For those asleep, the legendary V Recordings have over the last year pressed three releases in a series of unreleased tracks on wax, appropriately titled, Legends. So far on the roster, we’ve seen Krust, Lemon D and Dillinja, all put out killer tracks that could previously only be found on your dusty cassette tapes, DNB forums and YouTube searches.
Adding to the hype, these are vinyl-only until the series finishes and eventually releases on digital platforms (but who can wait that long?!). So far all have been 90s rarities, encapsulating the warm analogue sounds of that era, and have been at the top of most-wanted lists for many junglists.
What’s Out So Far?
Krust has opened the vault and blessed us with two pounding numbers. Unit 23 moves at a slower tempo but the way those drums roll is hypnotic. Flip the record and you get Pentacle, a truly ‘heads’ tune. It has the signature Krust bassline hook and deserves a dancefloor to be fully appreciated.
Lemon D’s addition is the atmospheric Wu-Tang, featuring an iconic vocal sample from the kung-fu classic film, Ten Tigers of Kwantung. This track is a personal favourite of Kings of the Rollers’ Serum who recently gave the track a new audience after naming it “as one of his favourite unreleased tracks from this era”.
Most recently, Dillinja has stepped up to bring us two highly coveted dubplates. Selassie I Sound / Valve Sound VIP have both been cropping up in mixes for years but until now were absent from our record collections.
A Year of Reflection
A worldwide pandemic has prompted plenty of reflection this past year, and it would seem that many producers and record owners have been looking back too. This might explain why we’ve seen a rise in forgotten releases coming to light, like V Recordings’ Legends series, Break’s Dusty Demos album and Metalsheadz’ 2020 Remasters.
Bryan Gee himself has confirmed that DJ Die’s The Capers and Roni Size’s Operation X / Synction are all forthcoming in this series. For whatever reason, these 90s gems never saw the light of day but fans are eager and waiting for future surprises in this series.