As preludes to spring and summer shine through the clouds of London I can’t help but get a little bit excited. So it seems as good a time as any to share with you a couple of the summery releases I’ve been mulling over the last month.

Bonobo is a UK musician/producer currently signed to Ninja Tune who has been doing Downtempo, Trip Hop-esk beats for the last ten years. He’s a multi instrumentalist and producer and is one of the only downtempo artists to succesfully transfer his music to the live arena in an interesting and exciting way. …continue reading Preludes to sweaty streets

From the cats who brought you the Box of Dub series and the original Steppa’s Delight, Soul Jazz Records have just released another dubstep compliation, Steppa’s Delight 2 : Dubstep Present to Future. It’s a compilation that brings together a bunch of scene defining tracks from both originators of the scene and up and coming artists pushing bass music in a new and interesting direction. For fans of the label, it definitely lives up to the standard of the first installment.

Soul Jazz the London based label have been pressing and releasing music since the mid 1990s, originally specializing in reggae, dub, funk, hip hop and soul they have since broadened their musical repertoire to include more electronic releases but often still staying true to more organically formed beats.
…continue reading Jazzin’

I’m not gonna make a big thing about the best tracks of 2009 just yet…..

But over the last week with Rage against the machine performing live on BBC5 and eventually winning their battle against the evil Simon Cowell by topping the UK charts for christmas ’09 as well as talk going around about the best songs of the last decade I feel empowered to share a few tracks with you.
…continue reading Top of the pops!

As much as I love a good angry wobble trasher, I and I’m sure a lot of other people are growing a bit weary of LFO induced wobble bass bangers that have little variation and seems to all sound the same. Lately my ears tend to be perking up to the sounds of a deeper “Future Garage” sound, usually more sampled based and incorporating elements of techno, garage, classic break beat rave, dub and reggae.

With deep house and techno elements making a bit of a come back in all styles of electronic music in the last few years it only makes sense that these strains of dubstep, 2 step, and new school garage are combining to make a new exciting hybrid for a new decade. As science tell us with every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, much like in music (and social tastes) there is opposites and reactions of backlashes and revivals (whether it be from grungy to poppy or dirty to deep). Now having not lived in the UK during the high points in 2 step, garage and even some of the early dub influenced dubstep from the early naughties, I felt as though I might have missed out on some of the best years for UK electronic music. However as I discover more and more interesting new music taking influence from the past, I feel quite fortunate to have lived through the naughties, despite what other people might say about the state of music these days.
…continue reading 2010: It’s almost the future, where’s my flying car dammit!?

It doesn’t surprise me that the UK produces some of the best experimental and ambient artist’s coming out these days, Burial, Four Tet, Autechre, Square Pusher, Boxcutter, Ceephax, Aphex Twin, Plan B and Floating Points to name a few…

…before I go on here’s a tune to keep you going… (Press Play Now!)

Walking around London the last few weeks I’ve come to notice something…. a void that surfaces during the winter months and seeps from grey skies, the short days and the cold, dirty post war buildings. Sometimes when you just sit and watch I find you drift off into this void amoungst the hustle and bustle, the sirens and the preoccupied faces you detach from everyone and everything and feel alone in a kind of urban mediation…

I think it is this feeling of being alone, lost and drifting in a giant busy city that helps us connect with something else…. an energy, a life force or even just the motivation to create something to express ourselves, what ever you want to call it.
…continue reading Driftin’ thru ……

It’s not every week I come across an album that I really love, not just because every track is great, but because you can tell that a lot of thought went into the project as a whole. Too many artists these days tend to rush their work resulting in releases that seem to be
a mish-mash of contrasting, generic or somewhat unfinished ideas.

“Suicide Beauty Spot” is the name of the latest studio release from a young producer called Point B on Combat records. He is currently residing in Brixton, no doubt taking a lot of his influences from its multicultural neighbourhoods.
…continue reading “Itchy deep-step”