Point B - Off The Beaten Track / Three Colour VisionNew Point B from the oddly named Frijsfo Beats imprint, which seems to be a meeting ground on the IDM / garage borderland and home to singles from PB, Sully, and (most recently) Geiom. PB keeps it pretty close to the classic dubstep sound, all sewer-dwelling bass and harsh, snappy percussion with a niftily understated eastern IDM melodicism. The A is really brilliant.
Minimal dread steppers and electro carvings from adopted Londoner, Point B. 'Off The Beaten Track' is a dread derivé into subterranean Reese bass and suspended, Raime-like rhythmic programming. 'Three Colour Vision' is an icy slab of body-grappling future electro funk.
http://www.mediafire.com/?4bwh3mapkp33ypj
Sorrow - Existence EPL2S was one of the first labels to win my continued support and their strain of garage futurism has always been a lighter pleasure for me. Sorrow makes busy and lush grage, like FaltyDL in his prime with little bits of vintage Future Sound of London sewn in. Bewitching stuff, in the running for the best the label has ever provided...
L2S present the debut single from Birmingham's Sorrow. The four tracks of his 'Existence EP' are defined by intricate, scissoring 2-step syncopations and a taste for richly jazzy melodic textures, augmenting the aesthetics of Burial or old skool MJ Cole to his own melancholy agenda.
http://www.mediafire.com/?01dsaq9azfly7zn
Boxcutter - AlleleBoxcutter was making jazz-leaning dubstep back when the scene was dominated by greyscale urban minimalism, and he continues to follow his passions well past the point at which his style became fashionable. The production on these tracks are just insane, really deft dubby programming (BC's always had a way with reverb but he outdoes himself here). These are definitive statements.
Preceding his killer new LP (trust us, it's ace!), Boxcutter drops album highlight 'Allele' backed with the exclusive 'Other People'. The title of the lead track is a reference to gene mutation and that's exactly what he's doing inside, splicing and morphing strands of bobbling Footwork toms with dubbed out techno stabs and jagged hardcore jungle breaks in classic Boxcutter style, only this time he's removed the polished veneer to reveal a rugged, sinuous mass of dancing muscle and bone. 'Other People' is also shy of any overworked post-production adornments, but it's a mellower affair, an archetypal BassJazz fusion freed to do elegant swan dives and move around the sound sphere with a spectral elegance. Ace!
http://www.mediafire.com/?pvoz8opzujp2s79
Angel Eyes - Dire DishAustralian lo-fi dub guitar work that immediately brings to mind Forest Swords, but distinguishes itself over time with distinctly desert-hued texture.
Magical transmission from Melbourne's Angel Eyes aka Andrew Cowie. Sourced by the relentlessly fascinating NNF label, 'Dire Dish' originally appeared on cassette sometime in 2010 loaded with 36 minutes of slow-droning, bluesy synth and twanging desert guitars, occasionally with vocals like a more solemn Forest Swords, Sun Araw, or Ian Curtis on too much codeine, and always with heavily evocative loner vibes. Funnily enough for someone from somewhere so hot, he's really got the drizzly, northern hemisphere ambience of Forest Swords (but then again, he's got the southern desert guitar thing going), and the warbly, tape-degraded synth fluctuations of BJ Nilsen, all bathed in an eternal twilight vibe regardless of geography. Because eventually it turns to night everywhere. There should be some more of this stuff coming out on Totem Tapes by now. You'd do very well to keep an ear out for that - this is very very good.
http://www.mediafire.com/?5dy6pjndizl0319
Jon Lemmon & Coco Bryce - FurrrNoted skweee operator backs up some guy named Jon Lemmon for some pulse-pounding motorik IDM surprisingly light on skweee quirk. Like Nathan Fake at his poppiest, or Alias at his least florid.
New Zealand's Jon Lemmon links with Dutch producer, Coco Bryce for a melodically charged indie IDM-meets-electronic HipHop session. Lemmon's original 'Furrr' is a curious thing of indie ecstasies spun with some cooler groove control on the Coco Bryce remix, while Bryce's own 'Lights' is like some spiraling downbeat Kraut-hop cut and 'Turquoise' consolidates their two worlds with equal doses melodic energy and woozily compressed Hip Hop drums.
http://www.mediafire.com/?0msp3djqooecok1
Emanuele Errante - Time ElapsingGorgeous electro-acoustic symphonic compositions, akin in tone to Nest or Eluvium. "Leaving the Nowhere" is the Town music to a new Diablo game, "Dorian's Mirror" is like slow-motion Lexaunculpt (which is to say, very slow, somewhat glitchy melodic IDM). Incredibly deep and sonically varied. Absolutely beautiful. So, so good.
Italian musician Emanuele Errante’s debut album ‘Migrations’ was something of a revelation, taking the shadowy template thrown down by Deaf Center and Marsen Jules and giving it a blissful, almost-hopeful focus. It’s been four years since that debut, and in the interim Errante has been busy collaborating with Dakota Suite and crafting this, his sophomore solo work ‘Time Elapsing Handheld’. Those of you enamoured with his earlier work will likely be pleased that he hasn’t switched things up much, but rather he has focused and honed his talents to create a work of pastoral, cinematic beauty. Fellow member of the drone elite Simon Scott also pops up for album highlight ‘Made To Give’, which adds a viscous low-end to Errante’s light string-laced textures. Scott’s involvement fills out the song and gives it a weightiness that provides a welcome counterpoint to the album’s fluttering acoustics. Elsewhere ‘Memoirs’ brings echoes of Steve Reich and Harold Budd with it’s delicate repeating phrases and haunted piano sounds. Gorgeous.
http://www.mediafire.com/?0dtd1b6dtl1zf71
Indigo - Zero Point EPAt the intersection of dub techno and dubstep goes Indigo, reminding me a lot of Distance in his prime, minus the mightily bro-ful guitars. Harsh percussion, bottomless reverb, the perfect soundtrack for a night out in your major city's deserted industrial district, lit up by cold, yellow lights. Approaches
Tri Repetae-era Autechre machine beauty on "Connections".
Indigo returns to the fray in fine style with a double pack of robust new material including two Synkro remixes. 2010 was a quiet year, release wise, for Indigo, but in the last few months alone he's appeared on Exit's excellent 'Mosaic' compilation and remixed Illum Sphere for Tectonic, both building anticipation for the 'Zero Point EP'. Inside, you'll be glad to know, he's as versatile as ever, stepping between tempos and vibes with a beautifully overarching and deeply soulful agenda. The first plate scans uttural, clinically arranged halfstep on 'Creep' and dextrous, darting Dubtech on 'Connections', before launching into dBridge mode for 'Zero Point' featuring the ethereal holler of Poppy Roberts and the turbulent Tech-Funk of 'Event B'. On the 2nd platter he brings the real TECH-House on 'Fallen', and deepest Northern cyber-soul on 'Tears VIP', both backed with Synkro's agile 2-Step remakes. Ultimately, in a scene sometimes stifled by homogeneity, Indigo's non-standardised and passionate music stands out a mile. TIP!
http://www.mediafire.com/?zwzui2obfgo0m21
Millie & Andrea - Temper Tantrum / VigilanceIrresistible (for some, anyway) jungle-y garage, neatly foretelling Andrea's foray into Footwork and Juke later on. Great, hard rhythmic dance tracks. Great use of iconic tubular bass sound in both.
Third limited edition transmission from the Daphne label, once again finding covert operators Millie and Andrea nudging the controls further into the red with two squashed and deadly killers primed for the dance. Andrea takes charge of the A-side with a raved-up low-end wrecker complete with big f*ck-off sunset strings and a tumbling break that's one half junglist hardcore and one half peak-time dubside anthem. Millie, meanwhile, delivers a spacious woodblock destroyer on the flip, channelling Martyn and T++ with radiant blue chords and murderous stabs before a frenzied analogue bassline lets itself loose nudging towards the end. Pure dancefloor ruffage with a funked up heart - Massive twelve!
http://www.mediafire.com/?e022bbbp4ir332b
Baobinga / Hyetal - Anything For Now / TroubleCurious and exciting collaboration between old Breaks hand / current UK Funky devotee and Hyetal, aka the best thing Bristol's short-lived "Purple Wave" ever produced. "Anything For Now" gets the best of both worlds here, with infectious island drum patterns married to crayon-bright synth oscillations and 8-bit arpeggios, with plenty of rave-ready bass to go around. "Trouble" is a heady garage rush, with a ramping call-and-response synthline and bulbous, staccato bass. Just as awesome as everything else Hyetal touches.
After sterling drops with Shortstuff and Peverelist respectively, Hyetal goes in hard with Baobinga for Build records. Both tracks bear his signature light show of lazered synth excesses, alloyed with heads-down charging tribalism on 'Anything For Now' and coating the Beat mechanisms of 'Trouble' with technicoloured electro-static funk. Fierce tunes - big twelve.
http://www.mediafire.com/?fllxke2zp2jahbe