Singles file: new tracks from Drumattic Twins, Specimen A, Sabretooth

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 host: Stewart Gudgeon

Single of the week

Drumattic Twins
Back To The Old School
Finger Lickin Records

***.5

This duo are like a box of Thorntons chocolates without the info card, you know everything will be quality, but you never know what you're gonna to get. Last month we got the filter-heavy Don't Be So Drumattic and the classic sounding Sound Of The Drum on the first sample EP leading up to the release of album Hammer & Tongs, which will contain Twins tracks spanning the last few years. There's usually a funky edge to anything Nick and Lanx produce and the lead track on this second EP is based around an old school piano riff backed by a driving breakbeat. Some synthesised strings recreate the breakdown from Afrika Bambataa's classic 80s hip-hop electro anthem Planet Rock before it all goes glitch-mental for maximum 2009 mayhem.

Click here to listen to a sample of Back to the Old School

Sabretooth
Scourge
Sabretooth Records

***

You might not expect to see Ben Fraser in our reviews section. This is because Ben Fraser is a trance producer who uses his 12 years of experience drumming for the likes of Swiss punk band Tastes Like Chicken (now BMC) to do live PA gigs around the UK. Intriguing, but not breaks. But the Sheffield based DJ has begun his own label to host his Sabretooth project, which delves into the deep and driving realms of psy-trance, and a little breakbeat gem has hitched a ride. Scourge feels very spacious, with plenty of delay and reverb over growling stabs and riffs. It's all topped off with an acidline straight out of Josh Wink's Higher State Of Consciousness, with hints also of progressive breaks legend BT.

Click here to listen to a sample of Scourge

Specimen A & Xim n Bass
Liberatae Tutamae
Audiogore

***

Specimen A have always been bubbling just under the surface of the breaks scene, perhaps being a bit too niche to gain massive recognition. They could always be relied on to produce quality tearout with a dark atmosphere, with many a film sample in tow, and more recently have been throwing down more rocking electro tinged dancefloor destroyers reminiscent of the work of friends Far Too Loud. This time Phil, Mo and Dan have been joined by Spain's Xim n Bass. I have no idea how they stacked five people in the studio, let alone all agreed on anything, but maybe they needed the help while they were focusing on setting up their new live act.

Liberatae Tutamae is standard old school Specimen A fare, though with all-new stuttered edits, and this time the film quote comes courtesy of Sam Neil and co in psychological space thriller Event Horizon. It is perhaps a shame to see these London producers returning to the old format while Ctrl Z and others move their sub-genre forward, but for those with nostalgia for this dying sound there could hardly be a more perfect example.

Click here to listen to a sample of Liberatae Tutamae