The ever ascending London artist Distinction is back with another mighty composition, this time we are treated to a remix of Jesse Ware‘s track ‘Devotion’, which features on her Brit Award & Mercury Prize nominated debut album of the same name. Check the original to get a flavour:
The vibe of the refix is much heavier, with turbulent synths and a heavily side-chained bass swelling under a striking vocal loop.
You can grab this for free on Distinction‘s soundcloud.
Everyone remembers this one. Even if you didn’t know the name, if you haven’t at some point done your best to shatter your heel joints stomping around to Youngstar‘s ‘Pulse X’, then you have a vast amount of life experience to catch up on.
Cue five weighty remixes by an all star cast of producers to bring this banger up to date. Visionist polishes up the bass and adds classic strings and quirky touches – there is a drum and bass inspired remix from Blackwax and tribal sounds from Slackk. Pedro 123 adds his own sounds bringing the madness, and Elsewhere gets aggressive with the percussion and a sample of Dizzee Rascal going ‘Blearp’.
The first release from the brand new Liminal Sounds imprint, this is well worth the purchase to add power to any DJ’s arsenal. Out now on Juno.
In a few days another Parisian will emerge from the Slime arena; this time it’s Neue Grafik with his captivating debut, the Verdana EP.
Swarming pads and warm undulating bass offset against staccato beats and choral stabs all work to bring out the epic in ‘Verdana’. Then, ‘Bauhaus’ goes off-key, experimenting with pitched voices that shape bizzare melodies backed up by loosely structured 808 drums and old school bass sounds.
Bag this one over on Juno from the 28th.
Big up to Richard at Future Flavour for putting this one out for scrutiny. Warm vibrations and rich percussive energy combine on this two track release from Huddersfield’s DéjàView, aka Ben Potts.
‘Throwing Dirt”s bright percussive chords are built up by crisp drums and popping melodic incursions which dart across the lustrous synth-work and drifting vocals in a perfectly executed composition.
‘On My Knees’ is altogether more melancholic, with sedate chords and dub-centric drums solidifying into a static head nodder as the track progresses. With it’s obscure speech sample and mellow vibe this one threw up comparisons with Groove Armada’s brilliant Vertigo album, which by our reckoning is no bad thing.
Out on Future Flavour and available just about everywhere from the 31st, also watch out for the video which accompanies the title track and is set to hit the net in the next few days.
New from the prolific Slime imprint comes a fresh Parisian producer by the name of Voice Hands Machine with the ‘Cold Jam’ EP. This polished and swanky pop track is subject to bass heavy juke and deep house reworks from Jack The Hustler & mad:AM respectively. We fully expect all three tracks to become regular players so take our recommendation and cop it. You can grab this from Juno exclusively from the 21st.
Featuring the best of their past 50 or so releases, Basswave 2 is the culmination of an outstanding year for Slime Recordings. The vibe is deep and eclectic with tribal, melancholic, soulful and heavyweight bases covered in the pick of the year’s releases.
Slime have had a swarm of impressive debuts this year, notably from the likes of Akin and Vausz to name just two – as well as a number of important releases from established artists such as Partyson and Totte. The bar is high, and that is reflected by the quality of the tracks on this compilation.
If you are new to this imprint then you could do much worse than start with this release – before you inevitably go sifting through their back catalog for their other quality releases.
Robot Bodypop 