Category Archives: Hard D&B

2009, Ear & Drum Session, Hard D&B

Departure – Ear & Drum Session 19

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Not my usual selection this time around as I head into the darker and harder territories. I even slip in a little dubstep at the end. There are some mighty big tunes in here though with Fresh’s Heavyweight, Commix & Rufige Kru’s Envious and Break’s Is This What You Want VIP setting the standard.

So turn on the sub, crank the volume and rinse out.

Departure – 1hr of upfront bitch slappers

D-Bridge – Memory Park
Alix Perez – Down the Line (Break Remix)
Dj Fresh – Heavyweight
Commix & Rufige Kru – Envious
Break – Is This What You Want VIP
Logistics – Warehouse
Operon – Electrons
Subwave – Dreamcatcher
Icicle – Frozen
Dom & Roland – Funkhunt
D Kay & Lee – The Greatest Thing
Rufige Kru – Shanghai Dub
DJ Fresh – Heavyweight (Benny Page Remix)
Printer Jam (Barbarix Remix)

Cross Genre, Hard D&B, Jump Up, Tech Step

A Certain Sound – Ear & Drum Session 17

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1998 was a pivotal year for drum & bass. Certain sounds like Tech Step and Jump Up were on the rise and other like the Intelligent and Rave/Hardcore sounds were dying out. What it did mean was that there were all sorts of experimentation taking place and some amazing tracks coming out.

In this mix I cross all sorts of genres from Jump Up & Tech Step through to early Neuro and Drum Funk and everything inbetween. Some of the tunes were big smashers back in the day, whilst others are hidden gems that time seems to have forgot.

But if you were around back in 1998, then this should make the memories come flooding back and put a smile on your face. And as always it is best played LOUD!

A Certain Sound – 1.5hrs of big bass from 1998

Exocet – Demon Seed
Ray Keith – D4 Toxic Waste (Elementz Of Noize Remix)
UTI – I’m Finished
Adam F – Brand Nu Funk
Test – Fluid
Paradox – Some Kind of Illusion
Kraken – Warped
Fortran – The End Part II
Photek – UFO (J Majik Remix)
T-Power – 33rd Parallel
Paradox – A Certain Sound
Gang Related & Mask – Dictation (Michael Caine Remix)’
DJ Zinc feat MC GQ – Bring the Danger
John B – Pressure
Ed Rush, Optical & Fierce – Cutslo (Lokuste Remix)
Pish Posh – Corrupt Cops
Jungle Bothers – Brain (Natural Born Chillers Remix)
Profound Noise – Soundscape (Remix)
Klute – In The Zone

2008, All Label Mix, Hard D&B, Old Skool, Requested Archive, Tech Step

Prototypical – Jungletrain Session 191

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Prototype recordings is one of those labels that chose quality over quantity. With artist like Photek, Dillinja, John B, Boymerang, Ed Rush & Optical and Bad Company on your books you are bound to making some pretty hot music. Add to this Grooverider selecting the tracks, running the label and producing under his Codename John alias and you’ve got one of the best D&B labels ever!

With derivative production becoming the norm, we need labels like Prototype. D&B needs labels who don’t imitate sounds or styles, but rather blaze their own trail of unique music. Prototype haven’t had a release for almost 5 years now, but I still hold out hope that one day Grooverider with blow the dust of his old label and start releasing some more groundbreaking tracks.

This mix covers from 1994 through to 2000, but they did release up to 2004 with smash after smash. Tunes like One Nation, Subway, Still and Locust set the standards when first released, and other labels scrambled to get ‘that sound’. Grooverider toured relentlessly to bring the Prototype sound to the four corners of the globe, and for me it was his golden era.

 

Prototypical •• 1hr of Prototype Recordings 1994-2000

Codename John – Deep Inside
Codename John – Dreams of Heaven
Photek – One Nation
Cybertron feat. Dillinja – Threshold
Ed Rush – Subway
John B – Secrets
Boymerang – Still
Dillinj – Silver Blade
Ed Rush, Optical & Fierce – Alien Girl
Ed Rush, Optical & Fierce – Cutslo (Locust Remix)
Ed Rush & Fierce – Locust
Codename John – Inta The Anthem (Special Forces Remix)
Bad Company – The Pulse

2008, Amen, Hard D&B, Requested Archive

Praying for Rain – Jungletrain Session 198

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Someone asked me to rinse out an all Amen set for the Train Tracks show and this was the result. ASC’s Covert Operations label has to get a bashing as I am convinced these guys are doing the best Amen atmos tracks ATM, but on the harder tip we have Equinox, Breakage, Theory, Solar Empire & Goldie all laying down some killer Amen rinsers.

Obviously Amens aren’t everybodies cup of tea, but if you love THE beat and can’t get enough of it raining down on your from your speakers then you could do a lot worse than giving this a listen.

Rinse and repeat!

 

Praying for Rain – 1hr of Amen Rinsers

Kjell – Green Eyes
Equinox – Love Thy Brother (Breakage – Dub Thy Brother Mix)
Norik – Aqueous Passage
B.Fuse – Big Space
ASC – Off World Tides Part 2
Breakage – Transbohemia (Equinox Remix)
Bachelors of Science – Imortal (Alaska Remix)
Sol ID & Cybass – The Time We’ve Left
Atlantic Connection – Alliance Amen
Theory – Aurora Flash
Solar Empire – Dynamics
Goldie – Letting Go

All Label Mix, Hard D&B, Requested Archive, Tech Step

Underfire Storm – Jungletrain Session 133

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Recently reformed as a label and still sounding good Underfire have had a massive influence on the scene ever since the Infantry EP hit hard and heavy. Stakka, Skynet and K-Tee are still big in the game and whilst everybody knows about the Clockwork LP my favourite release from this label is still the Blazing album.

When Blazin’ arrived no one had heard THAT sound before, but the Z-plane filter soon became a D&B favourite. Akai samplers fell out of favour and everybody was breaking their necks to get themselves an E-MU.

Find out what all the fuss was, and still is, about with this review of Underfire classics.

Underfire Storm – 1hr of Underfire badnesssss

Kraken – Illusions
Spy – Z-Plane
Kraken – Side Effects
Kraken – Meatball
Stakka & K-Tee – Synthesis
Profound Noise – Luminous
Hard Evidence – Mindfield
Kraken – Analogue Spikes
Spy – Vapour
Profound Noise – Synthesis RMX
Skynet & Stakka – Nu Level RMX
Stakka & Skynet – Clockwork
Stakka & Skynet – Timelines
Stakka & Skynet feat Friction – Altitude
Stakka & Skynet – Clockwork RMX
Stakka & Skynet feat K-Tee – So Confused

Hard D&B, Old Skool, Requested Archive, Tech Step

Step Off – Jungletrain Session 203

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So back in the day all my mates were going mad for Jonny L, Photek and Grooverider – the really stripped back Step sound. I was moping about lamenting the death of the Amen break and funk sounds and wondering whether D&B was turning into just pure machine music.

The labels who kept me faithful during this period were S.O.U.R., No U-turn and Emotiv. They had the Tech-Step sound but brought with it such a heavy funk, loads of hip-hop samples and some smashing Amen steppers that still get me excited today.

I recently put up another Tech-Step set and some of the dogs pointed out that that wasn’t their idea of Tech-Step, so I am hoping this one might cover the other side of the sound that they had in mind.

If you like this sound I suggest you step up or step off.

 

Step Off – 1hr of True Tech-Step Tuffness

Code of Practice – Can We Change The Future (Sounds Of Life Remix)
Ed Rush – Check Me Out
Doc Scott – Machines
Technical Itch – The Dreamer
Rollers Instinct – Haze
T-Power & MK Ultra – The Mutant Remix (Rollers Instinct Remix)
Goldie – Manslaughter (Rider Proto 96 Mix)
Hydro – Tha’ Bomb Shit
Shapeshifter – Communicate With the World
Skyscraper – The Difference
Shapeshifter – Talkin’ Mad Shit
Micro-Burst – Punkmutha
Skyscraper – Liberty One
TC Islam & Alien 3 – Let the Bass Boom

2008, Ear & Drum Session, Hard D&B

Boomish – Ear & Drum Session 5

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This is the last mix for the 2008 overviews.

Although I am not known for playing rinse out sets these day, I do still like a good bitch-slapper when I hear one. So this mix is mainly comprised of harder and heavier stuff I grabbed during 2008.

Metalheadz came back with a vengeance this year with some BIG albums. Samurai Music, Covert Operations and, as always, Renegade Hardware kept the pedal to the metal. The return to form for Seba and Dom & Roland, plus the continuing development of Martsman and Telemetric meant that 2008 had plenty of huge tracks with which to mash dem down.

The mix itself is a bit all over the place – starting out with some dub step inspired numbers and then dipping into the realms of drumfunk and amen. Then I take it back down in the deep again and when we resurface I pretty much do it to you in the ear hole.

 

Boomish – 2hrs of 2008’s heavy hitters

Panda – Epilogue
Logistics – Shanghai Skyline
Hive & Tech Itch – Detox
Martsman – Sir Gordon Jumpmeister III
ASC – Offworld Tides Pt II
B. Fuse – Big Space
Seba – Blaze & Fade Out
Seba – Forever
Theory – Aurora Flash
Seba & Krazy – Finola
Bachelors of Science – Immortal (Alaska Remix)
Apex – The Yearning VIP
Mandelayev – Utikiyy
Ian Brown – Illegal Attacks (Rufige Kru Remix)
D-Bridge – Desire Line
Goldie – Letting Go
Martsman – Halow
Dom & Roland – Electric Smile
Theory – Question Mark
Trei & Dose – The Other Part of Me
Klute – Divinity
Shy FX – Bambaata (Break Remix)
Loxy & Munk – Genocide
Break – Headz Up
Keaton & Hive – The Plague (Hive Remix)
D.Kay & Lee – Extazzy
D.Kay & Lee – Wax’d (D.Kay Remix)
Telemetric – The Bane
Panda – Leaving Amsterdam

Deep D&B, Hard D&B, Requested Archive

Rolling Deep – Jungletrain Session 175

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ChaNinja has been in touch and asked for a couple of sets to get him through the work day. The first one up is this set I put together in March 2008 for the mighty jungletrain.net

This one for the lovers of the deep rollers.

The dubbed out deep sounds of artists like Amit and Breakage has given D&B a breath of fresh air in the last couple of years. Characterised by stripped back beats and cavernous b-lines, the slow groove that these choons roll out gives them a momentum that is unlike any other genre in D&B.

 

Rolling Deep – 1hr of the Deep, Dark & Moody

Fanu – Dream Of Something Gone
Breakage – Clarendon
Camo & Krooked – Play It!
Amit – Immortal
Fanu – Two Drummers
Breakage – Losing Track
Sabaruko – Latency
Logistics – Shanghai Skyline
Amit – Roots
Logistics – Cold World
Fanu – From Afterlife She Speaks
D.Kay & Kasra – Spider
Amit – Swastika
Klute – 174 BPM
Amit – MK Ultra

All Label Mix, Hard D&B, Requested Archive

Headz Up – Jungletrain Session 196

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This is an old Jungletrain Session from Aug 2008 that focussed on the Metalheadz label. ‘Hotei’ from a basement somewhere has asked for a re-up.

This is mainly a tribute to Sine Tempus, the Goldie album engineered by Tech Itch three years ago that has only just recently seen the light of day. It seems to have created a bit of a love it or hate it reaction amongst the Headz fans. 

Personally, I love it, even though the album does sound like it was produced in 2005. It’s a bit rough and ready, but that is why I like it. No one is writing epic tracks like Let It Go at the moment, or heavy Sci-Fi beats like on Rhythm Killa. 

So with this is mind I went looking for some of the other hidden gems from the Metalheadz recent back catalogues and found some amazing music that I had pretty much over looked for other ‘bigger’ tracks at the time. A lot of these come from the under-rated Winter of Content and Headhunterz comps which came out around 2005-6. Artists like Break, Spirit, Physics, Blame and Commix all come at the Metalheadz sound from their own unique perspectives. 

 

Headz Up •• 1hr of modern day Metalhead 

Goldie – Truez String
Goldie – Letting Go
Physics – Murder Dub
Commix – Emily’s Smile
Commix – Be True
Blame – Inside Heart
Commix – Broken Man
Goldie – Rhythm Killa
Break – Void Dweller
Sense – Sobotage
Goldie – Something About You
Spirit – Re-Dial
Goldie – Say You Love Me