At the start of this decade, UK garage was something your uncle reminisced about after three pints. Then Time Is Now, the sub-label of Shall Not Fade, got hold of it. It backed Soul Mass Transit System, Interplanetary Criminal and bullet tooth before most of us could spell them, and dragged UKG kicking and screaming into the modern era. Not just with the music, either. That graffiti-type artwork is now as much a part of the scene as the two-step shuffle.

The back catalogue deserves a full afternoon of your time. And if you like what's coming next, today's the day to dig in: it's Bandcamp Friday, so Bandcamp waives its cut and your money goes to the label and the artists.

Record of the Week: ELOQ, V. Christie - Fools (Wizard's Theme)

I love it when bass-heavy UKG emigrates. Australia has been at it for a while, and now it's the Scandinavians' turn. ELOQ, a Dane, and V. Christie, a Norwegian, have been cooking in Copenhagen, a city in the middle of a bass revival led by ATW co-boss Main Phase. Their new EP, Permafrost, takes Record of the Week, and Fools (Wizard's Theme) is its peak-time weapon. Rolling bass, classic phone samples and a Reece bassline so explosive that, had Guy Fawkes packed it instead of gunpowder, he'd have had considerably more success. It's my favourite EP from the label this year. Speed garage fatigue is real, but records like this remind you why the genre earned its reputation in the first place.

Hessle Audio went the best part of a year without a release. Now it's three EPs in about as many months. The latest is from Sam Girling, bringing a stripped-back sound built for warehouses at 4am. Ben UFO closed Dekmantel with Drive By Strokes, which tells you everything. Regular readers will know I'm borderline obsessive about Ben. As a DJ he's brilliant. As a selector he's on a different planet.

Plenty more to get your ears around.

Tom (japanese.knotweed)

The good: Overmono have made a plugin
Diamond Cut is a bass-music bus processor with a "Weight" control for the low end. £89, with a 14-day trial. Finally, a legal way to sound a bit like Overmono.
Read it on MusicTech

The bad: MPs vote down a cap on touted tickets
An amendment to ban sports ticket resale above face value was rejected 286 to 62. Ministers say a wider bill covering gigs is coming. They haven't said when.
Read it on TicketNews

The ugly: Warner buys back the indie distributor it was made to sell
Warner has reacquired Zebralution, which it had to sell off to get its Parlophone deal approved. Labels that chose an independent distributor on purpose now find themselves inside a major. Like moving out to get away from your parents, only for them to buy the house.
Read it on Music Week

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Mochakk B2B Sammy Virji @ The Loft, ADE: I've seen more ADE memes this year than actual ADE sets. This one was never going to slip past, though. Two hours of Brazil's house maverick and the UK's speed garage poster boy egging each other on. It's put Amsterdam on next year's to-do list. Were you there? Hit reply and tell me whether it's worth the trip.

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