Really, it all started as a joke down Siesta.

"So I've done a bunch of new tracks lately but don't really know how to describe them..."
"Yeah yeah, go on"
"Basically it's... *long pause* speed *long pause* goth"
"Speed... goth...?"
"Look mate it's dead embarrassin but anyways *sniffs, squints menacingly and puffs out chest in defiance* aye: SPEED GOTH"

There was much laughter and merriment and calling for drinks to be topped up. The desired response. It had been building with recent releases on the label but Archipelago Soundsystem had finally come out of the speed goth closet. The end.

Two syllables at any rate is a lot less of a mouthful than a nerdy "well actually it's bits of classic bumpy, speed and ragga garage but mixed in with a lot of the progressive and trancier stuff getting played in Valencia and Barcelona during the same time period but there's also the Japanese side of things with that sort of woozy bruised Kyoto breaks sound and their appreciation of the common ancestry for all of these things in Jamaican dub".

So here we are. Archipelago Soundsystem present their first in a series of EPs examining and honing in on the darker, more elegant fringes of speed garage - think the more continental (or Brummie) dalliances with hard house via people like Klubbheads or the early days of bassline prior to the warper/dark/organ trinity becoming entrenched as Sheffield dogma godhead.

It is also a fierce rebuttal and argument in favour of the relevancy, versatility and undying vivacity of a genre mired (at time of writing, fingers crossed for the future) in zero-effort bootlegs and yeah-sort of-OK-this will do-let's tick the speed garage box off in a DJ set one-offs which are never followed up on or only ever treated as gimmickry.

So, the tracks then shall we?

Nyabo'z organ'z starts off in full Kansai mode with its 2step + new age pad intro (hi Kyoto, luv ya babes!) followed by a brief breakcore interlude (ee arr Osaka gan radge lads!) leading into a punchy bumpy organ track.

Charnel house riddim is simultaneously the bleakest and most upbeat of the lot with its muted choirs and whispers on the edge of the panning range breaking down into a darker-than-a Dark Souls Hollow hollowed out bassline offset by rotted circuit bent drum machine noise bursts and classic ragga samples (the sequencer mistriggering the SIX MILLION WAYS TO DIE sample was too cheeky not to correct).

True electronics is a good encapsulation of Archipelago Soundsystem's own personal history and journey, 90s Spanish progressive on top of a UK speed garage base with a Kyoto breaks middle section. 2.0 will sound a lot like this so hope it takes your fancy.

Minotaur riddim is, as the name would suggest, a bull in a china shop, a demented skank with filthy hard house accoutrements, swapping the speed of True electronics for something heavier and anxiety-inducing.

Wikkid man riddim and Vampyre selectah are both more traditional Sheffield bassline/4x4 tracks but with their own individual extrapolations elsewhere: Wikkid man respectfully augments the Caribbean roots of 4x4 with a Haitian kompa melody and groove whilst Vampyre selectah incorporates a more Eastern European approach given the popularity of the genre in the region... And the whole Transylvania thing.

On the remix front Birmingham's Gary Esson delivers a typically gorgeous sample collage for Nyabo'z organ'z with Pharakami Sanders from Tokyo's Kool Switch Works transposing the Minotaur riddim samples over a push-and-pull footwork/juke rhythm section with synthesisers calling back to traditional Chicago house.

Kyoto's Naco delivers - even by his own ridiculously high, completely separate plane of existence standards - a rampaging take on True electronics, completely capturing snatches of the original hardware sounds and then rebuilding them in his own towering image of bass music.

Ending the EP Trey Frey from US synth goth duo Korine smooths out the bumpy garage and breakcore rhythm of Nyabo'z organ'z into synthcore liquid drum'n'bass (make sure you give the extended version available on the True electronics single a listen as well) whilst Osaka's Ayu Okakita ends proceedings by adding layers and layers of atmospherics and voice effects to the rhythm section of forthcoming track Human rhythm translation.

SEE YOU SOON