Tim Reaper & Kloke: In Full Effect (Hyperdub)
The Hyperdub label has been home to Burial, Loraine James and DJ Rashad. In Full Effect is Hyperdub's first jungle album. No pressure, gang, but if you mess this up, I'm never listening to music ever again.
Tim Reaper and Kloke's album is, in a phrase I usually use when judging vegetable competitions, an absolute whopper. This is proper jungle. And unlike Calvin Harris doing acid house, there isn't a shred of pretence to any of it.
Opener Continuities rings wildly as its breaks feed into themselves, washing Metalheadz chords giving occasional respite amid the mayhem. Juice drops a brilliantly rave saw bass, and Wildstyle shows a darker side as it shows some nu-breaks chops.
Jungle and drum 'n' bass was at its best when the claustrophobic rhythms circled round to have the opposite effect. When the music became so heady, there was a rolling feeling of pressure-drops even while the sonic layers continued to build. Like the music is breathing. This album nails that perfectly.
Something this good – and yes, I'm already regretting not having this higher on my list – can only come from people attuned to mid-1990s dance music culture. I had flashbacks to seeing LTJ Bukem at Tribal Gathering, or indeed listening to static-fuzzed jungle tracks on FM radio. You can't get much more of a fuller effect than that.
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