Tim Reaper & Kloke

Jungle’s torch carriers tend to Hyperdub’s core inspiration with wickedest effect on the label’s first mission into its modern echoes - only took ‘em 20 years!

Between them, SE London’s Tim Reaper, with his Future Retro label, and Australia’s Kloke, via dozens of 12”s, have become pivotal hosts of the jungle virus since the early 2010s. With debut album collaboration ‘In Full Effect’ they resound Hyperdub’s most enduring inspiration - which can be heard everywhere from Burial’s jungle-inflected dark garage to DJ Rashad breakbeat-driven footwork - across eight cuts that variously touch on key styles of the ’93-’95 phenomena with a ruffneck finesse. Whilst the sound has never gone away over the past 30 years, Reaper & Kloke have been instrumental in accelerating its 2nd wind over the past half decade, when it lit the touch paper for a whole new wave of ravers understandably thrilled by its rambunctiousness, in contrast to more pedestrian club styles and patterns.

Both bring a serious suss to the table - no dilettante shite - for a massively fun take on the spectrum of styles that emerged from early ‘90s breakbeat hardcore, and its make-up of sped-up hip hop breaks, dub baselines, techno synths and ragga chat. It’s in full effect on the diced amens and lushly rushy breakdown of ‘Continuities’, and the deftly rolling jungle tekno pressure of ‘Juice’ and ‘Impasse’, and fuelled on warped dread bass in ‘Alienation’, whilst ‘havoc’ stands out for its grasp of schizoid light/dark switch ups, and they deploy deadliest, pointillist drum programming chops in ‘Blood Pressure’.