Neuport - Chorizo EP

Neuport is part of a group of producers out of Minneapolis who pursue a whack take on juke and hip-hop. In this scene it is mandatory to have some sort of wingding in your name and to reference juke and weed. You may say, "but Tobias, isn't that just some witchhau5 bullshit?" and i will respond with "no, have a listen."
'Diamond Messages vs. Naked Werewolf' is a washed out groove with smoove bass, juke-indebted beats, a haunting vocal sample, squealing synth glitches and reverb-soaked guitar washes. Thus the track swings and bounces into the wonderous, fantastic galaxy of, say, Bubble Club's 'the Goddess'. 'Grin' is a footwerk work out, which twists and merges into a chaotic climax of frantic beats and symphonic strings that would be as fit for da war zone as any Rashad or Earl track.

Gang Colours - Fancy Restaurant (Machinedrum Remix)

All you need to know is that it's a Machinedrum jam!

Time Wharp - BLK EP

Time Wharp recently released their outstanding BLK EP which u can dl for free over at the astro nautico bandcamp!



'yrLyf' is a chilled out ride thru the cosmos. Sparkling synths start the song, before a swooning, swirling vocal harmony emerges out of the ether. Based up kicks penetrate the mellow vibes, accompanied by relentlessly busy snares that elucidate James Blake's early beatmaking. The tune is finished off with warped sitar washes and a lengthy vocal loop. Lovely.

'Basic Step' takes on juke with warm synth washes and twinkling 8-bit melodies. The bangs are mellowed out into smoother notes rather than their usual abrasive throb. It is busier beatmaking then your usual footwork song, and shows just one of the approaches that producers are taking to the juke genre.

T

fireforeffect

fireforeffect comes straight out of Chi-town bringing a fresh approach to a number of established genres. 'Yr So Wet' is a classic ardkore throwback, including the yeah-woo sample, euphoric keyboard stabs and a variety of water samples.



'Step Into Liquid' is a chaotically eclectic take on his hometown's sound. Considering it features deftly arranged Erykah Badu samples over a mixture of juke and jungle rhythms and a buzzing synth breakdown coupled with David Attenbrother, it is almost irresistible.

T

Unicorn Kid - True Love Fantasy feat. Talk To Animals

Unicorn Kid explodes with a cheesey as fuck Night Slugs-y banger. A steel drum melody starts the song off coupled with a children's choir singing about ecstacy. The song doubles over and drops into helf-step trance territory, primed for fist-pumping and peaking around your room. It turns etheral before an air-horn sounds and a face-melting guitar solo flies over the top of the thumping hip-hop bass. Somehow trance has become trendy again and who can complain when a fun-loving approach is taken to a genre which is often repressed to the dark subconscious of electronic music. Free download as well!

T

LiL ♎ JaBBA - SWiSHeR.

Perhaps some of the best juke from outside Chicago, Lil Jabba's self-released EP (at a cheeky 8 bucks) is a benchmark in the expropriation of the footwork sound. It's worth pointing out that Lil Jabba is by no means the first person outside the original scene to play with the formula, Machinedrum with tracks like 'Seesea' adopts the micro-cuts and pitched sample-savvy vocal melodies of his predecessors, however, being white, he obviously dropped the ghetto-isms that foreground the hardcore Chicago sound. The Machinedrum approach is evident on SWiSHeR, as it certainly has a wider and fuller sound than the work of DJ Spinn or Rashad but Jabba never essentially strays far from the juke sound we know and love. The standout moment on the EP is undeniably 'MaVeN', whose indefatigably dense drumwork is masterfully offset by smooth pulsating synth sweeps. Other tacks like 'SKaLa' stutter along with a foreboding urgency, keeping it simple yet engaging through subtle atmospherics evoking the work of similarly minded Slava. Even with all its academic progressiveness SWiSheR still packs a fix of 'Teklife'-esque ghetto soul in the form of 'GET UP BITCH'. I feel like this may be a very reductionist way of looking at this budding genre, but I'm very happy that it is at a stage where, like every new genre before it, white guys are starting to rip it off, and doing a great job of it.

Oscar

Loxy & Resound - Innervision

A Track off the debut album from Londoner 'Loxy' and Finnish 'Resound'. Following a succession of equally appreciable releases on 'Exit Records','Burning Shadows' is a robust assemblage of dark rasta-tinged bass rollers straddling a boundary between drum 'n' bass and dubstep. On a whole the album gets tiresome and I really can't say it's anything new, however there are points, like 'Innervision' where the bass pressure, cosmic synth waves and insistent vocal loops converge to a danceable equilibrium.