Stray – Since You’ve Been Gone [Free Download]

Stray’s latest venture sees him giving away an 11 track mixtape of older beats, apparently in preparation for the creation of his first ‘real’ LP. The material bears all the hallmarks of his hip-hop infused style, eschewing his higher tempo explorations in favour of lush musical elements and slouching beats.

The tracks are a pleasure to listen to and display a real finesse and groove uncommon in so much of the electronic scene today. Check out the clips below and head over here to grab the full album.

Low Profile – Distance Awareness [Reserve Audio]

RSRV004LP cover art OK

As regular readers may have noticed we always love getting sent something unexpected, and the Distance Awareness LP provided a pleasant surprise when it fell into our mailbox recently.

Fans of the deeper and more atmospheric end of D&B and it’s crossover with other forms of electronica will definitely enjoy this one, as the Prague based duo take us a journey spanning ten tracks and taking in influence from dub, hip-hop, minimal D&B and beyond. Favourable comparisons with Kryptic Minds’ dubstep outings and the sort of half-time beats coming out of the Samurai Music stable spring to mind, but that’s not to say this is mere copycatting; there’s plenty of originality to be found here.

Ultimately the music is always best left to speak for itself, so check out the tracks below and grab the LP from Bandcamp now!

Ronin – Guillotine EP [Free Download]

Ever since I heard the excellent Battledrums EP I’ve been keeping a keen eye out for more releases from the rather talented Ronin. The evolution of his style has been interesting to watch too, and his latest work continues the trend started with the Once More With Venom EP and heads towards fairly D&B influenced territory.

Ronin’s cinematic style remains, as does the obvious influence of hip-hop, and the EP manages to bring together emotive piano and string elements with powerful bass and uptempo D&B-style drum work to great effect. It’s also been mixed for listening, with each track fading directly into the next to form a complete piece of music rather than four tracks with distinct beginnings and endings. Best of all you can grab the whole thing for free from Soundcloud. Highly recommended!

Coleco – Induction EP [Inflect Audio]

Bristol producer Coleco returns to his own Inflect imprint with a five track EP spanning a varied spectrum of uptempo electronica. Induction and Typtamine both explore the 170BPM domain, with the first characterised by weird rhythms and metallic snares while the latter goes in hard with a heavy hitting drum beat and big old school bass stabs; the influence of early Renegade Hardware shines through here.

The back end of the EP lowers the tempo for dubbier vibes; Micro provides a solid slice of deep, bleepy dubstep while Twenty One And Beyond experiments with the “purple” synth sound popularised by Joker. Last but no means least, Cluster combines funky soca-style drums with all manner of unusual FX and more than a hint of dub. Check out the clips below and look for this one at digital stores from October 1st.

Nuage – Prints Of You [Translation Recordings]

Nuage returns to Translation with the first glimpse of material from his forthcoming LP for the label. Lifestyle sees him teaming up with Gerwin for a deep, mellow slice of 170BPM electronica aimed firmly at the living room rather than the dancefloor, while Prints Of You drops the tempo and explores similarly lush territory; soulful influences abound and the musicality is breathtaking.

The release also features some excellent remixes, with Silent Dust turning in a hyperactive footwork rework of Sunday Morning and Planet Mu alumnus Ital Tek turns in a skittering, bleeped up mix of Prints Of You.

Clips of a fair bit of the rest of the album’s tracks have also now surfaced, the highlight of which for me is another Gerwin collab; Slow Moves brings together shimmering synth work, a laid back drum shuffle and some suitably manipulated vocal snippets for an effortlessly cool slice of downtempo electronica with a housey switchup after the breakdown. That housey theme gets explored further on Indigo Girl and Keep Me Warm, among others, with plenty of smooth melodies and head nodding kick-lines. It seems like lower tempo beats will dominate this record which is a shame given Nuage’s talent for deeper D&B, but the quality of material on show here is still great.

You can pre-order the vinyl sampler or the CD/digital version of the album via the Translation bandcamp – physical copies will be out in the wild on September 8th with full digital for the album following on September 29th.

 

Inception Vol. 1 [Back2You]

Back2You present their 7th release with a varied selection of outings across the electronic spectrum. Trimer opens the salvo with an aggressive slice of dancefloor techstep, heavy kicks and growling bass characterising the tune. Drum Force 1 switch things up on Hear No Evil with a jazzy, uplifting roller, though for me the Revolver & Leona remix provides a deeper and more varied take on the original.

Taking the tempo down a notch, Joe Nebula & Rachel Wallace team up on a slice of chilled out dubstep in the form of Life After Life. Once again though the remix takes the cake as Planet Boelex turns in a super deep ambient rework, drenched in soul and reverb. Check out the beats below and head over to Bandcamp to grab the release now.

Frederic Robinson – Live Signals [Blu Mar Ten Music]

Frederic Robinson continues to push the boundaries of 170BPM electronica with another outing on Blu Mar Ten Music, this time in the form of a live album. Chris BMT has long made much of the incredible performances Frederic puts on and this album provides a snapshot of his intricate, airy percussion, live violin and soothing melodies. The music really speaks for itself so give the preview a listen below and grab yourself a copy from SurusiTunes or Beatport.

Snake & Wolf – Lost & Found [Free Download]

It’s always interesting to hear what the mainstays of the D&B scene get up to musically when they’re not thrashing out 170, and the latest set of uploads to The Upbeats’ Soundcloud page showcase exactly that. Lost & Found proves a rewarding collection of breakbeat, house, dubstep, hip-hop and other assorted electronica. Better still it’s all absolutely free, so have a listen and grab the tracks via Soundcloud.

Spectrasoul – Delay No More – The Remixes [Shogun Audio]

Spectrasoul - Delay No More - The Remixes

Shogun bring us another eclectic selection of remixes, this time of tracks from Spectrasoul’s recent LP Delay No More. dBridge delivers a respectable leftfield 170 rework of Momento with some nice filtering on the main break and James Zabiela delivers an appropriately catchy house reflex of The Curb, but ultimately the highlights are found in the other remixes on show.

DLR turns in a tidy remix of Sometimes We Lie, fusing the soulful elements of the original with a beat and bassline combo that’s techy enough to move a floor without overpowering the tune. Next up the ever innovative Rockwell gives Echo Park the glitched up trap/juke/hip-hop treatment, creating a fantastic blend of synth euphoria, hip-hop back beat and hench bass stabs. Methinks Mr Rockwell has been listening to a lot of EPROM lately, not that it’s a bad thing!

Lastly CMX (nee Commix) turns in a superbly weird rework of Away With Me, dropping the tempo way down and creating a break from distinctly unconventional samples. In the wake of the ludicrously smooth Calibre remix of this tune that dropped last year, it’s good to see other producers taking a totally different direction. Look out for the EP dropping July 22nd.

Om Unit – Aeolian EP [Civil]

Om Unit’s latest EP for London based label Civil Music sees the producer coming with an interesting new take on the 170BPM tempo range. With the exception of Reso’s excellent drumfunk rework of opener Ulysees, the EP’s tracks bear little resemblance to traditional drum & bass, nor the (mostly over-hyped) drumstep shenanigans that have been doing the rounds lately; rather we see music which has more in common with Hip-Hop, Glitch and Dub.

All the tracks are steeped in atmosphere and finely crafted, with heavy sub kicks and catchy but understated synth work all over, along with some tasty sub bass – the lowend on Lightworkers Call,  a collab with Kromestar, is ridiculous. Fans of dBridge & Instra:Mental’s work as Autonomic should definitely give this one a listen.

The Aeolian EP is out July 30th from all good record stores.