Beats News

Repress incoming!

Only a week or two after dropping the second of two ambient albums in 2022, masterful sound sculptor ASC is back with another release. This one finds him embracing drum & bass on limited coloured vinyl for Past Inside The Present. The majestic Eye Of The Storm is a suspensory trip through the heavens with delicate drum & bass rhythms and lush swathes of synths. 'Reflection' is just as awash with smeared synth beauty over the floating drum breaks, then 'Low Tide' is a lo-fi workout from the depths, a vibe that continues on the more busy and dark 'Life Cycle.' Another exceptional bit of work form the one and only ASC.

Desolator solders militant breaks, warm pads, bleep flicks, horns, deep subs and dub vocals to a circuit board with precision. Kampala drops down to 144 bpm for a more moody affair showcasing swinging breakbeat culture.

The 197th 12-inch from Dev Pandya.

4 fantastic new tracks on this second part of our SPLIT EP series.

Riffz follows on from his track on TUNNEL012 and brings an absolute dance floor smasher to your ears with "Continousness". His second track, "Hallway Tune" is a thing of rough beauty. Sublimely moody.

Label debutant No_Name provides 2 tracks showing us all what he can do. "At First Sight" is the tougher of the two with some great break chopping and bass drops. There are even some 93 style dark stabs thrown in for good measure. "Serotonin" has a really feeling of nostalgia to it. There is a beautifully uplifting string section with vocal chops which gets the goosebumps going

After the success of the collaborations on 2019’s Tek 9 lp, Dego and Dom team up again for AKO Beatz, this time a whole LP’s worth of back and forth, which started collaborating in-person pre lockdown, to then be finished virtually.

The latest release on Livity Sound features an extensive insight into the work of Seb Uncles, aka Eusebeia. Uncles has been releasing his work prolifically over the past six years, from self-released tapes on Rebellion Electronics through to reams of 12”s and LPs for labels like Earthtrax, Western Lore, Rupture London and re:st. While his sound has often tilted towards drum & bass and jungle, he places atmosphere and composition ahead of genre boundaries and tempo restrictions.

Cosmos EP finds Uncles stretching out over eight varied tracks for a broader experience compared to the usual Livity EP. Glacial ambience and richly layered synthesis guides the record overall, at times leaving drums behind altogether, but even at its mellowest you can sense the overbearing bias towards soundsystem music. The melancholic electronica of ‘Becoming’ gets underpinned by dread bass, and ‘Solace’ places a haunting steppas-esque refrain in the midst of heavily dubbed downtempo. When he does turn to full-tilt drumfunk edits on the likes of ‘Hopes & Dreams’ and ‘Love + Light’, he approaches them with subtlety and finesse, matching rhythmic flair with melodic progressions which lend themselves to introspective listening as much as full dancefloor immersion.

Livity Sound is a label set up by Peverelist in 2011 as a vehicle for a raw and exploratory strain of UK techno, rooted in the heritage of UK dance music and sound system culture. It has since become one of the UK's foremost protagonists for cutting edge underground electronic music.

The First Second Label family return for 2021 with Housebreaker, the highly anticipated return of ELLLL following her much loved Febreeze EP from 2019. Comes with an ace Slo’ Motion refix from Parris!

Haunted, scattered breaks loom over the title track, a modern apocalyptic Hardcore journey where rave sirens puncture the feverous rinse-out tension throughout. The Alantis Dub flips the script, doubling down on the atmosphere while upping the tempo to screw-face the chaos within its experimental D’n’B fever dream. Both tracks showcase ELLLL’s exceptional production chops with its nuanced textural trickery & immersive sound design skills. London’s Parris then rewires the OG, simmering the tempo down low to 110bpm for a sinister nocturnal skank for the night fiends who thrive when entering into first light.

NewKiller returns with an EP that is firmly rooted in the dark 93 days. There has been a big buzz about this one with all 4 tracks being championed by Jay Cunning on his new hardcore & jungle show.

“If” is an unsettling slow builder. When it drops…. oh my, it all comes together. Not for the feint hearted.

“Mind Loss” & “Danger” tear the dance floor a new one with hoover noises galore, grim samples and rushing breaks.

The free bonus track “Slippery Slope” is a beast of a track. Amens, dark pads and samples that will be familiar to the genre hoppers amongst you.

Far over on the west coast of the USA we find a room full of drum
machines, samplers and keyboards. Hard at work is Israel ‘Iz’ Gravning aka Tone Scientist, who’s been using this Seattle studio to produce genre-defying future music for more than 25 years.
An avid student of jazz fusion, hip hop, house, techno and others, he
was galvanised to build his own studio after hearing jungle and drum & bass on a trip to London in 1995. His musical course thus intersected with the collectives then pushing new dancefloor sonics rooted in the rich tradition of Black music – like Nuyorican Soul over on the east coast, and the new broken beats of IG Culture, Dego and Bugz In The Attic in London. Then, in the early 2000s, Iz put out a handful of EPs under different aliases, including ‘Lion Dub’ on the Guidance sublabel Subtitled, but soon stepped back from the public stage. That’s not to say he stopped making or playing music, though. Far from it. Fast forward two decades and our very own Walrus, chilly but happy in the depths of a Toronto winter, happened across ‘Lion Dub’ in the legendary Play The Record store. Intrigued, he tracked Iz down and discovered he had been active all this time. A short email exchange later and this 2xLP of archive material was born.

These six tracks explain fully why Iz calls his studio the ‘Time Machine’: vintage equipment and instruments converse with up-to-date software; classic sounds and textures twist into fresh configurations; and Iz’s own creativity and musicality sings to us from a location beyond the trappings of time or genre.

All music written, produced and mixed by Israel Gravning aka Tone
Scientist in Seattle/Washington between 2005 - 2008 except for “Things

From Karma Recordings comes their fifth EP. They are continuing their trend of getting their heroes from the 90’s to remix their original sound. The legendary House Crew bring their unique blend of drum n bass and uplifting sound to the awesome title track Almost There from DJ KOS. DJ Ande brings in a chopped up haunting piano track with Be Bold and we are very excited to introduce the original bad boy Brainstorm Cru to the label.

Champion Sound is a track than needs no introduction – if you do not know this amazing tune, then I cant imagine why you might be reading this? But just in case: This is a lovingly remastered pressing of one of the biggest and best jungle / jungle techno tunes in our scenes history. Flipped with Night Moves, another subtle classic, the Alliance remixes of these two tunes set the standard for many years and are still much sought after!

color vinyl

A righteous squad of precision technicians re-construct tracks from Presha's debut EP - RATS.

In 1993 two of the big guns in the rave scene came together and made some music. The duo wrote many tracks and remixes together during that year, but two tracks slipped through the net and vanished without trace. That is until now. Aphrodite located the masters hidden on DAT tape and hooked up with Vinyl Fanatiks to finally make them available. Two raw, uncompromising early hardcore tracks created on an Amiga using analogue gear. This is the original sound of the infamous British rave scene as it morphed into what became hardcore and then jungle. 27 years later and they still shake a bassbin.

Limited to 300 physical copies

Our label is back and it’s back with a bang! For the first time ever featuring 6 tracks on one release, we’re delighted to present Azemad’s “Afriki“ EP. Showcasing his broad scope of influences and massive talent for melodic arrangements, the Berlin-based Egyptian producer and vocalist offers a record that is as wide ranging in style as it is evocative and emotionally intelligent.

Festive tribal drums meet moody rap verses, fat bouncy bass lines and dubbed out chords on this wonderful musical melting pot on wax. Whether you’re in a Mahragan or Mawal spirit, Azemad caters for all needs and occasions, last but not least with the friendly help and assistance of J.Wiltshire’s beautiful, aquatic bubbler of a remix on the flip.

AWK004 intends to surface on September 16th 2022, so keep your eyes and ears peeled. Thanks and much luv for the support as always!

Dance music royalty Shadow Child serves up 4 future jungle anthems for Bristol label Time Is Now.

Part 2 of the Time Tunnel Waxworkz series is here! In the same vein as Volume 1, there are 4 tracks, in 4 different styles.

Label residents Gridzone & Gold Soundz take the A side of the vinyl. “Link” is a blissful jungle track with soothing pads and tearing amens. “Can’t Stop How I Feel” is straight from the late 92 early 93 London pirate radio locker. Surely this was made back in the day??

Riffz makes his solo debut on the label. This track is rough, as the title suggest. It’s a great dance floor tune. We love it

Finally, Beardy makes his TT debut. This track has been around for a while. There have been people wanting it on vinyl for a couple of years now. Finally this happens. A great example of the dark & light hardcore from the glory days.

LTD Restock

Ova Doce put out his own self-funded 6-track EP on a white label in 1992. There were only 250 copies made, making this original EP a very collectable record. Some of the tracks were a little bit on the cheesy side and Ova Doce was keen not to release them all again. So we as a label ran a poll on our Facebook page and with the help of our fanbase, decided which tracks would feature, two in total. One is on this EP (Feel The Rush) and the other (AllNite) will appear on ‘Rediscovered #02’.

The other 3 tracks that appear on this EP are all unreleased tracks that Ova Doce made in 1992 and revived using the original Amiga disks and lots of time and skill! I think you will agree that these new tracks deserve to be enjoyed for the first time, albeit 28 years after they were made.

This is a proper delve into the high energy UK rave scene of the early 90’s.

Released in a Vinyl Fanatiks housebag on 180 gram heavyweight RED vinyl.

Ramos is a name synonymous with hardcore from the 90s, usually working with his friends in Supreme and Sunset Regime. But this is something different from one of the south coast’s finest. Producing solo but utilising the amazing vocal talents of his muse, Elayne. This EP features 4 very differently styled mixes of one amazing track. First is the Breakbeat mix, which is in the style of early hardcore rave music, when breakbeat first met piano. Then it’s technically the only remix on the EP, from Stu Chapman. Stu does what he does best and sets his version firmly in the 93/94 era of hardcore but with his own twist. On the flip side, Ramos takes his own spin on the later breakbeat hardcore style. It has a 1995 vibe to it with all the energy and vigour you would expect from Ramos from that time. Finally we round this EP out with a more chilled version in the Deep Breaks Mix. This is the version you listen to when you wish to unwind after a heavy night if raving.

Nearly 20 years since his first official release, Fanu's output keeps on reaching new heights. Hip hop releases under the FatGyver alias and recent excursions into deep house underline his versatility while last year's Legacy EP on Metalheadz was another showcase of his unique & timeless approach to drum & bass.

Marbled Vinyl

Repress !