Flipping “Back to Life” is a dangerous game because that Soul II Soul record is sacred to a lot of people, and the wrong remix gets you run out of town. Sigma know this, which is probably why they brought the actual originators along instead of just sampling them and hoping. Liv Campbell takes the vocal and gives it air, then Capo Lee and Zimma drop in on the grime side to remind you this is 2026 and not a heritage act. The drum and bass underneath is the polished, festival-ready Sigma sound that I usually have complicated feelings about, because it can tip into cheese fast. Here it works because the soul in the source material keeps it grounded, that warm London swing that no amount of big-room production can sand off. The breakdown where the original melody surfaces gave me actual goosebumps, and I don’t say that about liquid DnB very often. It’s a crowd-pleaser, sure, and it’ll be all over the festival circuit by August. But some crowd-pleasers earn it, and a vocal this good deserves a beat that carries it rather than buries it.
January
Chrome Daydream
Chrome stars, jelly hearts and holographic colour. A nod to the glossy, optimistic graphics of the early web.