Deft

Deft's found himself a fitting home in Ivy Lab's 20/20 parties and now their label, 20/20 LDN Recordings.

We've been heading to Ivy Lab's bi-monthly party for a while now and, for us, it's one of the freshest raves pushing all sorts of bass music. There's frantic footwork, wonky instrumental hip hop and suitable amounts of slaying halftime drum 'n' bass. The guests don't disappoint, either. Those to have played include Alix Perez, Fracture, dBridge, Om Unit, JD. Reid, Moresounds, Zed Bias and, of course, Deft.

He was there at the very first shindig, also playing at the Boxing Day bash with Exit Records, and come April 8 he'll helm the second release on the label, the 'Blackest' EP, following Ivy Lab's debut album. It's five tracks of pure fury and bass-laden swag and adds to previous releases on labels such as Rwina Records, Project: Mooncircle, 2nd Drop Records and WotNot Music. His second drop for Project: Mooncircle is a standout, containing spacey dreamer 'Drawn' and the tough stomper 'Promise Me'.

When picking a tune to premiere from the new EP, it had to be 'For Sudden'. We'd heard the Eastern world banger pop up in a few mixes so were absolutely delighted when it was announced it'd be getting released. Born in Croydon, Deft's definitely chucked the south London area's dubstep heritage into this one, packing it with devilish low-end bass and combining that with a wondrous vocal you'd expect to hear while strolling through the streets of urban India.

The 'Blackest' EP is out on April 8 via 20/20 LDN Recordings

Dave Turner is Mixmag's Digital News Editor, follow him on Twitter