12”+

Back once again with the renegade run down… of 12” from my record bag, which I haven’t had chance to chat about elsewhere. You can catch me dropping a few of these in a mix on my last Xplodersession if you like. But here are some words if you’re deaf and still like collecting 12”s. Lock in to Sonic Router on Hivemind.fm this Sunday night 10-12pm with MLR for some fresh jams too… Words!

T.Williams – Afric/Anthem/Flooring [Local Action]
Tough, dark and techy UK funky vibes from Deep Teknologi’s T.Williams: Anthem and Flooring slay it, the former building tension and hitting hard while the latter brings a smidgen of almost Detroit sense of techno melody into the mix. Afric dubs things out a bit more leaving plenty of space between the tight funky drums.

Marcus Price & Carli - Mat Bira Kvinnor Weed EP [Palms Out Sound]
Heavy remix package featuring loads of Night Slugs related producers flipping the Dutch duo’s tough electro-tinged floor shakers. Bok Bok is the one for me, a tripped out drum machine workout close to Girl Unit’s juke inspired IRL. Girl Unit Features too with a cracker alongside Double Dutch and Kingdom.

MJ Cole – Riddim EP [Prolific Recordings]
Big riddim’s built to take over dance floors, MJ Cole flexing his crossover muscles blending grimy UK Funky and want sounds like a mad-mans vision of minimal techno and electro. The Volcano and Thekla riddims destroy it with shape shifting bass lines that keeps you on your toes and tons of energy, they turn heads.

Joe – Claptrap/Level Crossing [Hessle Audio]
One of my favourite Hessle releases has to be Rut/Grimelight, they get regular plays and this 12” is set to stay in my bag just as long. Claptrap is the deep percussive dubstep lovers ‘Hey Mickey’ with full on clap-along action, coughs and splutters aplenty and some of the most addictive drums around. Level Crossing takes things a little deeper with soca-addled rhythms and bursts of bass that cut through the subtle plucky melodies.

Orson – Madness/808 Dub [Version]
One of Berlin’s original dubstep heads drops a couple of deep bass workouts on his own label: Madness is the one here, teasing you with a long atmospheric build and pulses of sub before dropping some hip shaking tribal percussion its almost Loefah/Digital Mystkiz-esq in its execution. The flip works that drum machine into big half step patterns and wobbles the low end in subtle ways, a fine 12”.

SRC – Gold Coins [Numbers]
Grime producer SRC is coming with pure fire on wax this year, bringing those 8-bit Gameboy boogie vibes into the mix that got him noticed with the mad Mario sampling Goomba and twisting it into new shapes. Deep bass, hyper-funk synth bleeps, Technicolor grime textures that leave the dance floor with a vibrant glow.

Ramadanman – Glut/Tempest [Hemlock]
Massive 12”, subtly hitting the middle ground between Hessle’s deep percussive dance floor vibes and Addison Grooves Juke inspired dubstep manoeuvres. Glut bangs and beeps, which Tempest takes it a little deeper with a bittersweet spaced-out breakdown. Bring on the Swamp 81 12”, Work Them is fire…

A Made Up Sound – Alarm/Crisis [A Made Up Sound]
2562 slips seamlessly into his other moniker with two deadly shattered techno tracks that pack a punch and keep rolling despite their broken nature. Twisted synth lines shimmy through deep bass and techy accents on Alarm and Crisis rolls on a more straight forward house groove with jabbering energetic bass leads before it all melts into an intense spaced-out more melodic affair.

12”

Another episode in the sporadic series that goes by the name of: ‘Eight random platters from my record bag that I’m kind of addicted to right now’.

Baobinga – Ride It/Ride It (Untold remix) [Build]
Tough rhythmic house from Baobinga, the original bangs hard with a heavy broken, tribal feel that’s so chunky it’ll make the dance floor bumpy. Untold turns it into an evil bass pulse driven number that ups the pressure nicely.

D1 – Just Business/Pitcher [Dub Police]
Jungle infused dubstep from D1. Just Business comes out of the dark via a sample from The Wire, clattering drums and bass big enough to shake down Hamsterdam. Pitcher goes all bleepy with funky-esq drum patterns that are pretty infectious.

Starkey – Rain City/Beatingz [Rwina Records]
Street Bass Don, comes back with two slices of pure dance floor fire that combine his gutter music hyper-funk, party starting ideas with a gnarly bright and trancy set of riffs that are so melodic that they get lodged in your brain.

Harmonimix – A Milli/Bills Bills Bills [White]
Cheeky white label from the mysterious Harmonimix, if you know your bass heads you’ll easily pick up the clues on who’s behind this. Both tracks take the well-known numbers into twisted soul-funk/dubstep hybrid, with buckets of funk. The finale to ‘A Milli’ harmonizes Lil Wayne’s raps in a way you just don’t see coming.

Pangaea – Pangaea EP [Hessle Audio]
12” Double pack from a producer that always brings a subtle timeless vibe to his tracks that just oozes quality. Here we see him branch out his style a bit compared to recent material. ‘Why?’ uses quick jungle meets funky drums, a bumping bassline and emotion packed vocal sample to great effect. ‘Neurons’ takes on dubstep at its own game, a half-stepping deep as hell Headhunter meets Youngsta number. ‘Sunset Yellow’ takes subtle atmosphere; a deadly chord sequence and bumping electronic drums accented with tribal rolls and makes a really slow burner that gets under your skin. The rest slays as well…

A Made Up Sound – Sun Touch/Drain/Untitled (Original Shortcut) [A Made Up Sound]
2562 whips out his alter ego for some slower paced techno infused gems. ‘Sun Touch’ meets techno and garage halfway down a hall in a dark basement; the warm house stabs and gentle horror pads build the track with minimal ease. ‘Drain’ takes the pads further into warm, detuned bliss, fleshing out the dark sparse beats. The ‘Untitled’ track is an original from the Shortcuts album, which showed him working out sketches, this one turned into the fantastic ‘Love In Outer Space’.

Martyn – Hear Me (Zomby remix)/Seventy Four (Redshape remix) [3024]
Quality remixes of tracks from Martyn’s album last year: Zomby takes us into bumping house territory, with big dub basslines and psychedelic synth licks, it’s seriously addictive stuff. Redshape goes all dub-techno, low slung and cold, echoing Detroit as much as Berlin.

Sully – J Treole – The Loot (Sully remix)/In Some Pattern [Keysound]
Insanely addictive 12” from Sully, the garage swing king. His remix of ‘The Loot’ goes deep and jazzy with plenty of bump and bass, which really offsets the smooth jazz vibes perfectly. ‘In Some Pattern’ is a super slinky, low swung beast with twisted anthemic synth hooks that build and drop into bass fuelled oblivion.

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12"/10"

The semi-regular round up of random platters in my record bag returns with some heavy weight excursions in bass.

Zomby – Digital Flora Part 1/Part 2 [BRAiNMATH]
Maybe just maybe the best slice of Zomby yet, pure psychedelic dance floor material. Pt. 1 is spaced out while Pt. 2 ups the groove.


Instra:Mental – Watching You Ft.dBridge/Tramma [Nonplus+]
Killer minimal d’n’b cut with heart wrenching vocals, it’s made me buy 170bpm for the first time in years. Tramma drops to 140 and keeps things warm and minimal.


A Made Up Sound – Wire/Bounce/Dicsonnect/On & On [Clone Basement Serries]
2562 on a techno tip, dropping some warm sounds that bump and bubble.


October - Elephants/Medium [Immerse]
Some seriously early proto-dubstep from 2003 that sounds like techno gone eski-grime. Really raw and rolling, it just builds and builds.


Terror Danjah – Industry Standard Part 4 [Planet Mu]
Zumpi Hunter comes on like a grimey G-Funk workout, with Swindle adding even more musicality of his own distinct style. The flip ups the hype and drops like an energy rush, 4x4 builds and 8 bar rallies. Essential.


Spiders – Spiders [BRAiNMATH]
Mysterious dark and rootsy material, I can’t stop mixing it with Bury Da Bwoy by Mala. So much atmosphere and tension built with minimal beats and tweaked out production.


Hyetal – Pixel Rainbow Sequence/Peverelist Remix [Reduction]
Incredible Bristol transmissions, A-side hyped and euphoric with twisting synths and bumping beats. Pev takes it on a freaked out techy psychedelic tip, flowing synths and bubbling arpeggios.


Dorian Concept – Trilingual Dance Sexperiance/Tropical Hands [Affine]
Deranged trance inducing face smashing hip-hop wonk-out with a funked up slow-mo house rendition on the flip, it sets fire to dance floors.