Five years on from his last album "Return Of Forever" the swedish music machine that is Sebastian Ahrenberg, or Seba as most of his know him has finally released his second album. "Identity" was released on the 4th of March on SEba's own imprint Secret Operations and contains a whole host of genres and of course a good amount of Seba's trademark sound.  

Berlin based Martsman steps up for the latest techno release on Pushing Red. "Shrank" and "NYCD" both weigh in at less than 130 BPM despite bucket loads of shuffle. You'd be forgiven for describing these sounds as garagey.  Shrank has some uplifting progression and plenty of hi-hats and NYCD backs it all up nicely with some dub influenced tripped out sounds.  Another top release from Pushing Red. Their third this year in fact. 

Octane and DLR caused a stir in the world of drum and bass last autumn when their album "Method To The Madness" was released on Ant TC1's drum and bass powerhouse Dispatch Recordings.  Since then they've both decided to explore some new avenues in the world of production and music making and have split up into their respective parts, although Octane assures me that the pair are still very much in love. His brand new label CO:RE (Chris Octane Recordings) is going to be the outlet for his solo work and some of his more unusual work.  Octane has a passion for sound design and in a recent interview described himself as being, for the most part, responsible for the element of weirdness in Octane and DLR tracks.CORE001 does a good job of summing up what Octane is trying to achieve with the project. Both tracks show evidence of experimentation and abstraction, in particular the B side Gaia's dub, which has so much space in it it's easy to get lost amidst the samples and sparse percussion.  Something for the dance floor and the early hours on this release and a promising start to the CORE label.  

Utopia Music's last release cast a backward glance to the drum and bass heritage laid down by people like Dillinja with the four way collab between Mako, Break, Villem & Fields entitled "diligence", and now the next twelve to touch down on the imprint keeps the vibes flowing. 

Mikal makes a welcome return and kicks off his 2013 with "Spiritual". A 5 minute stomp through the jungle with some reserved percussion and a quietly confident bassline.  Czechslovakian based Metalheadz rookie Rido joins Mikal on the flip with a remix of the 2012 Mikal release on Utopia entitled "The Chant".   Rido has really pulled out the stops with his side. The drums!  The vibes! This is a tune to make you say OOFF. 

Spiritual / The Chant Rido Remix is out now on Utopia Music. 

Since it's launch in June 2012, Protect Audio has been committed to showcasing con- temporary drum and bass with a focus on the deeper and more tech influenced side of the spectrum. Over their initial five releases Protect Audio have brought some new names to the scene including most recently Berlin based duo Survey and northerner Marukomu.

The sixth addition to the label's growing discography is the "Diffraction Of Sound EP. A four track EP featuring four tracks from artists previously featured on the label. Maru- komu, Survey, Shiver and Homemade Weapons all make a welcome return with some smooth production and contemporary vibes. The music speaks for itself.