New releases last four weeks: Drum & Bass / Jungle

Review: Goldie revives his genre-defining Rufige Kru alias for Alpha Omega, a new double LP on London Records. The record secures the first new release under the name since 2009. Though the proverbial kru once consisted in Goldie (Clifford Price), Linford Jones and Mark Rutherford, Price characteristically dominated it. Rufige finally came to with the seminal 'Darkrider' release on Reinforced Records: the track was a handed down later version of what started as a plundering of Japan's 'Ghosts Of My Life', giving the classic new wave title the mood of a broken-window metropolis, and it became the object of much cultural theorising for its influence on d&b's reflection of class politics. Now, Goldie faces the city of glass again, exposing the dirt behind the neon with longtime collaborator Submotive, enlisted to propel the project further into the "rufige": classic roots crusted by high-presh, concrete crud.

Review: There are basically two types of anniversary compilations: the humble retrospective, packed with classics and significant musical moments from the past, and collections of all-new music that showcase where an imprint is at right now. Predictably, Planet My founder Mike Paradinas AKA U-Ziq has chosen the latter option to mark the occasion of his legendary experimental label's 30th birthday. There's naturally plenty to get the blood pumping and the synapses snapping across the 25 tracks on show, from the skittish IDM of Jlin ('B12'), mutant future-boogie of Venetian Snares ('Drums') and hard-to-pigeonhole excellence of Falty DL ('Usually I'm Cautious'), to the chopped-and-screwed r&b of Bae Bae ('Living In The Memory'), Nik Colk Void's industrial gunk ('A Tough Design (demo)'), the glassy-eyed D&B/ambient techno of Xylitol ('Nevada') and the sample-rich instrumental hip-hop hedonism of Luke Vibert ('Bullet Drop').