Singles file: new releases from LuQas, VENT, Radio Trip and Access Denied

Each week, we pick out all the best new releases so you don't have to, and also warn you which ones to avoid like a breaks bootleg of Britney Spears. Your hosts: Stewart Gudgeon, Journeyman & Barrcode, Ben Jurassik

SINGLE OF THE WEEK

LuQas, Kickflip, Farace etc
Remix EP
Dead Famous Records

****

• Click here to listen to the LuQas remix on MySpace

Dead Famous are fast becoming one of those labels whose material you look to first on your trip to the digital downloads store. I'm a particular fan of the way they are reinventing acid breakbeat for the new Millennium. Breaks has such a long history of employing 303-style sounds to great effect, ever since Rennie Pilgrem's A Place Called Acid, right back in 1995, in fact, and it's a revival that's long overdue. Here, Brighton's LuQas (above) steps up to offer an absolutely huge rerub of Robosapiens' original acid tweaker, Infected, - and gadammit if this isn't his second thisisbreaks.com Single of the Week in just a few months. It's well deserved, because this boy really knows how to construct a buildup, and by the time the track drops, if there aren't bodies hurtling round the dancefloor in glee abandon then you're probably DJing at a dubstep night (in which case, RUN!) Elsewhere, Sheffield's Kickflip delivers a decent funky tech-breaks rerub of Break the Box and BadBoe's Walk Out Laughing, while Farace offer a wondrous dubbed out, atmospheric blast of vocal and guitar-led breaks with their remix of Bitrok's beguiling The Real. An all round excellent package to suit a variety of vibes, then. (BJ - editor@thisisbreaks.com)


VENT
Deviant Creatures #1
Hardcore Beats

****

• Click here to listen to a sample of White Out

Having rapidly risen up the ranks in the last year and become the mainstay act at Hardcore Beats, Dan Havers and Sam Ashwell, aka VENT, have decided that now is the perfect time to showcase their flexibility with a new four part series. The first thing to note is the varying BPMs, from 107 to 140, but it doesn't stop there. The first track, White Out, is a regular breaks number that develops their techy sci-fi sound, but relies less on the growling basslines they are known for. Slowing down to a lazier pace we get Crystallite (Deviant Edit), which morphs between progressive, grungy roller and Quest style warping bassline destroyer, all over a solid, head-nodding beat. You'll be looking for ways to fit this into your breaks sets! There are two digital only tunes, the first being Ghost, an unmistakeably hardcore breaks tune, but with dubstep style half-time drums, and all that echoing and swooshing atmosphere you expect from Dan and Sam. Finally we see the lads take on the realms of Krafty Kuts and A Skillz with an incredible funked up hip hop number, packed with stuttered, filtered brass stabs and beautiful supporting basslines. (SG - Stewart@pogo-djs.co.uk)

Radio Trip
Music Heads Remixed
Jalapeno Records

***

• Click here to listen to Strange Music

Radio Trip are two founder members of the funk outfit The Apples, MixMonster (Uri Wertheim) and Schoolmaster (Ofer Tal) and are well known radio DJ’s in their home city of Tel Aviv. Four tracks get the remix action from their second album Music Heads, an LP that’s a mixture of turntablism, blues, jazzed-up breaks, funk beats and psychedelic samples. While two of the remixes head off into the funk disco and chill out genres, Strange Music and Whole Wide World definitely slip into the breaks section. The former is a sample laden track with laidback beats beneath tremolo guitar loops, harpsichord riffs and Mr Scruff-esque synth lines. It's a short one at just under three minutes but a track that lends itself as more of a mix tool. Whole Wide World brings some Mediterranean breaks action, complete with vocals. You'd be hard pushed to find any resemblance to the original, but that’s it beauty. A nice remix package for fans of turntablism. (J&B - adrianbarrcode@hotmail.co.uk)


Access Denied
Tumbler
YellowFinger

• Click here to listen to the Llupa remix

**

This eclectic Belarussian duo certainly show their interest in minimal and techno in their breaks productions. Andrey Mute and Pasha Joint give us a very sparse programmed breakbeat with an electro bassline and a funky synth lead that only really changes with the addition or removal of layers. The 2009 AD remix grabs the parts and gives them a bit more life, with a fuller b-line and a bit more melodic variety. After impressing us with his track Creeper (also on YellowFinger) in May, Brighton's LuQas has disappointingly gone down a house route with his remix, which only serves to make the track even more repetitive. Finally, if this sort of stripped down progressive tech-funk is your cup of tea, we have Llupa with the best effort, bringing in 90s style synthesised strings for an end of the night wind down feel. (SG - Stewart@pogo-djs.co.uk)