To all the readers out there on the northern hemisphere, there’s a long cold winter ahead of us unfortunately. Luckily, there’s plenty of time to clean out those chimneys and get the fireplaces roaring, all the while getting some deep grooves on the stereo to warm up to. 

The output from Broken Audio is a perfect compliment to those wintertime woes. It’s music that paints a perfect picture of a dreary overcast afternoon in London, yet a great listening experience despite what you might see initially on the surface. Run by a very tight-knit family to help promote and distribute the deeper, musical sounds of drum and bass, Broken Audio is off to a good start as we approach 2010. Keeping their output squarely focused on passing lane-speed music, a nice cross section of new (Mindmapper, DBR UK, and Notion) and established (Loxy, Doc Scott, Outrage) producers are on board.

It appears that their campaign is grassroots in nature, spreading their sound via word of mouth and social media; their releases appear to be limited to digital for now. However, I like their approach as it has a similar spirit to the way most little known labels releasing rave and dance music culminated as everyone swept the 1980s aside.

DBR UK - Suspect - Broken Audio - Free Download Xmas 2009 by Broken Audio

DBR UK’s latest piece, “Suspect”, linked below, is a free download courtesy of Broken Audio and Soundcloud. A nice freebie, Suspect takes much advantage of both the black and the white keys on the keyboard. Plenty of darker, minor chords here make this a deep affair. Beyond this, be sure to check out Loxy’s recent podcast as well. Pretty much all of the songs here have a similar sound; hopefully these tracks will occupy the cd wallet and hard drives of many an opening and closing DJ in the new year.

Loxy - Broken Audio Podcast Vol 9 by Broken Audio

There is no end in sight whatsoever to the output coming from B.Rich’s Pittsburgh studio. And unlike many producers who are quick to turn around a project to make a quick buck and move on to the next thing, B.Rich comes correct with both consistency in quality as well as a versatile array of work. 

Kastle is B.Rich’s dubstep-based side project. For those familiar with his work within that genre, he has a very distinct sound; much of his dubstep work leans towards the the somber side and is layered with lots of synths and vocals. He does a nice job infusing contemporary forms of American music, particularly R&B, into his dubstep creations and is perfect end-of-the-night tunage. 

Check out Goldsweat’s blog and you will find 2 free remix downloads by Kastle: a re-working of Kanye West’s “Coldest Winter”, and his take on Cosmic Revenge’s “Late Nights”. And there’s a new promo mix in there too; it’s entirely dubstep and showcases more up-and-coming talent on this side of the Atlantic.

Distorted Minds’ label DSR has been busy over the last two years releasing dancefloor pressure across drum and bass, dubstep, and hip hop. This freebie, recently posted to their site, combines a bit of the latter two genres. The original mix of “Warning” is up for grabs, featuring the vocal stylings of Dynamite MC. Pretty standard party tune overall and is very well produced too. That kick just screams for recognition! 

Additional dubstep and jungle remixes are available for purchase in high quality MP3 or on vinyl as well on their site. 

My rating: 8/10

http://dstyle.bandcamp.com/

Unfound Sounds is a great online label that hosts the work of many upfront minimal house artists. Many months ago I did a basic showcase on the label right on this site, however over the course of 2009 they have been busy and since then have witnessed the release of dozens of freebies for DJ’s and music junkies. One of the more recent ones comes from Spanish artist Alex Medina, a nice six-track EP titled Octopus Vulgaris. 

Upon a listen, I feel as if the content of this EP gets stronger over the course of it’s six songs. The opener, “Bye Bye Mrs Plumpoff”, is the weakest of the lot. Although a standard sounding minimal-house affair, the vocals of this song for some reason don’t seem to fit with the rest of the song. However I do like the resonating keys coming from the low end of the piano towards the middle. “Su Diablo Rojo” and “Purpura Casualidad” are pretty good, and both particularly highlight Medina’s Spanish background and decisive attention to the drums; balancing both minimal kits with Latin-inspired percussion very well. In fact, the former of the two even works well in a UK Funky context!

“Where Are You Going My Baby” and “K-Small” leave the sounds of his homeland behind to focus on a no-nonsense minimal/tech house sound. Plenty of abbreviated synthesized sounds decorate the soundscape in both pieces. Groove and funk show up at both of these parties, and even though neither take center stage they politely converse with the other guests in the front hallway, helping keep the shindigs a light-hearted, fun affair.

We end with bargain rules, an innocent and non-chalant swinging affair; here he’s still utilizing his editing style with vocal snippets liberally dosed throughout, only this time with a lacsadazical delay on the percussion. I could do without the overpowering single-note saxophone stab in the bridge, but at least it helps differentiate that passage from the beginning and end. 

http://www.unfoundsoundrecords.com/unreleases

Looking to give your sample library a breath of fresh air? Check out some of the freebies just recently posted to www.technomusic.me. Available as download in full 44.1 kHz WAV glory, there are hundreds of drum loops, basslines, synth loops, and much more, free for the taking. The samples are bundled in packs of 25, so you don’t have to go down the entire list, wasting a whole afternoon saving each one individually (I wish more sites providing tons of free samples took this into consideration!)

Not only do these make for good production tools, the loops will surely come in handy for DJ-ing too, especially if you’re utilizing Ableton in your sets.