Exit Vinyl & CDs

Review: Drum & bass innovator DBridge has rarely done wrong in his long career. His last album was a perfect reflection of the times - dark and paranoid - and now he continues in that vein with a new collection of tunes on his latest album Weak Or No Signal. He draws on his 15 years of experience to pul together a range of rhythms from taught and tense like 'Dark Plains' to minimal rollers like 'HMT13' via gurgling, depraved, moody sluggers like 'Things Change.' Is as diverse a drum & bass album as you will get while also remaining true to his own unique style.

Review: Ten years after his debut solo album Gemini Principal, Exit bossman, D&B sage and ardent futurist Darren White tells us where he's at with his sophomore A Love I Can't Explain. Taking us several thousand leagues into his abyss, the vibe is heavy, moody, pensive and synthetic. Created on a whole arsenal of outboard machines, and not a sample in sight, this is dBridge in his most creative and narrative; political themes can be felt in the slo-mo autonomic purrs and glides of "Monitored Meanings", tension, pressure and hope combine somewhere in the distant future on the Lewis James collaboration "Violent Circuit Autonomy" while "Nachtlus" takes us even deeper into the machine where the distortion and textures are so strong you sense you can feel the circuits throbbing around you. Closing with his regular set opener "UR A Star" (a cover of his brother Steve Spacek) he leaves you writhing in the sudden twist of light at the end of a long dark tunnel. Immense, perplexing and built to last... This is an album we'll keep coming back to for years to come.

Review: Five years in the making, Fixate's new album is everything you'd expect and plenty more. Running the entire gamut of broken beats, literally no stone is left unturned as the Exit artist flexes from rave-ready club music ('Ruminate') to moody trappy dub vibes ('Back To The BC'). Amid these outposts we have everything from scatty acid flurries ('On Edge'), technoid bouncers ('Programmed To Fail' - with Exit bossman dBridge) and some of the gnarliest, gulliest happy slapping jungle money can buy in 2022 ('Shaded') What an album... If ain't Fixate don't bruk with it.

Review: dBridge, Skeptical, Loxy, Resound and Kid Drama: The Binary Collective was a stupidly strong supergroup in itself, but Module Eight just takes the piddle in the heavyweight stakes - both sonically and personally. Combining all player's strengths and signatures into one beautifully moody long player each cut teeters over the precipice of both timelessness and futurism. Highlights include the guttural 60-a-day bass croaks of "Ghost", the eerie twisted dancehall bangs of "Rudeboy", the mid 90s echoes and rumbles of "Legacy" and the genius processed vocal rhythm hits on "Lost Eden". These are just a small handful of highlights in an album that commands full attention both on the decks and headphones. Eighters gonna eight.

Review: One of the most vital and innovative producers drum & bass has seen in years, Skeptical comes correct with his debut album on the impeachable Exit and it's every bit as heavy, spacious and thoughtful as you'd expect it to be. From the opening mechanical purrs and well oiled halftime of the opening title track right through the dusty soul echoes of the album's downtempo finale track "Violet", Enjoy This Trip is the type of album that sucks you right in and refuses to let you go. With stacks of dancefloor weight in there too (see "Grub", "Void", "Duck Soup" to name but three), this is an exemplary LP that hits the spot at home on the headphones or home at the controls. Take a trip today.

Review: Some two year's after Exit Recording's era defining Mosaic compilation, D Bridge ushers in the next stage of the Autonomic sound with a second installment. Whilst that debut compilation was closely associated with the surfeit of artists with close ties to Exit, this second volume sees D Bridge look farther afield for contributions and this is reflected in the broader tone of sounds you will find across the three double LP parts that make up Mosaic Vol 2's physical release. Part One sets the tone, drawing in works from the likes of Machinedrum, J Kenzo, Om Unit & Sam Binga and Kryptic Minds with Travis Stewart's soulfully inclined contribution "The Palace" a true highlight.

Review: Of the three Double 12" releases tied in with Mosaic Vol 2, it's probably this last one that stays closest to the Autonomic sound that's become synonymous with the Exit Recordings label run by D Bridge. It's the operation's overseer that sets the tone with his second production of the compilation "My Night Sky" which ripples along pensively at 170BPM, and whilst the mood might shift from here the tempo largely doesn't. Highlight's include the 808 rimshots of Fracture's "Sick Wid It" and the murky beat abstraction of the Consequence & FIS collab "Cultural Trauma" whilst D Bridge should be applauded for coaxing Stevie Spacek to return to his Black Pocket project for final cut "After Beris".

Review: Exit Records wraps up its 100 series with EXIT100 Pt. Four, featuring an eclectic line-up of cutting-edge beats, drum & bass, techno and experimental tracks. Curated by label boss dBridge, it embodies Exit's forward-thinking ethos that brings together some of the most inventive names in the scene. From Tasha & Cadans' 'Soft Grimness' to Freedom Engine's atmospheric 'Welcome to the Pharmacy,' each track showcases a unique approach to the electronic dance scene. This final instalment perfectly represents Exit's progressive sound and vision, celebrating a legacy while firmly looking to the future.

Review: Exit Records has already very much made sure of its permanent place in the history of contemporary electronic music but now it cements that by achieving a rare milestone: EXIT 100. It marks the occasion of its centenary release with "a celebration of innovation and creativity," which is nothing less than you would expect from this always forward-looking bass label. The four-part series is packed with gems and this second installment has ice-cold, late-night rollers, dreamy broken beat bliss-outs, mechanical and minimal rhythms and stripped-back steppers.

Review: dBridge's Exit Records continue to celebrate 100 releases with this exceptional VA that runs the whole gamut of their sonic scope. From the opening cosmic b-boy breakbeat ballet of Fixate's 'Dead End' to closing ambient echoes of Dub Phizix's beatless score-like finale 'Wasted' via the technoid stampede of Addison Groove and the electroid neon swagger of SertOne, this captures everything Exit has consistently stood for. Genreless, forward-thinking fusion. Here's to the next 100.