FRCBLKLBL1 – Opius
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℗ Straylight Music Group – © 2026 FORCE BLACK LABEL / Published by: We Are Legion (ASCAP) / Distributed by: Straylight Music Group
— AVAILABLE NOW —
The opening salvo of FORCE BLACK LABEL our new, dark and dangerous sub-label of Force Recordings, the United States’ longest continuously operating Drum & Bass imprint.
FORCE BLACK LABEL exists for one sound: source Techstep. The cold, black-on-black science that No U-Turn, Renegade Hardware, Moving Shadow and Emotive Records sent out into the world in the late 1990’s when the concrete shoes of Ed Rush, Nico, Trace and Fierce, Dom & Roland, Elementz of Noize, Genotype and others defined what heavy on the levy meant before it all went neuro. That’s the lineage we’re picking up, and there was only one way I wanted to open the account:
Out of England, OPIUS is the label owner of Ballpark Recordings, an original breakbeat mastermind and one of the most prolific producers of modern speeded breakbeat and drumfunk there is. This is his first release with our camp, and I couldn’t think of a better pair of hands to set the tone.
‘One Cold Plate’ is HEAVY — Amen, chopped and worked in the drumfunk fashion Opius is known for. On the flip, ‘Seraphim’ is a classic Metalheadz style Apache workout, the old break run hard the way the originators did it.
Both cuts come to you as the Dubplate versions, mastered for vinyl right here at Straylight Mastering. Welcome to the black.
Big up OPIUS and the whole Underground Fam <3
