Browse by Label: KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)

Artist:	DUBKASM
Title:	More Jah Songs
Label:	KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	DUBK 019EP

Two crucial UK roots vocalists meet head-to-head on this nu-roots anthem from Bristol's Dubkasm team. Gritty live instrumentation meets heavy soundsystem-style steppers, previously featured on DJ Stryda and Digistep's highly-acclaimed 2009 LP Transform I. Solo Banton reinforces veteran Tena's spiritual plea in a DJ style, nailing the banner on the flipside with a soul-drenched sax and flute instrumental. A final dub workout takes us through antique Jamaican circuitry into a futuristic growler, closing this quality set in characteristic Dubkasm style.

Artist:	DUSK + BLACKDOWN
Title:	Submerge
Label:	KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	LDN 001EP

"'Submerged' is a testament to uprising. The first kick rises out of a 'Submerged's' keysound: a murky, bubbling, primordial soup. The kick coalesces into a live, organic rhythm, leading onwards. At first tiny shards of light filter through the mire, before a weak sun breaks through the grey clouds. 'Drenched' is a snapshot of urban underground living, spread wide across one 12". Tense, intense, compressed, it begins on a south London train, reflecting the rhythms and textures of our surroundings. the train heads south through some of dubstep's birthplaces: Streatham, Norbury and Norwood, ending of course, in Croydon. The recording was made late on a Sunday night, heading for one of Digital Mystikz' Dub Sessions parties."

Artist:	BLACKDOWN
Title:	Lata - Burial Rmx
Label:	KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	LDN 002EP

"Lata is the latest 12" from Blackdown aka Martin Clark, who is probably better known for his crucial musings on the dubstep/grime scene in his Blackdown blog, and also for his regular dubstep column on Pitchfork. This connection to the heart of the scene certainly gives Clark a clear advantage and is maybe why 'Lata' sounds so fresh. Pushing the scene one step forward, Clark injects his tracks with a skill and sense of composition rarely witnessed and the opening track 'Lata' showcases this beautifully; simple but effective beats are draped in thick stomach churning bass and a gorgeous Indian vocal. This is how street music should be; a true marriage of cultures, of sounds and of influences. Clark seems unphased by trends in the scene instead concentrating on a sound which could easily elevate him from dubstep and into the mainstream! Following on from this track is another treat, a remix from Hyperdub superstar Burial, whose debut album is of huge resonance to the dubstep scene. When speaking about acknowledging the music's recent past, he's talking primarily about old-school jungle, deep 2-step garage plates, dedicated underground producers. Burial's take on 'Crackle Blues' is compelling. Blackdown's own music remains strictly dubs -- a masterclass in the genre, clipped beats which would make the most respected electronic music producers blush and a street-smart London vibe which brings to mind dark alleys and half heard shouts from the distance; incredible music, from arguably the master of the genre. Lata is an EP set to change people's opinion on what is still a fresh sound, and something to get regular dubstep fans truly weak at the knees."

Artist:	DUSK + BLACKDOWN
Title:	Mantis
Label:	KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	LDN 003EP

"From the influential stable of Martin Clark's Keysound label comes Dusk & Blackdown's latest plate; the anthemic 'Mantis'. The kids are ready for deep bass and sparse beats, so who are we to disagree? Beginning with a sample from some unknown Eastern cassette tape we are instantly in dubstep nirvana -- one foot firmly in China and one foot in a muddy puddle on the Estates of South London. As leaden beats tumble over ear-pummeling bass it becomes obvious that the man Dusk intended this to lay waste to the world's growing soundsystems. Flip over for Martin Clark's own take on 'Mantis', which spaces out the beats a little and drops a truly destructive throbbing bassline for good measure. With much of the genre taking tentative steps into Eastern experimentation it's nice to see these two producers getting it absolutely right without exploiting the 'world music' angle too intensely. Stir-fried to perfection!"

Artist:	DUSK + BLACKDOWN (FEAT. TRIM)
Title:	The Bits
Label:	KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	LDN 004EP

"Martin Clark's Keysound label returns once more for another carefully written dictat in modern urban music. Although the previous records from Dusk + Blackdown have been something of a dubstep journey, these two tracks take his sounds into deeper, darker territory with mixtape don Trim taking the mic on 'The Bits' where he lets us know his name a few time as Clark and co. tickle their trademark Chinese sample collection underneath. Far more effective is the 187 Lockdown styled 2-step grind of 'Northside Cheng Dub' which dissects the genre marvellously with a propulsive bassline guaranteed to keep the femmes fighting. Brilliant stuff."

Artist:	DUSK + BLACKDOWN
Title:	Focus/Akkaboo
Label:	KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	LDN 005EP

The world loves the sound of dubstep, and that's due in no small part to Martin Clark's influential writings. His detailed documentation of grime and dubstep has seen the Croydon sound travel around the world, and the kids are ready for deep bass and sparse beats. Beginning with a sample from some unknown Eastern cassette tape, we are instantly in dubstep nirvana, one foot firmly in China and one foot in a muddy puddle on the estates of South London.

Artist:	STARKEY (FEAT. DURRTY GOODZ)
Title:	Gutter Music
Label:	KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	LDN 009EP

"Gutter Music" launched Starkey's Planet Mu album Ephemeral Exhibits in a wild style, but this killer track was only available on the CD version. Now on crisp black wax for Dusk + Blackdown's Keysound imprint, this mindblowing, futuristic production comes in its original glory, and also includes a very special version with vocals by grime MC #1, Durrty Goodz. The VIP version features bass line, dancehall, dubstep, electro, funky, grime and hip-hop, all in one unbelievable version. A massive 12."

Artist:	DVA (FEAT. BADNESS, RIKO, FLOWDAN & KILLA P)
Title:	Bullet A'Go Fly
Label:	KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	LDN 010EP

Keysound Recordings presents Rinse FM DJ/grime and funky don, DVA. "Bullet A'Go Fly" straddles the chasm between grime and dubstep, and features four of the UK's most deadly MCs: Badness who roll with Terror Danjah and the Lava Unit, a founder of Pay As U Go and a member of Roll Deep, Riko, and two more Roll Deep rollers, Flowdan and Killa P. The track is a deadly wake-up call on London's current state of gun violence, spread through pirate radio and underground raves. Label bosses Dusk + Blackdown remix it into a tough bass detonation, invoking both grime bangers and bleepy early jungle.

Artist:	KOWTON
Title:	Stasis (G Mix)/Countryman
Label:	KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	LDN 013EP

Joe Kowton aka Narcossist presents big bee-line dub-garage made for parties. "Stasis" runs on a deep 33 cut, throwing a dummy punch of dubbed keys and topped with a crackling vocal, a free swing, and fully-funked bounce. "Countryman" features a trodding steppers-motif, the groove intensifying with the dread vocal, its fabric assailed by more crispy bits as the dub builds and the full sub-pressure reveals itself. A soundbwoy classic for a distant future. Big with Ben UFO, Oneman, Brackles and Shortstuff.

Artist:	DUSK + BLACKDOWN VS. GRIEVOUS ANGEL
Title:	Margins Music: Redux
Label:	KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	LDN 014CD

Long-rumored, this is UK dubstep ing�nue Paul Meme aka Grievous Angel's full-length reworking of Dusk + Blackdown's debut full-length Margins Music. This album is an enduring and regular touchstone and is now a springboard for a whole slew of new dubplate and vinyl activity. As Grievous Angel himself explains: "For me Blackdown and Dusk were always crucial dubstep artists. They deliver tunes that simultaneously hit you in the chest, the feet, and the head, and I listened to Margins Music for months; I loved the way that it was smart, supple music that had real depth, but which would also go off in a club. It fused dubstep with many of London's newly-indigenous music, without being mere cultural tourism, venturing into London's marginal communities and working with other artists. Including, of course, rebuilding the bridge between dubstep and grime -- and not just with any old MC, but with the most vital figures on the scene. And then I got the call. They wanted me to remix the entire album. They were fans of the 'Dubstep Sufferah' series of mixes, where I re-edited and dubbed-up all different kinds of dubstep tunes with extra FX and vocals. The 'Sufferah' series was popular because it provided a widescreen listening experience that most standard DJ mixes didn't offer. I love rough, fast, live DJ mixing, but I wanted to do something different, with a lot of depth and replay value. I was influenced by albums that gave you a whole sonic world to get lost in, such as the classic dub albums of the '70s, like (Joe Gibbs and Errol Thompson's) African Dub Chapter Three, the cut and paste techniques of Coldcut's Journeys By DJ, Bill Laswell's dub remixes of Miles Davis on the Panthalassa album and the symphonic, endless soul of Marvin Gaye's What's Going On. I see Margins Music as a travelogue through London's post-codes and time-zones, and I wanted to bring out the mythical, narrative element of the songs. Blackdown and Dusk captured London's genius loci almost perfectly; my job was to amplify and concentrate it. London is a universal city, both concrete and symbolic, whose accretions of psycho-geography constrain and liberate the multiple diaspora that comprise its population."

Artist:	SKREAM
Title:	Sweetz (2005 Flex)/Angry World
Label:	KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	LDN 016EP

Two lost classics from Skream are contained here: "Sweetz (2005 Flex)," dating back to 2005, is really melodic and shows a significant Detroit influence, and "Angry World," which is cinematic and swung in a manner most reminiscent of foundation dubstep pioneers Horsepower Productions. Both tunes hark back to the formative early era of dubstep. The artwork features, at Skream's own request, a capture of the renowned Big Apple store, epicenter of the dubstep scene.

Artist:	LV (FEAT. JOSH IDEHEN)
Title:	38
Label:	KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	LDN 017EP

This EP comprises exclusive tracks "Lost," "Early Mob," "Your Coat," and "Walk It" before ending in "Face Of God," where we find LV's sound stripped back to its dark exoskeleton. The 38 is both a celebrated and maligned London bus route and was name-checked by Wiley in freestyles. The route was one of the last to be served by the classic hop-on-the-back Routemasters. It was a "bendy" bus, which were infamous for their ability to let fair dodgers nip on in the middle.

Artist:	LHF
Title:	EP1: Enter The Silence
Label:	KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	LDN 018EP

LHF are a shadowy collective with a musical vision that bubbles up deep from below, as if from a different era, one uncontaminated by current trends. Their membership is ill-defined, their methods clandestine and their motives unclear. Vast subterranean hoards of dubplates are being assembled, psychotropic riddims ready to be unleashed on an unsuspecting public. "LHF: they may enter in silence but beware... the storm has yet to break." --Blackdown; Members include Double Helix, Low Density Matter, and Amen Ra.

Artist:	LV (FEAT. JOSH IDEHEN)
Title:	Routes
Label:	KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.50
Catalog #:	LDN 022CD

Keysound Recordings presents the highly-anticipated debut album from London production trio LV. Routes was written and recorded in intensive bursts over a 12 month period, and heavily features London vocalist Joshua Idehen, who first collaborated with LV on their 2010 Keysound 12" 38 EP. LV is, at the moment, a studio project, not a traditional band, but "live" playing is still key to their sound -- as is serendipity. Their first release as LV was the Globetrotting/Takeover 12" on Hyperdub in 2007. Although it was not something they were previously involved in, it positioned LV in the "dubstep" scene -- although they admit they don't see their music as belonging to any one genre. Since then, they have released three further 12"s on Hyperdub, including last-year's kwaito-funky dancefloor phenomenon Boomslang, and have also recorded for other influential labels including Hemlock, 2nd Drop, Ramp/Brainmath, and Soul Jazz.

Artist:	VIBEZIN
Title:	From The Crates EP
Label:	KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	LDN 023EP

Vibezin is a longtime stalwart of the London pirate underground, best known as half of United Vibez, a DJ partnership with Amen Ra. This EP showcases his sample-scattered production approach, influenced by UK garage's magpie-like approach to fragments of great records of the past, and dubstep's reverence for weighty sub-bass. "Hot 4 U" layers crashing drums and strange funk samples to create a significant soundscape. "Mad Sick" rolls into darker Jamaican dread territories, while "Vicious" recalls classic jungle, but with a brooding, halfstep exoskeleton.

Artist:	DAMU
Title:	Ridin' EP
Label:	KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	LDN 024EP

Damu is the newest signing to bass station Keysound Recordings. Whereas much that surrounds him is ordinary and unremarkable, Damu's quadrant is a glittering explosion of hypercolor and kinetic movement, emotive energy and playful pulsations. "Ridin'" sounds like hypergrime grounded by crunk 808 sub-drops. "Be Free" and "Crystal Gaea" unleash a warm, UK funky-inspired glow. "Karolina's Magic J" is perhaps one of the oddest beasts in the realm, a trippy, woozy journey into synth-led psychedelia.

Artist:	KOWTON/DUSK
Title:	Kowton V Dusk EP
Label:	KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	LDN 025EP

The Kowton V. Dusk EP is another milestone on the M4 bass exchange: a dialogue between England's two most sub-saturated cities, Bristol and London. Capital-based Dusk and West Country-resident Kowton contribute three tracks in total: Dusk's "Fraction" (FACT Magazine calls it a "definite highlight"), Kowton's "Looking At You," which inhabits the space between house, UK funky and dubstep, and Kowton's re-mix of "Fraction," a master class in offbeat percussion and evolving groove.

Artist:	SULLY
Title:	Carrier
Label:	KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.50
Catalog #:	LDN 026CD

Long before -- four of five years before -- the UK garage revival kicked in and "future" garage had even been dreamt up, Sully began finding a space between 2step's swing, dubstep's edge and breakstep's drums, all underpinned by the rude spirit of jungle. He displayed a deft touch for heart-breaking melodies that could touch people as much as the ruff sub-bass could hit them, as evidenced on EPs like Phonebox and Jackman's Rec for the pioneering Frijsfo Beats label. Carrier makes good on Sully's unwritten promise to his long-hopeful fans. It's a short but sweet opus that embraces house, 2step, UK funky, purple synths and juke, with a widescreen, epic vision and Sully's trademark emotive vistas. In fact, so poignant was one cut, "2Hearts," that it was rumored to have been held back for the mythical "lost" Burial DJ Kicks mix. The second half of Carrier sees Sully -- best known for his 2step garage variants -- filter his own take on Chicago footwork, combining eski strings, crunchy 808 claps and ravey piano loops at a tempo last used by jungle, while a hitherto unheard UK funky influence is also revealed on "Encona." Collectively, the album presents a body of work infected by ruffneck pirate culture.

Artist:	SULLY
Title:	Carrier
Label:	KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	LP
Price:	$16.50
Catalog #:	LDN 026LP

LP version. Long before -- four of five years before -- the UK garage revival kicked in and "future" garage had even been dreamt up, Sully began finding a space between 2step's swing, dubstep's edge and breakstep's drums, all underpinned by the rude spirit of jungle. He displayed a deft touch for heart-breaking melodies that could touch people as much as the ruff sub-bass could hit them, as evidenced on EPs like Phonebox and Jackman's Rec for the pioneering Frijsfo Beats label. Carrier comes good on Sully's unwritten promise to his long-hopeful fans. It's a short but sweet opus that embraces house, 2step, UK funky, purple synths and juke, with a widescreen, epic vision and Sully's trademark emotive vistas. In fact, so poignant was one cut, "2Hearts," that it was rumored to have been held back for the mythical "lost" Burial's DJ Kicks mix. The second half of Carrier sees Sully -- best known for his 2step garage variants -- filter his own take on Chicago footwork, combining eski strings, crunchy 808 claps and ravey piano loops at a tempo last used by jungle, while a hitherto unheard UK funky influence is also revealed on "Encona." Collectively, the album presents a body of work infected by ruffneck pirate culture.

Artist:	DAMU
Title:	Unity
Label:	KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.50
Catalog #:	LDN 027CD

This is the debut album by one of the most distinctive artists to emerge from the UK in recent years, Damu. Dense sheets of color and ripples of warm emotion cascade through Damu's musical vision. It's an ambitious album, and at an hour in length, it's not necessarily an easy listen, but those who endeavor will find themselves swept away by the fantasy world that Unity inhabits. The steel drum march of "L.O.V.E.," the midnight serenade of "After Indigo," Trim collaboration "Ridin' The Hype," and breathtaking closing track "Don't Cry In My Bed" are only some of the sights you'll see along the way. Alongside his recent split release with HDGLT, Damu has only had two physical solo releases to date, but already he's honed an instantly recognizable sound of his own. His releases have been supported by artists such as Starkey, Sinden, Brodinski, Sbtrkt, Girl Unit, and notably The Streets' Mike Skinner, who selected Damu as one of his "New Faces of UK Dance Music" in his Guardian takeover in February 2011. He's part of the UK's underground dance music scene by association, but Unity finds Damu thinking much bigger than that, with touches of Air France's beach-pop, the gloss of major label R'n'B, and subtle nods to the demented psychedelic visions of Wiley and Aphex Twin. It also betrays his classical background, demonstrating knowledge of chord progressions and structural sleight-of-hand that many of his peers would kill for.

Artist:	LHF
Title:	EP3: Cities Of Technology
Label:	KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	LDN 028EP

Cities Of Technology is the third EP outing on Keysound from LHF. LHF is a shifting collective comprising Amen Ra, Double Helix, No Fixed Abode, Low Density Matter, Octaviour, Escobar Seasons, Solar Man and Lumin Project. This EP is led by two tracks from Double Helix, who delivers two quite different tributes to jungle -- one with celestial pads and dense drums, and one which is dark and deadly. Amen Ra's "Essence Investigation" is a choppy, warm excursion and No Fixed Abode drops a unique bass experiment.

Artist:	LHF
Title:	Keepers Of The Light
Label:	KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$19.50
Catalog #:	LDN 029CD

Keysound Recordings now present the long-awaited debut album by LHF, Keepers Of The Light. LHF are a shadowy, indistinct collective and, even to their label, not much about their existence is clear; confusion and deception are their modes of normality. LHF coalesced over five years ago, achieving dense form around Amen Ra, Double Helix, No Fixed Abode, Low Density Matter, Octaviour, Escobar Seasons, Solar Man and Lumin Project. Exhale acts as events and communications lieutenant for the clan. Members are at home in London, Mumbai, L.A., Rio, and New York, while simultaneously heading out into the near reaches of the cosmos or back into the distant fading light of the past. It is unknown whether there are multiple players behind each recording persona, or whether certain actors individually play several parts. In investigating LHF, you will encounter a web of ghostly MySpace pages, virtual-world echoes, and other intergalactic debris-fields that form circular dead-ends, like a labyrinth with no entrance or exit or a recurring sound that has never started and will never end, absorbed into its own self-generated stellar context. When any clan member plays selector in the dance, they take with them "The Stack," a half-foot-tall spindle of unmarked CD-Rs that archives obscure dubs like growth rings in an ancient Sequoia trunk. A tiny proportion of these tracks make up scenes in the heroic two-disc saga that is Keepers Of The Light. Sequenced like a DNA strand, the twin tracklists of Keepers Of The Light entwine each other like a double helix, maintaining a discreet distance as constant as their proximity, while their twists and turns act to blueprint newly-emergent audio life-forms. LHF have left a trail of obscure mixes in their wake; "Infiltration 1-6," "Keepers Of The Light 1-3," multiple sessions for Dusk & Blackdown on Rinse FM, Mary Anne Hobbs, and FACT Magazine, as well as the weekly United Vibes Sub FM show. Their legacy is hundreds, if not thousands, of found and lost tracks, waiting to be uncovered. Keysound co-manager Blackdown calls it this way; "LHF sound like Sun Ra has hijacked Rinse FM and is using it to communicate with the heavens." So what sound does this bravura 26-chapter album evoke? The sound of nothing less than a myth in the making, a glorious narrative of the low end's expansion from theory to hypothesis to lab-tested articulation, and a record that will tell you itself how eagerly you never knew you anticipated it until it entered your headspace, like a decades-dormant brain implant marking a future extra-terrestrial abductee. Keepers Of The Light is a latter-day seed of destiny, the flame all global acolytes of bass music seek to ignite.

Artist:	LOGOS
Title:	Kowloon
Label:	KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	LDN 030EP

For his first EP on Keysound Recordings, Logos unleashes four tracks of sublime eski funk. The A-side presents "Kowloon" and "Atlanta96," two glacial arp-jams much supported by DJs like Dusk & Blackdown, Ben UFO and Bok Bok. The B-side enters more percussive realms. "King Mob VIP" is like "Kowloon" in negative, the boney exoskeleton to the A-side's fluid flesh. Finally, "Error 808" is 8-bar grime from a Swamp 81 mindset, complete with a familiar-yet-twisted infectious vocal hook.

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Artist:	GEENEUS
Title:	Knife & Gun
Label:	KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	LDN 008EP

Artist:	NAPHTA/GRIEVOUS ANGEL
Title:	Soundclash 1/Harpy
Label:	KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	LDN 011EP

Artist:	BLACKDOWN FEAT. DURRTY GOODZ
Title:	Concrete Streets
Label:	KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	LDN 012EP

Artist:	LHF
Title:	EP2: The Line Path
Label:	KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	LDN 019EP

Artist:	BIAS & GURLY
Title:	Roll
Label:	KEYSOUND RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	LDN 021EP