Brixton Swerve Riddim – Brixton Music Group

Brixton Swerve moves with a sharp, mid-tempo dancehall pulse and keeps the cast tight, with Mad Cobra leading the charge on “Closet” and Raine Seville and Nuklear filling out the selector-friendly spread. The radio-and-raw double-ups on “Closet” and “Always Broke” give the set that early-2010s dancehall feel, when a strong rhythm often lived in multiple edits and let the vocal versions do the talking. Brixton Music Group were already building a name around grimy, street-level productions, and this one sits neatly beside their later work with artists like Spice while showing the label’s knack for lean, no-frills riddims. It’s a six-track 2014 set, with the instrumental version closing things out the way a proper juggling should.