Beats News

After we carried Ice Rave back in 2019, Sneaker Social picks up more coded sequences from Filter Dread’s outpost and transmutes them to wax for the good of the dance.

From obfuscated tapes of post-rave skits to slick and grimey bangers, there’s something slippery about the way Filter Dread operates, and it’s led to a highly individual discography that spans 10 years and labels like Ramp, Unknown To The Unknown, Fresh 86 and No Corner. His sound has a stark immediacy that revolves around sampling – just watch him work a live set on his Digitakt and you’ll understand everything. Through simple approaches comes the flexibility to glide between styles, displaying a virtuoso affinity for grime, jungle, dancehall and plenty more, with the means to put his own stamp on everything he touches.

On this new 12” we get six new slabs which slip between rave touchstones with poise, marrying up garish square wave womp with something akin to electro, slipping down into a more overtly grime-licked swerve, nodding to the early sublow days on ‘Asid 88’ and generally doing mad things with gargantuan bass and tuff, deadeye drums, It’s moody in a truly UK, spliff-friendly tradition, but it’s also plenty playful, with enough freakiness to get limbs loosened and a little heat up inside the place.

GHETTO TRAXX is back again.

Sorry for the delay, but working life has hit us harder than we thought.

Finally GTR02 - 'Return of the Sexmachine' is getting really close.

Same as the debut a year ago, it is packed with a variety of sounds from friends of the ghetto.

This time featuring 4 Tracks by Skuum, Toni Moralez, DJ Frankie and Mchy i Porosty. Prepare for machine sex (and love) and get ready again for maximum rave bangerz which will get you back to the toilet.

After more than two decades flexing his muscles on the local underground scene and gaining a legendary cult status on his Tenerife home turf, the island’s most famous postman, as he’s affectionately known by his consorts, Tomás de la Rosa aka Postman breaks radio silence to bulldoze his way through the canyons surrounding his hometown of Santa Cruz into an unknown and unsuspecting world. We present thus, Postman’s first ever album of original bangers, micro chopped two steppers and rage induced breakbeat anthems.

Constructed over the course of global confinement, Seeds of Light marks a return to creative activity from the man who regularly delivers your post (its not just a random artist name). Postman aka Tomás de la Rosa has taken his time, compiling sketches and unfinished songs, rummaging through the deep ends of his hardrive, stitching early production sketches with recent compositions, revising, reediting and rebuilding with a more mature and concise attitude, eventually completing, almost unintentionally, the perfect self referential retrospective album. Far from being just a compilation album, Tomás managed to create an explosive document, suspended in time, in which styles are intertwined regardless of fashions and fads – letting go of the ‘modern’ or ‘up to date’ burden - so common these days in electronic music.

It is not an easy album, like many of his previous work it demands extra attention to experience the full crystallization of his complex sound structures. We find ourselves in front of a truly surgically precise work of art whose result comes as a waterproof war machine, refined and incisive, resonating deep with soul and groove.

Postman develops his sound palette throughout the album from very basic sound snippets into a concrete dance world of synthetic sounds eventually creating a parallel reality where J. Dilla could be living in Chemnitz instead of Detroit and releasing records for a label called Raster-Throw. Glitch sampladelics!

Incursions into Grime are also abundant with nods to the ineffable East Man, reunions with his beloved Funkstörung or many other stimulating revisions of lifelong genres and breaks populate this multidimensional sound space, see soul, dancehall, breakbeat, two step and the UK hardcore continuum.

Special mention to the magnificent fluid artwork by the very talented Catalan visual artist Alba de Corral. A still photo from one of her kinetic AI systems programmed directly in code, which matches perfectly the essence of Postman's brutalist alien sound.

Vinyl limited to 200 copies

Green marbled Vinyl

East Man returns to HI TEK SOUNDS with something a little different… A foray into stompy mechanical Techno, as well as his own hybrid amalgamation of Grime and Techno, 8 Bar Techno, which he has honed over the last few years.

The titular track, Underground Software, opens with a burst of static noise before launching into a stomping kick drum and stab combo, gradually adding hi hats and snares as the track progresses, building into a funky mechanical groove.

The second track is something of a signature tune for East Man, bringing Techno and Grime together to create the hybrid genre of 8 Bar Techno. It fires out the gate from the off, doing exactly what the title implies. This is one for the Grime dances and the Techno raves.

The last track is Primary Source. A slower beat with a plodding thud that folds into a squelchy Techno groove. Full of funk and flavour this EP covers a wide range while maintaining a coherence that few others manage to pull off.

Always surprising sound... Deeply influenced by the nowaday Bass-Music styles... but still Electronica/Synthwave in the mood.

BIG alubm full of creativity and musical skills.

needed !

Throwing hi-def sounds into three-dimensional space and rendering bass in increasingly uncharted waters, Walton arrives on Sneaker Social Club with a future-leaning EP of dance wreckers for the tough crowd.

Even his earliest releases were pushing things forwards as the weightless grime thing gathered momentum, but Walton always swerved the rest of the pack and simply approached grime-rooted club music with his own experimental instincts. His mammoth body of work takes in totemic labels like Tectonic, Hyperdub and Ilian Tape, and as time has passed and music has moved on from micro scenes to a generically fluid individuality, so Walton has grown as an artist. Recent drops including his Maisie By The Sea album have started to embrace more experimental spaces alongside his familiar twist on grime, and this mini-LP for Sneaker continues that level of progression.

On the A side, long time Walton fans will be more than happy with the intensity of ‘PJD’, which is as fierce as we’ve heard Walton go to date. As ever, his beats are never a simple matter, with every hit embellished with needlepoint sound design. The sound zips around the stereo field, but never at the expense of the track’s impact. Still, there’s space for other vibes too, as on the deep, sweeping pads and electronica twitch of ‘Quasar’.

By and large, Walton keeps the pressure up. ‘Rush’ is a bludgeoning instrument and ‘Dread’ teases with a jerky, stop-start demeanour which lands heavy blows when it kicks in. But shorter cuts ‘Detach’ and ‘Shots Fired’ also allow space for other aspects of Walton’s craft to come through. It’s these cuts which add to the overall listening experience and show just how much he ahs to offer as a producer.

The LP version is limited to 1000 copies, pressed on blue vinyl, in a high grade spot-varnished gatefold sleeve.

700 Bliss is the forward-thinking duo of DJ Haram and Moor Mother. Their first full length for Hyperdub is an album of noise rap that ties together the raw edges of club music and hip hop with punk energy, jazz, house-party catharsis, percussion-heavy analogue sound design, and cheeky skits, ranging from experimental rap tracks with rolling hi hats and lyrical bravado, to poetry set to noise and sound collage.

Moor Mother and DJ Haram started collaborating in 2014 and eventually formed 700 Bliss, a blistering live act in Philly's DIY scene, releasing their 2018 debut, Spa 700 on Halcyon Veil / Don Giovanni Records. Since that time, both artists have grown global followings. Moor Mother is a prolific solo artist and collaborator, writer, and member of Black Quantum Futurism while Haram has been curating and creating radio shows, DJing, and producing (including an EP for Hyperdub in 2019).

‘Nothing To Declare’ is a smart, danceable revelation, a chiseled soundscape of dive bombing bass, piercing bleeps, crunchy distortion, and wavering synth lines. Welcoming in a variety of voices from their extended, cross-genre scene, 700 Bliss also bring along a cast of collaborators, including vocalists Orion Sun, Lawfandah, Ase Manual, and Ali Logout (from the band Special Interest), plus Palestinian producer Muqata'a, and writer M Téllez who delivers a surreal sci fi monologue over a pounding kick drum on ‘More Victories’.

‘Nothing To Declare’ is a deeply layered rewriting of hip hop and electronic music that gives more with each listen. You won't hear another rap album like it in 2022.

*repress*

After the recent collaboration with Walton for the last release, this release sees the return of the ‘Stop Flapping Your Gums’ instrumentals, with the second volume in the series.

The A side, ‘Jaws’, is a sharp and steely hard stepper with a deep brooding bass line that evokes an ominous feeling. The skeletal framework of drums prop up the sub bass, lurching inexorably forward towards an unknown terror. Produced around the same time as the album on Planet Mu you will have heard it in East Man sets on Balamii, Just Jam or Rinse FM, usually accompanied by Killa P on the mic, laying his patois infused lyrics over the top of this dread riddim.

The B side is another track that those of you familiar with East Man sets will definitely know. ‘Border Clash’ is an up tempo onslaught of distorted kick drums and sub bass coupled with clattering, wood-block percussive stabs that lend an almost primal urgency to the beat. This one is ready to mash up any dance floor… Just turn the lights out and the subs up!

a1. East Man - Jaws
b2. East Man - Border Clash

The dutch producer Halp releases his debut 12" on Golden Mist Records. 'Polar' EP is a contemporary artifact plated by sino-grime, where beautiful and warm melodies are melted in the cold world of machinery. A manifest to the unknown territories that our civilization is exploring, where the development of 'Artificial Intelligence' and the border between humans and machines is being narrowed.

Sheffield born production prodigy Lloyd SB has long been a secret weapon of the underground instrumental grime scene. His assertive club tracks have been staples in radio sets from the likes of Murlo, Scratcha DVA, Slackk and more, with his dominance over the more hard-edged side of grime production looking set to continue with his inaugural outing for Gobstopper Records, '8ths, 16ths/Princess Anna'. Opening to a cacophony of warped snares, the release's A-side swells early on with a glistening soundscape, providing the perfect build thanks to buried mechanised percussion before pushing its rhythmic elements to the forefront. Using full frontal percussive artillery as its main focus, '8ths, 16ths' almost completely removes any trace of melody in favour of unrelenting kicks, twisted snares and glass shatter sounds - providing a destructive take on the modern club blueprint. The release's second track exhibits a more melodic if no less frenetic side to Lloyd SB's production. Set to a pummelling bed of laser-esque bass sounds, 'Princess Anna' is a chaotic blend of 8 bit bursts, rapid-fire arpeggios and affected cymbals. Finding rhythm in the track's space, 'Princess Anna''s beat becomes more and more sparse as it progresses, utilising dizzying panning and hints of vocal chops as the sole human element in an instrumental that's as hard-edged and cold as they come. As an artist that's widely considered amongst his contemporaries to be one step ahead of the game, Lloyd SB's debut release for Gobstopper is a disorientating but focused example of forward-thinking club music. Both tracks embody the sound of a master of their craft, experimenting with their genre to push it into more devastating, and above all else, original places.

Absolutely lethal, classic footwork from these three originators — body-rocking, invigorating and startling, hybrid without compromise. The A is route-one dancefloor murder, honed and nasty, vintage Chicago and Detroit gone clear across the border; the flip is a fiercely dazzling juke vocal collage, bare and hard as nails.

When Will We Learn sees O$VMV$M reunite with Gloucester voice of thunder Rider Shafique for the spiritual successor to 2017’s Lion (LAVA LAVA). These tracks have been circling around in various forms for a few years and graced dancefloors / soundsystems from Riga-Bristol-NYC - but for various reasons are only now coming to light. The A side features Rider delivering a wake up call / warning over a Computer Paul via Radiophonic workshop style rhythm track while on the B side Dj Neek sends it through the desk on the fly and strips the instrumental down to its core essence.

This is a big release for Tectonic as label boss Pinch combines forces with Kahn to produce two killer rhythm tracks that meld deepness with futuristic dancehall powers. Normally this would be plenty to get excited about anyway - but if you then add the vocal talents of Killa P, Irah & Long Range - aka ‘Killa’s Army’ - there is even more reason! Dubstep meets grime meets dancehall, while Bristol meets Brixton.

All three MCs in Killa’s Army have their own, very distinctive but complimentary styles, bringing a hard, uncompromising vocal delivery to match Pinch & Kahn’s tough beats.

Long Range opens the track and sets pace, his rapid, agile lyrical flow bouncing off the distorted thumping of a darkside 142bpm dancehall-flavoured rhythm. Killa P unleashes the chorus with full force, then setting up the next verse. Irah drops it an octave and holds the mood with his unique tone and delivery. The track pulls back then for a moment, like a filmic interlude, before the General himself, Killa P comes in to finish off anyone who might try test, like an end of level boss. ‘Crossing The Line’ will be rattling out of speakers for many years to come, no doubt!

Flip the vinyl over and you’ll find another, instrumental track, from Pinch & Kahn. ‘Send Out’ is a dubstep banger that holds a deep mood whilst pushing the energy levels through the roof. A rhythm track that has been pulled up, wheeled; set dance floors ablaze with it’s almost heavy-metal levels of energy. An early version of ‘Send Out’ originally appeared as an exclusive track on Kahn & Neek’s Fabriclive mix but is now available properly for the first time.

Blue Vinyl

Hi Tek Sounds is the new label from East Man (AKA Basic Rhythm) set up after his debut album for Planet Mu 'Red, White & Zero'. The first release on Hi Tek Sounds is the first in a series of instrumental EP's from East Man, entitled Stop Flapping Your Gums, with the aim of exploring the deeper, instrumental side of the Hi Tek sound. The first two tracks on the EP, 'Twilight' and 'Future Tek', are sharp and steely, with angular rhythms. A skeletal frame work of kick drums, hard snares, sub bass stabs and brief synth splashes. Produced around the same time as the album on Planet Mu you may have heard them in East Man sets on Rinse FM or NTS, or his mixes for Resident Advisor and RedBull Radio. The B side opens with 'Nose Bleed', an up tempo onslaught of distorted kick drums and sub bass with metallic stabs and an emotive synth line. The closing track 'Mash Head' is a slower, more dub driven affair. Taking things down a notch for the head nodders.

Game-changing multi-instrumentalist Kamaal Williams has put together the
latest DJ-Kicks mix. Due for release on November 8th, it features four of his
own brand new and exclusive tracks and hints at the wide world of influences
that have made him one of the most prominent artists of the last few years.
Williams has taken his long standing love of seventies jazz fusion and mixed
it up with the contemporary sound of the London underground to devastating effect. House, broken beat, grime, soul, funk, hip hop and jazz all
permeate his work, which has seen him evolve from producer Henry Wu to
acclaimed live band Kamaal Williams, backed by talented drummers and
bassists. His pioneering work in the studio and live arena has influenced a
whole new generation of like-minded musicians that have helped make the
capital one of the most musically exciting and quickly evolving cities in the
world, with Williams' own virtuoso drumming and percussion right at the
heart of it all.
Kamaal Williams was one half of the duo who wrote the breakthrough
Yussef Kamaal album 'Black Focus’, one of the most talked about records
of 2016. Vinyl pressings kept selling out, it received rave reviews, earned
the band the Breakthrough Act award at the 2017 Jazz FM awards and led
to spellbinding live shows all over Europe. His follow up , The Return, came
on Williams' own new Black Focus label and took his band global, all while
picking up nominations for best independent album at the AIM Music
Awards.
Improvised rhythm and spirituality are at the heart of everything Williams
does, as is London life, with its diverse people, cultures and musical
customs all feeding into his work. That is also true when making more
electronic sounds as Henry Wu, who appears here after standout EPs on
labels like Rhythm Section International. Williams' music is so individual it is
more than deserving of its own tag: the artist himself calls it Wu Funk, and
some of the many sounds that feed into it are all showcased on this adventurous new mix.
Exclusives include a live take of 'Snitches Brew,' new Kamaal Williams
tracks 'Shinjuku' and 'Strings ATL', as well as 'Wivout U' from Henry Wu.
Those vital highlights sit next to classic jams from Southern Freeze, a strong
contingent of London innovators from K15 to Dego and Tenderlonius to
Kaidi Tatham, with funk driven house from Peven Everett, raw stuff from
Steve Julien, lush synth grooves from Lone and feel good grooves from Phil
Asher all making this is an honest and uplifting collection that, when necessary, is happy to eschew blends, fades and mixing in favour of red hot
selections and sequencing. Kamaal Williams DJ-Kicks is a fascinating
insight into the record collection of a true musical alchemist

The first Brazilian Grime release available on vinyl. Between São Paulo and London, Grime and Baile Funk, there is an underlying synergy, a collective beat that speaks to both cities. CESRV, Febem and Fleezus spent months holed up in a Bela Vista studio exploring the sonic and cultural similarities between the two urban monoliths. Their experimentation lead to the creation of BRIME!, a unique reinterpretation of Baile Funk rhythms through traditional and contemporaryGrime, Drill and Garage sounds, with features from internationally recognized artists. In the wake of this release, a scene was born, now percolating through all of Brazil’s urban strongholds at 140 beats per minute. Welcome to BRIME!

Cult UK producer Iglew returns with his highly anticipated sophomore record after a six year hiatus, finding a perfect home on Facta and K-LONE’s label, Wisdom Teeth. Iglew first burst through during the instrumental grime boom of the mid-‘10s, debuting on Mr Mitch’s Gobstopper imprint with the now-verified classic ‘Urban Myth’ EP. A run of massive edits, remixes, radio rips, plus a feature on legendary label Boxed followed - andthen he went into hiding. Six years on, his follow-up EP expands and consolidates his sound into something truly unique and distinct. His central talents - glacial synth work, timeless melodies, pristine sound design - are all on show here in abundance, but twisted to fit new, refreshed patterns and structures.

‘Caffeine Dream’ is mutant UK techno that offsets distorted bass and glitching synths against warm chords and a noodling melody. ‘Gold’ is cool and stepping, sitting somewhere between early Night Slugs and the refracteddeep house of DJ Python. Title track ‘Light Armour’ is the EP’s understated climax - a lowlit and psychedelic take on modern pop, sounding something like a Charli XCX record A&R’d by the Freerotation crew. To close, ‘Microfunk Lament’ and ‘Hakwsworth Woods’ lean into microhouse and Reich-school minimalism, putting Iglew’s immense knack for melody and soul on full display.

Orange Vinyl

PAV4N - ALL ON BLACK EP invites some serious talent to reinterpret his fire so far:

’98 style Drum & Bass from Fixate on ALL ON BLACK
Indian Classical from the don of textures, Kromestar
Epic strings and heavy Dubwise stepping collide on Hebbe’s rework of STASIS
Nascent Hip Hop stars Yung Raj and Nate08 take on the track that started it all, KARMA

PAV4N is a founding member of Foreign Beggars. Name checked at the Grammys, playing every major festival there is and hitting the UK Top Ten charts, PAV4N has been responsible for introducing wave after wave of underground music onto the world. After the highly influential multi-genre group parted ways at the end of 2019, he blasted back into view with his prolific solo project, which he describes as “A living art piece - the reality of forging a unique path in music, art and the life of a perpetual foreigner”

PAV4N is due to unveil his theatrical, highly produced live show in the UK this June/July after two years of intense development.

Introducing ‘SWITCH’ from Reflec, the first release on his brand-new imprint SOAKER SOUND; a label intent on exploring left-leaning club sounds as we make our imminent return to the club. A powerful statement of serious things to come; SWITCH is an ice-cold, eski 6 tracker that puts a fresh spin on the golden days of UK grime. Released on 03.05.2021 on vinyl and digital, SWITCH drops in time to soundtrack the summer and can be pre-ordered here.

Coming to the table with a fresh mutant sound, Darker Than Wax is proud to welcome Leeds-based artist Captain Over to our sonic universe with his Deep Blue EP. A solo project from one of the minds behind the band Paper Tiger, Captain Over represents a firm focus on dancefloor experimentation, blending the sounds of grime, broken beat, house, and LA beat music to create an entirely new beast. Much like the chess-playing supercomputer of the same name, ‘Deep Blue’ occupies a space between electronic weight and the human touch, fusing together icy digital synths borrowed from grime with off- kilter grooves and jazzy motifs.

Following a string of releases led by vocal tracks with grime MCs, ‘Deep Blue’ is the first fully instrumental offering from Captain Over, lending the artist a platform to make a strong statement about his creative vision and technical prowess. From the expansive arrangement of ‘4D’ to the duelling sci-fi synths on ‘Mind’s Eye’, the Deep Blue EP is a deeply creative yet functional record, signalling a bright future for the Captain Over project.

Pure heat coming from Sector 7 Family. Lemzly Dale back on the buttons, taking a sidestep from his very-own Pearly Whites imprint,with four cuts that cross the lines between o.g. grime, R&G, UK Funky and even a tinge of that rap & footwork kinda lean with those hi-hats and 808 snares flinging across big subs like it's nothing.