Three reasons to keep an eye on drum and bass

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Logos

Ghosts of my life
My point was more about the hidden indercurrents that inform musical innovation - they take place away from the public eye, sometimes I get the impression people think new mutations in music burst forth ex nihilo - which is what the reaction to be-bop was, ignoring the industrial dispute which meant none of the evolutionary developments in the war years could be put on vinyl etc etc.

People have a right to ignore dnb if most of it is crap, but be aware there are always stuff going on just out of sight.
 
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B

bassnation

the abyss
UFO over easy said:
All it takes is to check soundclips at any online record shop for twenty minutes.
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theres so much else to check though, its impossible to keep up with everything. hell, theres still a tonne of old skool jungle i haven't got hold of yet - and right now theres less tunes in dnb that excite than there are with practically any other genre i could think of.

the other thing is like another poster said - even the good stuff is still waaay too fast. i'm not playing anything at 175 - 180 bpm no matter how good the production.

still, goldies got a new one coming out - thats sure to up the quality quotient no end. :confused:
 
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T

tate

Brown Sugar
jay-s said:
perhaps the scenes should split then?
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I do think that this might be a fruitful thing, in the long run. Not a day goes by that I don't think about this possibility and what it might mean for jungle in the distant future.

But who would even care, apart from producers, DJs, and the few journalists who still follow jungle?

I must admit (only half-seriously, but so be it) that I've been waiting/hoping for an influential hardcore continuum critic, someone like our dear Blissblogger, to come along and give a new name to the various strains of jungle/drum 'n' bass emerging in the underground.* Something like 'new jungle,' which pays respect to the fact that the entire edits/choppage/Inperspective/Bassbin/Paradox Music/Outsider/Subtle Audio/subvert central camps, along with Offshore and the newer, more musically-experimental-yet-melodic producers (Sileni, Jason oS, Graphic, etc), and finally the Covert Operations/ASC/'techmospheric' producers, are all making music in open opposition to this monstrous generic garbage that gets peddled as 'modern dnb'.

*Jess Harvell, a fantastic writer and one of the few stateside journalists who takes jungle seriously, has been lately referring to what he hears as a microhouse-dnb crossing as something called 'twerkstep.' But I really hate that term -- let me guess: 'twitch' + 'jerk' + 'step' = twerkstep? Ick.
 
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M

Melchior

Taking History Too Far
It seems like a whole lot of people here are saying completely different things and thinking they're agreeing with each other.

One lot are saying "Nothing's changed since 1999" and another lot are saying "It's all so fast these days and so heavy metal and crap".

If it hasn't changed, then how can the music be so different?

Lot's of producers are making music that never would have been made in DnB in the late 1990s. This of course doesn't make the music good. I recently d/led the Pendulum essential mis from alst eyar. It's like someone said up thread - ok drums (the speed of modern DnB doesn't bother me at all personally) but little bass. Instead the most prominent sound is big riffy midrange synths.

Now that is 'innovation' in terms of introducing sounds to DnB that didn't exist even 2 or 3 years ago. But it's still appaling.
 
T

tate

Brown Sugar
Melchior said:
I recently d/led the Pendulum essential mis from alst eyar.
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I don't want to sound like a jerk here, but regarding Pendulum let me paraphrase what Brett Cleaver a.k.a. DJ Clever (a.k.a. the owner of Offshore Records, and one of the best dnb DJs in the united states) wrote in his review of a recent Pendulum single in the magazine XLR8R:

"Arena rock drum and bass? No thank you, fuck off."

:)
 
T

tate

Brown Sugar
Logos said:
My point was more about the hidden indercurrents that inform musical innovation - they take place away from the public eye, sometimes I get the impression people think new mutations in music burst forth ex nihilo - which is what the reaction to be-bop was, ignoring the industrial dispute which meant none of the evolutionary developments in the war years could be put on vinyl etc etc.

People have a right to ignore dnb if most of it is crap, but be aware there is always stuff going on just out of sight.
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I agree with every word of this.
 
subvert47

subvert47

I don't fight, I run away
jay-s said:
what about people like me who still regularly consume dnb in its club environment? if you think 90% of dnb releases are crap then you can say the same about 99% of the tracks played in clubs. the only way to hear some of the more interesting stuff is dj mixes on the internet and when i listen to the music at home good dnb has to compete with other genres and it loses against them anytime. there is enough good music outside of dnb that i prefer listening to at home. you really need to invest time and energy to get to hear good dnb.
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that's true. although I never go to clubs myself, and if I did I'd be very selective about which events.

bassnation said:
the other thing is like another poster said - even the good stuff is still waaay too fast. i'm not playing anything at 175 - 180 bpm no matter how good the production.
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that's true as well. 175-180 is nearly always too fast for dnb. I hardly ever listen to stuff that's much above 160.
 
L

Logos

Ghosts of my life
bassnation said:
still, goldies got a new one coming out - thats sure to up the quality quotient no end. :confused:
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There is a track called 'Inside Your Soul' on there which is really good.

Not 'Angel' stunning but fresh nontheless.
 
M

Melchior

Taking History Too Far
Tate said:
I don't want to sound like a jerk here, but regarding Pendulum let me paraphrase what Brett Cleaver a.k.a. DJ Clever (a.k.a. the owner of Offshore Records, and one of the best dnb DJs in the united states) wrote in his review of a recent Pendulum single in the magazine XLR8R:

"Arena rock drum and bass? No thank you, fuck off."

:)
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My sentiments exaclty. I hadn't heard them when I downloaded the file...
 
M

mms

sometimes
Melchior said:
My sentiments exaclty. I hadn't heard them when I downloaded the file...
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australians adopting drum and bass, this lot and concorde dawn - just disgusting, but they're australians, i imagine they got into drum and bass thru some of the anger management stuff rather than black secret technology.

I'm liking the instr:amental stuff on darkestral and the d bridge album though
 
C

Catbwoy

Active member
Concorde Dawn are actually from New Zealand but yeah, the point still stands. Pendulum are now trying to distance themselves from D&B... a good thing or completely irrelevant at this stage?

I still listen to the occassional new D&B thing but I'm never very inspired..
 
U

UFO over easy

online mahjong
mms said:
australians adopting drum and bass, this lot and concorde dawn - just disgusting, but they're australians, i imagine they got into drum and bass thru some of the anger management stuff rather than black secret technology.
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you'd be wrong actually, at least as far as pendulum go. just found a mix by elhornet pendulum from a few years ago - here's the tracklist

1. Photek - UFO
2. Ed Rush - The Raven
3. Hokusai - 12 til 4
4. Something on High Octane (http://tarzan.spoox.org/display.php?type=label&id=629)
5. Lexis - Criminal Elements (Klute Remix)
6. Panacea - Stormbringer
7. Source Direct - Call and Response
8. Ed Rush and Nico - Proton
9. Something else on High Octane.
10. Serve Chilled - Prophecy
11. This is a Nico remix of something on City of Angels (by memory) and has some of the most fucked up US Army Gulf War radio transmissions in it..
12. Teebee - Second Coming (by memory)
13. This is from the Techstep Troopers EP on Gyration. One of those old Makai tunes..
14. Trace and Nico - Damn Son
15. Mocean Worker - Detonator - Dj Trace Remix
16. Capone - Fusion
17. Rufige Crew - Stormtrooper VIP
18. Teebee - Human Reptile
19. some subtitles tune
20. Klute - Stay With Me
 
M

mms

sometimes
UFO over easy said:
you'd be wrong actually, at least as far as pendulum go. just found a mix by elhornet pendulum from a few years ago - here's the tracklist

1. Photek - UFO
2. Ed Rush - The Raven
3. Hokusai - 12 til 4
4. Something on High Octane (http://tarzan.spoox.org/display.php?type=label&id=629)
5. Lexis - Criminal Elements (Klute Remix)
6. Panacea - Stormbringer
7. Source Direct - Call and Response
8. Ed Rush and Nico - Proton
9. Something else on High Octane.
10. Serve Chilled - Prophecy
11. This is a Nico remix of something on City of Angels (by memory) and has some of the most fucked up US Army Gulf War radio transmissions in it..
12. Teebee - Second Coming (by memory)
13. This is from the Techstep Troopers EP on Gyration. One of those old Makai tunes..
14. Trace and Nico - Damn Son
15. Mocean Worker - Detonator - Dj Trace Remix
16. Capone - Fusion
17. Rufige Crew - Stormtrooper VIP
18. Teebee - Human Reptile
19. some subtitles tune
20. Klute - Stay With Me
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blimey why did it turn out so bad then!
 
Alfons

Alfons

Way of the future
mms said:
I'm liking the instr:amental stuff on darkestral and the d bridge album though
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yeah, really good stuff! Martsman is doing some pretty interresting things at the mo to.


mms said:
blimey why did it turn out so bad then!
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I think El Hornet is the only one of the trio who has any real history in dnb, the other two came from a rock background (correct me if Im wrong?). And I think this set is pretty far from what he dj's these days
 
U

UFO over easy

online mahjong
well its pretty far from what he dj-ed then as well, all i wanted to show is that these guys aren't just dnb-aliens who strolled along and killed the scene unthinkingly with their dodgy emo influences. they are, or at least were, part of it.
 
C

Code

Member
Did any of you check the new album on Subtle Audio ?

Would be interested to hear what you think of it, good or bad :)


Audio clips here : http://www.dogsonacid.com/audio/search/?action=search&formname=AudioSearch&RLSearch=Subtle

(first 15 clips)


there's a 2xCD version and a 2x12" - okay, so I'm sure there's stuff on there that isn't ultra ground-breaking but have a listen to the Sileni / Bop / Dissident / Martsman stuff - I think those tunes are genuinely fresh sounding.
 
Slothrop

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
It's really good.

It probably won't win back the people who aren't interested in jungle because it's no longer a massive exciting social phenomenon moving at 1000000mph in every direction at once, but for people who want to hear some good, fresh, innovative tunes it's bang on.
 
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