Christmas time: Ayla's away in Istanbul, Louis the cat is here for company, staying in N10 'cos it's too cold to go home, neighbours are away so that means I can listen to all those bass-heavy records. This pagan holiday does have its benefits after all.

Juju: Red Up (Narco.Hz) - 12
Coki: Tortured / Shattered (Tempa) - 12"
Subterranean dub dripping from this excellent 2-tracker by Juju. Both cuts wallow in sound system crackle and hiss: artificially degraded digital dubstep of the highest calibre.

One of the guys behind the counter at Black Market Records scowled and said "Is that all it does?" upon hearing the repeat-fire riff of Coki's 'Tortured'. I replied back that that was part of the appeal - causing much slow hand waving action at the DMZ nights whenever this got dropped.

Border Crossing: City of Love (Kartel) - 10"
London dub collective that hasn't really fired my imagination thus far finally make it to Fail with this 10". Ex-Renegade Soundwave member Danny Briottet has a hand in this. So it's all pristine production, filmic aspirations, deft touches and bass, plenty of bass. The positivity further enhanced with a sprightly delivery by Ricky Ranking. Warm dub for cold nights.

Grand Masterz: The Shadow Technique / Decent Exposure (Vampire) - 12"
One half of now-defunct jungle doom-mongers Source Direct resurfaces with this brooding, kung-fu influenced bass workout for the A-side. The B-side however sounds like the sort of jazzy rolling jungle that I thought we did away with.

N-Type: Way of the Dub (Dub Police) - 12"
Caspa: For The Kids (Dub Police) - 12"
Rusko: SNES Dub (Dub Police) - 12"
To be honest, anything on this label is worthy of investigation. Basically peddling ganga heavy dubstep with satisfyingly well-placed rastafari samples. N-Type fills the space usually left empty by most practitioners with bursts of sped-up breakbeat; 'Tred' is the prime directive.

Caspa fuses samples from 'Willy Wonka' on 'For the kids' but it's the bleep-infected, half-time jungle swagger of 'Jeffry & Bungle' that I keep going back to.

Rusko takes it even further, succesfully merging this new sound with its links to the past. 'SNES Dub' easily up there as one of dubstep's more party-friendly moments, recalling Skream's 'Midnight Request Line' arpeggio riff. But the B-sides also contain moments of tremendous weight.