February: 7 bass & club releases you need to hear this month

NAR 'Jujeh' EP (Doom Dab)

Underground club music is constantly dealing with concepts of fragmentation. Various patterns and sounds are moved from their geographical roots and placed against those of other locales; noises once thought incompatible together bump up against each other in the mix. Los Angeles producer NAR demonstrates mastery of both phenomena on their latest project, ‘Jujeh’, which harmoniously combines distinctive samples (Arabic prayer vocals, the call of a whale) with more general club motifs. ‘Masjid’ features footwork-like kick patterns, echoing vocals and a rhythm that cracks like a whip, while ‘Joon’ starts with a clear, slinky synth line that becomes more and more distorted, until all that’s left is the sound of a bouncing basketball. These discordant pieces blend together naturally until they fade into the ether, fragments becoming part of a cycle.

9/10

Florentino 'Bloodline' (Swing Ting)

The Colombian-British producer Florentino’s tag is instantly recognisable in the mix: “DJ Florentino, el más romántico de los románticos” (in English: “the most romantic of the romantics”). It’s a sentiment that holds true, given that the vast array of reggaeton-oriented, big-room tunes he’s dropped over the past couple of years certainly make the heart race. His latest, ‘Bloodline’, is a thunderous scorcher of a track with a muscly hornline and howling sirens working to carve out a path for razor-sharp percussion.

10/10

Jessy Lanza 'Oh No No No' EP (Hyperdub)

Three of the tracks from Jessy Lanza’s 2016 pop masterpiece ‘Oh No’ get reworked on this EP, which features Morgan Geist (aka Storm Queen), Teklife DJs Taye and Spinn, and experimental producer Leon Smart, who currently makes music under the alias DVA [Hi:Emotions]. Geist takes on ‘I Talk BB’ turning the airy ballad into something even more atmospheric than its counterpart. With whizzing arpeggios and the occasional solemn beep, Lanza’s breathy vocals lift us gently into space. Taye and Spinn capitalise on the hesitant energy of ‘Could Be U’ with their footwork-imbued redo, with snares and kicks cascading amidst chopped vocals. The most compelling track, though, is Smart’s mix of ‘Going Somewhere’. While the orignial serves to spotlight Lanza’s wistful sentiments (“I just wanna impress you”), he turns it into something unrecognisable – synthscapes, almost painfully high pitches and samples from Kim Kardashian’s Snapchat create an uneasy aura of anticipation. “I don’t think it’s working,” she repeats calmly, before her voice is submerged in a collage of squeaks.

9/10

Dinamarca 'Holy' EP (Staycore)

Staycore is perhaps one of the most exciting labels to emerge out of the recent global, internet-oriented conception of club music. Founded by producers Dinamarca and Ghazal in Stockholm circa late 2014, the genre-bending imprint specialises in global dance rhythms, particularly those of Latin America and the Caribbean. ‘Holy’ is Dinamarca’s second EP, released almost exactly two years after he burst onto the scene with his debut ‘No Hay Break’. This new record elaborates on the themes the Sweden-based Chilen artist has previously toyed with so well: dark, clamorous iterations of dembow, soca and dancehall pound fiercely against trembling melodies. Bubbling chimes on the title track swirl coolly around you before the song goes full-blown trance with hard kicks demanding that you keep up. On ‘Señal’, synths warble eerily amidst chirps and yelps, while ‘DINABLAM’ (a collaboration with Berlin artist KABLAM) roils with percussive energy.

9/10

Throwing Snow 'Embers' (Houndstooth)

Ross Tones, the Bristol-based producer who records as Throwing Snow, has put together his most cohesive body of work yet with ‘Embers’. Both his background as an astrophysicist and his previous releases on Houndstooth demonstrate a capacious understanding of how individual parts operate within a whole – on his 2014 debut album ‘Mosaic’, coursing melodic lines were overlaid with post-rock textures, with no promise of sonic consistency from one track to the next. That being said, his particular brand of bass music showcases polyrhythms and a specific timbre; the music is warm but dark, like watching snow fall at night under the glow of a street light. On ‘Embers’, in contrast to his other records, each song flows into the next – you get carried along by the currents of the melodies, swept up in the stretches of synths. This phenomenon is most seamless in a two-track section towards the end of the LP: ‘Recursion’ builds slowly, a metallic soundscape turned into a dancefloor banger with the introduction of a driving kick, before ‘Patterns Forming’ winds the mood down, then up, then down again by steadily reorienting icy synths.

7/10

Cralias 'Element' (TAR)

Los Angeles label TAR was responsible for releasing our Album Of The Month in January, the stunning debut from neo-classical artist MICHELANGEL0. Now they’ve done it again with this four-track EP from Cralias. The Lewisham-based producer’s four-track EP, ‘Element’, works within and around Afro-Portuguese rhythms, draping them with bright, glistening themes. In contrast to the sounds of Lisbon labels such as Príncipe Discos and Golden Mist, Cralias’ take on similar rhythmic elements are slightly more removed. The vantage point of the listener is continually shifted by the shaky, celestial ambience on faster-paced tracks such as ‘Sweet’ and ‘Sultan’, as well as with the controlled bittersweetness of ‘Tell Me’ and ‘Hope You Care’.

8/10

ADR 'Throat' (PAN)

The music of New York producer Aaron David Ross, aka ADR, is an exercise in balance. Highs and lows play off of each other with an intentional smoothness that’s rare in electronic music; each movement and every pause is deliberate, which makes sense when you consider the artist’s background in classical composition and interest in contemporary art and technology practices. ‘Throat’ is his second release on PAN (a follow-up to 2015’s impressive multimedia endeavour ‘Deceptionista’) and, uniquely, is entirely made up of vocal sounds. It’s an approach that produces warped reconstructions of pop and r’n’b stylings that are simultaneously gritty and glossy. Highlights include ‘King David’, a late-night reflection with choral tones and keening melodies, and ‘No Sweat’, which takes on DJ Mustard-esque basslines and contains a pop-influenced breakdown. ‘Throat’ is heady, thick and sensory: of the body, for the body. To listen is to get swallowed up.

8/10