Saturday Jan 16th 2010 Archive

Finally got around to reviewing the best releases of 2009 on the show last Saturday.

The year just gone was a good one for D&B. I tried to feature as many different strands of the sound here as possible and tie them together (coherently I hope!). The sounds in the mix range from the South American influence on Dan Harbarnam’s “Zoom Black Camera” to the hip-hop stylings of Kemo and Manu Delago flowing over the beats of Lynx and DJ Trax repectively and from the Ambient Jungle of Alaska & Paradox to the grimey, rowdy bassline driven breakbeat of Fracture & Neptune. One of the highlights of the year was the emergence of Rockwell who managed to get everyone’s attention with only one release to his name! Watch for “Underpass”, coming in around the 23 minute mark. It was nice to see a someone gravitating toward D&B from Dubstep (rather that the other way around) with Ramadanman delivering a few really good tunes at 170 bpm this year. His remix of fellow dubstepper Scuba is probably my fave of those. Goldie found the time to deliver a great album this year, despite a myraid of other interests – “Paris” is a track from it, recorded under the ‘Rufige Kru’ moniker (featuring Heist on the engineering duties). Breakbeats have been enjoying a resurgence in D&B over the last few years and tracks from Reactiv, Digital & Outrage and Dub One are perfect examples of how the early Jungle sound is still relevant. The mix ends with another producer who (like Rockwell) seemed to come from nowhere and amaze everyone. The rhythm track in Consequence’s “Farewell” really reminds me of the echo-y intro of “Vienna” by Ultravox – either way, it’s a really fresh piece of D&B, summing up the experimental mentality which was to the fore last year, long may it continue. I’m gonna do a another round up of the best D&B next week cos I had to leave out so many good tunes!

Hour 2 sees the tempo drop and then gradually rise again. Kicking off around the 120 bpm mark with the retro Detroit electro sound of Scottish based German producer Arne Weinberg’s “With Trembling Hands” and then taking something from a native of the Motor City – a typically gritty rhythm from Omar S. The mix continues into the anthemic “Night Jewel” by Andy Stott on one of my favourite techno / house labels – Manchester’s ‘Modern Love’. Unfortunately there wasn’t room in the mix for another highlight from their 2009 catalogue by Pendle Coven. Love it or hate it there’s no denying the influence exerted by Dubstep on the wider electronic music scene in the last few years. Helixir’s remix of Khixbrrr sits somewhere between techno / house and dubstep – hopefully there are more mongrels like this to come! Martyn is best known for his work at 140 bpm but his love for techno shine’s through on “Phone Lines”, the bonus track from his “Great Lengths” album. Eventually the mix makes it’s way into slighly less dancefloor orientated material with tracks from Terence Dixon, TVO and Mordant Music and then back to the 4/4 with something from the 2nd album since the return of The Black Dog. After that we take possibly the most uncompromising (and most ‘sweaty-techno-club’) track of the set from Luke Slater aka Planetary Assault Systems. 2562 features under his ‘A Made Up Sound’ alias and we take something from a label that caused quite a stir in ’09 – Daphne. It was a hard job to decide which release to play but we went for a tune from the most recent one from Millie & Andrea – “Spectral Source”. The mix finishes around the 130 bpm mark with a the beautifully detailed optimism of Aquatec’s “Alternator Dub” – never heard of these guys before but there “Places” ablum is really great stuff if you like your beats on the more experimental side.

Phew – 32 tracks from 2009, hope you enjoy. Watch for part 2 of the round-up for (more) D&B and also the best of Dubstep and related beats.



Future Beats with Code on Spin South West FM (Ireland) – Saturday Jan 16th 2010

Download or Stream Part 1 —> http://www.divshare.com/download/10208826-dde

Download or Stream Part 2 —> http://www.divshare.com/download/10208828-f2e



Part 1:
“The Last Laugh” – DJ Trax feat Manu Delago // Audio Buffet
“Zoom Black Camera” – Dan Harbarnam // Santorin
“Hotwax” – Eveson // Channel 82
“Deez Breakz” – Lynx & Kemo // Soul:R
“Shatter” – Reactiv // Breakfast Audio
“Heart Of Space” – Alaska & Paradox // Paradox Music
“Underpass” – Rockwell // Critical
“Ancients” – Loxy & Isotone // Cylon
“Paris” – Rufige Kru // Metalheadz
“Never Forget” – Dub One // Scientific Wax
“Killerwhat?” – Fracture & Neptune // Astrophonica
“Snowballs” – Digital & Outrage // Function
“Tense” (Ramadanman Remix) – Scuba // Offshore
“Lightyears” – ASC // Translation
“Slice” – Escher // Future Thinkin
“Farewell” – Consequence // Exit

Part 2:
“With Trembling Hands” – Arne Weinberg // AW Recordings
“Hot One’s Echo Through The Ghetto” – Omar S // FXHE
“Dubtales” – JCS // Audiohandwerk
“Energy Fields” (Quince’s Dubbed Out Reconstruction) – Taho // Delsin
“Night Jewel” – Andy Stott // Modern Love
“Fairies” (Helixir Remix) – Khixbrrr // Northern General
“Phone Lines” – Martyn // 3204
“Spacial Harmonics” – Bodycode // Spectral Sound
“Emergency” – Terence Dixon // Meakusma
“Circle Square Cross Wavy Line” – TVO // Stuff
“SyMptoMs” (Version) – Mordant Music // Mordant Music
“0093” – The Black Dog // Soma
“Om The Def” – Planetary Assault Systems // Ostgut Ton
“Rework” – A Made Up Sound // A Made Up Sound
“Spectral Source” – Mille & Andrea // Daphne
“Alternator Dub” – Aquatec // Hydrographic

~ by codefuturebeats on January 18, 2010.