Tuff Culture – Circles

Despite something of a revival of late, the TIWWD inbox isn't troubled by as much UKG as I might like… so to get a whole album of the stuff that's as good as this, is something of a rare treat.

There are ten tracks here, that between them take in most shades of garage music the UK has ever produced. I Wanna Hold You is a jerky, twitchy 2-step number with cut-up vox inna Todd Edwards stylee, It's Me & You is a bassier affair with ragga vocal flourishes, Need You Around is smoother, more commercial 2-step, Walking In Ecstasy works a classic vocal over big, bassline house-ish backing, there are more bassline-y vibes on the R&B-vocalled Temptation (featuring Miss Rhodes), Like A Star takes us back to the SG glory days (complete with a few cheeky, very familiar samples) and Enigma Dubz collab Maris flirts with future garage/post-dubstep flavas.

Consistent enough stylistically to feel coherent, yet varied enough not to get same-y, this is a must-check for UKG fiends.

Out: This week

About: This comes on LU10 Records – find 'em on Soundcloud and Facebook.

Ed Lee – Croxley EP

Don't think Endemic stalwart Ed Lee has cropped up on here for a little while, so as we come to start this week's reviews let's give the lad first dibs!

The Croxley EP is made up of three original tracks. Croxley itself is an upbeat and tuff-ish tech-houser featuring some odd whistling noises and a long breakdown in the middle… one for mangling heads at afterparties. App That operates in slightly more traditionally 'house-y' territory and is a rolling, bass-y groover with vocal snips buried so deep in the mix you hardly notice they're there, while finally Rude takes us on a trip all the way back to 1997, when sugar was sweeter, bad boys moved in silence, republics were baffled and gunmen were locked down… retro speed garage frolics ahoy!

Rude is the star of the show for me, but the other two will keep 'em moving nicely for sure.

Out: This week


About: As I said, Mr Lee is something of a regular round the Endemic Digital camp… this particular release comes from the Unrivaled Music branch of the Essex empire

FREE DOWNLOAD! Rob Clarke – Spring Loaded EP

I've been banging on for ages about how good a label Beats Me Music is. Well, if you've been ignoring my sage words so far you've got no excuse now, cos boss Rob Clarke has just made available a three-track freebie showcasing his own production skills and, by extension, the musical spirit of the label.

I won't bang on cos you can hear the tracks right here, I'll just say that if bouncy, dancefloor deep house is your thing you definitely wanna grab this one, while those of a garage-y bent need to check Noir for sure.

That is all. Now here's the tracks.



Out: Now, obviously.

About: Want to know more? Hit up Rob's Soundcloud page or the Beats Me Music website

Enigma Dubz – Hard To Smile EP

Okay, time to flip the script a bit now and get on a future garage tip.

Well, I say 'future garage' but TBH, there's nothing particularly future-y about opener Between Me And You… with a roomy, boomy bottom end, heavily swung beats that verge on two-step, lush, lingering chords and snippets of barely-there soulful male vocal, this could have come out back in the late 90s/early 00s UKG glory days no problem. That's a compliment, by the way!

Hard To Smile is a more obviously contemporary affair, sampling Tupac's Smile for the vocal and laying it over a typical UKG backing at first, but then bringing in a (whisper it) trance riff. And at first you're thinking, oh no! – but you know what? It actually kinda works. It comes across like the trance riff's being used as just AN Other sound source, the way for instance Massive Attack might use an orchestral synth stab… as opposed to just someone chucking in a trance riff for instant get out of jail free idiots-at-Glasto appeal. I can think of a few bigger names in the grime/dubstep/etc sphere who could learn a thing or two here… softly does it!

So yeah, Hard To Smile has you worried for a minute but it all turns out fine in the end. And then there's Issues, another old skool-sounding cut which rocks a huge bassline and ragga vox, and sounds like the kind of thing I used to pick up from Release The Groove back in iDJ's earliest days*, back when I was just the garage reviewer!

As a good friend posted on my Facebook the other day, "It's all gone 1997 blud!". Some of us would say that's no bad thing :-)

Out: This week

About: This comes on Four40 Records, sister label to LU10 and Lepento and always worth checking – they do a lot of gnarly tear-out stuff that's sometimes a bit too full-on for this blog but they do turn out deeper gems like this as well.

You can find Four40 on Facebook, Tumblr, MySpace and Soundcloud… by the miracle of which, here's the EP…

Enigma-Dubz Hard to smile ***Out Now*** by four40records

*Shouts out at this point to Neil, Jeremy, Marcia, Angel, Adamm, Chas and the one and only Gary D!