Daybreak is a new EP from Mecca:83. Created in 24 hours – which it probably gives the record the name – the record is available either as a free download or for a ‘name your price’ fee via Mecca’s Bandcamp with all donations going to UK charity Mind.

Daybreak is lush, instrumental piece and a throwback to Manchester’s golden era of Grand Central, Aim et al. And I mean throwback in the best possible way.

Anyway check it out and donate a few pieces of silver to a very worthy cause.

Love how agency Weareus have treated Wiley’s Boom Blast single. Shot against strong blocks of colour with equally bold typography and utlising gym users of various shapes, the vibe is retro, detached and abstract. Something that is amplified when it cuts to Wiley’s trademark intense delivery. Following on from their work on Wiley’s Numbers In Action single and much of the DELS promo, Weareus are creating a waves in the music promo world.

Hot like Pepper Sauce.

Hip-hop and food have a long, and if you excuse the pun, fruitful relationships. Highlights include the Beastie Boys Finger Lickin’ Good, Organized Confusion’s Who Stole My Last Piece of Chicken, Buck 65′s Square LP (which if memory serves includes a indulgent M+S style of delivery), Cut Chemist’s and DJ Shadow’s Brainfreeze… you get the idea, the list is pretty fruity.

Arriving at an opportune time to spice up a chilly January and giving the producers of Master Chef a chance to turn up the show’s aural heat, Inja’s Pepper Sauce is a joyous, bouncing track that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Taken from his forthcoming Bass Music/Escapism LP, Pepper Sauce is fittingly produced by DJ Edsik (Allouette Street Records) who hails from the home of crack sauciers, France.

New year = passport to new sounds. Associated Minds have announced some UK Exports - a thing Dave C in Number 10 can only dream of at present.

Produced UK DMC finalist DJ Killer Tomato & Associate Mind Mayor, UK Exports reps the UK scene past and present and includes choice tracks by Paul White and Tranquil, Kidkanevil and Willo Wispa, Sonnyjim, Jehst, P.L.O. & Ralph Rip Shit, Mystro, Ramson Badbones and Wizard and Cappo.

Checkit on the way to work.

Christmas is a time for giving, and thankfully beatmaker Clams Casino has joined in the Yuletide spirit by offering up the critically acclaimed Instrumentals LP from his Facebook page for free. In what was originally released as a free online mixtape and then pressed onto vinyl by the label Type, this new gift heralds a “previously unavailable high quality 320kbps digitally remastered version of Instrumentals“. And what better way is there to celebrate the festive period than experiencing Clams’ heady beats in all of their high quality glory?

Furthermore, the new year has brought us mixtapes from two of the most acclaimed MC’s of recent memory from America and England respectively. Raekwon has put together a tape, Unexpected Victory, ft. Mobb Deep, Capone N Noreaga, Styles P with production from 9th Wonder and more, while Dizzee Rascal has provided another, Dirtee TV.com The Mixtape, that showcases his label’s talent, sidestepping the pop-electro leanings of his most recent albums and instead sticks to what he does best, grimy raps.

If you’re travelling home for Christmas and looking for some new tunage or just are looking for an aural escape from the annual family get together these little free MP3 nuggets might what you’re after.

First Word Records have released an LP handcrafted for your listening pleasure. Running to 12 tracks, Two Syllables Six Volume Six features label stalwarts Souleance, Ariya Astrobeat Arkestra, Kidkanevil, Homecut, Lotek & Amenta and is well worth getting on the D/L. For those travelling home for Christmas but don’t fancy listening to Chris Rea – most of our readership I’d hope – then Neon Neon can sate your music x travelling needs with their comback track entitled Wheels. Released by the lovely folk at Lex, it’s good to see Gruff and Boom Bip back behind the wheel of their DeLorean.

And last but not least, if you’re after some serious hours of new musical experiences, then why not cop the entire back catalogue of Bonafide Beats. Over the past 12 months we’ve had contributions from Vast Aire, Handbook, MC Sole, Ugly Duckling, Mexicans With Guns, Stay + , Mike-L and Lopez, purveyors of ambitious, experiemental, exciting and progressive musical styles. Maybe, just maybe, the best present you’ll find under the digital Christmas tree this year.

Woahhhh have Lex really been delivering the goods for 10 years?! Apparently so, and to mark this momentous occasion for a UK record label that has few contemporary peers – few other labels have consistently dropped new markers in the field that is designated ‘left of field’ in the world of hip-hop –  are releasing 10. 10 is an compilation of 10 exclusive tracks by the likes of Jneiro Jarel, DOOM, Thom York, Neon Neon, Boom Bip, Dosone and Fog. Tracks are currently being released in digital sizzle format on a weekly basis, before they are compiled into a must have picture disc released in January 2012.

Also worth visiting to pick up a last minute Christmas present or two is the new Lex Store. The store is a great place to spend five minutes digging through. One of the main reasons is it gives you the chance to peruse a lot of the design work crafted by Ehquestionmark? which has the rare effect of making you want to buy the vinyl even if you haven’t heard the music – how nice is that cover for Boom Bip’s Zig Zaj LP? Also lurking is a great limited edition pack that features two screen-prints by illustrator Yu Sato, one commemorating DOOM & Ghostface Killah’s show at The Roundhouse, London, and Lex Records 10th Anniversary poster.

Bonafide set out with the aim to celebrate hip-hop. Our aim was to explore ‘old-school, mid-school and new-school creativity’, five issues on we’re proud to present the old school x new school issue. In hip-hop chronological order we speak to the Godfather of it all, Grandmaster Flash, profile EPMD, the funky Long Island duo from the golden age of rap and get crazy with ‘the lazy hustler’ and fourth Beastie Boy, Ricky Powell. Still in NYC, we speak to a leading voice for alternative hip-hop, EL-P, who, nearly 15 years on from the release of the Funcrusher Plus (as part of Company Flow), reveals that there’s plenty of drive left in the tank. From the West Coast we catch up with the revered turntablist and Beat Junkie, J Rocc.

In the new-school side of the magazine, we break bread with those responsible for some of the most exhilarating new sounds in British urban music. We have exclusives with DELS and Ghostpoet as they launch their careers with original and nuanced albums. For this issue’s roundtable we speak with the men behind Numbers, the Glasgow based record label that has rewritten the rulebook on how techno, electronic, R’n’B, house and hip-hop music should sound. And the resulting mutant strain of bass music is destroying dance floors the world over. On the visual side, we delve deep into the Brainfeeder psyche, speaking with designer and artist Charles Munka about his contribution to the label’s distinct art direction.

Buy an issue via the Bonafide shop and you will receive a redeemable code (sent via email within 48 hours) for a free copy of DELS’ Gob EP, including the original single and remixes by Dave Sitek of Tv on the Radio (catch a listen here), Untold and Ry9n. While stock lasts.

You can also buy Bonafide in the TATE Modern bookshop, Rough Trade, Fopp, Magma, all good online and physical record stores and for the first time, HMV, from May 15th.

Klashnekoff took the main stage in Bonafide magazine issue 04 and in doing so proved that he’s still one of the most colourful characters in UK hip-hop.

So it was good to see this video of a live performance of Murda. Recorded by Paragon Pictures at a gig in Blackburn, there’s no sold-out audience, no X-Factor stadia and no hiding place during this intimate gig. Just low ceilings daubed in sweat, a baying crowd and Klash’s energy, attitude and technique. Well worth a peep.

Drum roll… Bonafide magazine’s first proper foray into world of video promos. Produced by the crazily talented Jim Hill (with able assistance from Ricky Kershaw), we think this vid captures perfectly the energy, excitement and ethos of issue 05, and hopefully helps sum up what a printed publication that’s all about the love for concrete culture should be about. Now go make a brew, sit back and be entertained. And if you ain’t checked a copy yet, what are you waiting for?