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		Way Out West Intensify Distinct'ive (UK) August 2001 Album Intensify Pt. 2 Mindcircus

After signing to Distinct'ive Breaks, already home to fellow progressive trance/breaks act Hybrid, Way Out West's much-anticipated second album "Intensify" finally sees the light of day. So do Nick Warren and Jody Wisternoff deliver? Most certainly - "Intensify" is a collection of lush, layered productions that puts most other "trance" to shame. Highlights include the opener "The Fall", employing the chorus from Coldcut's "Autumn Leaves", and "Stealth" with vocals by Kirsty Hawkshaw of Opus III fame. Too bad though that this album is dominated by four-to-the-floor beats and only two tracks are of the breakbeat variety. "Mindcircus" is an epic, piano-led breaks track with vocals by Bristol's Ali Kenyan, while the album's closing track "Intensify Pt. 2" provides a lovely breaks mix of the title track. But progressive breakbeat fans will sorely miss a production along the lines of Way Out West's amazing "Enlightment", a track that was featured on the second "Y3K" CD.

		V/A mixed by DBJ Atmospherics v.2.0 Street Beat (USA) July 2001 Mixed CD Albion: Air 2000 (Hybrid remix) Van Gott: World of Love (Jointed Grass mix)

Street Beat's own DBJ delivers an excellent sequel to the first "Atmospherics" mixed by Chris Fortier. DBJ has selected 13 of the finest progressive breakbeat tunes, both familiar and obscure - many of these tracks I've never even heard of before - and mixed them together expertly. Of course no progressive breaks mix would be complete without at least one Hybrid tune, and indeed DBJ has picked two, "Dreaming Your Dreams" plus an absolutely storming Hybrid remix of some cheesy Euro-trance tune called "Air 2000". Ashtrax (an alias for Gatecrasher resident Ashley Casselle) is represented with last year's massive "Helsinki", while Breakneck from UK breakbeat label TCR contribute the harder "Summerize". Local talent is also well-represented on this CD - Florida artists like Burufunk with his new "Skylight" tune and Def Set while contributes two top tracks, "Decorum" and "Ogo" - that tune sampling the unique vocals from the Les Mystères des Voix Bulgares women's choir. DBJ himself is one of artists behind another tune on this CD, the superb electro trancer "Ocean Child" by Auratek. I recommend this great mixed CD to anyone who loves trance but doesn't care for the boring beats or cheesy riffs usually associated with the genre.

		V/A mixed by Koma & Bones Nu Horizons: The Next Generation of Breaks v02 Street Beat (USA) July 2001 Mixed CD Koma & Bones: Button Monkey Beber & Tamra: Travellin' On (Koma & Bones remix)

Koma & Bones - actually a trio - have established themselves as one of the top UK breakbeat acts with a tsunami of smashing releases - not just their singles (on TCR among others) but also their numerous remixes. No less than five Koma & Bones productions are collected on this mixed CD, including the hypnotic "Face Facts" on their own label Forged, their hot remix of Beber & Tamra's "Travellin' On" and an exclusive new track, "Button Monkey". The K&B productions occupy the second half of this 13-track mix while the first half is taken up by many of the hottest, most heavily caned breakbeat tunes of the moment. There's the now-classic progressive breaker PMT - "Gyromancer", the stunning Apex - "Symmetry" remix by Australians Nubreed that just come out on Marine Parade, and no less than two productions by DJ Hyper and Dylan Rhymes (one of which is their much-caned remix of Spek - 'Look Me Up') and two recent Rennie Pilgrem tunes, including that wonderful Yellow Snow tech breaks mix of the new "Eskimo" single by Rennie & BLIM. With such a fantastic track listing, this well-mixed CD (released by Miami's Street Beat Records) should build on the spotless repution Koma & Bones have already established in the USA with their blinding remixes of American breakbeat classics God Within - "Phoenix" and Cotton Club - "Nu Jack".

		Skeewiff It's All Gone... Jalapeno (UK) June 2001 Album Farsky and Crotch Silently Losing the Plot

Skeewiff (aka Elliot Ireland and Alex Rizzo) were once signed to Ministry of Sound's big beat label FSUK but later set up their own label Jalapeno Records. The lads are best known for putting out some very goofy tunes of questionable taste that borrow shamelessly from 1960s pop songs, TV themes, spy movie soundtracks, calypso and a host of other oddball sources. Many of these have found a place on Skeewiff's debut album, like the opener "Mexican Flyer" and the title track "It's All Gone" It's in their (slightly) more serious moments that the lads really shine, though. Like the guitar-fueled "Shaft" style Seventies funk of "Silently Losing the Plot" and "Cop Show", while "Boom" is a dancefloor friendly, bottom-heavy party tune rocking a wicked "I like the bass that goes boom" vocal sample. "It's All Gone" is a strong debut, it's much more eclectic than I expected but it works really well as an album, and the hilarious little vocal interludes are icing on the cake. Besides, you can't really go wrong with an album that offers track titles like "Cheeky Chicken", "Farsky and Crotch" and "Shag"!!

		V/A mixed by Tipper Sound Off Fuel (UK) June 2001 Compilation / mixed CD Tipper: Sable-Taco Buckfunk 3000: High Volume

Allright, watch ya bassbins!! as Dave Tipper's awesome b-lines and legendary scratching skills come out to shine. This mix showcases the fine artists on his label Fuel - Si Begg (under his Buckfunk 3000) guise, Andrea Parker, Phoenicia, newcomers Cold Fusion Mafia and of course Tipper himself. The man released a full album on Sony's Higher Ground last year with more downtempo material but now heads back to the dancefloor for "Sound Off", his first mixed CD. In addition to the mixed CD there's a bonus disc with the 10 tracks in unmixed form, plus a collection of 26 stomach churning bass tones and crazy sound FX (check the Fuel cars!!) courtesy of Dave Tipper and fellow car audio freak Bass Mekanik. I was surprised that some of these tracks, particularly Buckfunk 3000 - "High Volume" and Tipper's congalicious "Sable-Taco", are really quite accessible and dancefloor friendly compared to Fuel's previous output. Still, this rocks - hard!! No wonder that Street Beat Records in America's bass capital Miami has also released "Sound Off" domestically in the USA.

		V/A Botchit Breaks 4 Botchit & Scarper (UK) June 2001 Compilation / mixed CD SOTO feat. Amaziree: Hold On Aquasky vs Master Blasters: Master Blaster Jason Sparks: Pornography

Only two years on from the first Botchit Breaks, and already we're at number four in this excellent CD series of dancefloor-oriented breaks. And this is no "Now This Is What I Call Breakbeat Vol. 23" but a selection of 12 exclusive new tracks from Botchit's superb stable of artists. The emphasis here is on the latest signings to the Botchit camp, like Atomic Hooligan, Digital Pimp, Bionic and Backdraft - all talented artists that you'll be hearing loads more from. SOTO team up with vocalist Amaziree (previously heard on T-Power's "Running") for the stunning "Hold On" while Aquasky work cheeky "Mad Max" samples on "Master Blaster" and Si Begg (or is it DJ Zinc on crack?) plunders "American Beauty" for "I Can't Take It". Also appearing on the album are Jason Sparks, BLIM, Chris Carter, Deekline and others. If that wasn't enough, "Botchit Breaks 4" comes with a bonus mixed CD by Aquasky! And for the deejays, all tunes will be available on a 6x vinyl version.

		V/A mixed by DJ Zinc Bingo Beats Bingo (UK) May 2001 Mixed CD Jammin: Kinda Funky Shellltoe: Shelltoe

Last year DJ Zinc, responsible for junglist classic "Super Sharp Shooter", created a ludicrous Star Trek-sampling 2-stepper with an infectious bassline called "138 Trek (Phaze One)" and stuck it on an EP. Little did he know that the tune would be a massive hit in the UK and help pave the way for a new style known as breakbeat garage, or breakstep, or whatever we're calling it this week. Zinc quickly set up a new label called Bingo Beats and started to release a string of tunes in similar vein. VERY similar vein. So on this 21-track CD, the first label compilation from Bingo, it's just too painfully obvious that Zinc is simply repeating the same trick over and over again - same beats, same bassline, and only slight variations from the formula. Thankfully Zinc beefs up the album with 2-step tracks from the other two True Playaz lads, DJ Hype and Pascal. Not surprisingly it's Hype who impresses most of the three with his dark as fuck productions under the names Naughty and Shelltoe. Overall this serves as a great introduction to breakbeat garage for those who only know "138 Trek". Still, it's a bit doubtful that a whole CD of this will hold your attention for very long.

		V/A mixed by DJ Tosh & Butterfly Potion Nu Steppin 2 Firetrap (Germany) May 2001 Mixed CD DJ Deekline: Fame and Money (instr.) Santos: Camels (DJ Zinc remix)

German deejays Tosh and Butterfly Potion follow up on last year's successful double mixed CD, accompanied by a massive 20-date international tour, with this excellent sequel. Again mixing duties are ably handled by Berlin's Tosh (CD1) and Cologne's Butterfly Potion (CD2). Both discs represent a diverse crossover mix of UK garage, breakbeat garage and nu breaks - an appealing formula which has more than proven itself on dancefloors in the past year. The track listing counts a whopping 29 tunes in all. Vocal garage selections from the likes of Trick or Treat (who contribute the horror flick sampling "Exorcism"among others) sit next to some of the best breakbeat garage tunes of recent times, like Blowfelt - "Lickle Rolla", Unreal - "Back for More" and Deekline - "Fame and Money" as well as some excellently chosen breakbeat tunes, from the obvious, such as Meat Katie's bass thumper "Rotten Dot Com" and T-Power's gorgeous vocal track "Running", to more surprising selections like Andrew Weatherall's remix of Red Snapper's "Some Kind of Kink" and Matt Bushwacka's Tek Mix of "Sueno Latino". Nice!

		V/A mixed by 10 sui & Tamsin TCR:50 TCR (UK) April 2001 Mixed CD Koma & Bones: Morpheus Breakneck: Atomic Agent Vigi & Flip: Subsonic

Rennie Pilgrem's seminal breaks label TCR is up to its 50th release and it's celebrating with this very special double mixed CD. So get yer lightsticks out and prepare to rave through over thirty fondly remembered classics from the back catalogue plus loads of new unreleased tunes. One CD was mixed together by Breakneck's Tamsin while 10 sui handles mixing duties on the second disc. Tamsin's 18-track mix is a bit harder and more hardcore influenced than 10 sui's, which is no surprise as she comes from a junglist background. The mix includes no less than four Breakneck tunes including wicked newie "Atomic Agent". 10 sui also mixes in one of her own tracks on her 14-track disc - the as yet unreleased remix she and Trigger did of Thursday Club - "Paranoia". Highlights of this collection include Koma & Bones' new monster track "Morpheus" (used by both deejays!) as well as a brilliant newie from Vigi & Flip called "Subsonic" - DJs will be happy to know that both are included on the accompanying vinyl double packs. "TCR:50" is an essential collection for any fan of the TCR sound or "nu skool breaks" generally. With so many brilliant new unreleased tunes it offers not only a welcome glance back but also a look into the future of breakbeat. Rave on TCR!

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