Killers
The Cutting Edge releases you need in your life
Mock & Toof 'Farewell To Wendo EP' Tiny Sticks
Tremendously promising Londoners Mock & Toof take it up a gear for this ambitious EP. Known for tracks on DFA, here they depart from the disco typecasting, and deliver two avant-pop, Oriental exotica-tinged tracks that couldn't be more different. But the real reason we're here is Kink & Neville Watson's out-of-this-world acid house remix of the title track. Taking cut-up vocal samples from the original, dropping them into a bubbling bath of 303s, and tough Chicago claps 'n' snares, this is devastating. Primitive power + futuristic production = bonafide KILLER.
Gadi Mizrahi
'Can't Stop This Feeling' Simple myspace.com/simplerecordsuk
Sometimes, all you need is a sick bassline. Case in point with Wolf + Lamb alumni Gadi Mizrahi's newie for Will Saul's Simple. Rolling out in heavily percussive, stripped back house fashion, dripping funk from every pore, when the squelching, bad-ass electro bass comes into earshot, expect nothing less than pandemonium. Elsewhere, 'Who's Gonna Love Me Tonight?' turns the dark off and gives us gorgeous, Roy Ayers jazz keys, and old school house gospel-inflected vocal tones. Solid mixes from Lee Curtiss (spare, minimal funk) and Sideshow (dubwise), too.
Hot Chip
'One Life Stand (Carl Craig Remix)' Parlophone myspace.com/carlcraig
Carl Craig re-rubs seem to be in plentiful supply at the moment. Though always good, there hasn't been anything up to the standard of his remix of Junior Boys' 'Like A Child' for a while. Until now, that is. Transforming the Chip's alternately plaintive and celebratory electro pop into a steely master-class of tension and release, Craig ratchets up the pressure with dark, menacing technoid synths, before introducing the looped disco licks of the source track to blow the roof off. True excellence. The Joris Voorn mix is cool, too.
Pangaea
'Pangaea EP' Hessle Audio myspace.com/journeytopangaea
Few tracks, or producers, have quite captured the imagination recently as much as Pangaea has. The future garage creator, whose tracks 'Router' and 'Memories' acquired instant classic status, and got DJs from Nic Fanciulli to Hot Chip excited, steps it up a notch with this tremendous dispatch from another beat dimension. 'Because Of You' is jazz-licked, bass-dipped atmosphere, with chattering, broken beats to match, 'Sunset Yellow' will appeal to Joy Orbison's many fans, and 'Why', with its catchy organ riff and trippy female vox, is another club cruncher.
Danny Byrd feat Liquid
'Sweet Harmony' Hospital myspace.com/dannybyrduk
Taking on a classic as universally adored as Liquid's '92 rave anthem 'Sweet Harmony' is a tall order indeed but Danny Byrd shows he's up to the task. Beefing up the breakbeat tempos and adding some lush orchestral drama and cheeky bass wobbles, the main room mix will definitely bulldozer the biggest floors, but it's when you flip over for Byrd's 'jungle mix' that things get serious. Lifting cues from Byrd's own 'Shock Out', it's a scuttling, nostalgia-soaked rave rollercoaster through ragga chants, air horn fire, 'those' classic piano keys, clattering stop-start jungle-beats and tearing amen devastation. A lighter moment if ever there was one.
Warrior One
'Bad Like Jimmy Cliff EP' King Pigeon Music myspace.com/warrioronemusic
You may not have heard of Warrior One, but consider that an entirely temporary situation - featuring four fresh takes on UK funky, this debut EP is pure dancefloor devastation on plastic. Featuring the vocal fire of fast-rising Lady Chann, the aptly-titled 'King Riddim' is a raggalicious slab of carnival funky, 'Bad Like Jimmy Cliff' is a stripped funky/bassline alchemy, while the more experimental 'The Machine' melds deep, dark Detroit stabs with a percussive technoid pulse. It's left for final track 'Turn The Music Up' to deliver the coup de grace - an amen-tearing funky skanker that smashes the spirit of 'ardkor rave into the noughties urban underground.
Zinc feat Ms Dynamite
'Wile Out' Zinc Music djzinc.com
While we're not sure about the 'crack-house' name, Zinc's experiments with rugged house and badboy bass are really coming into their own. With a melody hook that sounds like it's beamed directly from an alien spaceship and Ms Dynamite switching her lyrics from insurgent ragga calls to slick soulful licks, 'Wile Out' feels like the track 'Body Language' would have been if M.A.N.D.Y. and Booka Shade grew up on a diet of grimy London warehouses and pirate station bass. Again charged by Ms Dynamite, 'My DJ' sees Zinc hook up with dubstep titan Benga for a bass-driven, breakin' house monster, while final track 'Music Makers' goes that little bit deeper with a dark hypnotic, underground house cruise.
Joy Orbison
'The Shrew Would Have Cushioned The Blow EP' Aus myspace.com/joyorbison
Believe the hype. The level of Messiah-esque praise heaped on Joy Orbison for last year's 'Hyph Mngo' might have been OTT, but there's every sign the Croydon wunderkid will live up to it. Finding a fitting home on Will Saul's Aus, 'The Shrew Would Have Cushioned The Blow' is another total headtrip. Drawing the lines between Orbital's most emotive electronica, Basic Channel's dub house and Martyn's synth-laden dubstep, it's still a sound that is unmistakably Orbison's, thanks to the feather-light ethereal ambience and cut-up vocals. The more two-steppy, cosmic bliss of 'So Derobe' is bass-bumped future soul cut with more ghostly Todd Edwards-style vocal mastery. A serious talent is upon us.