VA-The Faceless Exchange Of Beats [Boomsha Recordings]

I’m a huge fan of Boomsha, I’ve followed the label since it started back in 2012, and this latest compilation does the unthinkable. It manages to raise the bar once again for a label with one of the best Jungle back cats of the last 5-6 years.

Curated by Daz Breaks & Si 2 Bad Mice, ‘The Faceless Exchange Of Beats’ is living proof that Jungle in the digital realm can be every bit as good as the Jungle sound of the 90’s. With tracks ranging in tempo from 130-170BPM, and by artists old, new, and truly legendary, not a second goes by listening to this LP where you don’t enjoy it. This is Jungle unfettered and at it’s finest creatively.

Buy ‘The Faceless Exchange Of Beats’ on Beatport

I’ll start with D Audi ‘Airborne’, a nice, a very atmospheric 2 stepping track with a deep throbbing bassline

Schoco ‘Insanity’ is a dark roller with heavy breaks with switches and ghostly stabs. It gets wonderfully intense like the mind of a paranoid machine, dark progressive rave.

Ilk ‘Make You Mad’ is a golden throwback to the darkness of 97-99, swirling furious hoover riffs, GREAT drum programming, and lovely techno style  pads.

X E Dos ‘The Apocalypse’ starts with an Eastern flava, a sandstorm in the desert. The breaks come in sounding very live, very authentic followed on by subtle bleeps and sub-bass booms, as the track progresses, darkness pervades, unnerving horror like darkness.

DJ Aitch ‘The Orb is a journey of a track, how brilliantly it grabs you, takes you in, introduces new parts in just the right place, the drop is one of the best drops I have ever heard and boom!!! we are in full flight!

Nickynutz ‘Mirage’ features deep swirling synths, expertly chopped up analogue sounding breakage with busy percussion and a classic Junglist subsonic boom.

Rolling Paper ‘Grotty’ has a grime like feel. The track begins with funky metallic synths but quickly transforms into a more 92/93 Jungle Tekno like sound with a funky drummer break and lots of other interesting things going on.

Vertical Drop ‘A Quick Skank’ had me hooked seconds into the first listen. All about the soulful vocals and filtered breaks at around the 130BPM mark. To me, this is the best track on a phenomenally good compilation.

Sound Shifter ‘Darkest One’ conveys a great sense of urgency. Definite elements of  the Doc Scott, Goldie, Metalheadz sound circa 98/99 then…here comes the drumz!!!! Pure junglist rinse out, works EVERY time!

Pressa ‘Need You Now’ sounds very much in the 2011-2014 Future Jungle sound mould albeit at a slower 130BPM. The ravey hook on this one makes for a sure fire winner. They sound similar to those used in Tango’s ‘Time Bomb.’ This, plus Korg M1 pianos, a trickling water like FX, housey vox and those awesome chopped up breaks.

Next up, more classic breakbeat 140 action next, now what’s this? Is it Special Request/Paul Woolford? Actually, it’s Vertical Drop & Bobby Tee ‘All In Vain’

Check those melodic pianos, the vocal, the 2 Bad Mice ‘Bombscare’ style riff, warp bass, all the ingredients for a MASSIVE tune and I love it!!! and it just keeps getting better as it progresses, so who is it?  there’s a breathtaking mid-section to this tune, it’s very special indeed.

Things take a turn for the dark and twisted next with the fizzy opening of Redshift ‘Interdiction.’ There’s a tribal drum type stab which has really gets the  attention, lots of whirls, clicks and beeps, tight pounding breaks, some Reinforced/Moving Shadow esque melodies find their way in.

Next up, it’s Crickets and the sound of the Amazon jungle, dark tribal sounds, a spooky vocal, a lovely vocal, a BIG heavy rolling amen, sci fi like twinkles, dark jazz meets jungle, it’s Bay B Kane ‘Hanging Tree’

The hazy psychedelic intro on Blood ‘FIGHT!’ reminds me of a band called Gong from the 70’s but for the shortest of time, tough breaks abound, scary!!!! But I like it, Kung Fu samples, BIG rasping gut wrenching basslines, and H A R D beats!!

Pixel who just recently made an amazing LP for Boomsha features here with ‘Pacific’, very ambient, can’t help thinking of Liquid DnB but the beats don’t kick in for a good portion of the track. The atmosphere is warm, spellbinding at the 150BPM mark. A nice marching beat precedes little flickers of razor like bass hook which emerge fully midway, genius!!!

And so we come to the last track from renowned Jungle/Fotwork/Broken Beats producer Etch with some dreamy drumfunk called ‘Fight Talk’

In the digital era where over saturation is a major problem not to mention poor sales and people on Facebook who go on and on and on about vinyl and how good the old days were, it’s incredibly tough to maintain a label that is reputable, consistent in great output and that attracts the talents of luminaries and worthy new producers alike. Despite all that if you looked at Boomsha’s back cat, you would have to conclude Boomsha has managed to do all these things, great releases, must have artist LPs, lots of them.

In my opinion, without a hint of exaggeration, this compilation is yet another landmark on the journey for this label, I really hope that in years to come we remember Boomsha the way we remember Moving Shadow, Reinforced et all. Time doesn’t stand still, things move forward and for me, Boomsha is the modern day equivalent of these legendary imprints, the proof is there and the proof is right here!!!

VA-The Faceless Exchange Of Beats [Boomsha Recordings]