Juno Recommends Breakbeat Best of 2020

Review: We all taking up right about now and Yosh is the one to do it. Four crucial cuts flexing around the UKG/breaks axis, all heavily entrenched in the turn of the century breakbeat, dark garage melting pot. Classic vocal samples galore and really punchy drums, highlights include the classic "What I Need" and the pure kick drum militancy of on the title track "Take Me Up". Serious vibes for all ages and all floors.

Review: There are a lot of highly tempting Record Store Day releases this year, though few as visually stunning as this surprise Future Sound of London seven-inch. Pressed in very limited numbers on white marbled vinyl, it boasts a tastefully edited, chopped-down version of Andrew Weatherall's near-legendary remix of 'Papua New Guinea', in which the late producer transformed the dark, mind-altering breakbeat tune into an emotive, life-affirming chunk of extra-percussive tribal house with added heavy dub influences, twinkling piano motifs and a rushing synth riff. Over on the flip you'll find an obscure, rather good and previously hard-to-find alternate version of Accelerator album track 'Stolen Documents'.

Review: More Toxic Funk flavours from the Breakbeat Paradise crew, who've cannily snapped up a couple of killer collaborations from Prosper and Badboe. The experienced pair predictably goes in hard on A-side 'Beastie Lifestyle', where a classic Beastie Boys acapella is slapped down hard on a brand-new heavy funk-meets-breakbeat backing track that comes laden with mazy electric piano solos and fiery horns courtesy of Le Marabout. They change tack slightly on 'Without Funk', joining the dots between a handful of killer samples on a P-funk flavoured workout that's every bit as addictive and ear-pleasing as the duo's A-side banger.

Review: What a coming together this is: Swedish label Studio Barnhus have always lived on the colourful and curious fringes of the house music world, and New Yorker FaltyDL operates similarly in his approach to rhythm and sound design. While superb A-side cut "Flechazo" is a bright melodic house cut with shimmering chords and grounded percussion, it is more likely that "New Lover" on the flip will get the attention here: bursting with throwback feels with its 90s house drums, big stabs and blissed out chords, it's an all loved up and subtly euphoric cut, so expect plenty of peak time plays.

Review: There's plenty to get the juices flowing on Ukrainian duo Hidden Element's second full-length excursion, which lands in stores four years after their debut long-player "Together". They hit the ground running with the live-style breakbeats and booming bass of "Sound Of", before exploring slightly slower and moodier breakbeat pastures on "The Content Has No Sense" and reaching for the rushing electronic riffs on hybrid breaks/house cut "Rplctr9". Over on side B, they brilliantly mangle mind-altering bass music and jungle on "Strayed In Comparison" and mess around with moody bass and trance-like riffs on "Being Nervous Is Just Fine". As a tasty bonus, Norwegian producer Andre Bratten turns "Strayed In Comparison" into an icy slab of drowsy IDM bliss to round off a rock solid set.

Review: 19 years ago, DJ Technics oversaw the production of Queens of Baltimore Club, a double album of weighty B-More club tracks built around female vocals and vocal samples. Originally copies are now extremely hard to find, so the newly launched Butter Notes label has decided to press up a single slab of wax featuring some of the album's most potent jams. Highlights include the cheeky B-more-does-classic-hip-house hedonism of Kotton the Cutie's 'I Just Wanna', the heat and heavy intensity of Mz Thang's 'Shake Ya Dick', the stab-sporting sweatiness of Ms Mocha's 'Not The Boss' and the heavily-edited, build-heavy hype of Lady Shanuda's 'Stuck', which packs insane levels of excitement into four action-packed minutes.