Tags: Experimental Garage

Review: Who doesn't love The Streets? From cheeky chappy to a revered part of the British music establishment, Mike Skinner as The Streets was there at the start of the UKG scene and still invigorates it to this day. His first new music in a while is an understated ballad that features the by now trademark internal monologue, but here paired with what is a beautiful vocal from Jazz Morley and a skittish drum pattern. Mike Skinner has also self-directed his own music video to go with the title track and it is well worth seeing if you can.

Review: From Germany with a sledgehammer, man like Swagger returns to Dr Dubplate's Original Pirate Material with a feisty four-pack. 'Fleg' (which rather sweetly translates to 'nursing' in his mother tongue) runs the gauntlet between boshing house jams ('Sssweat', 'Ghos') dubby steppery ('Confu') and all-out, smoking 808-driven, body shaking mayhem ('Crotch') If you know Swagger's sound, you'll already be all over this. If you don't, you're in for a treat.

Review: A melting pot of UK garage, house and bass, DJ Swagger's latest release on Berlin-based label, 777, is a fascinating exploration in structure and chaos. Opening track, 'Thanks Felix', moves at lightspeed - a thrilling race through a gritty arrangement of blunted kicks, shifting in and out of focus, moving between order and disorder. 'Fingerclut' emerges with an instantly more house-facing feel - a satisfyingly hypnotic groove spirals in a circle motion, featuring a cyclonic gathering of subtle flecks of percussive variation over the course of the track. Offering a spliced, glitched-out take on contemporary bass, 'Final Bout' journeys through moments of airy weightlessness before being thrown back into the growling, driving bass section of the track. The perfect tension builder, 'Full Cycle', is an ingenious tease of a track, skillfully building up to, you guessed it, even more build.