Y4K –Further Still

            The Breakbeat scene in the UK has really taken off in the past few years, continuing to go from strength to strength as today's "in" electro house vibe has had a marked effect on the sound. Despite this, a multitude of sounds still coexist prolific producers and labels – Rennie Pilgrem, Elite Force's Used And Abused label,  Bushwacka! Meat Katie and Fingerlickin' to name but a few, bring every flavour to the breakbeat dinner, from Funk to Glitch and beyond. A mix album like this, showcases the range and musicality combined with sheer dancefloor power that makes the style so special are can help a listener break free of the tyranny of 4/4 and move over to the broken-beat darkside..

Y4K is available as a mixed CD or unmixed 12”s;  the mixed album is superbly executed as basslines drop in at all the right points and the flow of music is as seamless as it should be. In fact, so seamless I am wondering if it was mixed on decks at all, or whether it was digitally spliced together, as the depth of dynamics mean the mixes between the tracks sound almost as natural as the tracks themselves. Textbook stuff from Tayo!

The opening track, “Travelling”  from Kevin Beber is different from the others insofaras it  has a full vocal, with lyrics, occupying similar musical territory to Kosheen, albeit with less of a drum and bass slant to it. I have to confess, initially I wasn’t too taken with this track, although subsequent listens have opened me up to it. It provides quite a mellow start to the album, but the charactaristic big, techy bassline of the Bushwacka!  remix  of Sueno Latino soon drops in and takes things deeper. The next couple of tracks take us through the type of territory covered in the Y3K series, and Adam Freeland’s Tectonics compilation – deep nu-skool breaks of the type that get played at progressive nights like Bedrock (formerly first Thursday of every month at Heaven in London, hosted by John Digweed), and are good, solid examples of the style.

On to the fifth track now,  where the mood is brought round to a more uplifting, summery vibe by the Stanton Warriors “Da Antidote”. The Stanton Warriors are well known for their catholic approach to producing, taking a similar approach to Basement Jaxx, although some might say with a more underground edge to their work. “Da Antidote” is quite garagey with a definite 2-step feel to it, and although I’m not a huge fan of UK garage, I found myself drawn to this track, and I can see it doing very well indeed, especially at the Notting Hill Carnival. 

The next few tracks from BLIM & Rennie Pilgrem, Creative Invasion Collective and Meat Katie all explore the harder side of breakbeat; more minimal and driving, but still very funky. This section is brought to a peak by Rennie Pilgrem and Uberzone’s now ubiquitous cut “Black Widow”  -- it’s been doing the rounds for a while now and is likely to be quite a familiar track to many listeners with its clattering tribal percussion and frenetic voodoo vocal loop.  After “Black Widow”, we come out into more funk-oriented territory with the Plump DJs “Scram” – another favorite that gets played out on quite a few House dancefloors.

The stand-out tracks on the final part are Scratch D vs H-Bomb’s Matrix-sampling “Red Pill” – a great hook bound to appeal to the more chemically-inclined clubbers and the last track – Tayo and Precision Cuts “Fire Good” winding things back down again with a great, dubby reggae vibe. It’s by no means a slow-moving track, but it’s perfect to ease you back into real life after all the breakbeat madness that has gone on in the last 70 minutes.  

The unmixed vinyl version is undoutably a good way to boost your collection of breaks records, especially as it’s going to be a lot easier to find than the individual tracks on 12” as Distinct’ive Breaks have a larger distribution base than most of the labels featured on the compilation. However,  some of the stand-out tracks that give this compilation its edge (Stanton Warriors, Rennie Pilgrem, Plump DJs) are missing, so it’s up to you to decide whether you like the other tracks enough to go for the vinyl option.  So, to conclude – 8.5/10 for the mixed CD, and a solid 7/10 for the vinyl.

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