From The Shadows (Remixes) [Black Sun Empire]

The upcoming remixes of Black Sun Empire‘s From The Shadows material are beginning to trickle out, and so far they are sounding more than healthy!

Lifted Music’s latest wunderkind Memtrix serves up some seriously energetic neurofunk with his remix of All Is Lost. If there was any doubt as to who the pretender to Spor’s abdicated thrown as the king of this sub-style was, this guy is busy dispelling it.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1p49-ruXGo]

Not to be outdone by the young upstarts, gritty tech pusher Prolix has come correct with a stereotypically filthy refix of the Foreign Beggars imbued Dawn of a Dark Day. Leading with a huge bass throb before the breakbeat smashdown of the drop kicks in, this one is serious business.

Watch out for these dropping sometime in March!

Mise En Place EP Pt. 2 [Ingredients]

The latest release from slightly left-field label Ingredients is really something special. The follow up to last year’s Mise En Place Pt. 1 sees a strong selection from artists both new and old.

First up is Dub Phizix with a beautifully melancholy number in the form of Rainy City Music. The Manchester drum-punch don has gone soft on us for this one, layering together soft pads, warm bass and natural percussion to make a lush tune that is all atmosphere and no bite, and fantastic for it.

Switching things up for track 2, the legendary Break turns in a cracking slice of uptempo yet reserved breakbeat led D&B with his remix of Villem‘s Splinter In Your Mind. All the usual hallmarks are there (that drum break, seriously) and the compositional strength and bassline tone are sure to put a smile on your face.

Skeptical delivers a punchy stepper with a VIP of Blue Eyes, and finally dRamatic & dbAudio round the EP off with the menacing snares and sub growl of the aptly titled No Return. Check out the previews below and watch out for the release very soon!

DNB Dojo Mix Series 01: Hex

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The first in our series of exclusive mixes for DnB Dojo comes courtesy of blog owner Hex! The mix features a sneak peek at his newest track The Law alongside an hour of the best techstep and neurofunk, including brand new tracks from Telekinesis, Fourward and The Upbeats. The mix is available as a free download, so stream it below and grab a copy from Mediafire! The mix is also available over on Mixcloud.

Tracklist:

Hex – The Law
The Upbeats & Noisia – Creep Out [Non Vogue]
Telekinesis & MC Coppa – Pocket Full of Drops [Eatbrain]
Cause4Concern – Luca (Silent Witness Remix) [C4C]
Ivy Lab – Brat [Critical]
Mikal – The Chant (Rido Remix) [Utopia]
The Upbeats – Diffused [Vision]
Enei & Mefjus – Crawlers [Critical]
The Prototype & MC ID – Blackout [Shogun]
Telekinesis & Concord Dawn – Nightwalkers [Eatbrain]
Neonlight – Frozen Tape (Rregular & Dementia Remix) [Trust in Music]
Inside Info – Sundew [Viper]
Audio & Future Signal – Furyen [Subtitles]
Cause4Concern – Control Freak (Task Horizon Remix) [C4C]
Ewun & Spor – We Dominate [Lifted]
Cause4Concern – Pandemic (Octane & DLR Remix) [C4C]
Naibu & Ena feat. Key – Into The Distance (Break Remix) [Horizons]
Cause4Concern – Jinx [C4C]
BSE & Foreign Beggars – Dawn Of A Dark Day [BSE]
Optiv & BTK – Riptide [Virus]
Neonlight – Computer Music [Lifted]
Jade – Acid Flood [BSE]
Fourward – Street Knowledge [AudioPorn]
Jade – Venom (Mindscape Remix) [Eatbrain]
Memtrix – Mind Control [Breed 12 Inches]
Teddy Killerz & Nphonix – Earth Shaker [Bad Taste]
Joe Ford – City 17 [Bad Taste]
Apex – Malfunction [Trust in Music]
Villem – Splinter In Your Mind (Break Remix) [Ingredients]

Consequence – Atrium / Box Rituals [Pushing Red]

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US label Pushing Red continue their run of excellent house and techno releases with a new 12″ from Consequence (who fans of the deeper side of d&b should remember from his albums on dBridge’s Exit Records imprint). As we’ve come to expect from his releases, regardless of their specific style or tempo, the tunes are steeped in atmosphere and somehow always have that ‘Consequence’ sound.

A side Atrium kicks things off with an ever-so-slightly swung beat over a classic techno-bass groove, making great use of weird arpeggios and little details to give the track a really full sound while retaining that hypnotic effect that the best techno always achieves.

Over on the flip Box Rituals lays down a slightly more tribal beat, with an insistent kick drum layered behind a percussive smorgasbord, giving the beat heaps of texture. Soft pads combine with this more intricate beat to create a more ambient slice of music, and one you can easily lose yourself in for a few minutes.

Look out for this one dropping on March 3rd.

In The Mix…Chris.Su

As promo for February’s rather excellent Renegade Hardware 18th Birthday event the boys at Hardware HQ got a rather tasty promo mix out of the one and only Chris.Su. Full of meaty double drops and hefty tunes from the man himself alongside new material from the likes of Mindscape, Jade and Telekinesis, this is definitely one for the neurofunk heads. Check it out and grab a free download below!

Forbidden Society & Donny / Audio – Creator & Destroyer / Burn It Down [Forbidden Society]

ForbiddenSocI’m quite partial to a bit of the hard, nasty stuff from time to time and few do it better than Czech producer Forbidden Society. When it comes to face-smashing, metal-influenced, gabba-tinged belters, he’s definitely your man. For this particular release, he’s teamed up with Barcode head-honcho Donny, the other master of pots-and-pans darkstep wrongcore, so no surprise then that this release is a little special!

The build up on Creator and Destroyer features some nice sampling of one of Bane’s speeches from The Dark Knight Rises and some dirty reese action before dropping into a totally stomping beat with some classic Donny metallic snares on the go. As if this wasn’t enough, the flipside comes from none other than Audio, who provides a fantastic scuzzy roller reminiscent of his early work on Dylan’s TechFreak imprint. Just to round things off nicely Forbidden Society provides The Punch as a digital only bonus track.

Check out the previews below and watch out for release date info soon!

Optiv & CZA – Bring It Back [SGN:Ltd]

Optiv & CZA (both of Cause4Concern fame) have teamed up to make a 12″ for Shogun sub-label SGN:Ltd and it’s a bit of a belter! Bring It Back has all the hallmarks of an old school rave tune on the intro, with classic synth stabs and soft pads building things up. When it drops…well, just listen for yourself below! This one will be huge!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JQE7eTGeh0]

Watch out for the release on March 11th.

In The Mix…Royalston [Bad Taste]

To celebrate his new Sound of the Rain EP on Bad Taste Recordings, Australian producer Royalston has been nice enough to put together a 30 minute mix of tunes old and new (and up for a free download no less). The selection features some tunes from the EP alongside a mixed selection of tunes spanning the spectrum of drum & bass. Check out the mix and the tracklist below!

Tracklist:

Royalston – Sound of the Rain
Technimatic – The Unspoken
J Majik & Wickaman – Old Headz
Rene Lavice – Perfect World
MA – If Thats How You Want it to Be (Royalston Remix)
Culture Shock – Troglodyte
Audio – Headroom
Rewind – I Got a Feeling
Lynx – Disco Dodo
Nu Logic – Grizzly
Quadrant, Kid Hops and Iris – Hovercraft
Royalston – House of Mirrors
Xtra – Discordance
Paul B – Drop By Drop
Rene Lavice – The Way you love me
Royalston – Dead Hollywood
Metrik – Genesis

Ravager & Livewire – Runaway / Fear The Future [E-Motion]

Up and coming deep/liquid label E-Motion have been going from strength to strength over the past year and their latest release from Ravager & Livewire cements their reputation as a great source of tunes from new producers on the scene.

Ravager’s Runaway opens up the release with an infectious, hypnotic melody and punchy drums, with a warm, insistent bassline. Next up Livewire remixes the tune to great effect, amping things up ever so slightly into a more dancefloor led number which retains the musicality of the original nicely. Finally Livewire finishes off the EP with a slightly techier number, bringing the dark bass and synth stabs to the fore to produce a tasty little roller.

Check out the clips below and look out for the release from March 11th!

Mistabishi – Safari [Noh Music]

I’ve never been hugely enamoured with Mistabishi‘s drum & bass output; most of it fell a bit too close to the jump-up bandwagon for my taste, so when his first release of 2013 arrived in the inbox I was fully expecting to bin it and swiftly move onto other things. How wrong I was!

It seems the Hackney-based producer has moved off and onto more interesting things, and his latest output merges soca, dancehall, UK funky and good old fashioned drum & bass to excellent effect. The rhythms bring to mind the recent explorations of Dawn Day Night, though the tone of the compositions is much different (and distinctly less juke/ghetto-tech influenced).

The tracks ultimately sound like a fusion of dirty half-step drum & bass and UK funky or soca, drawing the basslines from the former and the drum lines from the latter. Ultimately the music is full of the darkness and energy that made jungle and early drum & bass so dynamic and exciting, mixed with a diverse array of other influences. The style is doubtless to prove almost as “marmite” as the explosion of footwork…so check it out for yourself. Previews and pre-order up at Surus or iTunes.