I have ambivalent feelings about the juke (house) as such, never know how to do a proper footwork on the dancefloor - ha ha. The sound patterns used by producers seem to be too repetitious in a longer run. There are of course some interesting artists hailing e.g. from France or Benelux (Moveltraxx family) and I like ghetto house / bastard juke aesthetics when combined with some other form of contemporary IDM music into a more variable music textures (e.g.: Schlachthofbronx, many producers from tigerbeat6). But something changed recently and in 2010 juke sound started gradually leaking into Europe / UK scene adding up another flavor to already twisted underground urban patchwork there (even ending up on some comp released by Planet Mu!!). Will Juke replace another stomping heavy-bass genre which now seems to be dead - I mean Bassline? Will we soon talk and write about UK J as an equal sibling to UK G or UK F? Honestly, I doubt it but trying new avenues in music is always better then copying others, me thinks. There are more and more examples of successful flirts with juke recently. Damscray is one of them definitely.
Damscray (representing 1/2 of my favorite duo of synth slayers from Alfa Centauri ) has just released a super-duper juke EP featuring 6 original tracks and 2 absolutely gorgeous remixes (one of them totally mental!). Just listen to a super fat Stay High sounding like seriously accelerated glitch hop joint with dark, underlying bassline - a dancefloor killer for sure! One of the most powerful and straight-in-yer-face tunes I've heard this year! My personal highlight of the entire release. Clearly, Damscray uses juke aesthetics to experiment with his fancy gear moving from mutant beatz, dubstep and wonky to juke, mixing it all like a devil in one big post-post-something cauldron, like in sick Warriors or Itz Darkness or extremely dubstep'ish - Make Me Juke. A 'cannonical' juke tune - Smellin Feelin has been robo- reslipped by +verb into wobbley affair with amazing crispy synths. TUNE! But the real gut-twisting, totally mental trip awaits the listener in Lakritze's remix of Warriors. Though I heard this tune before it never ceases to grip my neurons and give me creeps! I'll play this tune to my wife next time she pisses me off :) All in all, a very refreshing release, definitely worth checking even if you are not a big fan of ghetto / juke sound. Highly recommended by Doktor Krank.
Damscray - Make Me Juke (bandcamp $3 only!)