Pressure Drop "Unify (Ripped)"
Pressure Drop or Blood Brothers as they are calling themselves as a production-team are Dave Henley and Justin Langlands. Most of you will already know them from their charts approved "Upset" album which was released in the early nineties. The London team gained cultstatus around the world for their truly deep songs, proper productions and their root down vibes. They are still holding on to their deep style that made them such a success but they've mixed it up with a nu-school drum & bass flavour. Even though, their FSOJ-track is a little bit older (2 years, was exclusivly released in Germany!), with its heavy percussive batucada-beat and housy piano line it's just now starting to make even more sense than as it was released the first time. Pressure Drop are definetly ahead of our time!

Nautilus "Nine Miles"
Nautilus are DJ Orbit and Appaloosa. The have already released their second EP under this synonym and are still sticking to their typical precise jazzy electroid drum & bass style. Appaloosa has also had several releases on LTJ Bukem's Good Looking Records for example "Night Train" for which he teamed up with DJ Dream. Their contribution to the FSOJ Vol.4 is featuring electro-bump with a jazzy vibe!

Trüby Trio "Donaueschingen"
The Trüby Trio are Rainer Trüby and Fauna Flash. Rainer is a real vinyl-junkie. He compiled Glücklich I & II and the Nitrogen compilation for Compost and he also helped Gilles Peterson out with his "Talking Jazz" -sampler. His record collection provided many well known groups like "Die Fantastischen Vier" with sampling-material for their first two albums. His style is somewere between jazz, brazil, nu-disco and downbeat but always pure quality and thats one of the reasons why he's one of the most respected German DJs especially in England. He gets booked for events like the Phoenix Festival U.K.,Brighton Jazz Bop, or in clubs like the Blue Note and the BarRumba. He has also remixed Frederic Galliano (for F-Communication in France), Tab Two and others! He also runs his own regular clubnight "Root Down" in his hometown Freiburg. And what you might not know he is an ex-member of compost act A Forest Mighty Black, but he's now set up his own project RTT on Compost. "Donaueschingen" is a tribute to a small town near Stuttgart (at the Bodensee) in the south of Germany, where big jazz and fusion festivals have taken place in the seventies, with mostly MPS-artists.

As One "The Hideout"
As One aka Kirk Degiorgio started DJing when he was 15. He was very much influenced by electro and soul. In 1992 he released his first record and founded Op-Art Records on which he has released tracks from artists like Carl Craig, Derrick May and Paul W.Teebroke. Now he is working on his third album which will be funky dertroit techno, experimental hip hop and futuristic jazz related. He has three albums out at the moment, one on the French label Shield, where this track is taken from, one on the U.K. based label Clear, and one on Beechwood Music, which was also released as an full remixed album! He has also worked with James Lavelles famous Mo Wax label. His style is unique and futuristic, and he is definitely one of the most respected producers in the entire electronic-listening hemisphere! Tosca "Ocean Beat"
Tosca is a project from Kruder & Dorfmeister's Richard Dorfmeister. Together with Rupert Huber he's already released tracks like the legendary "Choclate Elvis" and "Fuck Dub" (with a dozen of heavy remixes), an album called "Opera", and a Dorfmeister-mixed Remix-CD of all the "Fuck Dub" remixes. The Austrian downbeat specialists have recently done a remix for Sofa Surfers. This track is exclusive for FSOJ and we like it a lot - pure downbeat madness from Vienna.

Cheever J. Loophole "Suspension"
Cheever J. Loophole has lived and worked in Bristol for the last 5 years. He has colabourated with Bristol based record labels like Cup Of Tea and Concrete. Cheever also has his own small label called "Space Race". Currently he is in the studio working on his album with grooves between 80 and 115 bpm. Cool guy with a hard to find 12-inch! But here it is maybe one of the best tracks on the FSOJ Vol.4!

Reflection "Transparent"
Anyone familiar with Japan's ever healthy jazz and hip hop scene, represented by labels such as Idyllic, Bellisima!, and Lollop, will also know the music of producers like Nobukazu Takemura, The Silent Poets and DJ Krush. The debut album from Reflection has already established the artist's reputation as one of Japan's finest exponents of this form of music, and has been received with high acclaim amongst their peers both in Japan and Europe. Reflection are two brothers Ichiro Taniguchi (programming) and Kenji Taniguchi (guitars & programming) who, alongside bass player Kozo Ueda, have had a string of releases on Takemura's Lollop label and two remixes on his "Child's View" album on Idyllic alongside Aphex Twin, Coldcut and the Mad Professor. "This is sci-fi jazz for the millenium!" (Muzik)

Alex Gopher "Est-Ce-Une Gopher Party, Baby"
Alex Gopher is not a DJ or a night clubber and it's probably the reason why his style is so personal, a mixture between modern funk, hip hop (or should we say tri-top) and house. After the success of the Gopher E.P. he now is one of France's most talked about new producers and representative for the new "French Connection". You might have come across one of his tracks on the yellow "Superdiscount" compilation from Solid. A Gopher Party, Baby!

Karma "The Specialist"
Karma are Lars Vegas and Mojo Tom from Cologne. Mojo Tom is a engineer, producer and musician who is working on a whole lot of different projects from Solar Moon to Schäl Sick Brass Band which is a part of south Cologne's alternative music scene. Lars Vegas is an ex-BMX wizzard, diggin' in the crates-pro and manager of the Groove Attack record store. He is also a well known name within Germany's drum & bass - DJ - fraternity. Karma have also got a drum & bass project going on with Nico Sykes from No U-Turn.,They both are restless producers and remixers a.o. they have done Remixes for Megashira and have been featured on The Future Sound Of Jazz Vol.1, the Mixmag Live compilation and on Kruder & Dorfmeister's DJ Kicks. Karma's debüt album "Pad Sounds" is out in Oktober `97 and it is as good as this helluva track!

Tongue "Notion"
Tongue is one of the brilliant projects on Jhonny Octopus's wild style label Octopus Records. Other well known acts on Octopus are Kushti, Black Dog and Plaid and of course The Freakniks. This track from last year transports the drum & bass science with an original old school hiphop-breakbeat and it is a true underground freestyle club-classic!

Juryman "Playground"
Ian Simmonds aka Juryman was the bassist & vocalist in th now defunct and legendary band The Sandals, is a mulit-instrumentalist and has released previous tracks since The Sandals split both as Juryman and as Reptar. Juryman is on DJ Morpeus famous SSR label (Freezone compilation) and is not to be confused with Ninja Tunes' Journeyman'.

Vibe Nations "New Movements"
Vibe Nations is a product of U.K. based underground label Ugly Records. They have a good and effective regular electro house/techno output, and Ugly Records releases are always worth listening to. Vibe Nations "New Movements" is a very light and delighting jazzy, swinging electro groove with ambient moments. Moody half-stepping vibe for one nation under a different computer-groove!

Jazzanova "Coffee Talk"
Jazzanova are three DJs Jürgen von Knoblauch, Alex Baark, Claas.and three producers Extended Spirit (Axel Reinemar, Stefan Leisering) and Roscow (Kosma on Infracom Records). Together they had quite a sensational debut with their three track Jazzanova EP on their own Berlin based record label Jazzanova Records, which will be - from now on - associated and promoted via Compost Records (in fact: a real jazzy business fusion of Jazzanova Records and Compost Records). Beside Air Drops Recordings and Dialog Records, Jazzanova Records is part of the Sonar Label Collective.
"Fedime's Flight" the brazil flavoured track from that EP (Fedime is Jürgens girlfriend) was not only in Gilles Peterson's, Patrick Forge's personal DJ charts. Jazzanova has recently done remixes for U.F.O.'s "Friends" and for swedish project Coop (Clean Up Records). They are going to be featured on the "SunSun" compilation on Sony Records France with an exclusive track as well. Jazzanova definitely one of the most promissing producer teams in Germany . Watch the phoenix rise!

Extended Spirit "Pressure"
Axel Reinemar and Stefan Leisering are not only part of Jazzanova's producing team but they also have their own project called Extended Spirit. Axel and Stefans roots can be found in Berlin's hip hop scene. And even though they are specialising more and more on fusion and big beat they still do most of their remixes for hip hop acts like Cora E. and Spex. But they have also done a remix for "The Voice" Jocelyn Brown. They will be releasing an EP on Dialoge Records parallel to Jazzanova's second EP on Jazzanova/Compost Records. This track is modern fusion at it's best!

A Forest Mighty Black "Everything"
Coming from the forest of jazz, the Black Forest, A Forest Mighty Black are following the tradition of Germanys best jazz label MPS.After releasing four 12" inches on Compost and appearing on many well known compilations they will be releasing their debut album "Mellowdramatic" on Compost Records by the end of September. Bernd Kunz the main man behind AFMB mixes up elements of many different styles like drum & bass, hip hop-big beat, jazz and bits and pieces of latin and brazilian music and gives them the typical AFMB character. A Forest Mighty Black have tributed exclusive tracks like "Battucada Con Mingo" for the Misturada 1 compilation on Joe Davis Far Out Records, , the have also remixed "Double Sided Walk" for Mindstore, "Dankbar" for rapper Toni L. and last but not least "The River" for the great and exciting Freakniks on Scenario.

Hacienda "Electric Diva"
Hacienda are Jürgen Kadel and Marcus Finger. Both coming from different backrounds they teamed up in 1994 and started making musik together. Ten years ago Jürgen started playing in different band projects which were all sort of Kraftwerk related. He is now still playing in an independent guitar band. Marcus Finger has done some DJing in local clubs and has his own ambient project. After releasing three 12" inches (Nightmare Of Max, Plüsch and Disco King (which was remixed by famous Ian O'Brien - see below!) and one album ("Sunday Afternoon") on Frankfurt, later Berlin-based label Harthouse, which has recently gone bankrupt. And even though they haven't made any dicisions on which label they will be releasing next Hacienda are working on their second album. Watch this very relaxed electronic-listening and freestyle-sampling duo grow!

Ian O'Brien "Dayride"
Ian O'Brien is a multi talented musician he playes guitar and piano. He has also studied music theory and composition. End of the eighties he played in his own fusion band called "Cats Club". His tracks which he releases on Russ Gabriels cult label Ferox, are influenced by famous jazz, soul and fusion musicians like Stevie Wonder, Chick Corea, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and new music heroes like Jeff Mills. He has released several EPs, 12-inches, two brilliant electrifiing LPs, and he remixed Hacienda's "Disco King" (Harthouse), as well as Beanfields new track "Elektro-Kraut" for Compost. Beside Kirk Degiorgio of As One, Ian O'Brien was voted one of the big big names to watch out for in 1997 by music-magazines like Muzik, Jockey Slut and Straight No Chaser.

Deadly Avenger "Malpaso"
Damon Baxter is the man behind Deadly Avenger. Damon began discovering the joy's of music in the early 1980's where his love of hip hop and electro saw him learn how to cut and scratch breaks and beats from his fast growing record collection. By 1994 Damon was becoming more and more frustrated with hearing other peoples music but not being able to record his own. So he bought himself a small studio set up and started producing the records he felt he had to make. By now Damon is signed to breakbeat pioneer Saul J. Kane's (aka Depth Charge) DC Recordings and has done remixes for the Jungle Brothers, Edwyn Collins and Wreckage Inc. This track shows the moody and vibing skills of sampling-art and it is the best track to chill out and start again with Pressure Drop!