Drum & Bass Recommendations April 2015

Review: The second Welcome To The Jungle Volume 2 sampler from major booty murkers Deekline and Ed Solo, it's badman bounce business as usual... The label bosses take the lead with a mischievous shake up of Ray Charles with heavy emphasis placed on the mid 90s Urban Takeover style bass. Label comrade Chopstick follows with an original jam from 2013. Featuring the top-toasting vibes of Mr Williamz, "Girls Dem Dada" is rifle-firing skank session with a tight guitar lead and spitfire lyrical damage. Overstay your welcome on this one.

Review: Pixel and Mystic Pulse join the Rasta Vibez crew for some skunk-skanked jungle fun. First up is a storming rifle-flex twist on Pato Banton's fun-but-firm statement on herbal legalities. Complementing his rapid fire chats with equally thundering amens, it's got reload written into every red groove. Flip for more smoky sonic sermons as they take on another spark-up standard "Herbalist" with such authenticity you could easily be convinced it's 1992 again... Especially if you've practiced the lyrical content so much you think time travel is a thing. Pure Vibez.

Review: Long-standing futurist Fracture and Manchester murker Chimpo together on Metalheadz with two tracks that waggle willies at the very concept categorisation... You already know how this is going to go down. "From Early" goes through every shade of gangster, sparking up with some mad slo-mo jukey booty-bass wonk before dropping into a slice of 70s soul before finishing with a mangled future echo of Headz gone by. "Hard Food" is a straight up rave homage with every clanging breakbeat, detuned synth and teeth-baring bass you'll ever want to hear from the early 90s. Fracture finishes the picnic with a darker, steppier take on "From Early" sans the crazy 70s glitch. Seriously serious.

Review: One of the best D&B booty labels in existence, Welcome To The Jungle documents Deekline and Ed Solo's influences, inspirations, sources and samples with batty-bashing clarity. Here are two of many highlights. First up, Tippa Irie gets an injection of pure positivity with the piano-plinking classic "Good To Have The Feeling". Unity vibes ensue quicker than you can say 'lighter'. Next up is a thuggish twist on the Cocoa Tea and Cutty Ranks 1991 classic "Another One For The Road". Gully to the very core, hype vibes ensue quicker than you can say 'shabba'. Essential junglist business.

Review: Ram powerhouse Calyx & Teebee return with their first original material in 18 months. And it's as filthy, firing and razor-sharp as you'd want it to be! Marking the start of their highly anticipated third album, both cuts showcase the duo's skills and ever-developing momentum. "A Day That Never Comes" punches hard with a heavily re-sampled, reverse-twisted bassline and Calyx on a rock-flex with his vocals. "Snakes & Ladders", meanwhile, is cut from the same jump-up cloth Hazard makes his dapper threads from. Not a sound you'd first expect from C&T but, laced with their tech-minded trickery, it really works. Like really works. We can't wait to hear the album.

Review: Jungle titan and all-round legend Digital raises the Function phoenix from the D&B ashes with this killer trio of timeless hurters. Hooking up with Response (who you may well recognise from recent Ingredients outings), "Silver Lining" is a heritage roller with bold drum switches, Bukem-esque dreamy pads and a sub that hammers like the taxman. The scene-affirming "Deadline" needs no introduction; and neither does Dub Phizix. Put them together and you've got happy-slapping bounce heaven. Finally Digital closes the show with "Forever", a stunning vocal unity track with breakbeats and detuned synths so ruthlessly old school you might start worrying about your next poll tax bill.

Review: Hamilton smashes back into the centre of drum and bass everything with "Feel The Fury", a five minute hurter that'll leave you gasping for more. "Track 8" is where it all kicks off though, with old school beats, strange, out of this world melodies and effects and a huge retro-Caspa-esque bouncing bassline melting the whole thing together. It's weird in theory but in practice it will set dancefloors alight. The world's always looking for something different - this could well be it.

Review: As Djrum, Londoner Felix Manuel has exclusively restricted his output to the 2nd Drop label - remember that immense debut album Seven Lies from 2013??? Absent from the shelves of record shops since April last year, Manuel resurfaces here with some much needed material, not for 2nd Drop but Geoff Presha's ever on point Samurai Red Seal endeavour. If you are a Felix fan this partnership makes perfect sense and hopefully we will see more Djrum music given the Samurai Red Seal! Premium beat science is evident on both cuts here, with the little graffiti can shakes on the epic 8 minute A side "Plantain" a nice touch. Hit the superbly titled flip "What I Was Doing When I Was Doing What I Was Doing" for a more abstract, dank basement affair.

Review: Some of the biggest D&B cuts delivered so far this year, the digital release of "Until The World Ends" has caused so much havoc BSE can finally unleash the vinyl versions. And boy do they sound better for it on wax. From the savage roughage of the State Of Mind-co-piloted title track to the demonic, psy-minded techno bluntness of the riff on "Ego" via the planet-wide rips on "Bad", this is essentially a blue-print on how to creatively develop viciously dark, neuro drum & bass without compromise. Shucks, they've even got a tribute to one of the best actors of the past 50 years. Wave your white flags now.

Review: Industrial strength D&B futurism from Amoss. First up "Oxide", a sinewy co-lab with Dutch artist Fre4knc. Both acts complementing each other's stark, minimal styles, the slow-burning fire ignites with murmuring sound design and outer planetary processes before dropping into an understated grunting groove. Meanwhile on B, Amoss go it alone with two iceberg bangers: "Hold Back" leans heavily on super-sized tribal drums that weave the lead melody which is mirrored by the waspy bass beneath. "Skittles" is more of a straight-up roller where a tightly clipped bassline does all the white-knuckle driving, deftly navigating through Amoss's trademark eerie, misty sonic constructions.

Review: Want to hear something that'll blow your complacent brains out? Get a load of this: Icicle and Friction have been in the studio together and created the sound of two planets colliding in the form of "Crucifix". Luckily this meeting of minds has been fully documented by Shogun Audio and packed up nicely into a perfect two parter release. On the other side, Friction joins the ever inspirational Technimatic fellas for "Floating Frames", a tune so soaringly, achingly beautiful it could bring entire civilisations to their knees. So it's fair to say this release has all aspects of universal domination covered.

Review: If you're after a slice of dubby rolling drum and bass perfection, Mark System has just made your day with this 12" sampler for his upcoming debut LP for cult label Exit Records. What should we expect from Final Approach? On the basis of the two cuts here it's going to be a devastatingly dark ride! "Optix" has the presence and swagger of old school Photek, and "Pursuit" picks up a dangerous urgency from knife-sharp percussion that screams on-point production. This man is on fire. Get yourself acquainted and set your diaries for the Final Approach!

Review: Not a lot is known about this Berlin-based project right now, besides rumours of a full album of originals later on this year. For now we have two awesome bootleg/edits... "My Wild Love" gives The Doors a smoky, mid 90s rolling D&B twist they've always deserved while "Twisted" takes Wayne G's heavily sexual spoken word hard house anthem from 1997 a Latin twist that no one could ever have predicted... And is about a trillion time better than the original. We need more of this.

Review: Utopia bossman and all-round D&B legend Mako lays down a delicious spread for Warm Comms right here. "Do You Feel The Same" is a snub-nosed proto jungle slammer with clanging drums and brutal dynamics that peel away with a rush-laden breakdown. "All We Can Do" flips the vibe with treacle-thick futuristic bass drones and tripped out half-time beats while "Too Broke To Get It" showcases the UK producer's more soulful side as dreamy chords drape themselves lavishly over tribal drums before we drop into a slow, steady dub-minded groove. Stunning.

Review: Soul Intent flexes back to his original source of inspiration; The legendary Fruit Club jungle sessions at Swindon venue Brunel Rooms. From the cover art to the raw, heady sonics you can feel this influence in every direction and it's as authentic as it gets. The title track is all doom and Reese-bass gloom before a classic sample throws us deep into industrial strength Headz style drums. "Would Have Loved You" comes with the same tooth-baring mid 90s jungle grit but is softened slightly by the dreamy vocals of Janette Thompson. "Rude Raver" closes the set... The title truly says it all. An incredible homage to one of UK music's most exciting creative chapters, executed with detail, skill and an eye for the future. This is about a year's worth of five-a-day fruits.

Review: Having dabbled with the NHS crew since 2010, dubstep-don-turned-junglist Reso made his exclusive pact with Hospital official last year. This development is now compounded with his second album Ricochet; a chop-slapping experience that explores the darker, most turbo-charged areas of breakbeats. Each cut here is primed for the floor in a way that he's only teased us with previously. Highlights include the early Virus-style iciness of cuts like "Callisto" and "Move It", Vision-style gruntiness and grit such as "The Blob" and timeless Goodlooking era rollers like "Echo Loss". A homage to all shades and chapters of jungle, Reso's taken us back to his influential roots to show us his future... And it's a bright one.