When did Hospital Records start putting out music this rowdy? “Buss One” is a long way from the label’s liquid-and-lovely reputation, a jump-up-leaning roller with Yung Saber and Doktor on MC duties that sounds built for a rig rather than a living room. Voltage handles the production and the bassline is a properly gnarly thing, growling and rolling in equal measure, the sort that pulls that involuntary screwface out of people. The MCs bring a raw, half-shouted energy that most polished dnb is too shy to include these days, and it’s the best call on the whole track. This is dance music with dirt under its nails. I love that a label plenty of people file under “coffee-table drum and bass” put this out with a completely straight face. It’s got the pirate-radio, sweaty-basement spirit that a lot of modern dnb sands right off in the name of festival cleanliness. Rinsed it twice in a row this morning and it only got nastier the louder it went.
January
Chrome Daydream
Chrome stars, jelly hearts and holographic colour. A nod to the glossy, optimistic graphics of the early web.