BristolMusic Weekly

Ill Truth team up with Crook for Colossus on Truth Hertz, bringing another drum-and-bass selection to this week’s Bristol mix. The release sits at the meeting point of the label’s jungle and dancefloor interests: one for listeners following the city’s bass music output.

GiantStates’ Glow gathers three tracks — Spectrum, Fearsome Heart Of His Healing Hand and Amethyst — into a compact electronic release. Its deep-house, electro and experimental tags make this a worthwhile detour for anyone exploring the space between club music and more open-ended electronica.

Virus is our Datkid pick this week, with a bigger date already in the diary: Very Heavy Lead arrives on High Focus on 26 November. The 18-track album pairs the Bristol rapper with producers Illinformed and Dumb Logic, building on boom-bap foundations and a substantial guest cast. This is a preview of what’s coming, and a major local rap release to keep an eye on.

Elder Island’s Snapshot gets a new treatment from Kapote and Arpy Brown, extending the Bristol group’s electronic, funk and neo-soul orbit into a remix package. Bandcamp includes both the standard and extended remixes, an extended instrumental and the original. A useful invitation to compare how the same song changes shape across versions.

Morrow returns to Transparent Audio with What Came Before / Dimension, a two-track release rooted in the label’s Bristol drum-and-bass sound. The label frames this solo outing around funk, groove and rolling bass weight after collaborations with Spektiv and Revan. What Came Before is our pick, with Dimension waiting on the flip.

Same Time Next Week introduces Kevin Figes’ forthcoming Sound Dimensions, due on 20 November. The wider project brings eleven original compositions to a 20-piece orchestra, drawing on Italian composers Maderna, Nono and Morricone. Premiered at Bristol’s The Mount Without, it connects contemporary jazz, orchestral writing and improvisation in an ambitious local project.