That Allstars Vol 2 plays more as an album and less like a compilation is testament to the gradual collective process of evolution that we have been undergoing since the label’s inception in early 2010. Ideas in the camp are shared like memes, expressed musically through the dialog of our productions and DJ sets, and psychically through a collective understanding that few other labels can claim to share.

Allstars 2 charts Night Slugs’ move away from the early-digital world in which our music spent its infancy, and into a more developed, more textured universe.

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CC is all about stripped-back, raw and highly functional tracks made specifically for the club. Where L-Vis 1990′s first venture into the series presented a brutalist vision of House, Silva’s Volume 2 represents the vital flip side to the concept: broken, grimey rhythm tracks.

Since his last excursion with Slugs back in 2010, Lil Silva has been reconnecting with his Grime roots. The remnants of golden-era Macabre Unit were always audible in his wild flangers, detailed hi hats and propulsive sub-basses and on “Club Constructions Volume 2″ he runs with this heritage, combining it with his pedigree in UK Funky and a new half-time approach first explored on last year’s single “Cheese & Bun”. This is a return to the kind of inventive rhythm programming that generates immediate energy.

Here we present “Shutter” – the late-2010 dubplate that’s been doing the rounds in our crew for a minute – alongside two brand new bass-driven club tracks. All three are heavy but restrained, built simply to devastate soundsystems without ever losing their cool.

DJs

BOK BOK b2b L-VIS 1990 b2b GIRL UNIT

IKONIKA

LIL SILVA (exclusive production showcase)

Among the familiar material is some of our greatest moments of 2010: Lil Silva‘s own vocal hook drives the melodic “Golds 2 Get”, and his ever-potent “Seasons” makes an appearance as well. Kingdom‘s punishingly percussive “Bust Broke” takes militant syncopation to the next level. Velour contribute “Booty Slammer”, the porn-groove laden, synth-soaked stepper from their “The Velvet Collection” EP.  Girl Unit‘s reigning anthem “Wut” rounds off the album with a massive dose of crunk ecstasy.

But it wouldn’t be Night Slugs without the dubplate material and of that there is plenty: Mosca‘s “Square One VIP” is a new twist on the label’s first release, taking the track further in an upfront Club direction. L-Vis 1990 collaborates with Deep Teknologi’s T. Williams on their brutalist bassline-driven “Stand Up”. Egyptrixx gives a glimpse of things to come with the cosmic techno of “Liberation Front”, taken from his debut album. Bok Bok twists up Girl Unit’s futuristic club destroyer “IRL” into an acid grime ode to FWD>> circa ’04. The stripped-back dub of Bok Bok’s vinyl-only “Reclash” collaboration with Cubic Zirconia also has its debut.

Allstars Volume 1 introduces two new producers to the NS fold. The first is Montreal native Jacques Greene, whose debut on our friends the LuckyMe label is currently about to drop. Jacques gives us “(Baby I Don’t Know) What You Want”, a driving contemporary acid house piece, awash with hypercolour synths that place it right at home in the Night Slugs stable.
Second is London’s Optimum, a long-time collaborator of Ikonika, and Hum+Buzz label boss, whose “Broken Embrace” is an overt homage to the Detroit school of soulful, robotic techno, but pumped full of sub-bass.

Following up on his limited white label release for NS in April ’10, Night Slugs are proud to present “Night Skanker”, Lil Silva’s iconic new EP.
The four melodic, synth-laden tracks are typically raw and grimey but also run deeper with a fresh luminescence. Constructed from a futuristic new sound palette, Silva’s tuff flange-funk drum programming and twisted carnival rhythms are permeated by razor-sharp glow-in-the-dark synths, jacking cowbells, massive slabs of sub bass and even Silva’s own sampled vocals. These are industrial-size riddims for worldwide dancefloor demolition!

As a bonus the EP features two archetypal Lil Silva classics. The first is the devastating “Seasons”, previously released only on rare white label vinyl, and now remastered and available digitally for the first time. The second is “Pulse vs Flex” which samples the classic distorted bass signal of Musical Mob’s “Pulse X”, one of the first ever grime tracks.

The young mastermind behind potent UK Funky anthems such as “Seasons”, “Funky Flex”, “Different” and the “Funky Pulse”, Lil Silva’s house-meets-grime style has become iconic of the Funky scene. His tracks are cornerstones for DJs like Marcus Nasty, who describes them as having the unique ability to “consistently bun down raves”.

With that in mind Lil Silva’s addition to the Night Slugs stable makes perfect sense.
His contribution to our limited vinyl-only White Label Series is a taster of what can be expected from him via NS in the future.

In the mean time feast yourself on the ultra-upfront “A Million”, featuring carnival synths, glass breaks and snare destruction in the typical Silva fashion.
On the flip, Silva pays tribute to house pioneer Kenny Dope in the form of the ultra-stripped down bassline workout “No Hooks”.

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