Edinburgh producer Hostage has been unleashing his unique brand of rave fuelled house, dubstep and electro for the past few years now, picking up a BBC Essential Mix along the way and Dj’ing across the world.

His latest outing sees him hook up with London label Black Butter for a 6 tracker packed to the brim with quality and something for all the family within its bass driven walls.

“Dreams” is the standout for me. Easing its way in with some off beat skanks before dropping to a tough as you like kick and sub combo. Huge.

“Desire” is another belter with its old skool breakbeat shuffle driving proceedings along. Combining an old skool jungle-esque wall of sub bass and drum chops with sluggish rave stabs perfectly to combine the best of darkness and light.

And ach, while we’re at it – “Razrr” is another must have from this package. There’s a techno lean in this one with frantic handclaps and a big ol’ fuzzy synth line to take things up a notch.

All in all it’s a brilliant EP that showcases Hostage’s production skills and his unique talent to balance the dark and light in one track.

Pick this up at from the 23rd of January.

The Hostage alter ego is back with glimpse of things to come. In between a busy touring and production schedule Alan Hostage is still finding the time to create top quality grey sound vibes from his Wire guise.

This time a slower pace with skipping snares and echoey vocals is on the menu, creating real depth and atmosphere. After his first release as the Phuturelabs first release, we hear there is far more to come and this free tune suggests good times ahead.

Wira – Show by Phuturelabs

As always, click the down arrow on the player to grab this.

It’s that time of the week again and this week’s snack of choice is Baklava. It’s a pastry thang filled with nuts and sweetened with syrup or honey and it’s basically ace. Here’s a wee recipe.

Once again we’ve got a side plate full of beats to help aid snack digestion. First up is a lovely chunk of r&b tinged shuffly house goodness courtesy of Jason Burns and XLR8R. It’s sugary goodness perfectly compliments the baklava and makes you do that kinda weird slow shuffle dance thing where your shoulders flop behind your head. Aye.

Jason Burns – Back 2 U

The Beastie Boys added audio of forthcoming new album “Hot Sauce Committee Part 2″ on their Soundcloud this week and for us – it’s all about the “Nonstop Disco Powerpack”.

Nonstop Disco Powerpack by Beastie Boys

Taking things down a notch, dark electronica producer Ampa previously impressed us greatly with a track called “Plex”. They’ve returned with another lovely wee slice of moody beats for free download entitled “529″.

529 by Ampa

Now we’ve calmed things down suitably, it’s time for Edinburgh’s Hostage to ramp things up a little with a preview of a remix he’s just finished for No Brainer Records. It’s a bit of a head nodder and has an infectious Popcorn style hook that’ll worm it’s way into your consciousness. Hear the full track in Hostage’s April 2011 mix.

Slap In The Bass – Egypt (Hostage Remix) preview by HOSTAGE

To finish off this week’s snack sized burst of beats we head over to Manchester for the sounds of Marcus Intalex. Despite being involved in the drum n bass scene for over 20 years, his debut album “21″ has only just landed this week on his own Soul:R imprint and it’s an impressive collection that’s been picking up support from the likes of Gilles Peterson, Laurent Garnier, Tiga, Loefah and Benji B.

Preview the album with this 8 minute mini-mix and head on over to A Bunch of Cuts to grab your copy.

MI 21 Preview mix by marcusintalex

Edinburgh rave monster Hostage dropped this at the weekend and it’s providing the perfect soundtrack to an almost sunny Glasgow afternoon. If you too are feeling the spring vibes, this mix of garagey beats, dubstep, electro house and ravey goodness should be right up your street. Tucked away within the tracklist is the first outing of “Witches”, the title track from his new EP forthcoming on Nightshifters, more on that later.

Stream below or download for portable listening.

Hostage April Mix 2011 by HOSTAGE

Tracklist:

Origin Unknown – Valley Of The Shadows (The Living Graham Bond Remix)
Bondax feat. Bobbie Gordon – Just Smile (Hostage Remix)
Costello – Balkanik
Slap In The Bass – Egypt (Hostage Remix)
Jack Beats – Elevator Music
Hostage – Witches
Raised By Eskimos – Carnival
Bart B More & Harvard Bass – Listen To This
Blaze Tripp – Vertigo (Hostage Remix)
Malente vs Azzido Da Bass – Hunting (DemSlackers & Fake ID Remix)
J Trick – Def Jam (Hostage Remix) (JFK Edit)
Deathwave – I Don’t Even
Monopunk – Expo Warning (Hostage Remix)
DJ Antention – Spider
aUtOdiDakT & John Disco feat. Spoek Mathambo – Fake Fred Perry (Munchi is Muito Random RMX)

Edinburgh producer Hostage has been locked away recently constructing his forthcoming new EP for Nightshfters, but while having a crisp break and considering the greatness of Tangy Toms, he unleashed this chunky raved up dubstep bootleg of the Althea & Donna classic.

Opening with some off beat skanking before fuzzy bass notes wander slowly into view and before you know it – we’re off!

Althea & Donna – Uptown Top Ranking (Hostage Remix) by HOSTAGE

Our ears had only stopped ringing after Hostage’s epic set at last weekend’s RockNess in the Annie Mac Presents tent when his belter of a remix for Aerotronic landed in our inbox. The original’s a bit ravey noise monster and Edinburgh’s finest has actually calmed things down a little (a first for him!). What you get for your bandwith is a cracking main room banger with a big ol’ bassline and catchy synth hooks a-plenty all wrapped up in the trademark Hostage top quality production.

Grab the Hostage remix below and head on over to Beatport to check out more remixes from Waxdolls, Ed Orable and VNNR.

Aerotronic – Sex & Cigarettes (Hostage rmx)

Edinburgh based DJ & musician Hostage (aka Alan Parley) teams up with RTA for an old school tinged, bass thumper of a track in the shape of “Dog Bark Bass”.

Hostage had this to say about the background to the track:

RTA is tWiSt. So, we’re sittin round my gaff, Bank Holiday monday, a bit melted, bored, so… down the boozer for 2 pints of Staroprammen, get back… let’s make a beat. Nice day, windows are open, but it’s not the Nice Day stationery dog that’s outside is it? No, it’s some noisy cunt of a moving dog. RTA is on the cross-trainer working it, popping wasabi peas and says “make the bass sound like a dog bark”. woof. woofer. high speed ridd ensues, then we found out that even at 16 metres away and with the dog outside a closed window, the noise level of a barking dog can be well over the level that causes psychological distress. the very best of luck to you.

So, have a listen, and if you’re liking the sound of it you can download it courtesy of Mr Hostage. Woof Woof!

Hostage & RTA – Dog Bark Bass by HOSTAGE

—edit—
I’ve just noticed he’s got a new mix out just now as well- so here ya go!

Hostage – April 2010 Mix by HOSTAGE

Tracklist-
1 Sandro Silva & Anjiro Rijo – Fifty What (Dem Slackers Remix)
2 Ampersand – The Ruckus (Highbloo Remix)
3 Tom Piper & Distory Disco -Bender (Figure Brooklyn Fire Remix)
4 Luki – Bounce (Hey Now Remix)
5 N3P2 – Caballero (Hostage Remix)
6 Sam Tiba – Barbie Weed
7 Hostage – Valkyrie
8 Foamo – Centavo
9 Mumbai Science – 3200
10 Nick Thayer – Zombies (HeavyFeet Mix)
11 Sound of Stereo – Flatland
12 Hostage – Dubtch
13 Nick Thayer – Gonna Getcha (Black Noise Remix)
14 Knight Riderz – Party Alarm
15 Dj Antention – Jump
16 Mom & Dad – Judas (Dem Slackers Remix)
17 High Rankin – Meow Meow (132BPM 4/4 Edit)
18 Momma’s Boy vs Mikix The Cat – At Night
19 Mustard Pimp – Kiwi (Gtronic Remix)
20 Malente vs. Azzido da Bass – They’re Killing It (The Aston Shuffle Remix)
21 JFK & St Mandrew – Face Pump

49:00 >> 160kbps >> 13/04/10

Edinburgh’s Hostage has been producing music for over a decade now and in recent years he’s honed his rave infused big room electro house shenanigans to perfection. We’re big fans here and his recent Essential Mix for Radio 1 has been on constant rotation.

So we’ve decided to take a wee wander into the world of Hostage – firstly with a spanking brand new track called “Dubsch”. It’s a bit of a bleepy banger and may lead to inappropriate desk head banging action, for those of you having a sneaky listen in the office – try and contain yourselves but get some turbo foot raving action on the go discreetly under the desk.

Hostage – Dubtch by HOSTAGE

Also we’ve got two cracking freebies for ya – two more full on slabs of wonky goodness in the shape of “Otis” and “Skin Out” – both available to download for free below.

Hostage – Skin Out by HOSTAGE

Hostage – Otis by HOSTAGE