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Review: Zero T's 4th album is a conceptual Drum n Bass marriage with legendary high-tech pianist ONJ, who has been on the cutting edge of music equipment for over 20 years. The 2 are returning once again for another release on The North Quarter, expanding the pair's 2 track EP 'Everyday Struggles' into a full-length project. Zero T pulls once again from Jazz influences, paired with his bright and expansive breakbeats. The amen breaks on tracks like 'Twenty Three' and 'Some Type of Way' meld with the jazz piano and saxophone riffs perfectly, broken up by lo-fi interludes, even a lounge piano portion on side D with 'Expendable'. Kilburn is an authentically British union of two polar opposite genres, and yet it just works so well. It's got to be heard to be believed.

Review: The Metalheadz train shows no signs of slowing down despite being well into its third decade. This tasty four tracker comes from the combined creative minds of Zero T and Beta 2 and they come through in style with a modern-day reproduction of the vintage Metalheadz sound we all know and love. Tough drums, sprinkled with plenty of future soul and devastating bass, "Misdemeanour" in particular is prickly yet emotional stuff while "In My Head" brings a dose of joyful soul and "Dead Cert" ends on a more angsty tip.

Review: Since they started properly working together some 6 years ago, Chris Vogado and Neil Combstock (aka Zero dB) have been concocting a provocative, innovative and addictive brew of hard jazz, electro, Latin, hip hop and house, laced throughout with their now signature dirty, heavy basslines. After releasing their early records on Vogado's own Fluid Ounce label, Zero dB are now signed to Ninja Tune and ready to step it up, with their debut album, "Bongos, Bleeps and Basslines". Their main starting point is usually jazz, but they dip into a multitude of different influences and work with talented musicians and vocalists to create a track. In contrast to the general climate of somewhat old, tired, formulaic and unmemorable dance music, Zero dB's meticulous production forces their audiences to discover previously undeveloped musical places. "A Pomba Girou" kicks off BB&B by combining disorientating echo with ridiculously fat electronic bass styling and the kind of rhythm designed to get the hips twitching. Title track "Bongos, Bleeps & Basslines" eschews the usual "nice" factor inherent in all things proto-jazzy, taking the music's rhythmic drive and harnessing it to earth-rumbling bass noises and enough squelching and bleeping to fill a large aerodrome with monged-out ravers. "Conga Madness" is Latino-space music, a pummelling, hard-as-nails rhythm. "Know What I'm Saying?" heads in a slower, more hip hop-influenced direction, verbals being beautifully delivered by Pase Rock, sometime member of Five Deez and regular Spank Rock collaborator. "Coisa De Gringo" returns to the production pair's love of turbo-charged, cyber-punk Latin, combining raw bass with a true musicality which elevates the tune to levels of euphoria it couldn't manage by use of rhythm alone. Heidi Vogel adds the requisite sweetness, the delicacy of her vocal perfectly offsetting the drive of the music. "Anything's Possible" is a super-mellow chunk of hip hop that draws on the classic early nineties school of Premier and Pete Rock, the finishing rap touches from New Orleans native Voice, whose cool school styling and thoughtful lyrics place her in the tradition of Bahamadia, Ladybug and What What? "Te Quiero" builds with all the beautiful self-evidence of classic house music, a variety of influences thrown into the blender in order to produce something pumped up and downright evil enough to blow away any of the froth which usually passes for Latin-influenced dance music. "On the One & Three" keeps the flick knife hip shimmies going right to the end, where "Sunshine Lazy" rounds things off in epic style with sweaty, drowsy, hot weather psych r&b. The result is hard-edged and exhilarating, a record which is destined never to end up on the Starbucks stereo. Not least because it would blow up the woofers.

Review: Ilian Tape co-founder Dario Zenker has consistently served up some of the label's best releases and now he goes long on this double album, Reflection. He calls it "a reflection through wild times channeled into 63 minutes of machine funk" and we call it 12 tracks of devastating techno on both an emotional and physical level. His tracks often fix with wispy synth lines that bring subtle light to the dusty drums and muggy atmospheres and on the likes of 'Da Conducter' he offers up thumping house with grainy lo-fi pads and muffled leads that hook you in deep. The vast rhythmic variation and switch-up in tempos and moods throughout this album is what keeps it so fresh.

Review: Another week, another new release from the unstoppable ambient powerhouse that is zake. His latest full-length LL has two new cuts by the American maestro with remixes from a hefty selection of equally prolific producers all served up on his home label Past Inside the Present and no fewer than six sides of vinyl. Across this immersive two hours of music, there is a mix of ambient, drone, drum & bass, electronica, and deep techno from Warmth, Aural Imbalance, ASC and Bvdub. It is yet another essential release from zake and co.

Review: Workforce is a solo project from Jack Stevens, best known as one half of crisp modern D&B masters Spectrasoul. Following the runaway success of the Late Night Soundtrack series and drops on Exit, 1985 Music and Critical, Stevens is back on Must Make Music with a new album of finely sculpted rollers shot through with melancholic moods. Madi Lane sets the tone with her heartfelt vocal on 'Death Dreams' while the snatches of singing on 'Broken' equally casts the record in a meditative space. This is soundsystem music for heavy hearted headphone trips as much as the club, but the likes of 'Flight Instructions' have more than enough heft to shake the crowd up good n' proper.

Review: Wilkinson is a big name when it comes to the contemporary drum & bass scene. He is someone whose name you will find on all the line-ups of the major clubs and festivals around the world and is no stranger to bringing the noise to Ibiza, either. He has a multi-genre approach that finds him playing effective and eclectic sets that appeal to all manner of crowds. Back in 2013, he dropped his debut solo album Lazers Not Included on Ram - where else - and set all this success in motion. This tenth anniversary edition comes on yellow vinyl with UK number 20 single 'Dirty Love' and many more gems.

Review: Wardown, the emotive and experimental project from Technimatic's Pete Rogers, releases its second LP on Blu Mar Ten Music. Where the debut Wardown album was a diary of smeared memory, musically recounting the author's childhood home and his subsequent feelings of dislocation from it, Wardown II expands on the themes of nostalgia and focuses on our collective reactions to a promised future that remains undelivered. Using aural scraps from that most optimistically futurist period, the 1950s & 1960s, Wardown weaves them into an uneasily dreamy, bittersweet commentary on postmodern nostalgia.

Review: German artist Damiano Von Erckert has matured into a fine producer with a unique sound. He's dropped it on his own label, Aus Music and now comes through with a full-length on Live At Robert Johnson. As always it is a cross-genre mix with a dusty vibe and big heart. '3PIANOS' kicks off with expressive vocal samples and florid flutes ready for a summer dance, while a Pepe Braddock mix brings some signature weirdness from the Frenchman. Further tunes bring in tech, electro and hints of techno but always with that rough and ready vibe that brings the good times.

Review: A man of many sounds (and even more swanky tracksuits) Voltage takes time away from the Kings Of The Rollers to unleash an album that no one saw coming. Kicking off with an 80s flavoured freestyle jam 'So Close', Rouen Wilkins takes time to guide us through his influences and showcase sounds and styles you might not expect from him... The Josh Wink style acid breaks of 'Moonshine', the sultry space-bound jazz of 'Endless Dreaming', the 90s piano house-meets-drum & bass vibes of 'Keep On Dancing' and the Burial-esque tones and textures of 'Consciousness' are just some of the excellent off-piste highlights from an artist who has more cards up his sleeve than you may realise. Balance is everything

Review: Long-cherished underground stalwart Claus Voigtmann finally serves up his long-awaited new album Life Miles after many years of essential sounds on labels like Assemble and Intermission. He really shows his range here with a record that draws on his experiences of playing around the world in all sorts of different settings. 'Pinfire' and 'Transitory Moments' open up and take you to the heart of fabric, a club he has played so often, while 'North of the Sun' heads off into space on sleek electro rhythms while the likes of 'Abundance' bring cosmic melodic fun to a lively and inventive rhythm. Elsewhere there is the high-speed electro-funk of 'Flight Of Fancy' and the introspective downbeat trip 'Send Love To The Future' making this a varied and vital affair.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Slight surface marks and sleeve corner creases ***


Long-cherished underground stalwart Claus Voigtmann finally serves up his long-awaited new album Life Miles after many years of essential sounds on labels like Assemble and Intermission. He really shows his range here with a record that draws on his experiences of playing around the world in all sorts of different settings. 'Pinfire' and 'Transitory Moments' open up and take you to the heart of fabric, a club he has played so often, while 'North of the Sun' heads off into space on sleek electro rhythms while the likes of 'Abundance' bring cosmic melodic fun to a lively and inventive rhythm. Elsewhere there is the high-speed electro-funk of 'Flight Of Fancy' and the introspective downbeat trip 'Send Love To The Future' making this a varied and vital affair.

Review: Visages are a four-strong crew out of Toulouse who fly the flag for a true-school, soundsystem approach to club music. Their drops to date have spanned labels like Flexor Audio, Impact Music and Dispatch Recordings, but since 2020 they've been building something formidable with Alix Perez's 1985 Music label. Now this build up culminates in the knockout From Lead To Gold, a masterful long player of hard-hitting steppers and snaking d&b workouts which will have seasoned heads and new listeners alike getting giddy. Perez himself lends a hand on 'Black Katana' but really the achievement is all in the hands of these four talented up and comers.

Review: Luke Vibert is an ever green sonic inventor who can do whatever he pleases with sound. The latest in a long line of projects with Hypercolour and its associated labels is another gem: Rave Hop mixes up downtempo beats, hip hop and r&b with twisted electronics, rave and techno. It's something that could go horribly wrong in the hands of a lesser producer, but here the fusions are amazingly seamless. "No Competition" is a classic era boom bap tune with lush piano chords, "Styles" sounds like a reworked Slick Rick tune with huge breakbeats and "All Night" is as smooth as silk thanks to a buttery vocals and long legged drums that sink you in deep.

Review: REPRESS ALERT: Versalife continues a prolific run of deep and dynamic electro soul with this double pack on 20/20 Vision. The scene is set early on with the smoky pads and crisp drums of "Binary Worlds" - equal parts deep-diving machine soul and body-popping 808 funk. Things get nastier with the strafing monosynth punctuating "Covert Ops" and the edgy creep of "Shadow Union" on to "Manifold"s luxuriant sound world. The quality level remains staggeringly high as we trip through classically informed electro of every shade, adding yet another accomplished payload to the formidable Versalife catalogue.

Review: Venetian Snares is nothing if not a pretty out there kinda guy. This record, his 16th at the time of its release (which in itself proves both relentless work rate and unfathomable levels of creative inspiration) was apparently catalysed by a trip to Hungary - hence all track names and the record title are in Hungarian - and a moment in time when the artist imagined himself as a pigeon in the grounds of Budapest's Royal Palace. Take from that what you will.

In terms of musical content, this is Snares, real name Aaron Funk, meeting Planet Mu head on - and if you're familiar with either the label or the artist you should know what that means. A cinematic approach to IDM, drum 'n' bass and experimental electronic music that's half dance floor, half deep concept, and all utterly masterful to say the least.

Review: This ever popular album is back for another reissue as it remains as in demand as ever. Part of the reason for that is that Venetian Snares is an out there kind of guy. This record, his 16th at the time of its release, was catalysed by a trip to Hungary and a moment in time when the artist imagined himself as a pigeon in the grounds of Budapest's Royal Palace. In terms of musical content, this is the artist meeting Planet Mu head on - a cinematic approach to IDM, drum 'n' bass and experimental electronic music that's half dancefloor, half deep concept, and all great.

Review: Four-to-the-floor, let us hear you roar... Fracture's Astrophonica goes into techno overdrive with this crucial collection of 4x4 inspired jams. With cuts from the bossman himself, Lewis James, Addison Groove, Moresounds, Sam Binga and Om Unit (under his Philip D Kick alias) all running rampant at around 160BPM there's a heavy stench of hardcore rolling throughout this unique collection. Highlights include the acid funk frenzy of Addison Groove's "Redeye", the ghettotek badness of Binga & ONHELL's "A Mighty Quest" and the late night 23rd century car chase vibes of Lewis James' "Kit 5000". These are just a handful of examples of the truly unique fusions on offer here. Astrophonica are way ahead of the game.

Review: Club Quarantane is a 36-hour virtual rave brought to you by RA, YouTube and creatives from all over the electronic music community. It has hosted various online parties with some high class DJ since soon after we all entered lockdown. The results have kept people together while the selectors have served up plenty of sweet musical memories, some of which are now available to keep, forever, in the real world, thanks to this first compilation on vinyl. Assured newcomers like Solid Blake sit next to vital mainstays like Marcel Dettmann for this top notch tech outing.

Review: Since launching last year, Dead Man's Chest's Western Lore imprint has blessed us with nothing but contemporary (but immaculately rootiscal) jungle. Blunted Breaks takes things to a whole new level, however, as we're treated to 12 more outstanding broken affairs from some of DMC's peers; Earl Grey, Threshold, Thugwidow, Coco Bryce and many more. Highlights hang from every corner of the crate as the likes of Response & Pliskin flip the technoid switch on "Anima Morta", Cavanaut takes us deep sea diving on "Vanishing Point" and DMC and Bryce go toe to toe for a skanked up swaggering finale. Get blunted.

Review: Let's just list the amount of stone cold bass OGs on this collection: Krust, dBridge, Om Unit, Danny Scrilla, V.I.V.E.K, Von D, Moresounds, AU, Oris Jay & Chris Innasound and whole load more of soundsystem culture's most innovative craftsman working at the deepest levels of the low end coalface all feature on this immense and forward thinking document. Including the curator Amit himself. Every track is a highlight, each one and abyssal, immersive experience but essential highlights include the toxic bass bounces of Moresounds' "They Can't Handle It", the 23rd century UKG of Oris and Chris' "They Can't Handle It" and Krust's big screen masterpiece "Escape From Finland". Amit deserves a holiday. Or a massive trophy. Or both. Bass compilations don't get much bigger than this.