and 'Cocodrilo' bring three endocrine C's to a singly sanguine side, echoing a Hessle Audio-esque experimental dance sensibility while secreting all manner of vital sonic fluids from his ears unto ours; the last track is especially alarming; cursedly toothy, its growly lead zombifying the elsewise rapid mix by way of an enthralled grunt. Igaxx's contributions are relatively supportive and yet mad, moving from the squelches and pipey ascensions of '4 5 SL Trip' to the parabreaks flows of 'Liquefy' and the sloshing cosmo-funk astro-vista that is 'Ray In Space'.

Review: youANDme has always been an important cog in the wheel of underground house and techno and his recent PPPPP was another fine project that has also spawned plenty of equally brilliant remixes. This is a second collection of them and it kicks off with the Polish master of perfect loop techno, Head High aka Shed. His bulky, barreling drums and big percussive loops come with plenty of bounce and raved up vocals. After that come Ian Pooley's dub, and Johannes Albert's deep house trip. Sasha, Roger Sanchez and Laurent Garnier have already been banging these so now it's your turn.

Review: Mtkvarze Records launches itself into the underground world with three producers who are well known to anyone who attended the club of the same name's 2023 season. Sohrab, a Mtkvarze's resident artist who is based in London, opens up with dark melodic flair, Tbilisi's Cobert then gets tripped out and acid on 'Old Taiko' and Levan Grdzelidze, the man behind the top Glispy Records, offers both cuts on the flipside. 'What Happens After' is a quick, rugged tech cut with wiry effects and twitching synths and 'Warm Hands' is future house with warm, smeared and painterly pads softening the kinetic drum work.

Review: BufoBufo (Klasse Wrecks, Dream Ticket, Cabaret) and Qeta (Further Electronix, Wave Function, brokntoys) join forces for an eight track split LP, diving into aquatic synths, sliding breakbeats and amphibious atmospheres. A decidedly dreamy and watery album, 'Fascinating World' knows what it is: a captivating subaquatic exoplanet of vinyl-crackling trip-hop beats, ghostly synths, and deep ascensions (or are they descensions?) into evermore abyssal netherworlds. A dialectical record, with each artist taking on a track each before also collaborating on one cut per side, we're more than impressed at this pair's ability to lay down a coherent sound-vision, despite their vacillation between two solo productive poles.

Review: At long last, a light has been shone on the career of one of the UK's true underground rave heroes: Bedford producer (and man of umpteen aliases) Tony Bonisegna. Cold Blow and Musique Pour La Danse have done a terrific job on the two-part set, offering up remastered killer cuts from Bonisenga's vast catalogue alongside extensive sleeve notes by Join The Future author Matt Anniss (whose book was the first to tell the producer's remarkable story). There's plenty to set the pulse racing on this first volume, including Bonisegna's earliest explorations of house in the late 80s (both as part of The Rhythm Squad), the clonking and bleeping shuffle of Original Clique's 'F (Whistle Mix)', the Pet Shop Boys-go-to-a-rave shimmer of 'Tonnere' by Pierrepoint, the acid-flecked breaks madness of Big Showdown's 'They're Here' and the sub-heavy early breakbeat hardcore of AEK's 'Lick It'.

Review: As any keen breakbeat heads will know, DJ H's 'The Bass Project' EP came originally back in 1993 and is something of a classic in the genre. It is now getting reissued on nice heavyweight and pink marled vinyl in mad limited quantities but all mastered from a mint vinyl copy. The record infamously suffered from a questionable mixdown and so for this new reissue, the original samples have been re-sourced and layered over the restored files. Apparently, it took some 23 straight man-hours to get the work done - but it has paid off as these sound superb.

Review: Between 1986 and 1994, Tony Boninsegna released an insane amount of music under dozens of different aliases, offering up rave-ready tracks that variously mixed and matched elements of acid house, bleep & bass, hardcore techno and breakbeat. Yet he remains almost unknown. Notes From The Underground, a two-part retrospective of his career, is therefore well overdue. This second part, which boasts extensive sleeve notes from UK dance music historian Matt Anniss, is packed to the rafters with re-mastered treats, with highlights including the electro-tinged bleep business of Lab Technicians' 'We Gave You Life', the weighty acid breaks of Sykosis 451's 'Monsoon', the breakbeat hardcore funkiness of MI7's 'Show I', and the proto-jungle madness of Raggahead's 'Give The People What They Want'.

Review: Muted, pitch-shifty Rhodes tones and smeary breakbeats from Sam Park, delivering fresh flavours for Real Feel with 'Another Dream'. Think XXYYXX meets Delroy; the title track basks in a supremely timestretched breakbeat, said effect causing a sort of disbelief-suspensory breakbeat to resound, and around which distant acids and whistles may dance. Then, the breaks suddenly 'open out' into a wider vista of high end on 'Dance For Me', against which subtly vocoded vocal transitions and shouts grate, before folk-stompy production specialist Karizma comes through for a wonky 4x4 rendition of the A1.

Review: The NOID imprint out of Belgium returns with its second vinyl drop, and this time takes you into some serene realms of breakbeat-driven pleasure court yes of Dave NA. His Altura EP opens with 'Escape', a wide open and airy mix of wispy synths and dusty, floating breaks. 'Elevation' has a more churning rhythm and dubby undercurrent and 'Pulse' (feat Freq444) has a hypnagogic feel, smeared vocal cries and more raw percussive patterns. 'Novox' (feat Freq444) shuts down with the most heavy and moody breakfast of the lot, a certain jungle swagger and plenty of heavy bass.

Review: Raji Rags brings his unique brand of melodically infused breakbeat to new label OTIH. His Congratulations EP makes its debut release and after the amusingly titled 'Obligatory Ambient Intro' comes the exotic synth charm of 'Kiran's Bike' and kinetic drum workout that is 'Making Love To A Ghost.' 'Bullet Train' (feat Sonia Calico) is more dark and dirty with busy synths panning about the mix and last of all is 'Enchante', which merges celestial synths with vulnerable string sounds. It all adds up to a unique EP.

Review: Stereophonk hit gold with volume one of this series so no wonder it now presents the eagerly awaited Bunch Of Funk Vol. 2. This one features 18 unreleased tracks making their vinyl debut, including two exclusive cuts created in collaboration with the talented Medline. Iconic breakdance figure DJ Marrrtin is known for his hard-hitting breaks played at major events and always makes sure he serves up music that invites listeners to express themselves on the dance floor. Here he infuses a powerful, organic sound that honours breakdance heritage while innovating for future generations.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Creasing to corner of outer sleeve but otherwise in excellent condition***


Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned sees producer Liam Howlett deliver a hook-ridden album that nods to the British rave scene with uninhibited bass and bleeps, but plenty of blazing guitars that maintain The Prodigy's bridge between rock and dance. Hollywood glamour shines with Juliette Lewis on standout track 'Hot Ride,' channeling PJ Harvey's energy. Lewis also appears on the opener 'Spitfire,' an alluringly sinister track. The Gallagher brothers bring aggression to the closing track 'Shoot Down,' with Liam on vocals and Noel on bass, showing Oasis's punk side. Howlett's battle with Kool Keith on 'Wake Up Call' and the exuberant 'Girls,' featuring disco-punks The Ping Pong Bitches, showcase The Prodigy's willingness to experiment. Fans might miss Keith Flint's ghoulish presence, but the album's flair remains strong. Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned is a storm of apt samples, grumbling percussion, and memorable riffs, reaffirming The Prodigy's place in the dance-punk genre.