Breaks | Breakbeat 345 Items

DJ Crisps serves up four killer UKG cuts for Bristol label Time Is Now’s tenth vinyl outing. Rotterdam based producer DJ Crisps has been bubbling over the past 12 months with a string of killer twelves, including a massive record for Riz La Teef’s label South London Pressing. His latest outing ‘Diamonds’ EP is some of the rising artists strongest work to date, weighty basslines meet 2-step laden grooves on this killer cut.

MoreNight serves up five playful UKG cuts on his first full vinyl release via rising label Time Is Now. UK based producer MoreNight has been making waves over the past 12 months with killer collaborations with legendary grime vocalists Footsie & Manga, as well featuring on a weighty compilation for Conducta’s imprint Kiwi Records. His debut full length vinyl EP ‘Silvia’ is the exciting young producers finest work to date & paves the way for what is set to be a big future for this talented artist.

Killer debut LP by Lol K starring vocals by Coby Sey and LA Timpa, following the Londoners’ EP for Mica Levi and co’s Curl Recordings with a crafty set of queer, sensuous pop, configured in brilliant, surprising ways for Rabit’s Halcyon Veil. The six songs and corresponding instrumentals of ‘The Breeze’ explore ideas of escapism, belonging and inner city isolation in an up-to-date vernacular firmly blunted by sparing, crisply defined but shapeshifting production. The album clearly marks a concerted development of Lol K’s sound - especially compared to their oblique appearances on the ‘Born Under a Bad One’ (Curl, 2018) EP - with the duo’s CJ Calderwood and Junior XL more confidently venturing their vocals into the mix this time, switching between melodic hooks and blunted hush, to a rave-punkish prang out and puckered chamber composition with lowkey rude and innovative production to match.

JIN’s 2nd EP storms out the gate with Hong Kong’s finest Mr. Ho. The Klasse Wreck’s head honcho boss drops three originals. A1 “Holy Smokes” is a slow-motion, acid-flavored chugger, making one feel like snake-rolling through Hong Kong’s urban jungle. B1 “Not Good with Others,” a no BS bassy and bossy track, swings with a filthy kick from the get-go. The EP finishes with B3 “Emo Springs”, which blends futuristic jungle, tribal, house, and juicy basslines into a must-get dance floor heater. Added are two sonic-weapon-remixes: On A2 UK OG duo Dawl & Sween hits all the cylinders with mean breakbeat banger remix of “Holy Smokes.” On B2 Hong Kong’s 宀 Club’s music curator Sunsiaré runs “Emo Spring” through an electrifying old school jungle reshape, leaving all buzzed by his sonic assault.

Aver created the first draft of the album between finding out about Joey's passing and attending his funeral. He arranged musical collages out of voice messages and breaks he and Joey had sent one another alongside previously unreleased material he made during lockdown with Doron Segal. The process initially served as a form of musical therapy, but after completing it and sharing it with a few friends, Aver realised that it might also bring joy to other people that knew Joey, as well as introducing those that didn't to the lovely ginger fellow behind Village Live.

The finished album features cuts by Jazz T, Evil Ed and Omas, as well as additional voice messages donated by Kuartz and Matt Smith. Mr. Krum has done all the design work for the the booklet and the gatefold cover, which features a photo-collage by Aver of the Aroe piece outside Rarekind Records, as well as the huge blockbuster at Black Rock, Brighton.

RIP Joey Deez

Since breaking through with the colossal 'Anybody From London' on Hotline Recordings five years ago, Boris English AKA Borai has proved to be one of British dance music's more cultured hardcore and jungle revivalists. He's at it again here, too, filling his Vivid label debut with a quartet of sub-heavy, breakbeat-driven bangers dripping in saucer-eyed, rave-style samples. He begins with the sharp riffs, pitched down Amen breaks and booming bass of 'In My Life', before upping the tempo on bustling breaks roller 'Dead Drop'. English doffs his cap to spacey early drum & bass on loose-limbed flipside opener 'Keep Steppin', while closing cut 'C'Mon' is an insanely weighty, pitched-down hardcore bomb.

'Prole Art Threat' is producer Anthoney Hart's second LP for Planet Mu under his East Man alias, after 2018's well received debut 'Red White & Zero'. It brings together a set of MCs from all over London, Darkos and Eklipse from East London and Lyrical Strally from near Feltham who were on the first album, Ny Ny and Mic Ty also from East London, Streema and 'Vision Crew' member Whack Eye from Lewisham plus Fernando Kep, an MC from the burgeoning Brazil grime scene. They work across a cohesive set of tight riddims forged from thoughtful amalgams of grime, dancehall and drum & bass. The album takes its name from a Fall song/mission statement of the same title, the band being self-consciously working class and led by a brilliant autodidact in Mark E Smith. East Man relates that the title is to be taken as "a reflection of working-class creativity and how the establishment marginalise us and (perhaps on a subconscious level) see us as a threat." Les Back, author of 'The Art of Listening' and 'Out of Whiteness: Color, Politics and Culture (with Vron Ware)' contributes liner notes to the record: East Man understands the force and the democracy of the mic. Listening to Prole Art Threat is like being at a dance. As the mic is passed between each of the MCs, a different tale is 'elevated... off the map' as Ny Ny puts it. We hear instalments from Forest Gate, Lee, Lewisham and Manor Park as these 'lyrical gaffers' and 'top boys and girls' tell tough stories of life under the scrutiny of the 'Feds' in a brutal and divided city. The bars and rhymes document what it means to live here; from the double standards applied to the sexuality of young girls and boys to the corrosive violence of everyday life. All this is dissected without compromise. This is not just a London story though, the inclusion of Fernando Kep from the burgeoning Grime scene in Brazil is evidence of the outernational reach of the music. The tracks on East Man's album explode the wilful ignorance of those who see 'the working class' in contemporary London...

Panic is the very first pseudonym of the legendary DJ and producer Aubrey, also renowned to have set the seminal label Solid Groove in the early '90s which includes licensing from the likes of Derrick May, Carl Cox, Pete Tong. The original release "Dialated Rhythms / Last Injection" fully remastered and reissued via the Italian La Bella Di Notte, is a sublime mix of techno and sophisticated breakbeat for a hypnotic journey all the way through any classic warehouse parties.

Nick Beringer & Sota on the case for the next Ncss record, the sub-label of Sukhumvit in collaboration with the boys. They are delivering a true dancefloor beast with Deikh, this is going to stuck in your ears forever! Aerosol, for the heart, for the mind - on the B side. This is a limited release. Happy to have you onboard brothers!