Juno Recommends Breakbeat: April 2023

Review: Johannes Kolter is Kolter and is also a producer who went under the name DJOKO. He's been busy this year with plenty of goodness dropping including an album and three EPs. Now comes hit sone, again on his home label Pilot. It is inventive stuff that functions well on the floor as it straddles the worlds of breaks, house and plenty more. 'Got High Again' is lively and dynamic with its squealing leads and dusty breaks, then 'Weirdo' layers up leftfield melodies and blurts of playful synth modulation. 'Prospekt' is a wild fusion of rock riffs and high-speed funky breaks and 'Duck Concert' closes with hardcore drum breaks and soulful synths next to mad scratchinG.

Review: The Basic Spirit label continues to impresses us here with a new two track offering from Lew E that brings some well constructed breakbeats which takes us back to the legendary Castlemorten era. 'Touched' is awash with dreamy chords and loved-up pads, muted acid lines and classic breakfast. Some soulful vocal wails are smeared across the mix next to add that heavenly feel and it makes for a fine trip. On the flip, 'Teardrop' follows a similar path with rushes of synth and dusty breaks powering along this heart of the dance floor rush.

Review: Bang on trend grooves from the Vivid camp, exploring the current fascination for all things that intersect both the garage and breaks genres. Lead track 'Wicked & Wild' is the one that leans furthest into UKG territory, its bumpy bassline and MC-style vocal giving it heaps of energy and attitude. Flip side instrumentals 'Push Past It' and 'Ronin' meanwhile, evoke the early 2000s spirit of breaksteppers such as Horsepower Productions, the latter especially maintaining the bassline pressure and adding it to the more hardcore vibe of rawer, sampled percussion. Maximum respect!

Review: The Cosmic Soup label did some mighty fine work in bringing Howard Dodd's work as Doc Bozique and Anoesis back into ear shot. Dodd released a fair clutch of wiggy, trance-inflected house and techno back in the wild old days of the mid-90s, and so it's no surprise to hear his music finding new relevance at a time when that sound is so warmly received on dancefloors all over the place. This release for German label Spray pulls together a few different bits from 1994, ranging from 'Heavy Water' and 'Diact' from The Anoesis EP to 'Trouble Down Groove' from Eight Day Music. Bringing the relevance with the current zeitgeist in no uncertain times, we're also treated to a remix courtesy of a scene leader in this field, D. Tiffany.

Review: Don't let the screen ambient opener fool you because Jaffa Kid's new album is a rave ready offering packed with acid and breakbeats that it is frankly impossible not to love. The sound designs throughout is exquisite, from the fresh drum sounds to the deep space synth lines. It's all arranged in an ever evolving fashion that keeps you on your toes from the floaty vibes of 'Chaz Lemon' to the more bristling breaks of 'Lerryunder'. 'Ilk Hummer' is another one that shows off this producer's knack for cinematic soundscapes as well as dance floor beats.

Review: Andrea opened this sophomore album Due In Color mostly during 2020 and 2021. You may reverb that those times were slightly crazy due to the small matter of a pandemic which is what lead the artists to explore a world of more hazy and experimental jazz sounds. That in turn inspired him to use more acoustic sounds in his music and so this is a record that turns its back on dark and booming club spaces and heads instead towards blooming fields of expansive downtempo, textured ambient and dreamy soundscapes.

Review: E.T.I might not be the best-known act to emerge from the breaks and acid-loving San Francisco scene of the 1990s, but their slim catalogue is nevertheless full of gems. The people behind AGT Records are clearly fans, because they've decided to reissue one of the trio's most potent singles, 1999's 'Lookout'. What we get is the same two mixes featured on the hard-to-find original release: the chunky, funky bass-propelled, breakbeat house masterclass that is the 'Tha Luv Bomb' mix (listen out for the wonderfully drowsy, loved-up synth riffs), and the pacey, P-funk-influenced 'On Tha Fly' mix, where short vocoder vocal snippets, crispy funk guitar licks and boisterous bass catch the ear.