The Past is Now : Drum N Bass Edition

Anyone that has been following underground electronic music has certainly noticed that drum breaks have made a strong comeback these last couple of years, creeping themselves back into House and Techno. The current fascination with old school Jungle and Hardcore (I talk about this in my last article), has also made me realize how exciting the Jungle/DnB scene has been these last few years, with there being equal parts revivalism and forward thinking momentum. This year has been a wonderful one for the old school heads, and it has shown that there is still some juice left in the old sound. It has also shown that there is equally a healthy dose of experimentation, to see where Jungle and Dnb can go. So I thought I'd give a quick rundown of some interesting long-form releases that have piqued my interest throughout the year, and that are worth checking out.

Early 2018 gave us Street Beats Volume 2, a compilation of unearthed and previously-unreleased gems from about 1994. The compilation is brought to us by Basement Records, who've dug inside their own vaults to compile it, bringing together legends such as Peshay, Photek (know as Truper at the time), and Source Direct (going by the name Oblivion). The label has been active since about 1991 and has recently shifted its focus towards re-releases of their own old school material, which had been only available on vinyl records. Their sound is one that I'm particularly fond of. The synth work and atmosphere is ethereal and melodic, backed up by a dark and heavy backbone, with the subbass and chaotic breaks manipulation. It's Jungle with remnants of Hardcore.

♪

Next up we have Blunted Breaks Vol. 1, a compilation by Western Lore. The Bristol-based label has only been active for two years, yet it has made a big splash in the scene. Their roster includes some of the biggest names in "new school" old school Jungle: Tim Reaper, Coco Bryce, Dead Man's Chest, and Threshold. As the title suggests, they participate in revivalism (Dead Man's Chest covers for his releases on the label recall the old Dreamscape flyers), but they also take it upon themselves to make the old sound new again. And while some tracks go in full retro mode like Coco Bryce's "Adventures in Perception" (only betraying itself due to the cleaner modern production), others, like Earl Grey's "Levitate", try to offer something that is more fresh. Nevertheless, the music is all good.

♪

Drum N Bass pioneer and legend Goldie also decided to releases a compilation of his old material from the 90s, on his own pioneering and legendary Metalheadz label. To be honest, there are no surprises here. After more than 20 years, the label continues to be active and it rarely strays far from the blueprint it set in the mid-90s. 25 Years of Goldie [Unreleased and Re-Mastered] is Metalheadz through and through: full of dark, futuristic, esoteric rollers - the kind of music that heavily influenced Grime and Dubstep. While there are no revelations, the music is consistently great. Some people have criticized the mastering, but if you're not an audiophile, you won't notice whatever faults there might be. And if you're one of the older fans who've been waiting a long time for some of these tracks to be released, well, have at it.

♪

Lastly, we have Fifth Column, another compilation, this one by Rupture London. The label has been going on for about six years now, offering music that recalls the Metalheadz sound (right before it got rid of the drum breaks), and making sound new again, seeing where it can go. And it has established itself as an influential force. This is a packed roster, with the likes of Mantra, Dead Man's Chest, Forest Drive West, Sully, and Henry Greenleaf making a showing. If after listening to Goldie's compilation, you still have a craving for more futuristic rollers, this one has 16 tracks worth, all of it gold.

But Where Has the Future Gone?: 160+ bpm Edition

So now that we've gone through four compilations of old school (and old school influenced) Jungle and Drum n Bass, you might be wondering where the "modern stuff" is. In many ways, the music is still the same. I remember an interview from 2006 in which Kode9 talks about the new Dubstep genre: "In an ideal world, anything goes. The thing that's consistent in the music is the subbass. It's got a good solid subbass foundation. And, as I said, in an ideal world, anything goes on top of that." So what are the foundations of Drum N Bass? Three things come to my mind: subbass, percussion, and a fast tempo (above 160 bpm). I'm not trying to say that anything can be Drum n Bass, just that there can be more open interpretations than one might expect.

First off, another (!) compilation, Samurai Music Decade (Phase 2), by the Samurai Music label. Their output could be categorized as "leftfield" or "experimental" Drum n Bass. Sonically, it takes a lot from Industrial Techno. It's dark and brooding, heavy yet atmospheric, with distant, thumping percussion

Next, we have Etch's East Coast Jungleworx Vol. 1. A short album comprised of edits of 90s Hip Hops tracks. As the name implies, the music has a Jungle feel to it, but it also has a heavy Juke/Footwork influence at some points, and those Trap hi-hats make an appearance here and there. It's a great marriage of 90s music (Boom Bap and Jungle) with 2010s taste (Juke/Footwork and Trap), resulting in something that sounds fresh.

Let's get out of the UK and head towards Russia. St. Petersburg's A.Fruit (aka Anna Fruit) offers an exhilarating 40-minute mix of high-tempo bass music, going from Halftime, to Juke, to Trap, to Jungle, to other weird, genreless concoctions. Does it count as being Drum n Bass? Well, what she does is very close to what Sinistarr does in Detroit, or what the Defrostatica Records crew does in Leipzig, or the Aufect gang in Vancouver. And they, like A.Fruit, are all part of the Drum n Bass circuit. In any case, when you're not sure what to classify something as, chances are that it's fresh and exciting.

Hardcore Will Never Die.

As I was reading through Simon Reynolds' blog, I stumbled upon an interesting blog post that Reynolds himself linked to, in which the blogger Pearsall shares his own mix of old school breakbeat Hardcore made by new players in these last couple of years. As I've said in my previous post about today's unabashed retroism, recent years have been fruitful for all different styles of music made by artists whose eyes are fixated on the rear view mirror, some of whom are happy with not going much further than imitation. Pearsall acknowledges this:

"If we're honest, most of the tracks betray precisely no influence from musical developments of the last 20+ years, something that, to me, brings up many interesting questions

This is because the original hardcore rave sound arose in a musical, social, and political context that is very different from the one we experience today, a whole confluence of events  that cannot be recreated. It also can't be ignored that the scene was like a huge hive mind focused on relentless change and innovation - the speed of change was breathtaking, and probably without much parallel in recent musical history.

So it's an interesting paradox with tracks like the ones I've selected for this mix, in that they are very consciously imitating a moment in time when musicians were desperately trying not to imitate, but to innovate and keep progressing. It's a bit like modern guitar bands still reaching for that classic garage punk sound, in a sense."

That last paragraph is very telling. As I've previously said, I attribute this "Hardcore revivalism/retroism" to the fact that we have virtually all of the music at our disposal with the help of the Internet. For anyone, music from the past is, or can be, just as relevant as the music from today. Unearthing older music brings the same rewards of "newness" as digging into new releases. Consider, for example, the recent and ongoing fascination that young people (Millennials and teenage Gen-Zers) have for City Pop, Japan's funk-glamour-neon-cheesy pop from the 80s, a previously unknown and forgotten genre.

As to the question, "Why Hardcore?, well, it seems as if those early rave days have been romanticized and mythologized by everyone that was a part of it. The "being there". The "being part of something new and special". The "feeling of freedom and reverie". For someone that is, say, 20 years old today, there might be some form of longing for those days, reading testimonies and looking through the pictures of a past youth celebrating music, life, drugs, and love. And as Pearsall notes, between 1990 and 1995, things were moving and evolving so fast, that the old school Hardcore sound only lasted a little less than three years before it split into the Jungle and Happy Hardcore scenes. Out of sheer luck, others were born just in time and were at the right place to live through that era, experience it firsthand. And it came and went. Sure, the sound lived on in the two mentioned genres, but it's not exactly the same, is it? Old school Hardcore has a specificity to it, its own vibe. So why not bring it back? Why not give it one more life? Maybe that specific sound has more left into it, maybe not everything has been exhausted from it? Maybe by recreating those sounds there's a way to bring back the energy of that era - to find whatever it is some are looking for.

But, in my opinion, imitation (and nothing but imitation) can only take us so far. It seems to me that if we want to recreate the energy of the old school Hardcore era, we have to dig deeper than its plasticity, to unveil what its spirit and approach were, rather than its specific sonic palette. Hardcore was a bastard genre, a sort of Frankenstein's Monster taking bits and pieces from other genres of that era. Techno of that era. House of that era. RnB of that era. Hip hop of that era. Dancehall of that era. If we want to bring back the sense of release that the older generation experienced, we have to start by creating our own bastard genre of today. Taking bits and pieces from the music of today. Techno of today. House of today. Dancehall of today. Etc. And also look at new genres that have sprung have in the last two decades: Dubstep, Grime, Funky House, Alternative RnB, Drum n Bass, Afrobeats, Afroswing, Gqom, etc, etc. Only then, I think, can we get our own "being there", our own "being part of something new and special", and our own "feeling of freedom and reverie".

At the same time, who cares? Good music is good music. As Pearsall writes: "...sometimes music is just there to be enjoyed, so maybe I should shut up, stop overthinking things, and have some fun, right?"

And with that, I leave you with his mix of  "new school" old school Hardcore.

My Favourite Unreleased Old-School Dubstep Tracks.

Coming off from my last article about the first two Dubstep Allstars entries, I thought I would share some of my favourite unreleased tracks from the early Dubstep era, tracks that I still go back to. Most of these I heard listening to sets from the likes of Youngsta, Hatcha (our two protagonists from my last article), and also DJ Chefal, Cyrus, Slaughter Mob, etc. 

For better or for worse, an important part of Dubstep is the dubplate culture it inherited from Jungle and DnB (who, in their turn, took it from the Jamaican soundsystem tradition). Briefly put, dubplates are unreleased tracks pressed on 10-inch records, not for commercial release, but for producers to hand out to DJs as exclusives, sometimes only making a couple of copies. This practice was encouraged by two things: 1) DJs trying to "one-up" their peers and competitors; and 2) the constant search for the new by DJs and ravers/listeners alike. Alex Nagshineh further explains what dubplate culture is in this article.

So let's get right to the list. As they are unreleased tracks, all of these have been ripped straight from archived radio sets. So you'll hear voices from MCs, interacting with the listeners. The last track, the Digital Mystikz remix, is probably the ultimate dubplate, of which there are only two copies (one owned by Mala himself, and the other by Joe Nice). It is the Holy Grail of dubplates, if you will.

The producers making up this list (Skream, Benga, Loefah, Mala, Coki, D1) are the main producers that shaped the "Croydon Sound"(in turn, shaping what we now recognize as being "Dubstep") making these beats mainly for Hatcha and Youngsta. To my knowledge, they date from 2003 to 2006.

Skream - Boks

Benga - Amnesia

Loefah - Gandhi

Loefah - Babylon

D1 - [Untitled Dubplate]

D1 - Enigma

D1 - Degrees (VIP)

D1 - [Unknow Dubplate]

Mala - Tiger Dance

Coki - Crystal Lake

The Mighty Zulu Nation - Justice Day (Digital Mystikz Dubplate Remix) aka DMZ vs MZN