Hearing one of the most quoted instrumentals in grime history dragged up to drum and bass tempo did something to the back of my neck. Functions On The Low is XTC’s beat, the one Tempa T rode on Next Hype, a piece of music so foundational that a generation of MCs cut their teeth on it in bedrooms and youth clubs across the UK. Turning it into a 2026 DnB roller could have gone horribly wrong, a cash-in on nostalgia with nothing underneath, and instead ATMOS treat the source with the respect it earned. The menace of the original is still intact, that coiled, ominous low end, but now it is strapped to a breakbeat that gives the whole thing somewhere to run. It updates the chassis while keeping the engine that made people lose their minds the first time. The weight of history on this one is real: anybody who was anywhere near UK bass music in the late 2000s will feel the recognition hit before the drop even arrives. Younger listeners just get a monster of a DnB track with no footnotes required. Both audiences win, which almost never happens with a flip this loaded. Seventeen years later and that riff still sounds like a threat walking up behind you.
January
Chrome Daydream
Chrome stars, jelly hearts and holographic colour. A nod to the glossy, optimistic graphics of the early web.