The Scratch Perverts are one of the most exciting collectives in music. Formed in 1996 by Tony Vegas, DJ Renegade, First Rate and Mr Thing, they expanded to an 8-member crew with Primecuts, Harry Love, Killa Kela and Plus One. After a brief hiatus in 2000, they reformed with just Tony Vegas, Prime Cuts and Plus One, and have kept the same trio ever since. Known for their unparalleled turntablism skills, they’ve won almost every accolade possible. Now retired from DJ battling, they have gone on to DJing, going on regular tours and holding residency at London’s Fabric nightclub. After releasing mix CDs including releases for Badmeaningood, FabricLive and Watch The Ride, they return with a mish mash of tracks for Beatdown.

Over the years, the Scratch Perverts have shown a penchant for hip hop and everything in between. Their sets can comprise of anything from Gang Starr to Nirvana to Lalo Schifrin, and flow together with an incongruence that surprisingly works. On this latest Fabric release, they start off with a more dubstep feel, with the repetitive tapping of High Rankin’s Money For Guns. Benga’s Stop Watching features what sounds like a looped wail over an asymmetrical drum beat, while Buggsy lends his ragga flow to Skitz’s Born Inna System (DJ Primecuts Mix), even pimping out the CD, “…you can grab this crap mix CD from Fabric/ it will only cost about five bucks…”. Drum n’ bass band The Qemists provide their rocked out single Dem No Like Me, amidst a sea of more dubstep, with Skream and his single Aggy Face.

From here we take a slight detour into hip hop territory, with Foreign Beggars VS Rouge A Levres on the slowed down Hit That Gash (DJ Primecuts Itchy Naan Re-Rub), overrun by beeps and bleeps and eventually turned into a drum n’ bass cut. This leads in nicely to Chase & Status, and their slow building track Saxon. DJ Primecuts teams up with MC Dynamite for the fierce Warning, while experimental hip hop producer Flying Lotus contributes the weird and wacky Roberta Flack (Martyn’s Heartbeat Remix). Portuguese Kuduro musicians Buraka Som Sistema show their unique tribal/grime sounds, with the help of DJ Znobia, MIA, Sabrosa and Puto Prata on the frenetic Sound of Kuduro, before Feadz and MC Wesley bring a playful vibe to Subiu, Desceu

The album takes a bit of a lull with an excursion into electro, featuring Kissy Sell Out, Laidback Luke and A-Trak, Boy 8-Bit and Jesse Rose. It picks up again with a remix of the classic Zinc track 138 Trek (as 128 Trek) and jumps back into some more electro with Diplo and Laidback Luke’s Hey. It’s fair to say the Perverts do cover a number of different styles over the course of the record, but have seemingly distanced themselves from playing too much hip hop as they have been known for in the past. At least the drum n’ bass, including Logistics’ Jungle Music, keeps things interesting.

They are hands down one of the most creative partnerships in music today, and this time the Scratch Perverts have attempted to create a record that branches out from their usual hip hop roots. They may have gone a little bit overboard with the electro and dubstep, but the increasing popularity of those two genres probably tells me that was the intention. A somewhat mismatched set, jumping all over the place, that would have been served better with a little more direction.