Reviews
DRUM 'N' BASS: JULY
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COMPILATION OF THE MONTH
Mixed by London Elektricity: Summer Drum & Bass 2012 (Hospital)
Hospital continues to soundtrack the very best in hands-in-the-air d’n’b with its regular compilations, and this one is an absolute peach. Swimming in skyrocketing synths and trance-tickled vocals right from the off (we defy anyone not to shiver in anticipation as Logistics’ opener ‘Watching The World Go By’ readies for launch), the key ingredient here is that Tony Colman is unafraid to get bashy – hence we’re also treated to rugged industrial murk (BTK’s ‘Drop It’) and slithery tech-funk from the likes of Rockwell and Gridlok. All the summer ammo you need, right here. 9/10
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TUNE OF THE MONTH
Spectrasoul ft Tamara Blessa (Calibre remix)
Away With Me (Shogun Audio)
This is what style looks like: Spectrasoul enlist Calibre to remix the second single from their forthcoming album, but give him the A-side and squirrel their original away on the flip – along with another killer mix from Kito. Tamara’s weightless tones caress the most delicate of rolling breaks (which echoes Calibre’s ‘Garden’ to delicious effect) against a heavenly weave of sunlit keys and orchestration. Pure musical bliss. 9/10
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Netsky
Come Alive (Hospital)
Readying his humdinger of a debut LP and fresh from two sold-out live shows at the Ancienne Belgique, Hospital’s finest foreign import is taking the label to new international heights. ‘Come Alive’ is a cross between Pendulum at their emo-soaring best and Luke Skywalker’s snazziest lightsaber: a pristinely produced howitzer of dive-bombing vocals, tidal-wave synths and whomping half-time drums. The big leagues usually come calling for anyone who can make a 170bpm dance track sound like a Linkin Park hit – so watch this space. 7/10
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Technicolour & Komatic feat Jayma
Stay (Spearhead)
Now this is a proper summer track; a summer-night-around-11:30pm-on-the-way-to-the-club track, to be precise. All the sunny mellowness and angelic vocals you’d want from a top-drawer liquid gem, but with a serious engine tunnelling away beneath. Those textured, rolling drums are tickled deliciously by Amen whispers, and the whole affair is enveloped in the hypnotically warm bassline gloss that is fast becoming the signature of this exciting duo. If you fancy Spectrasoul with a little spice in the mix, sign here. 8/10
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Enei feat Riya
No Fear (Critical)
Following up the ‘Sequence One’ EP with another four tracks of Premier League production, the label that sets the bar for consistent deep-end quality keeps us on our toes once again. If you’ve only experienced Riya’s matchless vocals in songstress mode, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to hear her in uptempo guise, threading menacing darts around Enei’s stop-start bunker-buster of a stepper. The hopscotching percussion is to die for – all industrial scythings and jittering mid-range scrunches that skitter in and out of the dancing breaks. This is premium, funked-out steppage that’ll set the head-nodding hordes ablaze. 8/10
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Ben Soundscape & Superior Selectionz
Panoramic (Intrigue)
One half of Bristolian connoisseurs The Insiders, Ben Soundscape teams up with Yeovil’s finest to produce a sumptuous EP containing everything that’s good about stripped-back deep-end funk. The title track is a keeper, with delightfully stealthy brass blasts and muted trumpet arpeggios skirting around vocal nibbles to create a rich, widescreen journey – all kept as taut as you like by a pulsing rolling break. This is fine-edged liquid with just a hint of tech menace – exactly as it should be. 7/10
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Need for Mirrors/Heavy 1 & P-Fine
Palace/Thought Police (Yabai 84 Records)
Thundering out of the blocks comes Yabai 84, a new Tokyo-based label that’s evidently got a nose for magnetic new-school basslines. Need for Mirrors serve up a typically springy slice of bouncing tech-roller sizzle, all rattlesnake drums and delicate pinches of metallic synths, but it’s the flip that steals the show: a 10-tonne-bassline spectral stepper very much in the Enei mould. P-Fine’s scattergun bars dance menacingly over the stripped-back groove crunching away beneath, and all in all it’s a killer 12”. 8/10
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Rudimental
Feel The Love (Black Butter)
It would be both rude and, yes, mental to ignore this Radio 1-swallowing mega-anthem that appears to have been designed exclusively for festival crowd-surfing. It’s got everything: a Chase & Status-sized stadium synth riff, a euphoric gospel choir vocal (that will surely be appearing on a Peugeot 306 advert any time now), and a genius triplicate-beat section that’ll give you the precise amount of pogo-time needed to launch yourself skyward. And if you’re not playing along to the brass solo on your imaginary trumpet by the end of the summer, the drinks are on us. 7/10
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Submotion Orchestra
It’s Not Me It’s You (Alix Perez remix) (Exceptional)
If you’re remixing seven-piece Leeds visionaries Submotion Orchestra, it’d better be sublime. Thankfully, it’s Mr Perez at the controls, and if there’s a smoother piece of 170bpm soul out there this month we’d like to hear it. Sounding like a beautiful echo of his LP standout aria ‘Forsaken’, those crystal-sharp breaks slice into endless orbs of low-end warmth to create a subterranean kingdom you never want to leave. Ghosting vocals murmur and dwindle on top of the rolling funk, and the more you listen the more you realise how few producers can dive this deep. 9/10
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Matrix & Futurebound
All I Know (Metro/Viper)
There’s plenty of flagrant festival-anthem fodder zinging about this month, which is wholly acceptable when the production is this crisp. Boasting a blokey vocal
that’s almost pure Hard-Fi, a shameless battalion of fluorescent synth-lines and an army of bullet-tipped breaks that zip along ceaselessly, you can expect to rave to this through a shower of beer as the tent takes off. 6/10
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