Invincible
My Mind
Freakaboom (UK) December 2002
Original mix
Databass remix
Switchshift remix

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Invincible are Johan and Tommy Stisch from Sweden's Sound of Habib label, two guys who have earned huge amounts of respect and praise in the international breaks scene as champions of the harder side of progressive breaks. Their debut 12" under the name Invincible, "Untamed/Acid Burn", was top-notch and this sequel "My Mind" delivers another powerful, anthemic prog-breaks track with the female singer who also graced "Untamed" delivering a gorgeous full vocal performance. The package is rounded out with two fantastic remixes on side B. Freakaboom label boss Databass (aka Justin Owen) takes the original in a techy direction with housey crossover beats, while hot new artist Switchshift delivers the best of the two mixes, a smooth, funky roller with cut up vocal snippets and butt-shaking bassline action.

Lee Coombs & Meat Katie
Two Men on a Trip / The Hum (Meat Katie remix)
Finger Lickin' (UK) December 2002
Two Men on a Trip
The Hum

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Following on nicely from Meat Katie and Elite Force's tribal breaks anthem "Toba", this 12" sees the meaty one teaming up with Finger Lickin' studio wiz Lee Coombs. The result is "2 Men on a Trip", also featured on Coombs' recent "Perfecto Breaks" mixed CD. A big-room track that combines Meat Katie style tribal percussive breaks with squelchy Lee Coombs style acid madness. The lads also drop some great oldskool house piano stabs in the breakdown. On side B, Meat Katie sneaks a bit of tech-house onto a Finger Lickin' release as he goes solo for "The Hum", a cool housey track named for his London residency Hum.

Sunscape and Chris Dee
Freaksound
Kubist (UK) December 2002

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Breakbeat gods Koma & Bones deliver another top class remix on this 12" from Sunscape (aka Ben Shaw) and Chris Dee. The four-to-the-floor original mix is classy, a deep pulsating progressive house track drowning in spacey reverb, with filthy bass and emotive chanting. Koma & Bones' breaks mix, taking up the B-side, is decidely more progressive and chilled out than their usual fare, a late-nite track starting off with a moody intro using the lovely chanting from the original mix, then dropping funky infectious K&B style breaks, accompanied by deep proggy synths stabs and atmospheric sweeps.

Smithmonger
Fuckwits in Midiland / Outside My Flat
TCR (UK) December 2002
Fuckwits in Midiland
Outside my Flat

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The Australian-born, classically trained Smithmonger (aka Paul Smith) has already made a big impression with releases on house labels such as Hooj and Bushwacka's Oblong Records. Now he's set to conquer the breaks scene as well with this excellent TCR debut. "Fuckwits in Midiland" is a brilliant infectious four-to-the-floor party track with funky, bumpy bottom end and loads of silly FX piled on top. The Plumps, Meat Katie and Lee Burridge are just some of the big names that are caning this tune. Side B offers Smithmonger's take on the 2-step sound dominating the streets of his Brixton neighorhood. "Outside My Flat" is a deep, floaty stepper with a big bouncy rolling garage bassline offset by light, bubbly, sometimes eerie keys. Not your average TCR record but I think this one of the label's best releases in a long time. More, please!

B-Phreak
Bounce / Phuzz Ya
Badaboom (UK) December 2002

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Freakaboom's new offshoot label Badaboom introduces a new signing from Germany on this 12" the label's final release of the year. B-Phreak (aka Bernie Ott) previously teamed up with the talented Circuit Breaker on German breaks label Timing and indeed, "Bounce" sounds a lot like Circuit Breaker's Berlin style breaks sound - dark, bottom-heavy techno breakbeat with evil b-lines and plenty of pissed-off punk attitude. The track's looped "bounce" vocal hook gets a bit annoying in the long run though. Flip to the B-side for "Phuzz Ya", with funky percussive housey beats, nutty warped basslines and a hilarious, dead clever "making music to piss you off" vocal sample. A bit odd, but I like it!

Reza
Unspoken Words
Loöq (USA) December 2002
Original mix
MOMU breaks remix

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Chilled-out West Coast style progressive house & breaks from San Francisco's Looq Records. The original is a classy prog house track with beautiful melancholic keys. Looq' s resident breaks duo MOMU (aka JD Moyer and Mark Musselman) impress with their progressive breaks remix on the flip, a lush late-nite groover with a hypnotic main riff over dreamy ambient synths and cool PMT style breaks.

Loes Lee & Meneater
Territory
Moving Target (Holland) December 2002

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"Territory", the latest single from Moving Target boss Loes Lee and studio sidekick Peter Meneater, nicely blurs the lines between breaks, tech-house and progressive trance. The hypnotizing original mix offers atmospheric late-nite fare with high production values, running tight, techy breaks over cool floaty keys. Check the B side for a remix by American talent Kemek the Dope Computer with more rolling style breaks punctuated by tweaky Josh Wink-like acid lines.

Friendly
Greedy / Fucking in Paradise
Boombox (UK) December 2002

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Produced by Australian newcomer Friendly (aka Andrew Kornweiler), this 12" offers a rather unfinished-sounding housey breaks track on side A called "Greedy (Filty Dirty Remix)" which didn't impress very much. The real goods are on side B - hey, you can't really go wrong with a track title like "Fucking in Paradise", can you? The tune itself is smashing too, a humourful peaktime party track rocking an over-the-top filthy bass riff from hell over rolling breaks, topped by female vocal snippets and even some ravey whistles (cheeky!) The BPMs are quite high though so you'll probably be pitching this down considerably.

Chad Jackson
Rock
Acetate Ltd (UK) December 2002

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Until not so long ago, Acetate Ltd was known for its dark tech-breaks sound. The recent Krafty Kuts remix of Afrika Bambaataa's "Funky Heroes" has taken the label in a cool new electro direction that continues with this great new single from former world DMC mixing champion Chad Jackson. Unlike the dark techy rumblings of his last 12" on Acetate, "Rock" is a fun retro-ish electro breaks track with moody synths, monster bass and vocodered "we're gonna rock you!" vocal. The 12" also offers a tribal-tech four-to-the-floor mix but the main mix is definitely the one to play.

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