Beats News

Banoffee Pies Records Black Label Series continues with the next Various Artist compilation - 4 low slung mood tracks for early AM riding the lines between Tech-House and 2 Step.

Monika Ross opens the selection with "Cut Strategy" on the A1, a dark winter spookyness set around 2 step glitches and delay. Tom Frankel takes over on the A2 with an ode to Green via "Terp Flavours". UKG inspired micro house - lockdown business. On the flip Mariiin drops her debut release entitled "Elif" on the B1 - a head down mover setting the tone for her future sound. The release then comes to a classy finish with deep mesmerizing rhythmic melodies on N-GYNN's "Yazdah" which fades away through another swinging vocal hook. Black Label Minimal. Much love. BP x

Mastered: Optimum Mastering

Collective of producers sharing their passion for the break.

Almost a year on from their debut joint single ‘Jesse James’ on WotNot Records, South London producer Dampé and Bristolian MC Mushkilla once again join forces, this time taking to XVI Records for their driving new single ‘Ghost Mode’.

With Mushkilla working closely with rising dubplate label EC2A, and Dampé putting out a series of heralded 12”s on Capitol K’s Faith And Industry Records and Singapore-based imprint Darker Than Wax, both artists have been riding busy schedules since their first release. With praises coming from Tom Ravenscroft, Mixmag, Dummy, DJ Mag, Jamz Supernova & more, they have both cemented themselves as artists to keep a keen eye on in the UK’s bass music communities.

‘Ghost Mode’ sees Mushkilla’s signature baritone vocals gliding over Dampé’s shifting sonic backdrop. Subterranean basslines, chopped breaks, vinyl crackles, stuttering vocal snippets and saturated eski-beat melodies reverberate through the murky haze in this twisted UKG stepper.

Breaks 'N' Pieces returns with another cut of bass driven dance music from rising producer DJ Sunroof.

Australian DJ // producer DJ Sunroof has had a killer year with notable dance discs on imprints such as Nerang, 3 Feet Deep and contributing to the recent Breaks 'N' Pieces Vol.3 various artists release to top. His debut full vinyl EP via rising UK label Breaks 'N' Pieces hits the stop, weighty breaks meet chest rattling bass on this 2-step laden cut.

Interstate brings a 2 step.
Keita Sano dives deep.
Dubbyman has the dubs.

3 distinct remixes of the incredible “Mile High” from German / French producers Mystigrix and Reo Seis and Chicago legend Paris Brightledge on vocals plus an original. Take care of yourselves and stay safe!

These run of releases on ‘Existence Is Resistance’ comes from the Legendary Proto Garage Record Label ‘Same People’, and see’s Persian & Long time musical partner DJ Texsta, repressing some of their most pioneering UKG E.P.s.

For DSD024, Wilfy D joins the Dansu Discs family with his ‘New Lockdown Soul’ EP.

This 6 track EP takes you on a journey of soulful 2-step, a unique sound that made Wilfy D burst onto the scene in 2020. Crew member Yosh wraps up the EP with his Killer remix of ‘Make Up Your Mind’.

Something rare & something new! DJ Deller is one of those super rare sought after 2 step ukg cuts and on the flip is Heritage with a new style ukg track..

Following on from his EP on Livity Sound, Al Wootton comes home to TRULE with the Maenads EP. Four percussive, textural rhythm tracks. Sparse and weighty, psychedelic but focused, and scattered with dub echoes. Al’s core influences of UK Garage, techno, dub and drum and bass are organically reshaped into new forms that never lose sight of dance floor functionality.

collecting orders for repress!

Soul Mass Transit System returns to Time Is Now with the weighty ‘Blocked’ EP featuring a collaboration with legendary vocalist Killa P.

Mysterious producer Soul Mass Transit System has been pumping out some serious twelves this year, with killer cuts on labels such as Warehouse Rave, Time Is Now & Rhythm & Vibe. His latest outing ‘Blocked’ EP is the rising producers weightiest work to date, lead track ‘Blocked’ featuring legendary ex Roll Deep member Killa P does some serious damage, backed with three rolling UKG cuts of groovers and movers, best played loud.

Lost City Archives is back with a massive 4 track EP from Japan’s own Stones Taro. Delivering a trifecta of quality Garage, Breaks and Jungle, certain to peak the interest of any serious underground aficionado.

After the brilliant E-Unity’s CD-ROM-1, Intramuros invite 2 new artists on a perfect split EP for eclectic DJ’s. 4 different vibes & tempos.

On A-side, Basic from Positive Education / St Étienne (FR) with 2 fresh & untemporal bass music anthems, he opens with Blaze, a loud bass roller, and kills you with 66 Order, his personnal vision of dubstep.

On B-side, Cabasa from Eclipse Tribez / Brussels (BE) opens with Good Trauma, a sublime deep electro track, then Algo Mod Arp, a crazy track exploring fields between metallic & mental drummy sounds and Aphex Twin, for the 170 BPM crew.

Anz makes her Hessle Audio debut with a club-ready three track EP, following releases on the label by Pearson Sound and Pangaea in July. Lead track 'Loos In Twos (NRG)' goes turbo, with a ruffneck bassline, clattering breakbeats and dramatic rave stab breakdowns all combining to memorable, killer effect. On the B side, 'Gary Mission' gets loose with disorientating flanged FX and a wriggling low end, with the minimal beat track 'Stepper' using sharp vocal snippets and chest-rattling sub to light up the dance.

Anz is a DJ and Producer based in Manchester (via London, Liverpool and Madrid). Renowned for her genre-spanning productions and mixes, she unearths the links between Electro, UK Garage, Jungle and more, underpinning a versatile take on contemporary UK club music that is as bright as it is unpredictable.

Air Texture Vol. VI selected by Steffi and Martyn

The Air Texture Series asks two Producers/ Performers to select a double CD worth of unreleased music. The only guidance is the music should not be main floor bangers, other than that we get out of the way, allowing them autonomy over their selection. This time Steffi and Martyn were asked to step up. Exciting, since as residents at Berghain/Panorama Bar - two of the most important dancefloors in the world... how would two such respected artists approach our experimental ethos.

Limited to 500 copies

Council Work returns with their 2nd installment after the success of the Trimmers EP. After securing a huge remix from INSTINCT on the 1st outing, they've enlisted none other than the FUSE legend and Seven Dials label owner Seb Zito for remix duties on the Dread EP. 4 Heavyweight tracks further showcasing the signature Council Work sound. Title track "Dread" is a weighty slice of dub & jungle influenced, sub shaking roller which is definitely one for the gun fingers crew. Seb Zito steps up on the A2 with a speed garage remix of the title track which sounds like it's straight from the golden era in the 90s, one sure to get the garage heads moving and shaking in the dance. B1 is the first of 2 solo efforts from the label owners Tom Frankel & Dayne Harper, in the shape of "Rosshire Heights", from Dayne, named after the block where he grew up in Zimbabwe. Another taste of Council Work sound, heavily laced with reggae licks which dance over the rolling sub bass, combined with dubby vocal effects, this one is one for the heads. B2 comes from Tom in the shape of "Response", a more ferocious offering which takes no prisoners, this one combines heavily distorted Reese basses and 808s which peppered with cutting stabs create a moody skanker sure to wreck havoc in the dance.

Sofie Letitre releases her new EP 'Uncanny Valley' on DIVISION. On 'Uncanny Valley' Sofie Letitre delivers a dark mysterious sound that reminds of acts like FKA Twigs and Bjork. Like the evil sister of Massive Attack with the intensity of James Blake.

Uncanny Valley is a concept-album based on the Uncanny Valley principal, the point where there is aversion for a humanoid robot as he becomes more human. You will be drawn in themes like vulnerability versus invulnerability and perfection versus imperfection.

The EP is produced by Ferdy van der Singel and Thijs de Vlieger (NOISIA), and the vinyl contains the mp3 codes to download as well.

No Cover

The Four Owls swarm into 2020 by announcing the long-awaited news of their third studio album Nocturnal Instinct dropping via High Focus Records on 17th April 2020. Since their inception in ‘11, The Four Owls have become best known for their thought-provoking, emotive and undiluted lyricism. They’ve never shied away from delving deep within and in doing so have carved a unique space for themselves within the Hip-Hop landscape.

With the collective comprising of Leaf Dog, Fliptrix, Verb T & BVA the foursome perfectly demonstrate the age-old idea that you can’t choose your family but you can choose your friends, The Four Owls have fabricated an honest bond of brotherhood that spills out into their music which can only be described as Hip-Hop in its purest form. At the production helm, Leaf Dog is responsible for creating not only the entire album but The Owls signature sound which they have become so infamous for.

Nocturnal Instinct is set to become a cult classic and features artists you rarely see collaborate with musicians on this side of the pond. Super-producer DJ Premier, who only ever works with The Owls in the UK, lends his golden era beats to single ‘100%’ - with his signature scratched chorus proclaiming The Owls as 'kings of their throne' - the follow up to their first monumental collaboration, ‘Think Twice’.

Also gracing the project is RA The Rugged Man, an artist has also worked with the likes of Notorious B.I.G, Mobb Deep, & Wu-Tang Clan, now welcomes The Owls into his hall of fame. RA chops it up on ‘Air Strike’ and brings his own East Coast style and fast-paced flow. Up next is arguably one of the biggest names to come from the underground in recent years, Roc Marciano. Marciano lures you into a meditative state in ‘Dark Days’ by carefully finding his place within The Owls unmatched beats. Nocturnal Instinct is a series of hand-picked tracks designed to challenge the status quo and educate.

The Owls continue to school throughout the entire album with
other appearances from the likes of Smellington Piff, Kool G Rap,
as well as Masta Killa (Wu-Tang).

Get your lucky penny out of your pocket it's time for Scratch Discs.

Every copy comes with a special scratch card with a host of bang average prizes to be won

Numbers bring in 2012 with the debut release from London-based duo Kodiak. Details about Kodiak's members are thin on the ground, however, rumour has it that they can be found working behind the counter of one of London's most famous record shops. Their inaugural release 'Spreo Superbus' is a brazen assault on the senses with one of the wildest crescendos you're likely to hear. An intense six-minute journey that guides us through the many styles of UK dance music whilst creating a unique energy and vibe that's synonymously Numbers.

Time Is Now assembles an all star lineup for the labels first various artist release. The six track ‘allstars’ record features contributors from previous release artists, as well as new label members: Interplanetary Criminal, Soul Mass Transit System, Holloway, Mainphase, Ollie Rant & Wilfy D.

Jam Dem Sounds, a new label by CMYK, will keep a solid foot on the dancefloor, while also exploring unconventional grooves and dipping into home-listening music.

Its first EP by upcoming artist Ease Up George reflects this ethos. While the main tracks focus on stripped-down & dubby UKG, the EP then moves into a catchy footwork number and a spaced-out dub reggae track.

The pressing is strictly limited, and the records will come as hand-stamped white labels packaged in a recycled paper sleeve.

For DSD023, Bailey Ibbs serves up a killer with his ‘Gurl’ EP. The A side delivers 3 Bailey originals, each serving up a different mood best suited for the dance floor. Where the B side provides 3 completely different flips of ‘Gurl’ delivered to you by Groovy D, Denham Audio & AK Sports.

Air Texture Vol. VI selected by Steffi and Martyn

The Air Texture Series asks two Producers/ Performers to select a double CD worth of unreleased music. The only guidance is the music should not be main floor bangers, other than that we get out of the way, allowing them autonomy over their selection. This time Steffi and Martyn were asked to step up. Exciting, since as residents at Berghain/Panorama Bar - two of the most important dancefloors in the world... how would two such respected artists approach our experimental ethos.

Limited to 500 copies

Underground garage music from U.K artists, Highrise & label boss Marc Cotterell

Four names you never heard of step up with four tracks that will smack you right in the kisser.

Chungo returns to Scuffed Recordings for his second release on the label, showcasing his signature broken UK techno sound. Featuring 3 originals and a remix from Breaka.

discotech WAX is back with it's 2nd release on the imprint this time exploring the realms of house and minimal with two of Europe's finest current exports Alessio Viggiano & Nick Beringer.

Vinyl only / printed sleeve

Supported by //
Leon / Archie Hamilton / Rich NXT / Varhart / Lauren Lo Sung / Burnski / Michael James / Seb Zito / Janeret / Franck Roger / Dela Swing / Kepler / Alexis Caberea / TIJN / Halo Varga / Vice Versa / Ed Herbst / The Willers Brothers / Niko Maxen / Tommy Vercetti / Bobby / DJ Caspa / Milou / Anna Wall / Pierre Codarin

A Goal is an Image is City's debut LP for Rabit's Halcyon Veil, providing an elusive yet tangibly bittersweet testament to the Vancouver artist's hybrid of experimental metal and weightless electronics. Further to his Arcadia (2016) mix for Halcyon Veil, City distills that release's ideas into 11 naturally tempestuous takes on the digital zeitgeist, ripping away its hi-fi sheen to reveal a reactive ecology of overgrown, semi-organic textures and pranging rhythms wrapped up in chaotic harmony.
Getting right under the skin of his thing, Will Ballantyne has realised a mean contribution to the conversation around peripheral club music and its electronic production, morphing its perimeters between computer game and film soundtrack tropes, soundsystem-testing prangs, and styles foreign to the putative club experience. The effect is simultaneously hyperreal and severed from the daily grind; a simulacra of impossibility animated with physically reactive impact.
Across the album listeners are torn in and out of 'the box', perpetually reframing his sound between naturally elegant and digitally unreal environments in a way that resonates with the LP artwork.
He establishes this upending uncertainty with the gravelly whorl of field recordings, processed textures and floating, Coil-like harpsichord motifs in Provinces and Your Stream, harnessing a sense of struggle against gravity in the buckshot-riddled mass of Pain/Power and with searing trance riffs nailed into place on End Zone like Lorenzo Senni running a gauntlet of snipers.
City's experi-metal impetus bleeds thru most strongly in the glowering poise of Inevitable, and with needling bite in the towering recursive riffs of Ffaith, quite literally galvanised thru electronic process, leading to the record's most captivating, expansive pinnacle with field recordings and sample pack presets diffused into the otherworldly detachment of SAR and his trance dress-down, Immaculate.
As Halcyon Veil's first full length feature album, A Goal is an Image arguably epitomises the label's aesthetic - unflinchingly upfront and uncannily emotive - and gives voice to a true outsider spirit that will be recognised by anyone of a similar disposition.

From the ruins of the birthplace of techno ...
Detroit Underground returns with this, their twenty second release, in a catalogue that has come to define the outer limits of experimental electronics while still adhering to dance floor basics.
This edition sees DU label boss Kero return to the spotlight in collaboration with LA based sound designer and interactive director Drasko Vucevic, aka Drasko V of Los Angeles based DRASTIC Music + Technology. Drasko has recently created, among other things, sound design for a promotional featurette for the Academy Award nominated film Gravity.
Given the label's long time fascination with the intersections of music, art and technology the collaboration is as fitting as it is fruitful.


Side A ups the collaborative ante as this 12'' comes blasting out of the gate with two very strong remixes, Exponent is the subject of a relentless 4/4 treatment from LA techno exponents Drumcell while Superheavy gets an acid-style work out from Canadian producer Jesse Somfay's Borealis project.


It is not until the second side that we hear the original versions of Exponent and Superheavy, both of which reveal themselves to be undulating masses of hip hop tinged beats over dark, bass rich undertones, with the latter offering some brighter tones as well - in other words pretty much what you might expect out of a Drasko V and Kero collaboration.


Side B is further rounded out with a couple of remixes from England's Si Begg and Valance Drakes the former coming in with a super compressed, squelched out, electro inspired take on Exponent while Valance Drakes chills us back out with an impossibly mellowed out version of the same

The untouchable Nyege Nyege Tapes turn up drivingly psychedelic visions of AfroLatin technomeets-traditional-drumming by Portuguese/Uganda band HHY & The Kampala Unit, rendered in
immersive widescreen dub and featuring special appearance of the Kampala Prison Brass Bandfor one of the wildest, heart-in-mouth rhythm trips of 2020 Helmed by Jonathan Saldanha of HHY & The Macumbas, and revolving ghetto activist Florence Lugemwa (trumpet) and percussionist Omutaba, ‘Lithium Blast’ is the latest, unprecedented collision of energies from the cultural fusion-accelerator of Nyege Nyege Tapes Kampala-based HQ. It follows the edits of HHY & The Macumbas’ ‘Camouflage Vector’ set, and the inventive examples of recent works by Metal Preyers, Villaelvin and Rian Treanor, with a cinematically scoped and body-conscious suite of 11 militant yet lush songs that surely prove Uganda’s capital
city Kampala is a true epicentre of innovative new music in the modern day.
Committing a sort of futuristic, off-grid trance music for the ages, HHY & The Kampala Unit set out a penetrating vision of street-level cosmogony, intuitively mapping out zones between native drumming styles, techno, and astral electronics in a stunning suite of dubwise 4D starcharts.
Guided by ancient, encrypted rhythms and a gripping sensuality, the album flows from its bolshy introduction to the Kampala Prison Brass Band in the fanfare of ‘Bursting Thru The Gates’, to thunder try the rocky rapids of ’Mesh Intensifier’ and chase sequence of ‘Fissure Core Fluid’ with a powerful sense of drama and magnetic dancefloor traction.
Shards of shatterproof ‘80s FM synth lace with swingeing polymetric percussion in the twin tub rinse-out ‘Catastrophism’, and Gazelle-legged rhythms synch with sweeping subs and soaring pads in the title track, but it’s possibly the ravishing electronic lushness of ‘Science of Dust’ and the familiar yet otherworldly hybrid of Florence Lugemwa’s trumpet with supple ambient dancehall backdrops in ‘Shining Star’ that will leave listeners most wide-eyed and mesmerised by HHY & The Kampala Unit’s strikingly natural but hyperreal sound.
A total doozy.

Lavonz is back on Dansu Discs. After his track on the latest Club Culture, one of the newest members of the Dansu Discs family returns with this 6 track EP packed with classic reissues and new material. In what Lavonz describes as his ‘return’ to the scene, with this ‘Uncut Gems’ EP he brings the distinctive sound that made him such a reputable player so many years.

Killer debut LP by Lol K starring vocals by Coby Sey and LA Timpa, following the Londoners’ EP for Mica Levi and co’s Curl Recordings with a crafty set of queer, sensuous pop, configured in brilliant, surprising ways for Rabit’s Halcyon Veil.
The six songs and corresponding instrumentals of ‘The Breeze’ explore ideas of escapism, belonging and inner city isolation in an up-to-date vernacular firmly blunted by sparing, crisply defined but shapeshifting production. The album clearly marks a concerted development of Lol K’s sound - especially compared to their oblique appearances on the ‘Born Under a Bad One’ (Curl, 2018) EP - with the duo’s CJ Calderwood and Junior XL more confidently venturing their vocals into the mix this time, switching between melodic hooks and blunted hush, to a rave-punkish prang out and puckered chamber composition with lowkey rude and innovative production to match.
This newfound confidence subtly oozes from the squashed drill rap mutation of ‘Air Held Softly Alight’, and their ohrwurming opener ‘Proud’, and is smartly tempered into the seething Reese stabs and aggy holler of ‘Oilseed Stone’ featuring an upfront Coby Sey vocal. The album finds its centre in the serpentine, understated strings and dembow bump of ‘Twice’, and the deep 2-step chamber music of ‘Completely Out Of Business’ featuring the vital input of LA Timpa, following his outstanding 2019 debut, and ahead of an achingly strong solo album for Halcyon Veil. For the DJs and anyone who wants to lend their own bars, the instrumentals reveal the subtly whirring mechanics under Lol K’s hood, and how they elide and ride styles while allowing for burred edges and a complex, gauzy soul.

Codigo De Barras’ is the exceptionally tight first album from Lisbon-via-Manchester’s cult batidaproducer P. Adrix - now operating as A.k.Adrix - an LP bursting with shockingly sharp-cut but breezily animated dancers from the top shelf of kuduro, all fire this one!!!
Making good on the promise of P. Adrix’s incendiary 2018 debut EP, the Angolan-Portuguese producer’s first album as A.K.Adrix slickly recalibrates the whirring percussive mechanics of his acclaimed early works with a richer melodic tone in eleven tight, tempered productions.
It’s a significant and confident advance of his style into a more supple, melancholic form of instrumental songcraft, following suit with slicker recent moves by Nídia and Blacksea Não Maya on Príncipe with outstandingly fresh contributions to one of the world’s most vital dance scenes.
The raw electric club buzz of Adrix’s early zingers is still present, only now more refined and betraying a craftier emotional intelligence and sensuality that’s beautifully apparent across the album. From the mix of haunting choral motifs and field recordings with Derrick May-like strings in opener ‘Ambiente Spiritual’, to the album’s standout centrepiece of gently hypnotic flute arps and tumbling tabla drums meshed into tarraxho rhythms on ‘Espuma Nocturna’, or the wide-eyed wonder of ‘Desenhos Animados’ with its impish woodwind and woodblock drums; it’s a rare pleasure to witness Adrix get deep inside his sound and really come into his own.
Anyone looking for the rude stuff will get it in the more raggo charge of ‘X50’, the thumping subs of ‘Hottttttttttt’, and the martial swag of ’Settings’, but the album’s dextrous and intricately efficient push/pull of energies between the club, personal sentiments, and naturally avant leanings, is perhaps best compared with Beatrice Dillon’s stunning ‘Workaround’ in the 2020 field.
Unmissable!