Thursday Club/ Inertia

I received an email about three weeks ago from the lovely people at Inertia telling me a CD called TCR50 was on its way.

Those sitting either side of me will report that an audible yelp of delight was heard from this lass on hearing the news. To give you a little background: TCR is a little label belonging to Rennie Pilgrem – breaks legend and all round cool guy.

To quote the CD liner, TCR50 is a selection of “32 tracks of the finest breakbeat” from TCR, put together to celebrate the label’s 50th 12” release. Breaks fans will recognise big players such as Koma & Bones, Vigi & Flip, General Midi and Pilgrem’s own moniker – Thursday Club.

The release is a two CD pack, numero uno mixed by TCR’s Tamsin, number two by recent Vibes visitor 10 Sui. While I enjoy both mixes, I’ve come away thinking the former is the stronger – perhaps only because Tamsin uses a larger, and more diverse range of tracks (18 to 10 Sui’s 14). That said, they really would have had to try hard to stuff up such a good selection of music.

Personal standouts on the newer tip include Koma & Bones’ ‘Morpheus’ – driving drum’n’bass-like basslines with a moody female vocal and samples; and Vigi & Flip’s ‘Subsonic’ – nu school style stuff which cleverly plays with synth and vocoder work on top of tight programming. Yum.

Perennial classics from Pilgrem such as ‘Paranoia’ – I’ve heard no finer dark and dirty bass work; and ‘A Place Called Acid’ were of course natural inclusions, the former given a rework by 10 Sui on her mix.

Looking for a Plump-free, tough breaks zone? This is your CD. An absolute must for breaks fans.