Juno Recommends Bass June 2020

Review: High grade club business from the lurking one right here. After a series of treats on his own Fringe White imprint, Lurka jumps aboard the good ship Timedance, run by his long-time musical ally Batu, for his first proper solo EP. As you'd expect, the results are joyously chaotic and unpredictable. "Point Noise Behaviours" is a stampy warped rave monster who has done 10 rounds with Tyson Fury but still just about manages to stand up and throw gunfinger. "Ssppeedd" takes more of a techno twist as it rambles at pace towards a very trippy breakdown before the hypnotic tripletty twists of "Minds Eye Tript" calm us into a more lucid state. Finally "Rhythm Hi-Tek" seals the deal. A fractured, tense slab of electro so electric it sizzles with pent up energy, Lurka didn't name the EP after it for nothing.

Review: It's easy to see why Loefah snapped up this single for Swamp 81. For starters, bass-heavy beat-maker Sumgii has already contributed a number of killer missives to the label's digital catalogue, and "Wanawake" contains one of his fattest beats to date - a sparse, warped, sub-heavy affair that sits somewhere between regular hip-hop and 21st century grime. Then there's the fine bi-lingual English/Swahili rap that sits atop it from Nah Eeto, a rising star of Kenya's blossoming underground. Her style and delivery is distinctive and on-point, working in perfect harmony with Sumgii's killer backing track. Loefah naturally supplies the obligatory remix, placing Eeto's vocal atop a crunchy bed of hip-house style James Brown breaks and stirring synthesizer chords.

Review: Following a string of remarkable cuts on labels such as Roska Kicks & Snares and his own Le Chatroom imprint, rising basssmith Kouslin lands on the ever-consistent and forward-fronting Livity Sound. Stirring a heavy brew of UK funky, breaks, garage, beats, bass, techno and every other flavour in between, yet boiling everything down to simple and punchy ingredients, expect soca bashy bliss on "Sharper", visceral body shaking tribalism on "2020 Vision", deep steppy garage soul on "The Beast Of Bolsover" and the hopeful, tropical finale tones of "Ice". See things clearly.

Review: Rude Marching Drum Storms.

Review: Eusebeia returns to re:st after time spent traversing labels like Mindtrick and Western Lore, bringing that strung out dub techno ambience to bear on four more electronic outliers for the experimental corner of your record collection. "Cardinal" is a slow lurching, hugely atmospheric piece that moves like a sound installation, while "Pray" drops some more discernible beats around haunting fugues that take a little hint of Jon Hassell and twist it to some dark designs. "Lord Have Mercy" keeps the dread up, using choral tones to offset the onset of heavy, heavy bass. "Repose" finishes the set with some lighter ambient electronics marked out with crunchy percussion echoing in the dense but harmonic fog.

Review: Chasing the heat of his mighty "Modulator" EP on Simply Deep, London's J-Shadow dents the discography of Beat Machine with another generous collection of oddities and far-out designs. All writhing around his tech/grime/bass axis, highlights include the MC snippets and Pulse-X style depth plunge breaks, the tabla-style triplets and Indian jungle elements of "Orlov's Casket" and the iceberg dubstep glitches of "Contact". Complete with Gantz on the remix, it's another formidable dispatch from the shady one.