Juno Recommends Drum & Bass: March 2024

Review: Strap yourselves in for the return of Missile Vintage with a fifth transmission and this one is a track from the boss himself. Missile Records founder Tim Taylor crafted this banger back in 1992 and released it on the legendary FFRR imprint. It soon made its mark on the rave scene of the time and has remained influential to generations of DJs, dancers and producers ever since. Now it comes back to vinyl in original form, as well as next to a huge Foghorn mix from Micky Finn and a more physical and breaks-lead remix from Blade. A great package that joins the dots between then and now.

Review: Congo Natty celebrates a decade of revolutionary jungle music with this anniversary reissue of a classic. Originally released in 2013, this album remains a cornerstone of the genre, blending reggae, hip-hop, and jungle influences into a powerful sonic tapestry. With timeless tracks like 'UK Allstars' and 'Jungle Souljah,' Congo Natty captures the spirit of the underground rave scene with infectious beats and socially conscious lyrics. This anniversary edition breathes new life into the record with remastered tracks and additional content, reminding listeners of the enduring legacy of jungle music and Congo Natty's vital contribution to its evolution.

Review: We've all looked skyward for inspiration at some point and now it's the turn of Pittsburgh-based d&b producer Alpha Rhythm. Michael Gorman, to use his real name, deals in the kind of introspective, ethereal rollers that suit rainy day reflection as much as the deeper part of a dance, and he applies that style to the celestial bodies of our solar system to great effect. There are notable vocal spots from Leo Wood, Natus and Gemma Rose which only add to the heavy load of feels pouring out of this expansive long player dropping on Fokuz.

Review: Toronto besties Gremlinz and Jesta have been plotting, scheming and collaborating their entire adult lives - off and on - and releasing together consistently since 2018, but The Lee Garden Historical Preservation Society is their most significant creation to date. An ice cold web of tales and textures that digs deep into drum & bass music's most uncompromising and future-focused aesthetics, over 13 tracks they dig deep into a range of influences - techno ('Andromeda'), jungle ('Destro') and elements of grunge and trip hop on cuts such as 'Vermin' and 'After Dinner Coffee Face' are all in the mix but they forever keep the sonics tight and consistent. Metalheadz through and through.

Review: Two of drum & bass' most rabid underdogs, Nookie and DJ Crystl, the latter returning only recently after a two decade hiatus - make a triumphant return to the foreground, joining Suburban Architecture in aid of the third edition of their Architecture Dubs series. A fresh fusion of old and new motifs, Nookie's remix of 'Renegade Horns' pays homage to a select juncture in the genre's evolution, recalling the era of "intelligent" drum & bass while nonetheless playing into the freshness and cleanliness that could only ever have surfaced after the 2010s. Crystl's version of 'New Horizons', meanwhile, is more refractive and dreamy, taking its required time to bask in its artisanal padwork, in contrast to its raw b-boy sample and frank Amen breaks.

Review: After nearly two decades' worth of releases on prominent drum & bass labels such as Creative Source, Soul:R and Paradox Music, Paris-based producer Naibu finally launches his own imprint, Minato Music, and so kicks things off with a fresh new solo LP, Sans Soleil, drawing inspiration from the very best of 90s drum & bass as it was heard in the Japanese anime of that period. Indeed, a vast array of anime spectacles, from Noiseman Sound Insect to Perfect Blue, make riveting use of the formative genre as an auditory driver of plot action; Naibu pays homage to this now established connotation, working in a 40-piece string orchestra, a Japanese women's choir, and the vocals of singer Robert Manos, blending the evocative beauty of the human soul with cold, synthesized sounds, deep subs and original, handcrafted breakbeats. A massive project, Sans Soleil took nearly 5 years to complete.

Review: Aural Imbalance is in a super productive and super good run of form that has seen him serve up a wealth of great EPs over the last year. Now he is back on his own Spatial platform. This latest one comes on translucent grey smokey and green splattered vinyl, starting with the busy and unrelenting amen breaks workout of 'Spacewaves' then pulling back into more suspensory and delicate synth realms on 'Tranquil Sea'. On the flip, the crisp snares and underlapping drum loops of 'Concordia' have you in a state of meditation and then last of all is another sublime bit of ambient laced and dreamy jungle in 'Fading Fields'.

Review: London Sound is the latest album from multi-platinum selling drum & bass duo Sigma. The album is a full-circle encapsulation of everything that's brought the pair to the present moment; featuring an array of drum & bass anthems, including 'Adrenaline Rush' featuring singer Morgan, the album radiates Joe and Cam's love for music creation for dark dancefloors and pop radio alike, and for completely ignoring any boundaries or hierarchies placed in their way. Speaking about the album, Sigma say: "London Sound - this album feels like a homecoming to us. We spent our early years in clubs all around London, soaking in the music, the culture and the energy. This album takes influence from those times as well as us being able to make a fully drum & bass project for the first time since 2015. London Sound feels like the album we've been waiting to release."

Review: Covert operator ASC continues his astral travels for his current series of intergalactic breakbeat explorations with 'Star Cluster'. Following 'Isometric Projection' and 'Cause & Effect', this EP once again reaches to the heavens for its essence and rolls out with shimmering, emotional charm and more than its fair share of heavy drum punches. The dreamy vocal calls and slamming breaks of 'Solyaris' and the tightly coiled spring groove of 'Oblivion' are both major highs on this trip.

Review: The man, the myth, the shadowy Welsh warrior who has been part of the d&b fabric for many years in many ways: Nonrev makes his debut on Voyager's Eternal Soul imprint and the results are simply stunning. 'We Have Nothing To Lose But Our Chains' sets the scene with its powerful euphoric sweeps and orchestral dynamic before 'Last I Heard' takes us down more of an introspective Good Looking style route before 'Out Of The Rain' gets our spines melting with its big strings and dreamy pads. Already shaking systems digitally, this wax couldn't have arrived a moment too soon.

Review: Vibez '93 is on a roll, as we recall several of the Fokuz Recordings sub-outlet's best works through a throng of EP reissues. The 'Execution' EP is on the moniker's dirtier and rawer side, launching the listener's fledgling pirate voyage with 'Wheel Up' (its breakdown driven impeccably forward by acapella vocals from A Tribe Called Quest's 'Scenario'), followed shortly by the atmosfear-strikers 'Skazka' and 'Execution', and finally coming in to land on the axe-touting 'Execution', recalling the earliest of dark LTJ in its messy-hazy breaks, tribal calls and wiggly sound effects.

Review: Aural Imbalance brings plenty of signature style to this lovely purple marble 12" on the Curvature imprint out of Germany. It is another fusion of dreamy ambient and cosmic soundscapes with precision drum designs powering along the rhythms. The opener is a jumpy one that has kinetic energy offset by bittersweet pads and 'Scratch The Surface' then floats on suspensory pads with rolling breakbeats adding the sense of motion to the emotions above. On the flip you will find 'Different Times' which is another beautiful mix of deft drum work and angelic pads and 'Spiral' shuts down with an ambient escape.

Review: ASC's Spatial imprint looks west for inspiration this month as they welcome a certified Reinforced OG who made a return last September after a 25 year break from this particular project (and many years from the game): New Jersey's JLM Productions. Also operating under aliases such as Sky City and P.E.P during the 90s, the JLM name was synonymous with the deeper, atmospheric sounds of jungle. And that's exactly what we have here. Four blissful, subtle and restrained atmospheric jungle cuts. Highlights include the swashbuckling breaks on 'The Navigator' and the dream-like haze of opener 'The Cartographer'. Welcome back JLM.

Review: Grab them while you can! Myor Massiv have pressed a few limited copies of these two ace remixes of bossman Coco Bryce. So good they've been credited to the remixers themselves, the unstoppable boundary-burner No Nation flips 'Lovin U' into a house-influence slab of timeless euphoria while Artificial Red puts the turbo rushes on the equally dreamy Ma Bae Be Luv. Perfect time for Valentines (or any day you're feeling all warm and cuddly inside) both these versions are essentially modern day soul.

Review: Hats off for the cool cats! Tommy's CITH imprint whips up a hefty VA EP to kick off 2024 with and the vibes are set to max. Donnie Murdo makes sure of this with two cuts on the A-side: the sassy, soulful jungle flex 'Anonymous' and the ravier charms of 'Mice N Easy'. Meanwhile on the B-side, Tommy joins the fray with the big breakbeat bliss of 'Just So You Know' before Pastaman serves up fire in the form of 'Fear' on the finale. Flaming!

Review: Rua Sound deliver their first release of the year and it's an absolute feast for the senses. Earl Grey polishes off his percussion and hammers it into all kinds of wonderful, whimsical and often mystical shapes. From the driving hypnotic jazz force of opener 'Amygdala' to the final sorrowful strings and emotional weeps of the concluding 'Prussia Dub', Mr Tea has whipped up a beguiling storm. The fast-lane blurs and urgency of 'Atanas Aconite' and the dense, sweaty tribal drama of 'Death Rattle' are also exquisite.

Review: The second release from Fushara & Ben Kei's Constellations imprint brings more of the very same hard-hitting beats-and-basses; we've got blissed out, edgy sci-fi-vibed synths and huge spacious atmospheres, all of which were first heard on the first released. A delightful follow-up, these track are primed for headphone listening first and foremost, despite their (in our opinion) just-as-good club-readiness. First up, 'Nightmare On Wax' delivers a string of eerie cosmic horrors - dormant xenomorphic sonic eggs on a silver platter - by way of endlessly tricky breaks variations and soulful sampled wails into the silent void that is space itself. The creep factor continues into the B, with 'Paranoid Park', taking its namesake from the bleak emo film and bringing with it an intense combination of psychotic mutterings and gourd-string tremblings; Ben Kei's contributions, meanwhile, are weightier and sparser, dare we say harder-hitting; 'Aperture' comes as the "tribal" highlight, channelling a huge sense of weight in its bass stabs and well-rounded break.

Review: Dom & Roland's Industry set new standards when it was released on Moving Shadow in 1998. This was a vision of d&b as a cinematic vessel like never before, pushing the limits of sound design in a style which has been standard practice ever since. Steely and intense, it's as fresh and relevant now as it was when it first laid waste to the scene in a blizzard of industrial strength drums and dystopian moods. Newly remastered and now spread across five plates (compared to the still considerable four it originally arrived on), this is a landmark slice of drum & bass history given the ceremonious reappraisal it deserves.