22-year-old Henry Greenleaf is one of the young leading lights in the UK’s bass-led techno sphere. Relocating from his native London to Bristol after graduating from the same Creative Music Tech course in Bath Spa University as his favourites Addison Groove, Shackleton, Appleblim and the Timedance crew, he is carving a sound and reputation for himself that is rooted in richw, low-end, percussive sound.
The moniker is a shoutout to Gavino’s Filipino roots. He grew up moving between the Philippines, Indonesia, and the United States, attending international schools while developing an early love of music, drawing and breakdancing. Soon he was listening to Daft Punk and Justice, and by the time he moved back to Virginia for high school, he was ready to make music with a close group of friends.
Birmingham’s Yilan is next up on Ganesa’s Jelly Bean Farm with a ferocious five tracker, ‘Diaspora’.
Krotone’s sound is a fiery fusion of UK bass, garage, grime and techno. Having spent the past decade becoming increasingly obsessed with the history of everything from drum & bass and hardcore to dubstep and breaks, the Leeds-based DJ has cultivated a mixing technique and production style that doesn’t so much blend his inspirations, but smashes them together in an explosive and irresistibly kinetic fashion.
There are plenty of artists who proclaim the influence of hardcore, but there are very few whose birth was possibly induced by it. “She used to go out raving constantly, even when she was pregnant with me,’ laughs Etch, aka Brighton-based DJ and producer Zak Brashill, on his mum’s story that she was at The Zapp club when, aged just 18, she went into labour with him.
“When I first started making music I was just soundtracking my walk to school,” says Zak of his earliest productions in 2005 using Fruity Loops. Although conversant in hardcore and jungle, helped by inheriting his uncle’s record collection after he’d moved to the States to work for a computer games company, it wasn’t until he came to London in 2011 that he started thinking about the dancefloor.
All Centre – a new label started by TT label’s DJ Pitch – introduced itself in August by way of a electrifying EP by Simkin.
Now, the emerging imprint is readying its second release, this time courtesy of fellow south Londoner, Holloway. Marking the producer’s sophomore release, ‘Agar Oud’ is a similarly bass and percussion-led affair to Simkin’s ‘Malfunction’ EP, but with a darker edge.
There is a unifying force at the heart of Kampire Bahana’s work. For several years now, the Ugandan DJ and writer has been at the helm of the country’s dance music scene, inspiring crowds throughout East-Africa and, more recently, across Europe and beyond. In striving not only to create an electric atmosphere on the dancefloor but also to unite a vast community in the fight against oppression and marginalisation, Kampire has quickly become one of the most vital figures in the continent’s club cultural sphere.
A core member of Uganda’s Nyege Nyege collective – whose label we’re also suitably obsessed with - Kampire broke up an extensive European tour this summer to play at Nyege Nyege festival in the Ugandan town of Jinja. The annual event – more on which you can read below – is yet another testament to the unifying power of what Kampire and her peers do.
Yak has gone from strength to strength in the past year. Following last year’s breakthrough dancefloor destroyer ‘Mido’, the recent DJ Mag Fresh Kicks mixer has played some of the UK’s finest venues as well as catching support from huge names such as Hunee, Joy Orbison, Midland, Objekt, Peggy Gou, Laurel Halo, Simian Mobile Disco, Paul Woolford and Martyn.
Brighton producer Etch will return with his ‘Ups & Downs’ LP on 19th October. Set for release via Sneaker Social Club x Gully the 12-track album comprises of a wide array of tracks produced between 2014 and 2018 during periods of exciting peaks and difficult lows.
‘Ups & Downs’ is thematically rich and showcases the producer’s – Zak Brashill – continued flourishing as one of the strongest producer’s in the UK’s jungle, half-time and breakbeat sphere.
