Touching Bass Vinyl & CDs

Review: Luminaries of the St. Louis and Atlantan experimental dance circuits, Blvck Spade and Stefan Ringer reign over similar territories in the niche downland of raw, soulful house. Here the pair team up for the first time ever for a notable Touching Bass debut, with Ringer handling production and Spvde masterminding all things poetic, choral and verbal. Building on both artists' slowly accrued, and now prolific, contributions to such labels as Eglo, FWM and Dolfin Records, this newly erected album-temple hears the duo shift impossible sacral brickwork by the force of composition alone, with star relic 'YOURZZZ' especially cultivating an inner sanctum of humid cowbell, funky acid line, and theophanic vocal run.

Review: Young South London dance veteran Ben Hauke delivers a worthy full-length LP for Touching Bass, Club Cute, a self-described love letter to the city's club culture. Feeling outwards from his establishing, Rye Wax-adjacent EPs and 12"s - which sounded more rooted in 4x4 house, albeit with an unmistakably SE-tinged wonky bent - Hauke's latest here leans further into the broken beats and UK garages more befitting of a full-length dance record. Welcoming a star cast of vocal and production plus-ones to the party (Jadasea, Brother Portrait, Shy One, even Katy B (!)), the effortless feel of UK club culture, particularly the midnight moods endemic to quote-unquote 'SELDN' and its many nighttime haunts in centres like Peckham, Deptford, New Cross and Bermondsey, is felt lightheartedly - cutely - throughout.

Review: It's time to touch base with Errol and Alex Rita's Touching Bass here as the small but already great-sounding label hits release number eight with this fine Babylon Shuffle release. All six tracks from Last Nubian and Geneva's Sweet Fruity Brunch blend the sounds of inner city London with deep house and broken beats, starting with the party vibes of 'Call Yu Out'. 'In Da Morning/Shaka' (feat Achante) then has lithe and wispy synths shimmering over metallic broken beats with great vocals adding soul and 'Mango In Da Parish' is a b-side highlight with its beautifully delicate house drums keeping the dancefloor afloat next to jazzy flutes.

Review: Hailing from South London, Slick N Bobby brings a potent mix of live dub and system-smashing energy, blending cranium-twisting basslines and flux-submersible resonations. Their debut 7" on Touching Bass is limited to 'Belly Dub' and 'OSOTB', the former described as a "Sino-grime" growler whose irascible basses aggress a hearse's load of dragged, druggy drums. On the flip resides 'Osotb', a fluid, aerated, weightless yet somehow paradoxically basement-deep-housey complement.

Review: Touching Bass is a vital force within London's jazz-adjacent scene, prioritising and incubating new Black talent and giving a voice to artists who might not have been heard otherwise. Now we're being given an authoritative view into the label's world with this expansive compilation, Soon Come. It's a double-disc affair with some serious flair from the get-go thanks to the incredible beats of 10.4 ROG behind Brother Portrait's eloquent flow on 'The Lighthouse'. From Clever Austin to KeiyaA, AshTreJenkins to Molinaro, the heat is undeniable whether it's stone cold jazz, red-eyed neo soul or some other cosmic contemporary fusion your ears are getting treated to.