Tag Archives: Ear & Drum Session

2022, Ear & Drum Session, Roller

Ear & Drum: Session 235 – Boulder

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Whether it is remixing classic older tracks, or taking influence from an earlier sound, D&B is currently living it’s best retro life. Artists like Sam Binga, Chimpo and Conrad Subs wear their love of older styles and retro inspiration on their sleeves, but the rolling and bouncy sound of D&B past is definitely starting to bleed over into more and more producer’s sounds.

There is some BIG remixes in here with Andy C’s Valley Of The Shadows getting reworked by Chase & Status, plus Camo & Krooked & Mefjus doing a drop-less take on High Contrast’s – Return of Forever. There is even an original 96 remix of Die’s classic Clear Skyz which only was released 25 years too late. Special shouts to Soul Intent for his Science Fiction EP released on 31 Recordings which nailed the ‘old but new’ sound perfectly for me.

Boulder – 1hr of D&B Rollers and Bouncers

Origin Unknown – Valley Of The Shadows (Chase & Status Remix)
DJ Die – Clear Skyz (1996 Remix)
Soul Intent – Infrared Shadow
Sam Binge & Hyroglifics – Bad (feat. Snowy)
Vasa – Gansta Sheet
Bungle – Warning
NG-17 & Dunk – New Jack Hustler
Chimpo – Rig Doctor
Sam Binge & Hyroglifics – Wicked (feat. Riko Dan)
Conrad Subs – Everytime I’m With U
Soul Intent – Sci-Fi Roller
Conrad Subs – Temple
Dub Phizix – Come On
Conrad Subs – Different
QZB & Gardna – Landline
High Contrast – Return of Forever (Camo & Krooked & Mefjus Remix)

2022, Ear & Drum Session, Liquid D&B, Uncategorized

Ear & Drum: Session 234 – Still Waters

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Still waters run deep as this Liquid rinse out proves. Kicking off with an older tune from 2020 by Fishy & Peron, although if you close your eyes you’d swear it was Marcus Intalex. It is almost as if it was written to mix with S.P.Y’s – Need You from the amazing Together With Ukraine compilation. If you haven’t picked this up, you won’t find a better value release or a better cause to spend your pennies on.

Following Need You is Lenzman & Echo Brown’s – Nokia Days and Workforce’s incredible track Forever. Two more tunes proving that Liquid can have beauty and brawn in a single track. Other stand outs are Champagne feat. Miss Fudge – The Other Side, 11 East – Emotive Rinser and Bop’s VIP rework of Space 2 Breath. Although if I’m honest every tune in here is a winner to my ears.

I’m dedicating this mix to Phil Fortune Cookie for putting me onto Ascending Reality, the best intro tune I’ve come across in ages. Check out Phil’s own mix series Deep and Dreamy over on his Mix Cloud.

Still Waters – 1hr of Deep Rolling Liquid D&B

Fishy & Peron – Ascending Reality
S.P.Y – Need You
Lenzman – Nokia Days
Workforce – Forever
Particle – Fall 2 Fast
HumanNature – Stories
Champagne feat. Miss Fudge – The Other Side
Redeyes – Moon River
flowanastasia & Nympho – River Flows
11 East – Emotive Rinser
Duoscience – Edge
Issue Cross & Wilkinson – Used to This
HEFT – Timeline
Bop – Space 2 Breath VIP
Wilkinson & Ilola – Close Your Eyes
Jrumhand – Inside



2022, Deep D&B, Ear & Drum Session, Half Beat

Ear & Drum: Session 233 – Far Away

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Rolling deep this time with a mixture of Half Step and Minimal monsters from the likes of Bop, Seba and FX909. The real star of the show here is Shinbu who’s self published stripped back tracks demonstrate that the deeper darker side of D&B is still going strong in 2022. Check his work out on his Bandcamp page.

Far Away – 1hr of Deep D&B

FX909 – Now (Half Step Mix)
Data 3 – String Theory
Shinbu – Ski
Om UNit – Aqua
Roho – Devise Law
A.T.5 – Witch Metal
Kintsuku – Absent
Echomatics – Pushing Back
Seba – Public Beauty
Bop – Space 2 Breath VIP
Quartz – Crescent Moon
Spinline – Return
Shinbu & Shoujin – Midnight Visit
Shinbu – Eka
Shinbu – Nightmarchers
Redders – No Go
Theoretical – Revival
Digital – Deadline (Dub Phizix Remix)
Khramer – Far Away

2022, All Artist Mix, Ear & Drum Session

Ear & Drum: Session 232 – Doctor Who?: 4th Regeneration

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The fourth and final rinse in the Wax Doctor series, this one is different. Towards the end of the 90s D&B was morphing from a heavily sample based music to more synthetic instrument base. Trackers were on the way out and DAWs with soft-synths, drum samplers and other built in instruments changed the sound forever.

Wax Doctor by this stage had teamed up with Alex Reece to become the Fallen Angels, and were sometimes joined by Utah Jazz. Amen breaks changed to heavily processed step-style beats with a real crunchy snap to the snares. Experimentation was king, and a lot of the tunes in this mix feel like all three producers were trying to find their ‘new sound’.

While some of these tracks are a little rough, there are still some absolute diamonds in the rough like the Alex Reece & Wax Doctor collaboration – Exposed, Q Certain Thoughts and the bass heavy Track 7 which is one of my all time favourite Wax Doctor tunes.

After this era Wax Doctor pretty much disappeared off the D&B map. Although a few older tunes were re-release via the Creative Wax label. And very recently a new tune cropped up in a Sun & Bass set by DJ Djinn give me hope that maybe, just maybe Wax Doctor will revive his career and bless us with some more of his sublime style of D&B again.

Doctor Who?: 4th Regeneration – 1hr of 98-01 era Wax Doctor

Fallen Angels – The Theme
Alex Reece & Wax Doctor – Exposed
Fallen Angels – Track 7
Fallen Angels – Like the Sun
Alex Reece & Utah Jazz – All Night Long
Wax Doctor – Q Certain Thoughts
Fallen Angels – Rapier
Fallen Angels – Event Horizon
Alex Reece & Utah Jazz – G.R.V.
Bounty Killaz – Silent Voices (Tango Mix)
Sounds of Life – Release the Bells (Wax Doctor Remix)
Frank De Wulf – Drums in a Grip (Wax Doctor Remix)
Jazz Juice – Detroit (DJ Lee ’97 Remix)
Alex Reece & Utah Jazz – Retrospect
Fallen Angels – Biophonic

2022, Ear & Drum Session, Liquid D&B, Uncategorized

Ear & Drum: Session 231 – Taking Flight

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2022 has picked up where 2021 left off in terms of solid Liquid D&B tunes coming out left, right and center. With regulars such as Furney, Tokyo Prose and Alix Perez joined by a new school of melodic producers such as Khramer, Styke and Echomatics in bringing the goods.

There is a little bit of something for everyone in this mix with Dynamite MC feat. Bop x Subwave’s – Into and Fox’s – Paper Weights providing some vocal depth. Furney’s – El Aqua and Styke’s – Apollo lets the music do the talking, while Dan Guidance’s – Freedom of Expression and HEFT’s – Promise bringing some deft drum work and bass heft.

Taking Flight – 1hr of Liquid Beats

Khramer – Far Away
Furney – El Aqua
Random Movement – How Many Ways
Styke – Apollo
HEFT – Promise
Echomatics – By Your Side
Etherwood – Spaces
Tokyo Prose – Still Life
Flaco – Star Search
Dynamite MC feat. Bop x Subwave – Into
Duoscience – Facing…
Dan Guidance – Freedom of Expression
Fishy – Solar Transit
Chimpo & Salo – I Don’t Care
Fox feat. Swing Ting – Day Ones (Lenzman Remix)
Far – If You Want
Pola & Bryson – Inder (Feat. Lauren Archer)
HumanNature – Stories
Alix Perez – Desanka
Brainwork – Adrift
Fox – Paper Weights (Feat. DRS & Calibre)

2022, All Artist Mix, Amen, Atmospheric, Ear & Drum Session, Intelligent

Ear & Drum: Session 230 – Doctor Who?: 3rd Regeneration

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Take three of the Wax Doctor series moving into peak energy. Some of these are considered classics like Offshore Drift, Heat, Spectrum and Kid Caprice (Funk Mix), but there are still a few surprises in here with aliases like Clone Inc., Bounty Killaz and Fallen Angels making an appearance.

The sound everyone goes to when they think of Wax Doctor is atmospheric or intelligent D&B. But as the second part of this mix proves, the man could flex a dark Amen belter when he had to, and they don’t come much harder than Logical Progression and his remix of Sounds of Life – Release the Bells.

Doctor Who? 3rd Generation – 1hr of 95-97 Wax Doctor

Wax Doctor – Offshore Drift
Wax Doctor – Finer Things
Wax Doctor – Kid Caprice (Funk Mix)
Wax Doctor – Atmospheric Funk
Clone Inc. – Mood Swing
Wax Doctor – Heat
Wax Doctor – Spectrum
St Germain – Alabama Blues (Wax Doctor Mix)
Dave Angel – This is Disco (Wax Doctor Mix)
Bounty Killaz – Silent Voices (Tango Mix)
Fallen Angels – Frequency (Tango Remix)
Wax Doctor – Logical Progression
Sounds of Life – Release the Bells (Wax Doctor Remix)

160bpm, 2022, Atmospheric, Ear & Drum Session

Ear & Drum: Session 229 – Killah Deep

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Back to 160bpm, but with a D&B instead of a Jungle focus this time around. As previously mentioned, this speed is ideal for letting Amen breaks breath. But there are also a lot of artists now winding back the BPM clock for other breaks to give their D&B productions that extra bit of depth.

Acid_Lab & Coco Bryce are the first artists that spring to mind, but with more than half of the tracks in this mix being from Omni Music, who’s atmospheric sound lends itself perfectly to the slower tempos, Eshaton’s killah label is worth a special mention here too. They have an amazing pool of talented producers bringing a greater depth to tunes by pushing D&B’s original tempo.

You can find all of the Omni Music tunes in this mix (plus 100s more) over at https://omnimusic.bandcamp.com/

Killah Deep – 1hr of 160bpm D&B

The Vanguard Project & Jemima Reed – Stitches (Coco Bryce Remix)
Grey Code – Primrose
Coco Bryce – Dial M for Mayor
Clothcutter – You’ll Know Me
Cryogenics – Haunted
Acid_Lab – Conquest of Space
IMANU & The Caracal Project feat. Josh Pan – La Fournaise
Added – Before Your Eyes
Dan Guidance – Creating Waves
Conman, Evasion & Mod:Co – Lifestyle
Woken Balance – Atlas 6
Mineral – Separated Attitude
Antony G – Lockdown
Moakz – Distant Waters
Mineral – Old School 2022
Dust-e-1 – One on One
The Vanguard Project – Want U Back (Coco Bryce Remix)

2022, All Artist Mix, Ear & Drum Session, Intelligent, Melodic, Uncategorized

Ear & Drum: Session 228 – Doctor Who?: 2nd Regeneration

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Heading into the golden era of the mid-90s for the 2nd installment of my Wax Doctor series. Since declaring this a three part series I’ve discovered a few more Wax Doctor tracks squirreled away in my vinyl collection under different names. So I’ll be adding a 4th mix to the series just for good measure.

A lot of these tracks are Wax Doctor collaborating with Alex Reece under the Jazz Juice and Unit 1 pseudonyms (later to become Fallen Angels), or as Bounty Killaz with Ashley Browne AKA DJ Pulse. There are definitely different moods to the sound depending on who the good Doctor teamed up with, Unit 1 being a lot tougher than the jazz inspired Jazz Juice for example. But in the end all of these tracks are pure quality and more than worthy of getting another spin.

Doctor Who?: 2nd Regeneration – 1hr of Wax Doctor (and friends) from 1995-97

Wax Doctor – All I Need
Jazz Juice – Detroit
Jazz Juice – Jazz Juice
Unit 1 – Untitled
Unit 1 – Love Me
DJ Pulse – Stay Calm (Bounty Killaz Remix)
Jazz Juice – Move Your Body
Wax Doctor – Step
Bounty Killaz – Silent Voices
Bounty Killaz – Do it Now!
Bounty Killaz – Killa Instinct (Alex Reece Remix)
Model 500 – I Wanna Be There (Wax Doctor Remix)
Wax Doctor – Cool Breeze

2022, Ear & Drum Session, Hard D&B

EAR & DRUM: SESSION 227 – Bruised

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Been a hot minute since I’ve dropped a heavier set, but this one is coming out swinging. The ruff D&B sound has been having a BIG resurgence lately with quality tracks hitting hard and fast.

First up Breakage dropped his At the Controls Vol.2 EP which featured the killer Lickshots for Headtops and Untitled Dubplate. When Breakage is on form not many can touch him. Blocks and Escher’s – Shot In The Dark EP finally dropped after what seems like years of the title track being played by everyone, although This One is my pick of the bunch from the release. And one of my favorite artists, Klute has remastered some of his classic remixes in the form of Digital & Spirit’s – Remote Control (Klute Remix) and Concord Dawn’s – Morning Light (Klute Remix) so I couldn’t pass up dropping these in even though they are a little long in the tooth.

Extra special shouts to Offish for his moody AF – Pareidolia [Intro] track and Mister Shifter for his massive Murder One drop on Straight Up Breakbeat. Seeing all my online Dogs coming correct gives me huge amounts of joy, so big up ya chest to all involved.

Bruised – 1hr of Tuff D&B Beats

Offish – Pareidolia [Intro]
Disrupta & J Select – Tequila
Breakage – Untitled Dubplate
Mister Shifter – Murder One
Digital & Spirit – Remote Control (Klute Remix)
Concord Dawn – Morning Light (Klute Remix)
S.P.Y – Nebula
Blocks & Escher – Shot In The Dark
Noisia – Incessant (IMANU Remix)
Conrad Subs – Dark Sets In
DLR – Make My Mind Go
Sub Focus – Deep Space (Data 3 Remix)
Roho – Deviuz Law
Breakage – Lickshots for Headtops
Blocks & Escher – This One
Silence Groove – Offset
Silence Groove – Feel
Inja – Soul Silhouette (feat. Singing Fats)

2022, All Artist Mix, Ear & Drum Session, Intelligent, Melodic

Ear & Drum: Session 226 – Doctor Who?: 1st Regeneration

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Wax Doctor is a producer who has always been close to my heart. He was a breakbeat pioneer who blazed a melodic trail in the early 90s, along with the likes of Omni Trio and Alex Reece, that defined a generation of music. He had two records in the first ten Metalheadz releases, more pseudonyms than you can poke a stick at, and was in high demand as a remix artist in D&B most formative years.

This is the first part of three mixes I’m putting together to celebrate the life and works and of Wax Doctor. Starting out in 1993 with some of his earliest Breakbeat Hardcore tracks and moving into the mid-90s, where he found his musical feet and started making serious waves in the D&B scene.

Doctor Who?: 1st Regeneration – 1.5hrs of early Wax Doctor

Kev Bird & The Wax Doctor – T.B.N (Tough But Nice)
Kev Bird & The Wax Doctor – Dark Matter ’93
Wax Doctor – Fallen Angels
Fallen Angels – Hello Lover (DJ Hype Remix)
DJ Pulse – Let You In (Wax Doctor Remix)
Wax Doctor – The Step
Model 500 – I Wanna Be There (Wax Doctor Remix)
Wax Doctor – Cool Breeze
Wax Doctor – The Spectrum
Unit 1 – Atlantic Drama
Alex Reece – Basic Principals (Wax Doctor Rollout)
Fallen Angels – Taken Over
Bounty Killaz – Do It Now! (DJ Pulse Remix)
Sounds of Life – Release the Bells (Wax Doctor Remix)
Alex Reece – Acid Lab (Wax Doctor Remix)
Wax Doctor – Kid Caprice
Lunar Funk – Spacewalk
Wax Doctor – Never As Good