Although Orbison hasn’t produced anything with Doldrums Recordings since 2010, his second startup, Hingefinger, has seen more activity. Hingefinger, was a joint venture between O’Grady and DJ/designer Will Bankhead. Under Hingefinger, Joy Orbison released ‘Ellipsis’ in 2012. Since Orbison’s early days, Hingefinger has turned dormant, with Bankhead focusing on his music and fashion label Trilogy Tapes, and Joy Orbison focusing on his making, rather than publishing, music.

Orbison kept a relatively low profile online, often dropping some of his tracks on exclusively physical formats. However, over the last few years, the producer has released a steady stream of work online. Last year, he released ‘Freedom 2’ with Peckham rapper Kwengface and electronic music duo Overmono. This was part of a continued collaboration between Overmono’s Tom and Ed Russell and Joy Orbison. The three artists have been collaborating since 2019 on dance tracks, predominantly, under the label XL Recordings.

Making a return to XL Recordings, Orbison took to Instagram to announce the release of ‘Flight FM’. The track marks a divergence from Orbison’s usual upbeat dance tracks, moving in a more subdued and droning direction. Speaking on Instagram, Orbison said: “I’m always wary of playing new ideas cos you run the risk of completely losing faith in it before you really make sense of it. But luckily it went down well which spurred me on to finish it”. The track’s name is in reference to a pirate radio station that Orbison tuned into as a child. Established in 1998, Flight FM permeated south London’s airwaves with underground dance music until 2008. Since its physical end, Flight FM has moved with the times and has found a space online. However, the station’s twitter hasn’t seen activity since February of 2018, making Orbison’s track a call back to a now-dead age in music.

As of today, ‘Flight FM’ can be found on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music.

The EP’s accompanying text says: “‘Antidawn’ reduces Burial’s music to just the vapours. The record explores an interzone between dislocated, patchwork songwriting and eerie, open-world, game space ambience.

“In the resulting no man’s land, lyrics take precedence over song, lonely phrases colour the haze, a stark and fragmented structure makes time slow down. ‘Antidawn’ seems to tell a story of a wintertime city, and something beckoning you to follow it into the night.”

Maintaining cult status since his debut in 2006, his music existed in bleak eeriness and ambiance, offering a special take on UK club music in a manner that has been, often derisively, classed as “IDM”. The genre grouping is controversial as even the most prominent so-called “IDM” artists have made a mockery of the term, including electronic giant Aphex Twin.

The Hyperdub label has since become synonymous with Burial, both rarely existing outside each other. Released on the Hyperdub label, ANTIDAWN is a refreshing departure from the UK dance-oriented sound we have come to expect. It evades easy listening, even rarely keeping a beat, acting more as a soundscape that could easily function as an immersive video game soundtrack. Glints of Skyrim are heard on the first track, that boasts ten minutes in length, in a soundscape that would easily befit Gregorian Chanting.

Despite the fact that ANTIDAWN is an EP, containing five tracks, it nears the length of a studio album, reaching forty three minutes. Two tracks are over ten minutes, with the shortest track being six. An overwhelmingly peaceful aural experience that stands up to the expectations that Burial has set for himself, this EP flies by as it encapsulates your surroundings and becomes your own soundtrack.

This EP follows his most recent release “Chemz / Dolphins” which itself followed the massively popular collaboration with Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, Her Revolution / His Rope. The two-tracker hit the perfect middle ground between the two artists styles, with Thom Yorke himself going in the direction of ambient electronic in the last decade or so, with The King of Limbs and his solo effort Anima. One wonders whether Burial provided Thom Yorke with the necessary inspiration to create those works.

The announcement came on Twitter, with Skream, real name Oliver Jones, saying “The boys are back in town…. Skream X / 2.0….. 2022 we’re having it.” This announcement came to the delight of many a dubstep fan, as these two are formidable pioneering forces within the scene whose solo careers have exploded since the duos last venture.

However, Skream has made it clear that this is no walk down memory lane, or a revivification of dubstep’s golden years. Skream explicitly stated on his Instagram, “No throw back, brand new music only”. 

Skream is set to have a busy year, with a New Zealand tour on the way, as well as dropping a new Soundcloud mix titled ‘Skream Plastic People mix’ that can be listened to below. The mix, seemingly unlike the new project with Benga, revels in the happy memories of old school dub, featuring absolute classics such as Mala’s “Anti War Dub”, Burial’s “Archangel”, and Benga’s very own “Amnesia”, among other classic Skream tracks tossed into the mix.

Benga, real name Benga Adejumo, on the otherhand, has had a relatively quiet one in recent years. His last single was in 2018, now approaching four years ago, and his last full-length album was released in 2013, with nothing on his Soundcloud in the way of tracks or mixes. We can only hope that this new collaboration will provide fertile ground for Benga to come back into the popular consciousness, which Skream has enjoyed the privilege of being part of for what is close to two decades.

Skream has expanded into a more mainstream dance audience, with his remix of La Roux’s ‘Going in for the Kill’ becoming a basic standard for any student club DJ in the UK for the last half-decade or so. Even La Roux herself was highly appreciative of the rework: “It showed that people don’t want mindless happy crap,” she told NME in 2010. “They want something that makes them feel and that remix really does. Skream did an amazing job, thank you again and again.”

No dates have been set for the release of any material but Skream has already said on his Twitter that two tracks have presently been recorded.

In a world of short stories and limited attention span, reflected in a music industry heavily dominated by standalone single culture, it is refreshing and promising to see a full album from a leading genre tastemaker like Flux Pavilion. Running for a little over 1 hour, .wav features 16 tracks in total, with 11 singles shared or teased over the last few years.

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The record focuses heavily on melodies, vast soundscapes and carefully selected collaborations, a slight turn away from Flux Pavilion’s established style. Hard bass lines and sharp drops seemlessly give way to ethereal instrumentation and beautiful vocal harmonies. Easy to digest and listen to without being boring or predictable, .wav gently transitions from track to track while keeping the flow fresh and captivating.

The first track to premiere all the way back in July 2018 was the collaboration with Layna for ‘Symphony‘. The year after Flux Pavilion followed up with ‘Lion’s Cage‘, ‘Somebody Else‘, ‘Surrender‘, ‘20:25‘, ‘I Will Stay‘ and ‘Endless Fantasy‘. In 2020 the producer shared ‘Survive‘ in June, ‘Sink Your Teeth In‘ in August, ‘You & I‘ in September, and ‘I Believe‘ in December. Only yesterday Flux Pavillion dropped the last promotional single ‘Fall To Me‘.

Flux Pavilion teams up with a wide range of producers and guest vocalists including Feed Me, Turing Brakes, meesh, Nevve, Drowsy, Asha, Kata Kozma, Layla, Chime, GLNNA, spaceKDET, Chain Gang Of 1974, Eli-Rose Sanford and What So Not. The record is released via Circus Records, established and ran by Flux Pavilion and long-time friend and EDM veteran Doctor P. Born Joshua Steele, Flux Pavilion features on an album review and short interview for Forbes. Contributor Lisa Kocay describes the record as “texturally varied, boasting everything from emotional vocals to playful bass lines, euphoric melodies, percolating beats and a melodious dubstep take on a style of fugue by famed composer Johann Sebastian Bach“.

Speaking about the inspiration behind the diverse music and meaning of the title (.WAV standing for a higher quality Waveform Audio File), Steele adds: “This album, to me, feels like a WAV and everything that came before felt like an MP3 […] When I got popular with Flux, I sort of got stuck with having to write Flux Pavilion music. It’s been a real breath of fresh air just removing those constraints from my life and writing freely again.”

.@Fluxpavilion Departs From His Usual Sound With New Album ‘.Wav’ https://t.co/LiHGOORu12

— Lisa Kocay (@lisakocay) January 21, 2021

Additionally, you can hop over to their official website and check the label’s annual review of the 20 best albums, tracks, labels, remixes and artists of the year. Both mixes are available to re-play on the YouTube links provided above, with full details on tracklists and download links in the description, and can also be found as exclusive playlists on UKF’s Spotify page. No matter which Tier you find yourself into on this festive day, tune in to enjoy the best electronic bangers of 2020 “featuring some (not all!) of [the] favourite uploads from the past 12 months“.

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The drum & bass mix starts with a distinctive Australian flavour, jumping straight into ShockOne’s explosive ‘Follow Me‘ followed by one of the absolute highlights of the year in Pendulum’s huge comeback ‘Driver‘. Aside taking the world by storm upon its release in September, and steadily approaching 3 million streams in Spotify, the song recently won the Best Track Award at the 12th Drum and Bass Arena Awards.

The UKF mix includes three tracks by Dimension: ‘Don’t Sleep‘ , ‘Hatred‘ and ‘Love To Give‘ all expected to appear on the British DJ’s highly anticipated upcoming debut record Organ. Two singles come straight from Metrik’s hugely successful third album Ex Machina, released in June 2020 via Hospital Records. At the end London-based Fox Stevenson delivers his energetic ‘Like That‘ as the perfect conclusion of the epic mix. 

The annual dubstep compilation starts with the collaboration between the American producers GRiZ and Blunts & Blondes setting the modd in style with their hit ‘Juicy‘. Fox Stevensons also makes a solid appearance here with ‘Just Don’t Mind‘, alongside the traditional entries by the likes of Doctor P, PhaseOne, Zeds Dead and Feed Me. The Best of Dubstep 2020 finishes with the melodic and uplifting ‘Elevate‘ by the English DJs Tisoki and Upgrade featuring vocals by Monstercat’s latest recruit Courtney Drummey. 

Created in 2009 by Luke Hood, UKF started as a platform for friends to share and discover new music. The idea quickly became very popular with its subscribers and followers continuing to increase to this day, and expanding over several YouTube channels, live events and widely celebrated annual compilations. Operating at the very heart of the British drum & bass and dubstep scene and championing an impressive list of influential artists, the label celebrated its 10th anniversary last year and arguably achieved its mission to become “the home of bass music“. 

Coming just in time for Christmas day, the Best of Drum & Bass and Dubstep 2020 mixes will surely keep the endless lockdown home party going all the way to New Year’s Eve, and is one thing we can all enjoy together regardless of which Tier we welcome 2021 in. In case you are still not fed up with the Christmas songs, here is an alternative version of some of the classics, suggested by UKF to add and extra electronic spark to the festive day.

Need some new Christmas bangers to get you into the festive spirit? Ho ho ho gosh, we’ve got you covered! pic.twitter.com/sXIUTRS6C2 — UKF (@UKF) December 24, 2020