Bleep

Luke Vibert doesn’t don his Amen Andrews hat very often - apart from one EP back in 2014, the project has been dormant since a flurry of releases in the early 2000s. It’s quite a treat, then, for Vibert to present a whole album of Amen Andrews material.

Unsurprisingly given the choice of name, Vibert uses Amen Andrews records to satisfy his junglist cravings. This new set features fourteen uptempo selections focussed around the evergreen ‘Amen’ break. The album gets progressively faster as it wears on, too - starting at a positively relaxed 154 bpm, Amen Andrews has topped 170 by the time closing cut ‘Lower’ hoves into view.

While the album is rooted in drum ‘n’ bass, jungle and hardcore, Vibert explores plenty of other sonic pastures here. Sure, there’s meaty sub thwacks underpinning the chopped-up beats of ‘Better Breaks’, but this is preceded by ‘Ready’, a day-glo jam that sounds like it’s been lifted from the soundtrack of an old video game. Stop-start numbers like ‘Big L’ serve to emphasise the iconoclastic streak that has always run through Vibert’s music - particularly when you remember that Vibert was known for turning out the challenging, often somewhat hostile beats of drill ‘n’ bass back in the day.

Breakbeat veteran Luke Vibert flexes his muscles on Amen Andrews, the first LP in a trilogy that the producer is delivering via Hypercolour.