The MC is the Marmite of Drum & Bass culture. Revered by some and hated by others, this argument has been going on for as long as the music has and we're not going to get into it here.
One thing you may have noticed though, is the recent predominance of MC led tracks particularly in the more 'minimal' techstep influenced side of Drum & Bass. Granted, these tracks have always been around over the years. A little hook here, a sampled phrase there and even full vocal tracks. Just dig out Reprazent's classic Brown Paper Bag or Technical Itch's Soldiers with Jakes' menacing vocals driving the tune forward.
Something's different this time round though. Last year you could seldom go out to a bass oriented night without hearing Strategy's indecipherable lyrics on Dub Phizix & Skeptical's smash, Marka. Now everyone's doing it. And it's bloody good.
So why now?
A few corners of the scene have been raising concerns that modern day techstep is "too minimal" and samey. This is perhaps a reaction to such complaints, a compromise as it were; the track retains its essence whilst at the same time filled out with the addition of a few bars of vocals.
Simultaneously serving to keep the mind engaged, fans who quickly tire of droney bass and sparse soundscapes may find their appetites for that something more satiated. This also lends itself well to the ever more popular ethos of tracks standing up to home listening as well as working on the dancefloor.
What about commercial viability?
Is Drum & Bass moving into a new era of mainstream acceptance? This is a question for another time but it can certainly be argued that electronic music and DJ culture has exploded into mainstream media of late. The UK even had a Drum & Bass single chart at number one recently. Coupled with a whole host of tunes making it onto daytime radio playlists, the future is looking pretty bright.
This is all very exciting but it has to be said: no one starts making Drum & Bass to get famous and make a big pile of cash.
As much as it sounds like a cop out, it seems more likely that simply the right minds are around at the right time.
This is simply another step in the ever evolving experiments of its pioneers, let's enjoy it!
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Blackdub Podcast #2: DJ Reevah
We've been away for a while but we're back with a new podcast guaranteed to shake the cobwebs out!
Step forward DJ Reevah, a fellow Scotsman we've been in contact with since Blackdub's inception. We thought it was high time we got a mix from him and he's delivered 90 minutes of deep, dark rollers and classic techstep with a few dubs thrown in for good measure.
Read on for the interview and you can find the podcast player at the bottom of this post along with a link to download the mix. Enjoy!
For the people who don't know much about you, can you give us a little background on yourself?
I'm Lewis, 29 and a married dad of one. I'm a self-employed joiner, originally from Peebles but been in Edinburgh for a good 10 years now.
I've been buying all kinds of music since I was 9, got into Jungle/Rave when I was 15 along with Hip-Hop and never looked back. I originally wanted to be a promoter/DJ but ended up starting a family quite young and put down the vinyl!
I got a set of CD decks in 2010 after eight years of not mixing and thought "fuck it"! I started putting up mixes which received support from a host of DJs, MCs and producers via connections I'd made on Twitter.
I've been a lifelong mixtape fan and try to put my mixes into this format as well as trying to balance selection with mixing! I'm yet to play out at a venue but would love to. Twitter @djreevah
You can catch Jammin J and myself on www.nexusdnb.com on rotation with Aesthetics and Renegade every Thursday from 8.30-10.30, the full spectrum of D&B! Guests, features, dubs and dodgy Scottish accents!
What was it that brought you back to the scene?
I went right off Drum and Bass in the mid 2000s. The scene had become very boring and the darker/deeper stuff was too fast. I still had my ear to the ground on some bits but generally my love was (and still is) with Ninja Tune.
It wasn't until 2009 when I caught a Raiden podcast which introduced me to DBR, Skeptical and Amoss to name a few. I was blown away with how stripped back and phat their beats sounded, so that was me straight back into D&B!
2012 has, in our humble opinion, been a great year for Drum and Bass already. What's your favourite tune so far?
Quite a few things! Spindall & Calm - Streams, DBR & Overlook - Stasis, Mechanizm's Dimensions EP on Vampire Records and Able Danger - Asteria come to mind.
How do you feel about the current state of D&B?
Too many things sadly! From the state of raves to the use of the 'Junglist' tag as a fashion accessory! The biggest piss-off for me though is the total lack of knowledge from a lot of people 'involved' in D&B: no knowledge of places, people, venues, tunes, labels or any of the other stuff that has shaped D&B over the years.
Are there any other genres you're feeling at the moment?
I mix Techno, Dubstep, Hip-Hop and anything else I fancy. I like many genres, really feeling a lot of Techno bits at the moment!
Can you give us a little insight into the mix you've done for us?
I always try to maintain a deep rolling vibe, a 'journey' mix if you will. Hope people enjoy listening to this on the commute as much as they do chilling on a Friday or walking the dog.
Finally, any shout outs or anything else you'd like to add?
Shout outs to DJ EC, Jammin J, Aesthetics, Renegade (Nexus Kru), Deficit, Able Danger, DBR UK, Inside Corrosion, Dissect, Boba, Broken Audio, Spindall, Dave Lowe, Melodie Wu, Salex, Mechanizm, Surround Sound Recordings, 2ShyMC, AutomAte, Nathan DNB Movement, Rude FM... Big ups!
Thank you to all who've checked out my mixes!
Tracklist:
Halogenix - Tender Chain
Ortokore - Peg Leg (AutomAte Dub)
Sabre - Halo Danger
Anile - Oldsoul
Arclight - Surgikal (AutomAte Dub)
Loxy & Ink - Artical
Darqwan - Warrior Stance (Amit Remix)
dBridge - Creatures Of Habit
Future Forces - Dead By Dawn
Mosus & S.P.Y - 1999
Phace - Non Human
NPhonix & Enei - Transparent
SpectraSoul - In Profile
Amit - Motherland
Enei - One Chance
Ray Keith - Chopper (Serum Remix)
Dave Owen - Heaven Scent
Cause4Concern & Fierce - Moonbreaker
Fierce & Vicious Circle - Spectre
Calibre - 2 Drop
Jubei - The Take
Aesthetics - ? (Dub)
Arclight - Pluroform (AutomAte Dub)
DBR UK - Policies
DBR UK - Anaconda
DBR UK - Agents
DBR UK - Charged
DBR UK - Fortress
DBR UK - Fighting The Storm
Jammin - Tribe
Able Danger - Asteria
Fearful - Gorilla (AutomAte Dub)
Direct Download (Right Click + Save As):
Thanks to Dark Skies for the webspace!
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Free: Everybody's Favourite Price!
There have been a rash of quality free tunes given away recently so we thought we'd compile a short list of our favourites in case you missed them. Enjoy!
SpectraSoul have been unusually but understandably quiet over the last year as they prepare for the release of their debut long player this summer. The first single from the album, 'Light In The Dark' feat. Terri Walker/'Shackles' feat. Fox is out now on Shogun Audio and we suggest you pick it up ASAP.
To celebrate the release, Shogun gave away the VIP version of SpectraSoul's classic 'The Tube'. Click the link above and 'Like' SpectraSoul's fan page to download. Dare we say it's better than the original?
Critical Music are offering a free WAV of Enei's One Chance VIP to mark his reaching 10,000 fans on Facebook. Just click the link above and sign up to the Critical mailing list, you'll then be presented with a download link.
Enei has also just secured a handful of dates around the UK, click here to see if he's playing in your area. Given how long it took to have a visa arranged, you don't want to miss him if you get the chance!
Kmag recently offered up Blu Mar Ten's 'All Or Nothing' for an exclusive remix competition in association with Finyl Tweek, Loopmasters, Soundcloud and Surus.
This was Krakota's effort which he put up for free download a few weeks ago, an uplifting little roller perfect for bringing it down a notch in the wee hours.
Click through to Krakota's Soundcloud page to download, where you can also find an amen driven VIP version of 'Be Myself', his first release on Ingredients Records.
The Funktion, one half of Mob Tactics and an accomplished solo artist in his own right, celebrated reaching 1000 Soundcloud followers by giving away 'Straitjacket' this week. This one's a crisp, funky stepper with some nice drum edits thrown in.
Head over to The Funktion's Soundcloud page to download.
Granted, this was given away almost a year ago but it's still one of our favourites. Originally penned for his excellent long player Béton Armé which was released on Offkey last year, Raiden gave this rolling stomper away as part of the promotional effort for the album.
You can grab it from his Soundcloud page by clicking the link above. Check the percussion!
Monday, February 27, 2012
Blackdub Podcast #1: DJ Haze
For our inaugural edition of the Blackdub Podcast we asked Red Mist Recordings' label owner DJ Haze to throw it down. He went in deep on this one, carving out a 70 minute slice of tough, uplifting Drum & Bass and we can't thank him enough for his efforts!
Expect Red Mist tracks past and present, remixes of some of his all time favourites and a few unreleased gems.
Read on for the interview and you can find the podcast player at the bottom of this post along with a link to download the file in glorious 256kbps. Enjoy!
For the people who don't know much about you or the label, can you give us a little background on yourself and Red Mist?
Sure. I started out in the scene MCing for my mate Danny Ethics, that soon sparked an interest in DJing and eventually hosting radio shows, and of course the label.
Red Mist was started by label partner Paul Moody and myself simply because we got tired of being the fans who sat moaning on the sidelines about how we wanted things doing differently. We were alumni of the classic Good Looking era and there were so few labels back then pushing the sounds we were into. It's so easy to sit and criticise when artists or labels change direction but what if you could contribute yourself? It really isn't that hard. We weren't names, we didn't have a lot of money, we just had the will to give it a go. So we got in touch with people in the scene, labels, artists, and took it from there, before we knew it we had enough material for a CD album which felt was the best entry point, soon things had snowballed and we were lucky enough to release music on vinyl as well as CD, which was the ultimate aim.
Influences?
I'd count Good Looking Records, 720, Covert Operations, Temple, Timeless, Renegade and Purified Audio as influences for Red Mist, in terms of artists we've always loved ASC who has been a big part of Red Mist from the early days to now, and of course other stalwarts of the label including Antibreak, Electrosoul System, Greenfly, FX909 and ICR amongst many others, without them none of it would have been possible.
How would you describe the Red Mist sound/ethos?
I guess deep, danceable atmospheric music, not necessarily sticking to one specific style but each track we sign is always something Paul & I immediately feel is simply Red Mist somehow, when that happens we do everything we can to sign it and the rest usually falls into place. We ignore the trends of the rest of the scene to a large extent which is probably to the detriment of wider success in the market, but we both firmly believe that doing our own thing and sticking to our tastes 100% is the best way to stay interested and retain our integrity. I can honestly say we've never signed a track because we thought it would do well as opposed to simply loving the music. As soon as you cross that line, you lose your identity and when your label isn't a career or an avenue to make you money which Red Mist certainly has never been to us, why release with anything other than the heart?
The last release on Red Mist was the excellent Eleven Shades of Night LP by Antibreak. It's been pretty quiet since then. Any news on what's happening in the future?
It has been quiet, to be honest life has got in the way of things since the Antibreak album, Paul & I have both had our minds on our careers amongst other things with D&B taking a bit of a back seat, but the door hasn't been closed. Our most recent vinyl distributor went bust recently, and the market for CDs is waning but we refuse to take the easy way out and become another digital label. Neither of us see any reason to be involved in this scene as label owners simply putting files on a website, we want to give people something they can hold in ten years and have some memories, you just don't get that from an mp3, and I have great concerns about quality control too. The same tracks you might like but aren't quite good enough to put your money behind can now come out, this can be a good thing but it also brings with it the danger of watering doon the scene, the huge slew of digital content available is a detriment in my opinion as it's just getting too hard for fans to filter the wheat from the chaff, and when you reward mediocre music with a digital release it sends out entirely the wrong message to both the artist and the buying public. But going back to our situation, as soon as we feel we're ready to release again we will, but only when we have full confidence in the music, the format of the release and our ability to dedicate enough time to do it right.
Antibreak still surprises me on a regular basis with his ideas, guys like Yorke, Soultec, Silent Dust, Freebird, Bulb, Mage, Edward Oberon, Shebuzz and East of Oceans are highlights at the moment, and of course ASC just keeps on bringing the quality.
What are your feelings on the general state of D&B and electronic music as a whole right now?
In terms of D&B, the quality of music being released has noticably dropped in recent times in my opinion, partly thanks to the saturation of the scene by there being far too many labels with little genuine identity and it being too easy for artists not quite ready for releases to get tunes out there before they've had the time to perfect their craft, but that could just be me and my ageing ears, who knows! I'd love to see more of a 'quality not quantity' approach, I mean there are digital labels out there churning out 30 releases in the space of a year without the fear of failure that comes with physical releases, and it can be tough to keep up as a listener when that's just one label out of a whole bunch you're following. One of my biggest problems with D&B at the moment is how forgettable a lot of it is, many tracks I hear I think 'yeah this is great', but I can barely remember it the next day, which seems to be a more recent thing to me but again that could just be me and my own changing tastes. I do still occasionally hear tracks which allay my fears I've heard it all though, and the faith is still there that there's life in this music yet. As for other genres I'm enjoying progressive house and trance, both of which are taking up a lot of my time, and have a lot to offer D&B in terms of influences and how they're coping with the changes in market trends I think.
Anything else you'd like to add?
Not much really, I've waffled on enough! I'd just like to say thank you for having me on the podcast and for taking the time to ask these questions, it's been a pleasure answering them and to contribute to what I'm sure will be a great project going forward for Blackdub.
Also, you can check out the Red Mist Recordings website where you can shop for Red Mist releases, download mixes from Paul & myself etc, and Red Mist Radio hosted by myself is every 1st Monday of the month, 7-9pm GMT on Bassdrive.
Scroll down for the podcast player!
Tracklist:
Smote - Moonlight [Red Mist]
Native - At My Side [Red Mist]
Atmospherixz - Daytona Dreamz [Red Mist]
Kyro - Dark Devotion [Red Mist]
Laroque - Goldfinger (Unreleased Mix) [Hospital]
Artificial Intelligence & D Bridge - Better Days [Liquid V]
Mav & Implex - Chasm (Future Engineers Remix) [Covert Operations]
Method One & Besk One - Between Two Worlds [Levitated]
Blame - Alpha 7 (ASC VIP) [Unreleased]
J-Laze - Stratosphere (Remix) [Unreleased]
Arje - Over Clouds [Red Mist]
Funky Technicians - Airtight (Furney Remix) [CIA]
PFM - The Western (Mike's Ricochet Remix) [Good Looking]
Thanks to Dark Skies for the webspace!
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
5 Days Off Festival, Amsterdam
If you're in Amsterdam between the 7th and the 11th of March you would be well-advised to check out one of the many events offered by 5 Days Off, an electronic music and art festival hosted by The Melkweg and Paradiso.
Highlights include 'Noisia Invites' at The Melkweg which features a heavyweight lineup with the likes of Alix Perez, Black Sun Empire, Hybris, Zero T, Phace and Noisia's first appearance in Amsterdam in a year and a half as well as DMZ's 7th Birthday featuring Digital Mystikz, Kode9, James Blake, Ben UFO and more.
Check the 5 Days Off website for more information: http://www.5daysoff.nl
It's going to be a good week!
Photo: Rutger Prins
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Welcome to Blackdub!
Thanks for checking out the new Blackdub page! Our primary aim is to bring you high grade bass music from DJs you know and DJs you don't via our monthly podcast as well as news, reviews and interviews.
You can also keep up with all things Blackdub by liking our Facebook page or you can follow us on Twitter, Mixcloud and Soundcloud.
Check back soon for our first podcast...
You can also keep up with all things Blackdub by liking our Facebook page or you can follow us on Twitter, Mixcloud and Soundcloud.
Check back soon for our first podcast...
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