the "future music" approach somehow lost its touch after, let??s say, 98. But I am still impressed how much the quality of production has evolved and how people flipped and chopped different samples from the early 90s onwards. I miss this level of creativity in other genres, especially Hip-Hop.
one of the strong points of this corner of drum n bass at the moment is the LACK of sampling (except breaks of course!), it has moved almost entirely onto softsynths (with a bit of backwards and forwards to akais and emus). I am currently working on a tune with pretty much 99% self created content, the only samples i can think of are a couple of kicks and snares (but im learning to make my own from scratch).
If you want to hear how far the sound has come check anything new by teebee & calyx. They are going nuts! Admittedly, some of it does sound like cylons attacking the death star, but i kinda like that every now and again.
and on the HUGE production front, pendulum (and some others) is getting dre-esque levels of polish and pure SIZE of sound.
while the '98 era is one that will always be a great time for me, its only now that some new stuff has pricked up my ears again after a good 2-3 year period of almost total lack of interest.
oh, and I really do know what mumbosauce is saying, in my home town the scene is overflowing with producers, djs, promoters & mcs. EVERYONE is just putting out a track, or mcing the gig that night, or bringing over a producer from the UK next month. On one hand its good, it creates a lot of interaction/collabs etc, but... the ratio at gigs is waaayy outta wack, and because loads of people are 'involved' they all wanna get in for nothing...nagl for the promoters!
the "future music" approach somehow lost its touch after, let??s say, 98. But I am still impressed how much the quality of production has evolved and how people flipped and chopped different samples from the early 90s onwards. I miss this level of creativity in other genres, especially Hip-Hop.
one of the strong points of this corner of drum n bass at the moment is the LACK of sampling (except breaks of course!), it has moved almost entirely onto softsynths (with a bit of backwards and forwards to akais and emus).
just to clarify, with "samples" I referred to drum samples/breaks. of course drum and bass has never been cutting edge, when it comes to the use of samples in general.
with "samples" I referred to drum samples/breaks. of course drum and bass has never been cutting edge, when it comes to the use of samples in general.
oh yeah, agreed. its going to take a while for it to move on from that. I find that it can limit you (using older breaks) as it does tie the sound into that sort of funk/jazz (or where ever you sampled the break from) theme. even pretty dark, fast tracks (with ZERO funk) still have that flavour in the drums.
to see a perfect example of (semi) recent sample manipulation and original synth work, check out
Photek // ni ten ichi ryu (teebee remix) Noisia & teebee // lost cause
I loved Jungle. It was the first stuff I could really get down and dance to when I was younger. When the 'sophistication', seriousness and tedious splintering started in earnest from '95-'96 onwards, when the hardcore ragga, funk and hiphop samples (the use of Method Man accapellas were so common in '94-'95, for example) started to fade away it became more difficult to enjoy. Drum and Bass had come of age and become a little boring.
For me, Jungle starts and finishes with it's only great LP - A Guy Called Gerald's 'Black Secret Technology[/b]'. This has flourishes of the music that gave birth to it - from the ragga, roots, rave and older black musics - but is swamped with meticulously arranged yet strangly natural and organic sub bass and counter and poly rhythms. There really is nothing like it. Anyone who ever liked jungle before it lost it's soul needs this album. It's also extremely difficult to find nowadays. Pretty much a diggers dream if you ask me.
For me, Jungle starts and finishes with it's only great LP - A Guy Called Gerald's 'Black Secret Technology[/b]'. This has flourishes of the music that gave birth to it - from the ragga, roots, rave and older black musics - but is swamped with meticulously arranged yet strangly natural and organic sub bass and counter and poly rhythms. There really is nothing like it. Anyone who ever liked jungle before it lost it's soul needs this album. It's also extremely difficult to find nowadays. Pretty much a diggers dream if you ask me.
or Reprazent's "New Forms" or Platinum Breakz Vol. 1 or "Timeless" or...
I hate styles of music that are just slight modifications of other shit that get branded as their own genre. Usually the folks who are ga ga about these styles of musics know nothing about music and think their shit is mind blowing and nothing like it has ever been done. It was funny to play out "hard headed woman" 6 or 7 years ago and the ball-bearing necklace dudes just going "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?"
A Guy Called Gerald's 'Black Secret Technology[/b]'
yeah, this was a great album, ahead of the game at that stage. '28 gun badboy' also helped set the direction for early jungle. He's still at it (Berlin last time i heard) not doing drum n bass anymore i dont think.
Comments
one of the strong points of this corner of drum n bass at the moment is the LACK of sampling (except breaks of course!), it has moved almost entirely onto
softsynths (with a bit of backwards and forwards to akais and emus).
I am currently working on a tune with pretty much 99% self created content, the only samples i can think of are a couple of kicks and snares (but im learning to make my own from scratch).
If you want to hear how far the sound has come check anything new by teebee & calyx. They are going nuts! Admittedly, some of it does sound like cylons attacking the death star, but i kinda like that every now and again.
and on the HUGE production front, pendulum (and some others) is getting dre-esque levels of polish and pure SIZE of sound.
while the '98 era is one that will always be a great time for me, its only now that some new stuff has pricked up my
ears again after a good 2-3 year period of almost total lack of interest.
oh, and I really do know what mumbosauce is saying,
in my home town the scene is overflowing with producers, djs, promoters & mcs.
EVERYONE is just putting out a track, or mcing the gig that night, or bringing over a producer from the UK next month.
On one hand its good, it creates a lot of interaction/collabs etc, but...
the ratio at gigs is waaayy outta wack, and because loads of people are 'involved' they all wanna get in for nothing...nagl for the promoters!
just to clarify, with "samples" I referred to drum samples/breaks. of course drum and bass has never been cutting edge, when it comes to the use of samples in general.
oh yeah, agreed.
its going to take a while for it to move on from that.
I find that it can limit you (using older breaks) as it does tie the sound into that sort of funk/jazz (or where ever you sampled the break from) theme.
even pretty dark, fast tracks (with ZERO funk) still have that flavour in the drums.
to see a perfect example of (semi) recent sample manipulation and original synth work, check out
Photek // ni ten ichi ryu (teebee remix)
Noisia & teebee // lost cause
and it took five pages for the amen clown video to appear!
For me, Jungle starts and finishes with it's only great LP - A Guy Called Gerald's 'Black Secret Technology[/b]'. This has flourishes of the music that gave birth to it - from the ragga, roots, rave and older black musics - but is swamped with meticulously arranged yet strangly natural and organic sub bass and counter and poly rhythms. There really is nothing like it. Anyone who ever liked jungle before it lost it's soul needs this album. It's also extremely difficult to find nowadays. Pretty much a diggers dream if you ask me.
or Reprazent's "New Forms" or Platinum Breakz Vol. 1 or "Timeless" or...
but, yeah, i see your point.
'28 gun badboy' also helped set the direction for early jungle.
He's still at it (Berlin last time i heard) not doing drum n bass anymore i dont think.