1/ Pressa - Need U.
2/ Vertical Drop & Bobby Tee - All In Vain.
3/ Redshift - Interdiction.
4/ Bay B Kane - Hanging Tree.
5/ Blood - FIGHT!
6/ Pixel - Pacific.
7/ Etch - Fight Talk (Sampledelica).
8/ D-Audi - Airborn.
9/ Schoco - Insanity.
10/ Ilk - Make U Mad.
11/ X-E-Dos - The Apocolypse.
12/ DJ Aitch - The Orbit.
13/ Nickynutz - Mirage.
14/ Rolling Paper - Grotty.
15/ Vertical Drop - A Quick Skank.
16/ Sound Shifter - Darkest One.
After what seems to have been an age of doing the rounds on promo, the eagerly awaited 'The Faceless Exchange Of Beats' album from pioneering breakbeat label, Boomsha Recordings finally surfaces to deliver it's payload of precision crafted, future jungle bombshells. The concept behind the album revolved around a discussion between Boomsha Recordings label boss, Daz Breaks and original oldskooler Simon Colebrooke, of 2 Bad Mice / Kaotic Chemistry fame, regarding how modern day music is produced and distributed between artists and labels from all corners of the globe without there ever being a person to person encounter. Daz and Simon then set the wheels in motion to compile sixteen mammoth breakbeat tracks from the most high profile artists within the jungle breaks scene, and the result is 'The Faceless Exchange Of Beats'...
Pressa sets the ball rolling with his stripped back re-envisioning of oldskool rave, 'Need U', which drops a series of twangy, bass throbs over a tapestry of of rugged breaks and scatterings of euphoric pianos. Up next Vertical Drop and Bobby Tee delivers an epic downtempo slice of vocal, breakbeat hardcore chock full of emotive breakdowns, sweeping strings and infectious stab patterns. Redshift's 'Interdiction' takes us on a tribalistic, jungle roller-coaster ride, complete with a surprise, uplifting drop midway before the legendary Bay B Kane hits us with his hauntingly atmospheric contribution, 'Hanging Tree', which combines heavy rolling amen breaks with a sinister female vocals and jarring, warped synth section that positively gets your skin crawling.
The dark themes continue with the noirish 'FIGHT!' by Blood, which sees a menacing bass pattern does battle with expertly sliced and diced breaks and chop-socky, martial arts flick samplage. Pixel takes us back into the light with the beautifully crafted, yet bassline focused epic, 'Pacific' which is soon succeeded by Etch's 'Fight Talk (Sampledelica)', an uncompromising future-jazz-D&B fusion done oldskool, Metalheadz stylee. D-Audi up next introduces us to the stirring stringed intro of 'Airborn', which soon evolves into a soulful vocalled and twisted bass riff propelled 140 jungle monster.
The darkness descends once more on Schoco's pitch black 'Insanity', which fuses machine-gun breakbeat choppage with ominous synth notes and a brain searing, descending stab pattern to devastating effect. Ilk's mentasmic jungle roller, 'Make U Mad' the iconic "hardcore sound", morphed and manipulated whilst being welded to an impeccably rugged, junglistic percussive backbone. Whereas X-E-Dos takes the 140 bpm, jungle formula and incorporates heavyweight, drum & bass aesthetics on the menacingly portentous, 'The Apocalypse'. DJ Aitch rounds of the album's third quarter by layering a succession of brooding pads and strings over rolling break pattern on 'The Orbit' to form a hugely effective exercise in tension and release.
The inimitable NickyNutz conjures up reverb heavy, dub atmospherics overlaid with militaristic drumbeats on 'Mirage', which evokes the audio equivalent of a stealthily prowling panther slinking through the night. Rolling Paper's 'Grotty' meshes together shuffling, footwork style claps with hyper-kinetic jungle breaks and a throbbing bass melody that's pure earworm fodder, whilst Vertical Drop returns once more to drop some more razor sharp, yet soulful, rave fueled future jungle vibes on 'A Quick Skank'. The album is drawn to a perfect conclusion with Sound Shifters' 'does-exactly-as-it-says-on-the-tin', titled 'Darkest One', which sees frenetically interwoven amen and think break edits, married with nerve-jangling, ghostly pads and bass heavy drones.
'The Faceless Exchange Of Beats' successfully draws inspiration from all points within the history of UK, breakbeat based music genres, from it's inception in the heady days of hardcore/rave through to it's evolution into jungle and drum & bass and beyond. I would implore anyone who considers themselves to be a fan of any of the aforementioned musical genres to discover this album, and the artists who have contributed to it. Consider this a masterclass in the art of JUNGLE BREAKS.
The mighty 'The Faceless Exchange Of Beats' album is available to purchase exclusively from Beatport for 2 weeks before becoming available to purchase from all good Boomsha Recordings digital stockists. So if you want to get in there early, before everyone else does, you'd better make it snappy!
https://www.beatport.com/release/the-faceless-exchange-of-beats/1839220
For more music from the artists featured on the album, follow the Soundcloud links below...
Bay B Kane https://soundcloud.com/bay-b-kane
Blood https://soundcloud.com/bloodsucka
Etch https://soundcloud.com/etchofficial
D-Audi https://soundcloud.com/d-audi
DJ Aitch https://soundcloud.com/dj-aitch
Ilk https://soundcloud.com/theilk
NickyNutz https://soundcloud.com/nickynutz
Pixel https://soundcloud.com/pixel-dnb
Pressa https://soundcloud.com/pressa
Redshift https://soundcloud.com/redshift-vic-b
Rolling Paper https://soundcloud.com/daylife905
Schoco https://soundcloud.com/schoco
Sound Shifter https://soundcloud.com/sound-shifter
X-E-Dos https://soundcloud.com/doc-maxey
Follow Boomsha Recordings on Facebook...
https://www.facebook.com/BoomshaRecordings/?fref=ts
Follow Boomsha Recordings on Soundcloud...
https://soundcloud.com/boomsha-recordings
