Mastered by Mastering Engineer Saif Bari
Unchained launches into 2020 with its “The Year of The Rat” compilation bringing together some of our favourite producers on the label and welcomes some new members into the Unchained family from various corners of the globe - including China, Europe, the UK, the States and Canada.
UK based artists include HLZ, with a rare foray into halftime banger land, ROHAAN, delivering his own brand of trappy hybrid DNB and Bristolian beat smith HØST, with an eclectic pulse-driven masterpiece best described as a fusion of German EBM, minimal Drum’n’Bass and epic science fiction. Coming out of China, we have two of our most prodigious talents, 3ASIC and RADIAX, who represent the ever-evolving vein of Bass spreading through the region and for which we are proud to be nurturing on the label in the years ahead. Stateside, DAVE OWEN, ROOT FOR THE VILLIAN and QUENTIN HIATUS as well as Canada’s HOMESICK bring tasteful contributions spanning 160, ghetto-halftime and juke jungle. Each, on their own, exemplifying the wonderful permutations of up-tempo electronic being incubated in their respective stomping grounds. Then, Italian Trio FRACTALE, Dutch export SUBP YAO and Austria’s SENTIC CYCLE all step up, showcasing their ability to fuse rhythm, grit and aesthetics into unique low-end half-step gems. To round off the release, Unchained co-founders, LYNDON JARR and DANIEL POWER release their first collaboration on the label - a fusion of dark funk, minimal halftime and charged atmospherics.
Each year we look forward to celebrating the label’s code of re-setting the ceiling on Bass music with a passion for the dance-floor moving traditions of Drum’n’Bass.
Link to all streaming/download here: http://smarturl.it/yearoftherat
The Best Electronic Music on Bandcamp: March 2020
It never ceases to amaze how the more experimental edges of drum’n’bass continue to morph into ever new hybrids. Case in point: the Unchained label out of Hong Kong, which represents dozens of different flavors of “ghetto halftime,” “juke jungle,” and other mutant variations on d’n’b. This compilation features talent from across the planet—the U.S., Canada, Italy and Netherlands—and leans heavily towards militant rhythms that emphasize a half-tempo lurch, with d’n’b’s scampering percussion whirling around the atmosphere. But it’s the contributions from Hong Kong and mainland China that feel freshest—most notably, the absolutely demented “Rudeboy” by Beijing’s Radiax, which staggers, squelches and roars, feeling simultaneously like an expression of a world gone mad and a stirring call to action.