Review: kloke & tim reaper - mindgames 10
Jungle ripped back into the forefront of electronic music consciousness over the past few years, carrying the charge of a lost art rediscovered. It’s music that feels both rooted in a golden-era dancefloor lineage and relentlessly forward-facing in its creativity. Last year brought a run of standout releases that pushed jungle close to its modern peak. Nia Archives’ Silence Is Loud pulled the sound into pop-adjacent territory, while Tim Reaper and Kloke made history with the first-ever DnB release on leftfield mainstay Hyperdub. It felt like a high-water mark that might not be surpassed. And yet, the heaters keep coming.
At it again after another year of exceptional individual output, Kloke and Tim Reaper combine forces once more to close out 2025 with a batch of mind-melters on Samurai Music’s jungle-focused sublabel, Mindgames. Stylistically, this extended player finds the two in their sweet spot—tightly wound snares careening across peaks and valleys of synth, only pausing for a few sun-kissed moments of respite. The opener, ‘Conga Fury’, sounds like a mechanical beast powering up, with the clicks and whirs of buzzing circuitry before an ominous bassline brings it to life. This dubplate feels so heavy it would need a giant gorilla to lift it onto the decks.
With the second track, ‘Canyon’, the dubby bass takes a backseat so the synths can really soar. This is truly inspiring stuff, shimmering like a sunrise over dewy mountain peaks. Try this on during your morning workout routine—it will take you to the next level. The classic Think Break pops up on ‘It’s You’, bringing a classic 1993 vibe for the ravers. The saccharine, sinewy melody intertwines with the breaks to turn this track into dancefloor ecstasy.
The closer, ‘Speed’, does exactly what its name promises, revving hard before firing into a warp-speed rush of breakneck turns and collapsing dimensions. After the turbulence, it glides briefly over a tranquil, alien terrain of shimmering water and glowing lifeforms, only to punch back into orbit and vanish into deep space.
