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

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
Sorry - I like the video, and I like the live band thing, but its a different thing from the records he puts out, and that was what I meant - if you click the play button on the right-hand side of the last.fm screen you can listen to the original version of the track itself. The live band thing is obviously in a different category to DJs playing records, you can't compare them that easily. As far 'jungle resample', what I was getting at was records made today, or recently, that use exactly the same samples and sounds that jungle records did - breakbeats, clips of (ragga) guys talking, pads, atmospherics, percussive basslines - and in mainly the same way, rather than casting a wider net in terms of samples - a la the above London Elektricity tune...

I'm familiar w/London Elektricity actually. I stick by what I said.

"more than jungle" ah whatever it smacks of the same as "intelligent dnb". also plenty of post-'00 jungle or jungle-related music does cast a "wider net" - gabber, more overt hip hop influences, harsh lo-fi electronics, a ton of stuff really. though of course there are also dudes doing uncreative stuff with the same old elements, which is also true for plenty of LE-style dnb.
 

tyranny

Well-known member



utterly daft all right... it's like they glued together three press releases and rang annie mac for a few quotes...

there's plenty of genuinely great music around though; forthcoming sabre bits on darkestral, early snips of the blu mar ten album are sounding great, alaska's "isolationist" lp is on the way, d:bridge and instra:mental have a big year lined up, survival lp on exit... subtle audio are going strong, soul:r are going strong...

there's lots of generic toss around but the variety of moods and of grooves out there and the diversity between all the various flavours of good stuff is pretty encouraging really... don't know why people moan about it as much as they do...
 

UFO over easy

online mahjong
the new Polar album on Warm Communications is my favourite thing for a while, seems to have gone largely unnoticed. amazing music, really glad he's back on it
 

tyranny

Well-known member
the new Polar album on Warm Communications is my favourite thing for a while, seems to have gone largely unnoticed. amazing music, really glad he's back on it



yes - it's very good all right

i think the last six months have been the dawn of a new age in another way too - for the very first time i'm starting to feel like i'm missing out by not buying digital releases...
 

Alfons

Way of the future
the new Polar album on Warm Communications is my favourite thing for a while, seems to have gone largely unnoticed. amazing music, really glad he's back on it

I didn't get into it too much, thought it wasn't as good as his earlier stuff, maybe I should give it another try. But good to see him back, that thing he went through sounds like a horrible thing for a musician to have to endure. Think it was called ear fatigue or something, interesting but scary, he described it in an interview which I can try and dig up if anyone’s interested.


i think the last six months have been the dawn of a new age in another way too - for the very first time i'm starting to feel like i'm missing out by not buying digital releases...

yeah a lot of these mp3 labels are interesting some of them exploring really tight niches. Sub, Oak and Bop are three artists I've been checking lately (one syllable artist names ftw!). Kind of an electronic take on the drumfunk thing.

Re: London Elektricity and the Hospital label, I find their history and development interesting. Started out with a live jazzy feel, leftfield and ecletic, disregarded by the monotonous dark & hard scene at the time, they then grow into being a dominant institution in a scene that is monotonous in different way.

Old hospital stuff - pre 02, 03 is generally ace and until maybe 2005-2006 they were still doing interesting stuff (and still are with the med school imprint I guess).
 

Alfons

Way of the future
I actually hope that the current polarisation of the scene leads to a split. Also hoping that all the crossing with the dubstep scene (and ventures like the j-tek thing and Naphtas lower bpm concept) leads to lowering of tempos. Would love to see produceers like dbridge and instra:mental do 150-165 bpm stuff.
 

UFO over easy

online mahjong
I didn't get into it too much, thought it wasn't as good as his earlier stuff, maybe I should give it another try. But good to see him back, that thing he went through sounds like a horrible thing for a musician to have to endure.

Yeah man give it another go. It's quite different to his other stuff certainly, maybe a bit odder, but it's really superb I reckon. He has such a unique style.. one of my favourite producers ever.

I'd like to see that interview if you wouldn't mind digging it out?
 

Alfons

Way of the future
Yeah man give it another go. It's quite different to his other stuff certainly, maybe a bit odder, but it's really superb I reckon. He has such a unique style.. one of my favourite producers ever.

I'd like to see that interview if you wouldn't mind digging it out?

Hmm my googling isn't bearing fruit (I did however find a pdf report on
Hearing tests for polar bears...)

Basically he was talking about his condition:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_(artist)
K is suffering from reduced hearing, Hyperacusis and Tinnitus as a result of a hearing injury he originally got in 1999. In 2002 it took an unexpected turn for the worse, and he was left unable to spend any time in the studio. He left the administration of Subtitles to partner Teebee in 2003, and disappeared from the drum & bass scene.

http://www.hyperacusis.net/hyperacusis/what+is+hyperacusis/default.asp

sounds horrible!
 

Colz

Wild Horses
I actually hope that the current polarisation of the scene leads to a split. Also hoping that all the crossing with the dubstep scene (and ventures like the j-tek thing and Naphtas lower bpm concept) leads to lowering of tempos. Would love to see produceers like dbridge and instra:mental do 150-165 bpm stuff.
rickay.jpg

There's a new label just started up in Dublin, should be interesting to see what they bring in the future.
 

Alfons

Way of the future
"I Kissed A Girl" - Bootleggers & Gangsters (12")
http://www.uptownrecords.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3843

no comment. but when did dnb turn into trance? serious question as i've not paid attention for years - has there been a convergence? i noticed similarly cornball stuff in a dnb dj's "promo" video the other day.

think that's just a particularly bad "dnb bootleg mix of a famous song" which come out all the time, I always imagine them being bought by 17 year old pub dj's who need to play something people will know. But there was indeed some trance flirtation in 2001-2003, under the trance and bass moniker even:
http://www.discogs.com/John-B-Trance-n-Bass/release/60375

Most of it was rubbish but some of the Klute songs in this vein were actually quite nice imo

wouldn't say this stuff has a large role in todays dnb sound tho.
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
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.

the irony of this statement in 2018 is too much.
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
ah, another one of these. if you go to subvert central and have a browse you'll find a few interesting 100-page threads about the decline of drum and bass - it's been absolutely discussed to death.. that kind of stuff dominated SC for ages. check out droid and naphta's writing on weareie.com as well.

the good stuff doesn't get played in clubs, but it's still out there. I'm going to record a mix next weekend.

go back to ur roots m8! we all
miss the cockney pirate ufo. don't let the liberal commentariat deceive u the ladies love break choppage and big dub/reese basslines. house is a sausage fest.
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
tbf u lot got what u wanted with minimal dnb but this is the nuum theorists problem they didn't read Simon/Blissblogger properly they didn't see hardcore-jungle as a form of proletarian noise hats why they got sucked into dungeon dubstep and cleanly produced minimal dnb. it's all underground now metalheadz even is underground again dispatch recordings for the low fat minimal techstep.

Gotta admire mans like nucleus and paradox, stubborn fuckers, i like their aesthetic yeah its autistic jungle but fuck it i don't want to give up breaks.
 
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thirdform

pass the sick bucket
i like 2step garage but compared to the pitched up divas of 92 it was a step backwards. dnb should have gone even further into the heart of the insane experience. even more head fucky than 93 darkcore. the problem was not the techy sounds it was lack of chaos a computerised update of karl orff or penderecki. bad trip vibes. always. every time. the experimental gabber guys got this to an extent but because of their lack of cultural dynamism they couldn't really envision a music outside of the eurodisco continuum.
 
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thirdform

pass the sick bucket
no zone of fruitlss intensfications its just musical tribalism u should listen to hixxy and sharkey and murzbow in the same session thats the real way to consume music these days. but fuck pc music so self conscious.
 
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