Modern d'n'b is rubbish - tune ID and a moan from an old man

Dusty

Tone deaf
Its nice to see so many people voicing how I've felt about the whole thing. I used to be a Knowledge mag subscriber, until it got to a point where I realised 6 months-worth of magazines had piled up unread, and when I did investigate the dormant cover CDs - it was a depressing listen. The artists who disapointed me most were Ed Rush and Optical. I loved Wormhole, I defy anyone to criticise it, its one of the few classics of that era.

But trace their output after that release and you have a pretty good map of how the scene as a whole altered for the worse. The mid-range buzz of fake-oooh-look-how-scary-I-am basslines make me cringe, I now find it embarassing to admit to liking DnB.

I also agree about the dissapointment of 'Malice In Wonderland'.

But for anyone looking for a good Jungle hit from an unusual source, Detroit's Soundmurderer & Sk1 put out a compilation album on Rephlex in 2003 - and it became my desert island disc of jungle. It restores faith.
 

Blackdown

nexKeysound
Zinc did the breaky garage as Zinc.
Twisted Individual did some breakstep type stuff as Bogeyman i think - Smelly is great.

There's way more than this.

Steve Gurley, who pre-empted dubstep by years and still is hard to beat, was in Foul Play. T Power did breaks. Shy FX and T Power made a Latin 2step white label as Mystery Men, did a d&b remix that blew up and took on the charts with "Shake UR Body", pretending the garage bit never happened. Potential Bad Boy made jungle, went to garage as Chris Mac then returned to d&b. Brockie & Ed Solo made breakbeat garage on bingo. Hype made breakbeat garage too. Think about hardcore's Top Buzz, who included the Dreem Teem's Mikee B and Social Circle's Jason Kaye.

Then there's the garage/grime artists who never made it big in jungle so headed off when things got "locked down", like Terror Danjah and Teebone (who bailed out of proto-grime at around 2001/2, just as he was ahead of his time).

The new school equivalent of "UK garage" is now funky 'house, and ooh look if it isn't various threads of the 'nuum re-combining in the form of grime pioneer Geeneus and d&b's Zinc collaborating (or so the myspace seems to allude to), on a funky house track Jelly Jams ft. Nikki "Emotions".

This interbreeding isn't that surprising, since jungle and UK garage were essentially the same demographic of London - multi genres, one community - which is why Simon Reynold's hardcore continuum theory holds so much water.

It's also highlights the tragedy of new school drum & bass. Because no matter how many amazing photek-esque beats get produced by blokes from Finland or whatever, d&b has abandoned it's founding audience: young urban multicultural London. Zhao called it a "zombie genre" which hits the nail on the head.
 

Logos

Ghosts of my life
Slightly off topic - the weird thing was Hype's breakbeat garage stuff was absolutely incredible, the best music he had made since the whole weird energy/shot in the dark/sub base period.

Then he disapeared back in to so-so drum and bass.
 

Blackdown

nexKeysound
Slightly off topic - the weird thing was Hype's breakbeat garage stuff was absolutely incredible, the best music he had made since the whole weird energy/shot in the dark/sub base period.

Then he disapeared back in to so-so drum and bass.

Pussy remix: clanking, offkilter, industrial, dark ragga, Forward>>@Velvet Rooms anthem!
 

swears

preppy-kei
I find Pendulum really bland and annoying, it's like as if Groove Armada decided to make some "banging" d'n'b records. Every tune they do has to have that gormless, farty sounding distorted bass synth all the way through.
 
k-punks hyperbole aside, very disapointing indeed. not even a glimpse of their former alien creativity, spark and originality. the same too-fast chase scene drums, the same old everything, basically. the idea that this somehow recaptures their old vibe is laughable.

I reckon there was probably a good four-track EP in there, but after the initial rush it does get very samey...almost made me hanker for some of those dodgy fusion tunes he used to dabble with, just to break up the monotony!

But for anyone looking for a good Jungle hit from an unusual source, Detroit's Soundmurderer & Sk1 put out a compilation album on Rephlex in 2003 - and it became my desert island disc of jungle. It restores faith.

Good point - I was really impressed with that one when it came out..haven't listened to it for ages but might dig it out this week. That chap Tadd Mullinex is very clever isn't he...he seems to breath excitement into any old genre he touches.
 

bassnation

the abyss
that one song distills to an essence what's wrong with d'n'b.

polite, normalised, mor bollocks

what i want out of jungle is stuff which is mental but still manages to avoid bludgeoning you over the head with a brick, like this:
http://deadtrax.com/sound/bountyhuntersnippet.mp3

and this:
http://deadtrax.com/sound/easybwoysnippet.mp3

where the current producers went wrong is thinking that ramping everything up means it will be better - akin to those caners who think because 1 pill is fun, 20 must equal 20 times the fun.

and then anything good about the experience is just drowned out by the shit. i've always liked powerful music (used to be a metal fan as a teenager) but there's a point in extremis where they make gabba sound like easy listening.

i, like many others, have become absorbed with dubstep because we see it as the true inheritor of jungles mantle what with contemporary dnb relinquishing that status. the only problem being that dubstep (quite rightly) is its own scene, a different time and a different crowd of producers. i think you have to beware of burdening it with your own expectations from another scene altogether and just take it for what it is, under its own merits.
 

bassnation

the abyss
I reckon there was probably a good four-track EP in there, but after the initial rush it does get very samey...almost made me hanker for some of those dodgy fusion tunes he used to dabble with, just to break up the monotony!

well exactly, it starts off promising, very atmospheric. but ideas in dnb these days are to be used sparingly, whereas the old ruffige kru tracks had so many ideas crammed in it was changing every minute. it was so amatuerish but you really felt their love, it was a life they were living. also the beats are shit, and surely if theres a point to ruffige kru, its that. if this is dnb's great white hope then god help them. btw is rob playford still involved? did him and goldie make friends in the end?

i will always think of myself as a junglist, but the spirit has moved elsewhere and thats what i'm following, rather than the genre itself. as an aside, i think the new bouncy "up" dubstep is recapturing some of that feeling, plus a shedload of new vibes and ideas too. the other thing is, i feel its now impossible to use any of the jungle signifiers in production without it sounding like a parody due to all the knucklehead breakcore. anyone can do an amen mashup but hardly anyone can make it sound slinky, subtle and trippy like the old skool producers. maybe time to move on from those sounds altogether.
 
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mms

sometimes
There's way more than this.

Steve Gurley, who pre-empted dubstep by years and still is hard to beat, was in Foul Play. T Power did breaks. Shy FX and T Power made a Latin 2step white label as Mystery Men, did a d&b remix that blew up and took on the charts with "Shake UR Body", pretending the garage bit never happened. Potential Bad Boy made jungle, went to garage as Chris Mac then returned to d&b. Brockie & Ed Solo made breakbeat garage on bingo. Hype made breakbeat garage too. Think about hardcore's Top Buzz, who included the Dreem Teem's Mikee B and Social Circle's Jason Kaye.

Then there's the garage/grime artists who never made it big in jungle so headed off when things got "locked down", like Terror Danjah and Teebone (who bailed out of proto-grime at around 2001/2, just as he was ahead of his time).

not only but also johnny l who did some mersh garage hits, remarc did some early garage, as did bizzy b as part of the beatfreaks and dreem team, then there was shut up and dance who were red light and hackney solders/one up too, there is even that remix of original nuttah by tpower and shy fx! That pussy trax track rules tho.

i must say i like what amit does, a few of the other guys that showed promise a few years back have got a bit tame though, like i wish breakage would do more stuff like he did 4 planet mu.
 
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Blackdown

nexKeysound
Re naphta etc: isn't it all mostly revivalist though, without the prevailing wind of a cultural junglist movement behind it? Recreating the music wont recreate the magic...
 
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