Drum 'N' Bass
March: 9 drum 'n' bass releases you need to hear this month
Powerhouse riddims
Dom & Fierce/Dom & Xanadu 'Just Loop It/UltraViolet' (Dom & Roland Productions)
Riding high on the wave of hype that followed last year’s mind-blowing Metalheadz album, Dom channels past and future in one devastating 12”. Old don Fierce joins up for an unvarnished slugger that has all the spectacularly messy hallmarks of a Quarantine tech assault: simple, metronomic, rapid-fire break volleys and gunning sub-bass thunder, knotted together with no-nonsense industrial itches.
Meanwhile, protégé Xanadu detonates the horizon with a jaw-dropping percussive tech workout that goes the full 360 degrees. Sublime piano and flute whispers herald a creeping liquid intro, before the sky falls in and we’re enveloped in spacious live drum breaks that carry a whiff of Ulterior Motive magic. From here, the track keeps on mushrooming into break-laden mayhem, its headspinning industrial agility unrecognisable from its blissful, meditative origins. Stunning.
9/10
