SPILL NEW MUSIC: GOLDIE PRESENTS: RUFIGE KRU – ‘METAL GIANTS’ EP OUT NOW VIA LONDON RECORDS

GOLDIE PRESENTS: RUFIGE KRU – METAL GIANTS EP OUT NOW

LONDON RECORDS

Goldie’s alter ego project with Submotive, Rufige Kru, has returned to unleash another fearless and peerless body of work, the Metal Giants EP. Out now, the EP comprises 5 brand new tracks produced by Goldie and Submotive.

Both the EP’s title – Metal Giants – and the artwork were inspired by the New York subway cars which Goldie used to graffiti. The tracks on the EP are already quickly gaining acclaim from peers across the industry, with DJ Krust, John B, DJ Marky, Micky Finn and Doc Scott all giving their stamp of approval to the new Rufige Kru material.

The Metal Giants EP opens “Metal Detekt,” with its dissonant call and response beeps which were sampled from a Stussy x Metalheadz collab advert on YouTube. “Backgammon Blues” came from a real-life incident when Rufige Kru’s James and Goldie were playing backgammon with each other in Thailand – and things became very competitive. “People & Places (Submotive VIP)” was produced at the same time as the original (which appears on recent album Alpha Omega). The EP’s synonymous closer was actually written first. “I wasn’t sure what to do with it, so it sat there as a DJ weapon”, says Rufige Kru’s Submotive. The final track features a vocal sample from the late New York graffiti artist Dondi, as he describes the New York City train yard—his “metal giants”—where standing between the trains made everything feel enormous, all steel and scale.

The release of Metal Giants EP follows a huge year for Rufige Kru, who returned last year with the highly acclaimed album Alpha Omega. Nominated for ‘Best Album’ at the DJ Mag Awards, the record includes tracks such as “Still The Same” featuring CASISDEAD and “Goldikus,” which features guest vocals from revered UK music legend Cleveland Watkiss MBE, sampled from a recording of Goldie’s 1993 set at legendary London club, The Blue Note.

One of the most revered names in breakbeat science, Rufige Kru rewired the dancefloor for the first time back in 1992 with the hardcore classic “Darkrider.” Back then, Goldie’s musical partner was hip hop fanatic Linford Jones. “He had a fantastic record collection,” remembers Goldie. “I had a field day going through his records and pulling out breaks.” Engineer Mark Rutherford – who also worked with Peter Gabriel and Mark McLaren – was another early collaborator. The partnership yielded pivotal hardcore moments like “Ghosts Of My Life” and “Terminator” (still considered one of the key moments in the evolution of drum’n’bass).

It’s a testament to the alchemy itself, that no matter who Goldie has worked with – or taken under his wing – the Rufige sound remains consistently forward-thinking and innovative. Though Goldie’s groundbreaking debut album Timeless and its 1998 follow-up Saturnz Return broke through into mainstream success, he continued the sonic explorations of Rufige Kru with two had found a new musical partner, Heist/Strider main man Jim Muir.

And then, of course, there was the first all-time drum’n’bass classic of the new millennium: Rufige Kru’s 2001 masterpiece “Beachdrifta.” Recorded with Danny Goldstein, it was a record that – like “Ghosts” or “Terminator” before it – just turned everything upside down. So much so that, in 2017, when Goldie played two memorable nights at Ronnie Scott’s in London, the live rendition transformed the venerable jazz club into a 4am rave. “Sometimes you catch lightning in a bottle,” recalls Goldie. “That was one of those times.”

Rufige Kru’s new EP Metal Giants is out now via London Records.

Rufige Kru
Metal Giants
(London Records)
Release Date: February 13, 2026

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Background Photo Credit: Ollie Grove