December: 9 drum 'n' bass releases you need to hear this month

LSB 'Content' (Soul:r)

Luke Beavon is a 15-year d’n’b template to savour: he's gone from student DJ, struggling promoter and liquid-funk experimenter to a producer du jour heralded as an "impeccable" talent by Marcus Intalex. There's no overnight success, just the grit borne of love for straight 170bpm. This debut LP evokes the very best: the driving snares and aerial vocals of a Utah Jazz (‘Lydian’), the propulsive keys-and-vocals goosebumps of a Technimatic (‘The Optimist’) and the signature DRS-plus-tearjerker-chorus of ‘Missing You’. Best of all, though, are the fine-grained touches: the dusky trumpets in the deep, the subtle shades of different snare combos, the deliberate lack of syrupy pop sheen. It's a rich, rolling underground music box with treasures for all.

9/10

Ulterior Motive 'Longshot' (Xtrah remix) (Metalheadz)

Yes, Ulterior Motive’s ‘The Fourth Wall’ remix EP includes Break rough-housing the unforgettable ‘Keep it Moving’. Yes, it has the incendiary ‘Inta National Sound’ VIP. And yes, it has a truckload more besides. But find us a sleeker tech-roller gem than Xtrah’s masterful fix-up and we’ll torch our raving shoes on the spot: perfectly weighted featherlight snares, fine-grained synths and oceans of space generating a whipping pace that never feels busy. Savour it.

9/10

Signal 'Parallax' (Critical)

A full EP on Critical, championed by Noisia, plaudits from all corners of the scene and a scandalous range of rhythmic tricks and sound design: young gun Signal has truly owned it in 2016. And you sense he's only just getting started, too. The title track of his latest release, ‘Parallax’, is just frightening: a slithering and percussive tech wormhole with twisted insides that recall the best of Ed Rush & Optical, as its gnawing synths hound away at some funky snare patterns. Put simply, this one's a darkside dancefloor weapon of quite ridiculous quality. At this rate, by the time the esteemed young Dutch producer has turned 18, he'll have swallowed the scene whole

9/10

Serum 'Species' EP (31 Recordings)

Serum goes deep on 31, sampling experimental electronics from the 70s, using vintage hardware and paying homage to label honcho Doc Scott’s legendary dark-edged aesthetic, too. Standout ‘Redeemer’ feels like a twisted cousin of all-time classic ‘Shadowboxing’, with a demonic whalesong of a synth shrieking away in the deep while smooth pads lash a rolling lick into place. It's a blast of retro grit and refined bass textures.

9/10

Xanadu 'Save Yourself' (Dom & Roland Productions)

Dom & Roland’s protégé delivers a proper wrecking-ball here. The thunderous ticking centipede of a break that forms the iron spine to this surgical, bullet-tough minimal workout is suddenly assaulted by a truly fearsome synth wave – a monstrous surge rising from the deep that chills the blood. In a club, it’s like a giant sonic stingray ghosting up from beneath the dancefloor, instantaneously swamping everything in a purplish cloak of doom. Careful in there.

8/10

Commix 'Generation' EP 2 (Metalheadz)

After returning to the scene earlier this year with a teasing remix-plus-unreleased tunes package, Commix’s first proper new material since the iconic duo parted ways feels like a genuine juncture. Brand new production methods, a relaxed approach to BPMs and sound palettes and the fingerprints of a house-based hiatus culminates in the brilliant ‘Honey’: a simply gorgeous melding of classic, scything 90s breakbeats and velvety Balearic synth nodules, with the two elements wedded together via a dreamy, waltzing house aesthetic. The backdrafting trails that shadow each snare would sound menacing were it not for the lucid, luxurious weave of sun-bleached, hazy FX that glues the whole thing together. What a class act – returning with a completely original goalpost-mover. We’ve missed you.

9/10

Current Value 'Rethink' (Othercide)

Recent smashers on Critical, Cyberfunk and Terminal confirm arch-neuro pugilist Current Value’s importance to a wide variety of tastemakers. Knuckledusting tearout venom is rarely this precise: from a cut-up vipers nest of threshing snares on the first drop, a sci-fi tech scudder suddenly emerges halfway through, its messier elements pared down via a womping synth electrode that adds shape and melody. It’s not long before the scratchy tentacles return, however, tripping and misstepping all the while. Frenetic, yet powerfully marshalled, black-out funk.

8/10

ReDraft & HP Ritch 'Work It' (Shack Out)

First popping up on our radar on Terabyte Records, burgeoning German pair ReDraft and HP Ritch drop one of the most entertaining tracks we’ve heard in yonks. 'Work It' is a playfully juke-oriented romp through old-skool jungly tempos, chic drum machine noodlings and some kick-ass grooving bassline slurps. It’s essentially the sound of flitting continously and contentedly between four different rooms at your favourite multi-arena old-skool rave. Like pure joy, then, basically.

8/10

Calibre 'Iron Balls' (Signature)

We do love it when Calibre gets all wonky. And in this case, it's a particularly skanky, almost tongue-in-cheek wonky, with a track centred entirely around a viciously compressed, urgent synth honk that runs and runs. Tipping a wink to the stripped-back Full Cycle heyday and its hypnotically simple Krust rollers, the gritty, fluctuating mid-range note of ‘Iron Balls’ contracts and expands to infinity, while metronomic rolling snares and off-camera bleeps stomp away beneath. True to form, however, the dashes of reverbed keys that occasionally hover at the contours lend a softer, jazzier edge to proceedings. Wonky, magic silliness from the absolute master.

8/10