Search results: Beat Pressure

Review: The Pressure Beat crew throw it back to the heyday of roots reggae here with a superb pair of tunes from 1969. One of these in original for will cost you a few quid so it's nice to have good sounding copies on fresh wax available once more. Ken Parker's A-side cut 'It's Alright' is short at under three minutes but boy does it hit a super sweet spot with his delicate falsetto vocal over rickety roots low ends and rolling, warming bass. On the flip, things get more upbeat and energetic with some raw horn work on Johnny Moore & The Cobbs's 'One Love' with its off-balance chords.

Review: 2019 has been big for Goldie. The late summer saw the anniversary reissue of his second album "Saturnz Return", and now he's put together a bumper collection of drum & bass gems. Across "60 tracks that smashed it" as the release is sub-titled, the proudly British sound of drum & bass is explored and exposed thanks to music from all the key players including Roni Size, Doc Scott, Photex, Krust, DJ Zinc and many more familiar faces. Of course, the Metalheadz boss' own "Inner City Life" kicks off in triumphant fashion and the vibes keep coming thick and fast from there on in.

Review: Ellen Allien's BPitch Control label is one of the European mainstays. It has done everything from art school tech to gritty house to more punchy techno in its long history and now this fifth volume of its long-running We Are Not Alone series gives us another snapshot of where it is at in 2023. The list of artists included speaks to Ellen's dedication to unearthing interesting producers rather than relying simply on tried and tested big names like many other labels of this age. The sounds, too, are as innovative as they explore a range of techno moods and grooves to impactful effect. Kudos all around for this one.

Review: "Rich-poor divide widens. Unemployment soars. The East and West eyeball each other on the brink. 2022 isn't too far off the 1980s. Contort Yourself know this." A second collection of distortion soaked didactics from across the globe, all created specifically and exclusively to express wanton abandonment; marginalisatioan and alientation via tiny tape runs, but lovingly rustled up into a 21 track gem of a compilation. Rusted guitar strings, cobbled drum machines and fire in the belly - a soundtrack of despondent despair, a lament of languid lechery, an anthem of what was then and still is now.