- The DJ behind last year's number-one garage hit takes over the genre's most legendary compilation series.
- All Thru The Night is a compilation that compresses time. A new edition of the Locked On compilation series that once provided a who's-who of UK garage, it's pitched as the crystallisation of the "NUKG" sound that has reinvigorated the genre over the last half-decade. Manchester DJ Interplanetary Criminal's 2022 chart-topping single with Eliza Rose, "Baddest Of Them All (B.O.T.A.)," anoints him as the ideal curator for the first addition to the series since the late '90s.
Although the new compilation switches up the format to all-exclusive unmixed tracks, it picks up right where the original Locked On compilations—headed up by Todd Edwards and Ramsey & Fen—left off, staying loyal to the original sounds and aesthetics of skipping percussion, jumpy jazz organ chords and square-wave basslines. Some tracks introduce extra cheekiness and hollowed-out atmospheres, but it still features the purest examples of the form.
Low-end comes in all shapes and sizes here. Holloway's "On 'Em" laces a backpacker rap chop-up around a double-stuffed bassline, while Bakey's "Last One" uses wobbly LFO patterns and minor dabs of sub-bass with a smooth aftertaste of synth pad levity. DJ Cosworth's "Da Groove" orbits around a set of echoing chord stabs that are like long exposure camera shots capturing the dance floor in reality-detached harmony.
All Thru The Night does well to highlight a select few regional scenes that have compounded the NUKG movement. It's a mix of Locked On's capital city origins, Interplanetary Criminal's Mancunian roots (the album artwork comes from Manchester fashion designer Donkwear), the booming Leeds scene and international connections that have always been a part of the British scene. It's the type of route-one garage you'll regularly hear at venues like Hidden, Brickworks and Signal. There are the usual chef's touches, like dub sirens and fruit machine jingles, with some tracks ending up like garage DJ equivalent of an Instagram wall at a bar, but enjoyably cartoonish all the same.
Surprisingly, Interplanetary Criminal's opening trifecta comes as a mixed bag for someone with such a surefire track record. "Don't Hurt Me," a collaboration with indietronica band Porij, blends light and dark with syncopated Ibiza-tanned keys and heavily-swung breakdown, while solo cut "Why" is powered by little more than a springy bassline. As painful as it is to say, though, the weakest point is easily the Todd Edwards collaboration "Reckless," where what should be a symbolic achievement is undercut by an all-too-saccharine "young and dumb and crazy" sentiment that feels like a relic from the Ministry O Sound pop-crossover era. A much better vocal track on the album? Chanviski and Ell Murphy's "O.B.F.C," a song that longs to return to a magic place where UKG plays for the crew.
Carrying over the chords from DJ Cosworth's track in a nice touch, Alfie Fraser's "Me & You" also casts a first-hand view of an idyllic garage night out. It's the only track by an MC, and not having more original verses on the album feels like a glaring oversight, particularly coming from an old-guard label such as Locked On. Having more involvement from MCs would not only have given some of the beats even stronger narratives but would have honoured those who have been the voice of UK garage since the beginning. (After all, it's almost a year to the day since RA published an op-ed on UK electronic music's historical neglect of its MCs.)
As a curator, Interplanetary Criminal has chosen an all-hitters list of talents who are clued up not just on garage but wider dance music history, and it shows in how some tracks make the old feel new. Ollie Rant's "A Love Like" spits and glows and thumps without ever losing its buoyancy, as a piano salsas with the flamboyance of a Louie Vega track. "All Night Long" by Sage Introspekt is classic soul garage chopped in a melting-pot fashion. Sampling a diva's growl, she manages to make the most common of club clichés—"make my body move," "come rock my body right" and "feel the rhythm"—sound like snapshots of a sensual exorcism of negative energy, just like those original compilations from Edwards, Ramsey & Fen did decades ago.
Tracklist01. Interplanetary Criminal x Porij - Don't Hurt Me
02. Todd Edwards x Interplanetary Criminal - Reckless
03. Interplanetary Criminal - Why
04. Chavinski x Ell Murphy - O.B.F.C.
05. Bakey - Last One
06. Ollie Rant - A Love Like
07. Main Phase - Shake
08. Perception - Jump Up
09. Holloway - On Em
10. Soul Mass Transit System - Lift Me Up
11. Sage Introspekt - All Night Long
12. Highrise - In Time
13. DJ Cosworth - Da Groove
14. Alfie Fraser - Me and You
15. Frazer Ray - Rev