Last Japan (Impey remix)

We're going to dive straight in here: Last Japan and Coyote Records have been absolutely killing it. The London-based producer, in ghoulishly top form, may have penned his best tune yet with AJ Tracey collaboration 'Ascend' (back to that later) and our best labels of 2015 feature can provide you with the reasons for our love for Coyote.

Last Japan, real name Marco Giuliani, started things off pretty lighthearted and playful with 'Settle Down' in 2011, expressing his murkier side with 'Storm Trooper' a year later. That came out as part of a joint release with Visionist and preceded his 'Pyrex Nights' collab on Zomby's 'With Love' album in 2013. Cosmic and gloomy, it shrieked Last Japan and acted as a perfect precursor for 'Harca' and the 'Ride With Us' mixtape, a mystical trip through instrumental grime.

So we return to 'Ascend'. Coyote had been teasing it for a while and it finally hit the 'net last month. The production's classic Japan - creeping, winding melodies and glistening synths - with AJ Tracey, without doubt one of the best grime MCs around at the minute, spouting brutal bars like "pull out the pumpy, let a man have it". It gets a 12" and digital release date next month, with recent Planet Mu artists Silk Road Assassins and Impey on remix duties.

The latter mostly strips away the woozy, space-like rhythms, instead declaring no-holds-barred warfare with rumbling low-end bass and make-you-jump-out-of-your-skin drum claps. With AJ's lyrics still running, Impey's created a bit of a devil for the dance here.

Coyote Records releases 'Ascend' feat AJ Tracey at the end of May

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