Breakbeat Recommendations Best Of 2014

Review: Well ahead of their time, The Blapps Posse cut some of the most agenda-setting records during the late 80s and early 90s. Gnawing and slapping their way through hip-hop, funk, hardcore and acid house, they made the records that soundtracked those early halcyon summers of love. This selection of cuts gathers the crews various guises and off-shoots and comprises the broadest of their abilities; from innocent formative hip-house ("Don't Hold Back"), sample-smashing seminal big beat ("Religious B-Boy") and bleep-style rave hopscotch ("These Guys Are Doper Than Dope"). Unearthed by Fat Hop champ Jerome Hill and remastered to stand up to today, this is a bona fide document.

Review: Jerome Hill's returns to his funkiest guise Itsu Uno for the first time in several years with this epic slice of sample madness. "The Riff" couldn't possibly be any funkier as we boom bap with vigour to a cut and paste narrative of heady homages. Han Do Jin jumps up on the B... We're unsure on HDJ's identity right now but the fusion of flavours he's cooked surpasses any traces of mystery; when early hardcore, acid house and Cuban horns are smelted as well as this, the name is superfluous. Get down.

Review: Four furiously funky floor-busters from Aussie nu-funkateer Tom Drummond, each of these well-executed hip-hop-minded bootlegs guarantees a raucous reaction. "Thick Shake" takes the Nate Dogg vocals from Eminem's "Shake That" and fuses them with classic Zapp & Rogers funk flavour while "Work It" takes UNK's "Walk It Out" and introduces it to a bouncy soft-skank riddim with horns galore. Elsewhere we find Marlena Shaw getting a big beat style facelift on "Ghetto Blaster" while "Satisfaction" smelts Benny Benassi with Rolling Stones and plenty more.

Review: Anyone who has been following Peoples Potential Unlimited over the past few years will be aware of The Trash Company, the creative project of Max Monroe which has been the subject of several retrospectives on the label. Those familiar with his lo-fi style, which has veered between strange outsider rock and crunchy synth experiments in its time, might be surprised by this one-sided 12", a dark, driving piece of rolling disco which is among Monroe's most straight-up dancefloor material to date - it's also absolutely killer.

Review: You have to admire the no-nonsense, let's-have-a-rave ethos of Belgian duo Mumbai Science. This debut album - dropping on the back of four years of impressive 12" releases for Lektroluv - offers a whirlwind trip through their robust, dancefloor-friendly influences, which range from electroclash, new beat, Belgian hardcore and acid techno, to 808 electro, the Chemical Brothers, Boys Noize and straight-up electro-house. Deja Vu is arguably well named, as it does feel like a hangover from another era, when making dance albums was just a matter of whacking together a load of confirmed dancefloor bangers. That's not a criticism, though - in fact, it's rather refreshing to hear an album free of pretention. Mumbai Science want to have fun, and we're all invited along for the ride.

Review: Sonia Akow, once of breaks crew SOTO, was a familiar face on the breaks scene throughout the '90s and 2000s, and an integral part of the Botchit & Scarper family. Sadly she passed away last year from leukaemia. Push Play pays tribute to her via two discs of new and exclusive material from the "beats and bass" community, with proceeds going to the Afro Caribbean Leukaemia Trust. Putting aside the compilation's charity credentials, it's a strong collection, with superb contribiutions from Pyramid and Jay Cunning (the garage-breaks bounce of "Call Me"), Sasha Simone & Gal (the sunshine soul of "Move"), The Moody Boys (the bleep-heavy early breaks revivalism of "This is Automatic") and, of course, SOTO (the touching "Sayonara").