I have to admit that my time spent with music had considerably declined these last couple of months. Why? At first I thought it was because I felt that the scenes and genres that I was following were sort of going around in circles, directionless; that maybe the lack of apparent collective movement, of an overarching narrative in music had started to bore me. Maybe. But I think the likelier reason was that I had simply reached a point of satiety with music, no doubt a result of listening to too much of it.

I hadn't abandoned it completely though. And I think I'm starting to fall back into my usual listening habits.

Anyways, this is some of what I've been enjoying these last few weeks.

Toasty! Toastyboy! Very little is know of him, a faceless producer of which little is known. A practitioner of the 2000s' breakstep sound, he made some noise with his releases on Scuba's Hotflush label, back when Scuba was part of the dubstep/140 bpm scene. Toasty's (Damien Russell according to Discogs) music is very dear to me, mainly because it was one of my points of entry into the world of electronic music and UK rave, 10 years ago. But even then, it was clear to me that his production had a feel of its own, a mix of cinematic sensibilities from 90s electronica and idm, old school dark d'n'b rollers and garridge swing.

He had disappeared for the larger part of this decade, until his comeback in 2017 with his Metal EP released on Circadian Rhythm's label. “Rebar”, dark and ethereal, instantly became one of my faves from that year.

“Rebar” came out almost a decade after his previous official release, On Something / You're Special, brought to us by Slaughter Mob's Halo Beats label and, breaking away from the breaks sound and taking rhythmic influences from Mala, a delightful dubbier side to his music. Ben UFO was probably creaming himself all over this back then.

But it's his halfstep banger from 2004, “Knowledge”, with which he left his mark. It's certainly his most direct track, adding his own twist to 90s diva and chipmunk vocals. But that snare, that glorious snare, is probably the most mid-2000s sound you'll hear today.

After another two years of silence following Metal, Toasty came out of hiding again, back in April, by opening his own Bandcamp page (as is usual these days) and posting mastered versions of previously-unreleased tracks. No surprises really, in terms of sound, but they definitely warrant a listen.

More can be listened to on his page: https://toasty.bandcamp.com/

Breakstep is evidently the forgotten sister genre of the other two “140 bpm” genres, one that I don't know much about unfortunately. It shares some of the same roots as dubstep and, if it never drew much attention, it has to be because, at the end of the day, it was probably the most conservative of the three genres (the other being grime, of course). When people speak and write about hearing dubstep for the first time in 2005-6 (thank you forums and archived blog posts), they almost always mention how they were very aware that they were listening to something new, something fresh. Breakstep was ultimately too stuck in the 90s. “Slowed-down drum n bass” is not an unfair descriptor. Nevertheless, there was some quality shit.

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Continuing on the theme of previously unreleased tracks showing up on Bandcamp this year, how about Lux Groove's “Five Four”? Current and former fans of DJ Youngsta might not recognize that name, but they might recognize the Swamp 81-styled drum machine bass jam that was part of Yunx' “130 sound” sets of 2013-2015. I don't remember in which interview he says this, but I do remember him mentioning how certain “130 sound” (i.e. techno and electro post-dubstep/UK bass hybrids) tracks reminded him of early dubstep. This is an example of such a track, showing up of the self-released Collections compilation. It's a slick track, stripped-back, with a rolling, cascading bass.

It reminds me in a way of Benga's early, early production. Like this little number:

And this unreleased one:

There's more of these skeletal drum machine tracks in Lux Groove's release:

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Where I'm currently residing, summer had come in full swing. These days, that means that we've just had to go through weeks of burning sunlight and sticky, humid air with some rain to bring people here some relief. Maybe like how some people tend to listen to more emo, Nick Drake or Radiohead during the fall, or to more extreme metal during the long winter nights, I think the recent weather drew me to Archie B's Steppin Up Vol 1 mix. Yeah, I know that deep tech's come and gone since a while now, but somehow his so-glossy-as-to-be-aquatic sound somehow seemed a fitting soundtrack for these few weeks.

And if you need more deep tech goodness, I recommend giving a listen to this mix of Dean Allen (of Studio 37) productions:

His cold, nocturnal and skeletal beats a great contrast to Archie B's work: