New Tunes

picked up a few oldies down selectah today, should be a few copies of these left...

capone - soldier/massive - hard leaders
rerelease of a classic tune by this alias of dillinja [whos in the guinness book of world records for owning worlds largest and loudest soundsystem] soldier has choppy breaks with a halftime handclap in the intro that dominates over the drop giving it a hip hop feel before the "coward dies a thousand deaths a soldier dies but one" vocal sample heralds a bouncy subbass which gets edited up along with the dynamic edit heavy breaks. massive on the flip is classic old school dillinja/capone style madnaess [wish he still made them like this nowadays] lunatic cut up drums and wall shaking sub bass and a helpful vocal sample calling all the "massive".

dj die - special treat - v recordings
all time classic, mid nineties v recordings at its best

a-sides follow the groove album eastside
8 tunes including last years big hit "what you dont know" couldnt be arsed liting them here, but helsinki vip, the title track, and tabletop remix are all excellent tunes, really heavy break work, deadly bassline and a strong sense of musicality. pure drum and bass.

went shopping crazy! heres what i got in the last week:

dj crystl - warp drive / let it roll 2004 remixes on photek recordings : savage mucky dirty filth from a man who's been out of the loop for waaay too long... glad to have him back! let it roll [bear in mind the sides are mislabelled] is all hip hop attitude, clattering breaks and a sci fi hoover bassline, warpdive is the one with the "fu*k the streets up" sample in it and is just as tearing and fractured.

dillinja "the box" - ok, this was meant to be the ninth release o test, but has been replaced and issued on a limited white. the box is deadly, best tune from him in years, although its let down by a rather nasty vocal [dillinja shouting "you fackin caaaahnt!"], the clattering breaks, beat box samples metalheadz-ish synths make it a harshly effective tune that should have the desired effect on your target audience... energise on the flip is a bit less effective, the same dillinja drum kit as 99% of his other tunes have featured since 98 or so, and a dorky bleepy melody that could have fallen off the back of a clipz tune. strictly for the circus crew.

spirit - 20/20 revisited - inneractive - nice dubwise feelgood tune with nice pads and synths opening over a clattery break, the first drop brings a cavernous reverb heavy tube bassline and then a clipped well rounded simple amen loop, followed by vocals and epic processed strings over the main drop. works well in the mix with just about anything, other side is nce too, in a quiet liquid-ish civilised way but this one is all about 20/20 really...

leon switch and kryptic minds - i remember/black rain - defcom - a side i remember is darker than your nana's pum-pum, all razor sharp chopped break attitude and some very well thought out and structured bass composition, helium happy hardcore - esque vocal at start gives way to darkside rumblings, a metalheadz noise followed by a filtered reese drop and some pummeling tramens. yeah... lots of tunes sound like this, ad have done for the last few years, but this one still manages to stand out. b-side black rain is a bit less epic, and not quite as strong, its distorted uneasy sounds being reminiscent of a lot of stuff that was around about five years ago, but with much slicker production.

cyantific - little green men - hospital - much tougher than we're used to heaing from hospital, this is possibly one of the best tunes so far this year! old school vibes and sounds, from the choppy breaks, the vocal grunts in the intro and the sweeping pads to the incongruous and floor-confusing rewinds in the build up and the main body of the tune to the trademark cut-up diva vocals and the punishing sub bass this is an absolute killer of a tune. quiet star on the b-side is lovely as well, if a bit more understated and mellow with a curious electro-with-three-spoons-of-sugar vibe, and a pitched down male vocal making this a very very useful twelve. you wont be able to go out without hearing this this summer. [unless you go somewhere crap]

digital and spirit - Raygun and Ras 78 - function cant believe htis was still in the shop.... one of the best tunes digital and spirit ever did, only writing this to boast about having it! raygun is all savage clinical amens, evil bass, soaring strings and an oldschool detuned organ stab in the drop. Ras 78 opens with echoed-to-bejaysus dub percussion swings, a rumbling sub bassline and a mournful echoey vocal over increasingly urgent bass stabs, shattered by some precision cut drum work. epic, awe inspiring, cinematic and one of the best slices of science fiction reggae soul ever to get released. second drop switches it up even further, unleashing the kind of amen that sleeps with your sister and doesnt text her afterwards, bringing the vocal back for a real satisfying end.

a-sides - crazy - eastside repress and a-sides membrane digital remix repress -
crazy vip is the one with the mc fats vocal on it, all honeyed larynx soulful singing, then shattered by some particularly heavy [yes even by eastside standards!] and the kind of obnoxiously insulting bassline you thought they didnt make anymore. if theyre still standing after this then you took your records to the wrong DEAF festival.
flip for some pummeling choppy breaks that get more and more cut up towards the end over a rolling dubwise bass. membrane remix on the other 12" is everything you'd expect from the two dub warriors, off beat percussion loops, skanking halftime bassline, faint splashes of ragga style lyrics, and a break that adds layers of swinging cowbells and other dubby touches. flip is rocksteady vip, complete with pitchshifting drums, rumbling lowend and a nice vocal.

marvellous cain and tempo o neill - everyday junglist - ancient mid nineties jumpup hit gets a repress with an old hype [when he was still good] remix of hitman ["limb by limb..."] on the flip. the hype remix is everything hype remixes used to be but arent anymore, all bad bwoy attitude and the kind of drums that nick your phone at a rave, with a seriously infectious cascading bassline under a murderous ragga lyric. everyday junglist on the flip is one of those tunes that make me weep for the mid nineties - hip hop samples, rolling drums, catchy bassline and seriously cool reggae style vocal from tempo o'neill - "i fight for survival... im an everyday junglist" serious shiver down spine territory here people!

wax doctor - kid caprice - metalheads 005. found this, mint condition in abbey discs of all places [!!!]. got it for a tenner. its worth 90 on ebay. its not for sale.

no new stuff in selecta worth gettin the last while so i picked up some older stuff instead...

trinity ep - v recordings. : dillinja's least used alias in recent years, two versions of "my love is true" one remixed by capone which is another dillinja alias [go figure] and one is the original... drums on the original are better than the remix, and its vice versa for the basslines... capone remix has more of a sliding bass guitar feel with more compressed simpler drums... both start with an rnb vocal sample [my love is true oooh oooh ooooh] and although the capone remix is a bit zippier and energetic you should get mileage out of either of these two... oh the capone remix puts some jazzy keyboard sounds over the last third of the tune before the vocal recurs... harsh jump up with a bit of melody "strings" on the second plate starts with, well loads of cut up strings etc, all pizzicato effects and vocal grunts, single snare hit kicks in a fairly simple but incredibly well produced tune that although it sounds pretty similar to most dilly tunes in the last seven years [snoooore] is still a pretty safe bet for a quick in and out mix. nothing anyone will remember in the morning but none the worse for it. the second drop is a bit more vicious but its still filler. "picture on the wall" is the tune i bought the ep for, cheeky dido sample and shifting chords with a few vocal ooohs and aahs drops into a sludgy militant bassline with a "boymerang" break as used on silver blade but not as edited. vocal goes away for a bit and fades back in while the bass does the sort of thing that youd expect from the producer whos in the guinness book of records for owning the worlds largest and loudest soundsystem... some cold strings creep in towards the end and round it all off nicely. picture on the wall is the one i'll be playing. the others will get dragged out once every six months in case i forget what they sound like.

true playaz new frontiers ep - ok boasting time again got this classic triple pack for a tenner in spindizzy.... good luck finding it yourself but if you do you will agree wit me that no one could have predicted back in the mid nineties that dj hype's label could have gone from this level to the simple hard house esque sh1te that its known for nowadays. complex rolling breaks obnoxious basslines, hip hop samples and buckets of attitude. hasnt all aged well but "plague that never ends" "no fear" and the title track all still smack it. god be with the days of proper b-boy attitude in jump-up drum and bass.

roni size - strictly social [nu tone remix] dj die - autumn [commix remix] - liquid v
first installment on bryan g's new liquid v sublabel, showcasing the more liquid [thats jungle speak for "housey and chilled"] side of things, the strictly social remix is a belter of a tune, knocks several shades of sh1te out of the original [its on 1999's planet v album - good luck finding a copy for less than €100]which was always a bit dry for my tastes, nu-tone keeps the samples of the guitar and the girl laughing and tones down the strings, beefs up the drums and actually puts the sort of bassline in that even calibre would get a bit envious over were it not for the fact that he's done many many more of them than nutone has. commix stab at "autumn" is a bit less succesful imo, still an entertaining tune but restyled as a liquid anthem it loses the flat bassed intensity of what i consider one of die's finer moments, the drums are reduced to an even step and the guitar is still as memorable as ever but really, you should just use this as an excuse to dig out the original

roni size - bumbakita / fassyhole - v part of the much heralded return to v recordings by the king of mediocre party cheese, bumbakita is pretty mediocre, its pretty much ANOTHER snapshot remix in all but name and a few added strings and a wee vocal... if you havent been subjected to a million and one snapshot remixes for the last years you'll enjoy it perhaps... look it wont win the nobel prize for jungle but hey it'll make your mates wiggle their hips for a few weeks. if thats all you want then thats cool this . fassyhole is one of those tunes you'll be all over for a week before forgetting you had it... its got pretty much the same bassline in it as 26 bass did and as hopscotch did and as an awful lot of roni tunes in the last five years have had, it sits really well in the mix and does drop nicely... put it this way... its been out a fortnight, i got it in the second hand section...

mathematics - here and now / backdraft - social studies : here and now starts off with a steppy break with a warm pad, echoing vocal before a nice melodic syntha nd some rushy atmospherics herald an eighth bar amen fill, dropping to a winding sub and some nice shakers before dropping into a nice clipped amen fuelled summery melodic roller that has a lovely energy to it while staying melodic and smooth. class first release for this label from New Jersey's, and arguably america's finest. backdraft is buitl around a steppier break and has a warm analogue bassline with bells and garting strings and while its a nice enough tune by anybody's standards it lacks the charm of the a-side.

total science - number one sound / ac1 - cia : more jump up murderation from the long serving oxford duo... everyone got a bit sick of them doing that wobbly bassline schtick but number one sound is likeable enough, not a million miles away from the sort of thing hype is pushing with ganja recordings.... loads of break switchups over a hollow wobbly bassline, ragga chats flying thick and fast... obnoxious little roller. flip ac1 is a steppy thing with rising strings and a squelchy mid range bass. better than a lot of the jump up crap thats flying around these last 18 months but still hardly up there with some of the classics these two have put out over the years.....

influx uk - ghost people / ghetto messiah - formation : a good tune on jungles oasis of wobbly cheese formation records this is pure class all the way from the uk half of anglo american outfit influx datum. ghost people aka "take my... 2004" starts with dramatic strings, clattery rolling breaks and a subtle sub come in unnanounced punctuated by the vox off the original. sub gets switched for punchy kick drum bass before coming back with a pile of bongos and hey presto it all breaks down into strings again.... by now you dont care what label its on and as the acoustic guitar and faint trumpet wash over you the drop has you smiling once again. pure class everyone should own this. imagine metalheadz going liquid if you cant imagine formation getting a clue and there you are. ghetto messiah on the flip has the same dark cinematic urgency and lush orchestration as the a-side and is a good one too as soaring strings compete with thoughtful breaks that get switched and filtered as the tune progresses. this is an excellent twelve.

southstar* and miracle - omega amen - intasound - rough and tough, rude and deadly.... strings and hardcore-ish stabs punctuated by distinctive "OMEGA!!!" vocals quickly drop into amen fuelled dementia, the bass is reminiscent of vintage dillinja and the beats hit hard like a baseball bat. Menacer takes over for flipside "i cant take it which is similarly rough, all grinding subs drums flying about like shrapnel as little stabs and offkey strings gel with an "i cant take it" vocal, before the reesey breakdown unleashes even more drums on top.... punishing bruising and bloody essential. if bailey would just get a decent graphic designer on board i would herald this as a label to watch. as it is, its one to listen out for.

been a while since i did one of these...

amit - gatecrasher / pirates - metalheadz
amit pulls out his best twelve yet for his headz debut, a release on headz is always the ultimate accolade, the junglist mafia equivalent of getting "made", and boy is this tune wicked... pirates the b-side is the slow dubby one, urgent brooding in your face bass stabs sit over a fractured dancehall riddim like break arrangement. class filthy bump and grind buisiness, hipshaking nasty sex noises. gatecrasher is an imossibly angry bass barely contained by snippets of choppy drums and vaguely eastern moods... cant wait for the album, which will see amit collaborating with bill laswell on some herbie hancock remix business.

mdz 04 album. [metalheadz] the annual headz collection, like the beano annuals back in the day an essential part of the junglists year, this one has eight varied and playable tunes that all come drenched in the trademark headzstyle of cinematic widescreen heaviness, although there's a few question marks over some of the tunes... prejudice and politics by leon switch and kryptic minds is just average, the essex boys have been doing far more interesting stuff for their own label lately [i've been rinsing "lost world" for time now] its basically an overcompressed break with a forgettable reese.... shame co those boys can do better, as can PHOTEK whose age of empires, although dripping in atmosphere and boasting a horn section played and recorded by photek himself, contains not one shred of the rhythmic complexity and courage of some of his classic previous classics. when one of the all time greatest producers in dance music starts to release ****e like this i start to worry... good tune, but not a photek tune, or at least i wish it werent a photek tune. kotp turn in a similarly forgettable steppy clipped amen roller, but at least with the melodic sense to keep the tune evolving and changing mood i a less obvious way. its not all doom and gloom, dubliner Beta2 turns in "bad dayz" - a humdinger of a tune with elastic bass and claustrophobic drums, newcomer skitty's "i cant describe" is a deeply off kilter breaks heavy workout with odd little washes of sound and a fractured mood.... he's got a tune on the forthcoming bassbin album and has got heads from all over biggin g him up and is definitle a man to keep an eye on in 05. hive and keaton do a good job remixing "twisted third mind", turning it from a doomy dramatic swelling of ominous chords into the sound of a robot soldier dodging factories falling from the sky in a postapocalytic world gone mad... tune of the album though is SEBA's insanely good "16 stories" - robert manos' voice wraps around raor sharp roling switching breaks and a raw distorted sub / reese line.. the album is worth it just for that tune alone, i cant stop playing it its insane go and get it. there's a spirit tune too but, meh....

kryptic minds and leon switch "take the pain away / lost world" - defcom: take the pain away is pretty representative of these boys sound, lush strings and cinematic dark agression vibes reminiscent of the clasic headz vibe [which is why its strange that their most headz like tune isnt on headz], cue whispering vocal going "TAAAAKE THE PAIN AWAAAAAY" followed by dense paranoid aggressive anger under a warm blanket of emotive strings.... on the flip, "lost world" is the best thing ive heard fro these boys yet, rolling breaks with an old feeling to them, vaguely reminiscent of photek in a happier time with warm detroits-ish chords and a rumbling sublow with a refreshing lack of testosterone proving that its not all satanic parent killing deathchants round the gruesome twosome's way.

mathematics and tactile - rub a dub / in and out - social studies - how on earth a collaboration between new jerseys three man outfit mathematics and hungary's finest five strong team tactile came about is a mystery, as is how it could possibly take eight people in a studio to make this, admittedly very fine, tune happen. tense filmscore like swellings of dischordant strings rise over a twanging sort of guitar like thing, theres a wee ragga vocal and a pulsating sublow bassline and a break liberally dusted with little shred of amen. the b-side is a less crowded affair, being little more than a two step and a chunky funky bassline with some seriously tight james browny guitar chops. very nice versatile twelve.