Future Beats – The Album [31 Recordings]

The relaunch of Doc Scott’s 31 Recordings imprint has been the cause for much celebration across the scene, and the label’s output has been absolutely stellar. Rounding off 2014 in style, they’ve unveiled a massive 24 track compilation featuring artists from across the D&B spectrum, and frankly pretty much all of it is excellent.

The huge selection takes in half-time beats from Sinistarr and Ital Tek, future jungle from Moresounds, liquid rollers from Bungle and Calibre, rowdy techstep from SCAR and plenty more besides. Special mentions have to go out to the broody, militant syncopations of House of Lanterns’ Take Control, the ethereal atmospherics of Hidden Turn’s Dream of Tron and the bleepy, atmospheric vibes of Gremlinz Forlorn, but honestly the whole LP is of such a high standard that picking favourites is pretty tough. Check out clips of all the tracks below and head over to the 31 Recordings store to preorder the compilation on vinyl or digital now – the release drops on December 15th.

Mav – Sounds of the Deep [Scientific Records]

Mav drops his debut album for Scientific Records, featuring a selection of melody driven D&B tunes and some big remixes to boot. Asides from terrific compositions with tons of character, the album also features a couple of DJ friendly genre-hopping tracks, with Makati Oasis dropping down to a cheeky house-tempo bridge and Trigger the Rabbit flirting with bouncy breaks for an interlude from it’s D&B verses.

Elsewhere there’s a fantastic future-funk amen workout on Break Is The Legend and soaring arpeggios aplenty on The Dolphin and the Bassline. Remix-wise, highlights include Chris.SU’s rolling dancefloor remix of Me Against The Machine, Seba’s deep atmospheric relick of Between Heaven and the Deep Blue Sea and Bungle’s super chilled remix of Skylines. Check out the tracks below and grab this one on vinyl or digital now!

Gerwin – Lying Portraits / Soul Truth (Remixes) [IM:Ltd]

Gerwin’s excellent Lying Portraits single was one of the highlights of IM:Ltd’s output in 2012 so the news it was getting the remix treatment from none other than Zero T and Bungle was music to my ears, if you’ll forgive the pun.

Zero T “reprints” Lying Portaits to great effect, replacing the stepping beat with a rolling liquid break and dropping the 2Shy vocal entirely, leading to a deeper, more cinematic vibe, though retaining some of the bassline’s edge. Meanwhile on the flip, Bungle turns in a deep, dark rolling mix of Soul Truth, with the majesty of his work for Soul:R but a bit more oomph on the low end.

Check out the beats below and watch out for the release dropping on vinyl and digital from October 16th.

In The Mix…Dominic Petrie

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Dominic Petrie (previously known as Y2D) brings us a superbly deep and soulful mix featuring tunes from Bungle, Tokyo Prose, Enei, Alix Perez, Paradox and more, and a sneak peak of his latest work Valid Invalid – look out for this one dropping on Nookie’s Phuzion imprint sometime soon! Smooth vibes all the way.

Bungle – Astral Travel / Aura [Soul:R]

Marcus Intalex‘s much esteemed Soul:R imprint had an excellent 2012 and it seems that 2013 is gonna be no different. To open up the release schedule they’ve got a stunning release from Brazilian producer Bungle, and one which Intalex himself has described as ‘the best Soul:R 12″ there has been for a long time’. For once the fine words of Flava Flav are wrong – believe the hype!

Astral Travel on the A side is a beautiful understated roller than brings to mind Calibre’s best work, with simple, warm synth lines and a crisp, clean break combining to almost ethereal effect. Aura on the flip keeps things deep but changes pace slightly with an ever so slightly angular beat pattern, but again combined with superb uplifting synth leads and piano to create something simple and elegant.

Check out the tunes below and watch out for the release on Jan 21st!