‘Benediction’ by, Hot Natured, is one of those tracks that exudes summertime vibes and memories from every pore. Now, Low Steppa has upped the ante and raised the temperature considerably with his ‘Old Skool Flex’ and fitted the original up with the hottest Speed Garage makeover. Set your dancing shoes to ‘quick time’ for this one and get those feet shuffling. Superb work!

Download the track here via Hypeddit.

Links for Low Steppa :

Soundcloud / Facebook / Beatport / YouTube / Twitter / Simma Black Records

A bit of Oldskool Rave Breaks, Dark Jungle, some Tech & Deep House, all fresh n free to download tracks curated in a soundcloud playlist by your resident blogger, LooP-eZ has featured on Experimental Bass records and showcases their 92 Suburban Base style sound with “Return Of Hard-Core”. Low Steppa shares his massive redux of “Dooms Night” womp…womp…womp…womp!!!! Wayne Dudley & Secret Sinz share a colab that will bring smiles to 90s house fans, a tidy update of “Nobody’s Business”. Next up is a nice chugging piano epic in Sonny Whartone’s remix of Dirty Secretz “Everything”, Tough Love take on speed gaarge anthem “Gunman” come selectaaa!!!! Garreth Maher & DJOKO have a free track via ApartmentSixtyThree “Inside You” for the deep house lovers, Pimpsoul mash up Michael Cassette & Degrees Of Motion for one of this writers favourite tunes of 2015, a top breaks banger, thanks to our good friends over at Life Support Machine for sharing that one. There’s a lovely slice of Tech House up for DL via Kerri Chandler’s Madtech Records, Blane Read’s “I Came To Jack”, sounds like a plan!!!

Track No9 in this top ten flips the script a bit, a dark amen roller from Master Mash free from Dark Til Dawn Recs and finally, one of two great house tracks by Lucas, if you liked this I also compiled a 56 track playlist of freebies including this top ten

Beats Without Borders Top Ten Free Tracks 26 12 15

How did you get involved in Trolla?
Myself (Tom Turner) & (Craig Bird) have known each other for years. Craig has Dj’d for years as we live 5 mins away from each other and had some experience in producing in the past and I’d done some Dj’ing before. Neither of us were doing anything music-wise and we’d spoken about it a few times and decided to get ourselves in the studio. That’s where it started.

For those who don’t know, tell us a bit about Trolla and how it began. How did you get into music production? What were the initial steps?
Being from Sheffield both our roots were bassline but we were getting into house music more and more and decided that’s what we wanted to make. We sat down and looked through vocal packs that we had and started looking at the sound we wanted, put some beats down, chopped up the vocal and got ourselves down to the studio to finish our first track.

Was there a moment or a tune or a DJ set that made you decide you were going to produce and was it always going to be House music?
Not necessarily, but some of the artists and sounds that have emerged over the last couple of years in house music have definitely made it exciting though

What is it about the current wave of House music that appeals to you?
There’s more and more new sub genres coming through and there’s a much dirtier side to house music and bass music these days

If you could work on a track with anyone from now or way back when, who would it be?
Switch

And if you could remix any tune of your choice, which one would you choose and why?
Faithless – Insomnia

Tell us a few of your all time and current fave producers?
There’s so many good producers and DJ’s out there at the minute, a couple that seem to be doing all the right things are Jauz, low Steppa, Chris Lake, Chris Lorenzo, Hybrid Theory and Joyryde.

Are there any unfulfilled goals or aspirations of yours musically?
It’s still early days for Trolla so we’ve got so much we want to do!

Describe to us your approach to a DJ set, do you like to gently warm up the crowd or go for the bangers or more of a journey approach?
It all depends on how long we’ve got, but it’s all about taking the crowd on a journey

Of all the tunes you’ve made, which is your favourite?

Hold You

What are the vital elements to making a tune that come into play when you’re in the studio?
It’s all bout key and chord progression for us, we want to make sure we’ve got a good solid sound that translates well.

Check out this free “Apache” bootleg by Trolla

www.soundcloud.com/trolladj
www.twitter.com/OfficialTrolla
www.facebook.com/trollaDJ
www.mixcloud.com/trolla

Trolla Interview

With only 3 days left to go, Jamie Rektchordz steps up to be my No.22! More stripped back than his normal material, this long lost treasure (due to a hard drive explosion) is something a bit different from this Bristol producer and dj. Having gained support in the past for his productions from the likes of Laurent Garnier, James Zabiela, Crookers and Radio One… this is an extra special treat for the LSM massive!

Expect to hear more form Jamie over the next few days with his: IFIM -Inspiration for Idle Minds project…

Keeping the Drum n Bass corner of the ward warm is one of our discoveries of 2015, Al Pack. When, Al’s not working with is good pal and partner in crime, Solotek, on their label, Vibe Inc, he can often be found putting the lushest of Drum n Bass touches to one of his many superb bootlegs, one of which he has for us right here and now as an exclusive for our advent giveaway! The ultra cool vocals are provided by the incredible, Erykah Badu from her track ‘Next Lifetime’ and as predicted, Al steps and delivers the goods. High style, high class as we bring you Advent Day #21.

Links for Al Pack :

Soundcloud / Facebook / Bandcamp / Twitter

Windom R, is back with another one of his killa remixes and an exclusive for our pals over at, PostBreaks. He’s taken the classic ‘Hey Boy, Hey Girl’ by, The Chemical Brothers and added his own Breakbeat twist to proceedings and what a class job he’s done! He brings a much fatter and harder hitting sound to the original with a breakdown of stomping Breakstep. This’ll get everyone up and dancing without doubt!

Links for Windom R :

Soundcloud / Facebook / Beatport / Mixcloud

Please tell us about the label’s background. How did you get the idea for the label and what’s the vision behind it?

Affectionate Grooves is NexGen Music’s loooong time project in the making. I grew up on UK underground music in the late 80’s and early 90’s witnessing the evolution of early Dance, Rave, Hardcore, Breakbeat, and later Jungle/Drum & Bass.

In the mid-to-late 90’s I started getting deep into Downtempo, Chill, and Deep/Chill-House. I couldn’t get enough of the “alternative” sounds that labels like Goodlooking Records (UK) were putting out on their Cookin’ imprint and Earth Compilations. Likewise with the sound pioneered by Miguel Migz and Jay Denes on Naked Music (US).

With NexGen Music focusing primarily on Drum & Bass, Downtempo, Chill, Nu/Future-Jazz, and other alternative styles, and Migration Recordings focusing more on Dubstep and Bass music, we had to get a label together to provide the label group with a sound and that we were missing, particularly on the house and garage front. Affectionate Grooves is the perfect compliment to the NexGen Music Group sound.

You’re about to release the Heisenberg EP by Kachina. We love the sound, please tell us a bit more about the artist and the release.

Kachina is a tribe of veteran producers and artists from the UK Midlands, channelling their skills honed from mastery of a wide variety of electronic music styles into two very distinct and spiritual flavors of house and garage, which represent the sounds of day and night. Heisenberg represents the ‘dark’ side of Kachina – moody glitchy techno-infused bass heavy garage with some seriously funky drum work and eerie soundscapes.

Which other artists are you’re working with at the moment? What’s their backgrounds and how would you describe their sound?

So, unlike our other labels which mainly represent production artists, with Affectionate Grooves we’ve decided to give as much if not more attention to the vocal and lead artists.

Alongside Kachina, we currently have upcoming releases featuring the following vocal artists:

• Afua – with a background in Soul/RnB/Garage/House
• Lyndsey Murray – with a background in Folk music (and also an awesome guitarist!)
• Nikki Marie – with a background in RnB, Soul
• Amazee – with a background in Indie Rock and also widely know as an underground conscious MC
• Dee Ellington – with a background in Classic Soul and RnB

Being a new label, we are on definitely on the hunt for some new artists and producers to join the rank! Get those demos over!

What have you got lined up for next year?

Lots more Kachina releases! Kachina’s sound has piqued the interest of DJ’s like Bunzero, Jenna G, Che and Nappy, so we’re getting a lot of solid support. At some point next year we’re looking to perform live versions of some of our music with vocalists and musicians in full tribal headgear

Where can people hear the the sound of Affectionate Grooves next? Any gigs happening soon?

Prangman (Migration/A-Grooves) runs a night called Sous Sol usually @ Sub8ten (formerly Sophbeck) on King Street in Leicester UK. Prangman & Kachina are regulars, artists who’ve played there recently include garage legend El-B, Flava D, Mooney & Killjoy. We’ve got a mini-tour lined up next year covering New York City, Washington, D.C, Baltimore, and Atlanta.

You can also find us via our soundcloud channels:

https://soundcloud.com/nexgenrecs

https://soundcloud.com/affectionategrooves

If Affectionate Grooves was an animal what would it be and why?

Hmmm… It would have to be a fox… With Kachina representing Leicester, UK, and Leicester currently being top of the British premiere league (who would you have known?). It’s all about the Foxes right now!

Kachin “Heisenberg EP” is out 25/12/15 pre order here and stream the Certified Premiere below

Why You Need To get To Know Affectionate Grooves

There is nothing more cool than the “Old School”, depending on how old you really are i guess. The early 2000’s was the golden age of Breaks, here Spanish producer / dj Peter Paul takes us back with a mix of some of his older tracks in his History of Retro Breakbeat Volume 2.

For more retro Breaks mixes on Breakzlinkz follow this link: www.breakzlinkz.net/tag/retro

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Tracklist

Slity & Olie T- Help Me Peter Paul 2004 (Free)
Peter Paul “Key Master” Original Mix Reedit (N-mity)
Peter Paul “Didactic Place @New Reedit (N-mity)
Feeline “Let Go” Peter Paul Remix (N-mity)
All Day Green “No Love” Peter Paul Breakbeat Remix 2007 (SFDK)
Matthew Mc & Stephen Cole “The Fringe” Peter Paul Remix(N-mity)
Kem “I Rip It” Peter Paul Remix (Selecta Breaks)
Dj Killer “Feel Underground” Peter Paul Remix (NBR)
Elite Force Vs Peter Paul “Hearth OF Reverendo (SUPER VIP)

Day #17 sees our friend Mini Da Minx step up to the mark with a set recorded back in July time for the now legendary Noisily festival. For those of you unfamiliar with the little lady with big balls, this worldclass dj not satisfied with playing beats and running her own club night, has also recently stepped into the world of production with a remix of ‘Power’ by Dj Debbie D which can be heard in this set. Expect peak time bangers reworked Minxy style that will make you adorn your finest bass face!

Download now from our Hearthis page HERE

Tracklist:

1. Mini Da Minx Intro
2. Rocking With The Best (Tujamo Remix) – Laidback Luke
3. What You Static About (Wonka-Vision Mashup) – Justin Jay/ Ms Dynamite
4. Burial feat Pusha T (Crookers Remix – Minxy edit) – Yogi
5. Power (Mini Da Minx Minxed up remix) – Dj Debbie D
6. Gold, Diamonds & Money – Antoine Delvig, Gregori Hawk
7. Ego Tripping – Bonsai Kat
8. Smack My Bitch (Jim Pavlov remix – Minxy edit) – The Prodigy
9. The Time (Stanton Warriors Remix) – Black Eye Peas
10. The Little Death – Tommy Trash & Killa Graham
11. Slam the Door – Zedd 12. Chikago – Marco V
13. The Reward Is Cheese (Nom De Strip Remix – Minxy edit) – Deadmau5
14. I Need – Loops of Fury
15. The Prodigy + Botnek – Warriors Feel It (The Loops Of Fury Bootleg)
16. Kill Humans (Dirtyloud Remix) – Dubsidia
17. Hurricane (Club mix) – Daddy’s Groove
18. The Dozens – Fake Blood
19. Gold Dust – DJ Fresh

Advent Day #16 has rolled around and for this one it’s a mix from me titled ‘The Golden Hour’. The thinking behind it goes a little something like this…

As we all know, the party season is fully upon us so I’ve assembled some of my very favourite Drum n Bass tracks for ‘The Golden Hour’, that hour where you know that by the end of it you’ll be stepping out of the front door to have what you hope will be one the best nights ever. The mix comes with a super high energy and is created just to keep you bouncing along while showering, bathing, shaving, choosing what to wear, opening the front door to your mates so they can bounce too and it’ll still keep you going while you make your way to the halfway point of merryniess, right up to the point where it’s time step outside to go show the dance floor what you’re made of! This mix is all about party vibes and good times so please enjoy and as always, rave safe!

Download the mix here via our Hearthis page.