#Drum'n'bass

[bazedjunkiii]

the box.

photographed and edited by baze.djunkiii

[joemuggs]

Albums of 2023 part 2

And so, on from part 1, we continue. This is more dreamy synth-dub that sits perfectly next to the Harrow album: Richard Norris is another artist with an extraordinarily long and illustrious career but who also has never lost the exploratory urge and total delight in sonic finesse.

Honestly Uruguayan-in-Ireland Lila Tirando a Violeta is right up there with the very best of the "deconstructed club" generation - dark, gothic, complex, VERY WEIRD - and this collab with Berliner Sin Maldita is up there with her best. It's really, REALLY intense!

Just impossibly beautiful elegies from ambient harpist Mary Lattimore which builds towards the final track collaboration with Slowdive's Rachel Goswell that is so lovely it will single handedly bring back swooning as a popular pastime.

Officially an EP but there's enough here to cement Nia Archives's place as a heavyweight - add "Off Wiv Ya Headz" and that Jorja Smith remix, and she's had a humdinger of a 2023....

Saw some discourse suggesting that Burna Boy is resting on his laurels here, but I don't hear it. Maybe it's the fact that the cover looks dashed-off? But musically, this bangs: it expertly joins so many dots but keeps his voice and personality right at the heart of it.

I mean come on there was no way a collab between Earl Sweatshirt and The Alchemist was going to be anything but good, right? Just purest essence of deep and dreamy stoner hip hop. Yet another small (27min) but beautifully formed album - definitely a trend there.

Feels kind of (literally) sacrilegious to say I prefer Cleo Sol's more personal, less scriptural records (e.g. Rose in the Dark) - and this is, top to bottom, a gospel album - but the conviction to her performance and the whole realisation of it here is still really magical.

From Coventry via Skopje, man like NOT_MDK's first album in 23 years, and he's zooming into the deep flows that join grime and dubstep into the longer, deeper electronic funk continuum... These tracks are so crisp and crunchy!

She's from Turkey but Ahu's been plugged into the London Plastic People / NTS / etc scene for years - file this with Yazmin Lacey and similar LDN soul-jazz, also it's very Boho and vibesy and incensey, definitely one to light your best candles for.

Can't remember who put me on to this, possibly Radio 3? Anyway if cold wet misty Scottish hillsides are your jam Claire M Singer has you covered - these slower-than-slowly unfolding organ-led pieces practically smell of wet moss, and are extremely beautiful.

He's lent vocals to a who's who of electronic music, but it turns out Paul St Hilaire's own studio craft is the equal of just about any of them - this is just a stunning, ocean-deep album of dub abstraction and subtly potent lyricism.

Icelander Eva Jóhannsdóttir aka EVA808 has already made a name in the dubstep/grime world but this is her really spreading her creative wings. Mad psychedelia, elemental abstraction, movie-theme composition - there's not much she can't do. Big things beckon!

There's still SO much to say about amapiano, and so much incredible UK, SA and wider world stuff last year (this isn't even the only great DJ Maphorisa album - he had THREE out in 2023, including a mini album with Shino Kikai and a 25-track one with fellow originator Kabza De Small!!). Suffice to say this has gorgeous songs, primal grooves, endlessly sophisticated mixdowns and bass that'll take your breath away.

Just gonna link to my review for this one (it's got the music embedded) - but TL;DR Darren J Cunningham aka Actress is the holy prophet of the era of enshittification, yet for all that his music is constantly "off" and made for a world that is "off", he alchemises it into real gold.

Yeah I'm going to be THAT space-jazz hipster and say this is the record I wish Andre3000 (who is on it, and Carlos Niño co-produced his album) had made. It's just a more lavish, free, FUN way to cavort with the five-dimensional fractal machine elves.

Zoning in on the platonic breakbeat mathematics that underly Jersey / B'more club Chicago hip house, UK rave, trip hop etc, Bored Lord could seem arch or retro if her beats weren't so gloriously functional and bumping.

Fed up of generic records? You will never EVER find another one that sounds like IFS MA. Polish abstract slightly Autechre-y footwork / drum'n'bass with Japanese rapper MA sounding like a cyborg beat poet Taliban Trim and I.... 🤯

Every man jack and their dog are doing high bpm retro rave lately but you can trust Meemo Comma to put a fresh and uneasy twist on it. These tracks will get you proper buzzing up loud! I got to DJ for her live performance of this at Spiritland earlier in the year, hearing them on that system was a real treat.

You get a twofer with this one. Phil Kieran's ode to Belfast is gorgeous in studio form here, but he also recorded and released a version with the Ulster Orchestra that single handedly revivifies the idea of electronic music done classical style!

Two true underground troupers teaming up here - Jordan GCZ from Juju & Jordash and David "Move D" Moufang with some otherworldly good-dream ambient, deep house and space-soul jams heavy on the Fender Rhodes, fuzzy reverberation and sensually sweeping portamento.

My musical safe place for so much of this year. Brooklyn "electronic jam band" Purelink somehow burrowed into electronic music history and found the softest, happiest, warmest fur lined chamber and then invited us in. I cannot emphasise enough how LOVELY this record is.

More modular synth grooves from E Ruscha aka Secret Circuits, but no over-indulgence here and the grooves REALLY DO GROOVE. Trippy as a weasel circus and twice as funky.

Talking of trippy, here's Optimo Music's second acid-drenched entry, from the man formerly known as TB Arthur and the mighty Magda trading as Blotter Trax, it's a kind of parallel universe early 80s alt disco where everything gurgles and melts.

More from South Africa - King Mzaiza Sound via the reliably tough Parisian PSSNGR label - not 100% sure what you'd call this though it definitely has some gqom sonics, some trap drums, and some strident rap vocals... It's HARD AS NAILS is what it is.

EVEN HARDER - Nyege Nyege brought us a sampler of this (and I don't use mental health language lightly) FUCKING MENTAL shrieking, raging, solvent-huffing sound from São Paulo stewarded by the young DJ K, and it's extremely funky and scarily thrilling.

OK there we go, part three is here.....

[centralbeatz]

The fifth instalment of our mix series is a killer from York based Counterfactual! 

[janssendai]

NeXtLivE

2023.05/20(Sat)

[GOIN'OFF] 

at. DJ's BAR 和音

OPEN 22:00~

ENTRANCE :  ¥1,500

LIVE: mica the bulwark JANS

DJ:

Casin HI-ROCK Akinori

[spilladabalia]

Photos by & © Aiyush Pachnanda, documenting the drum'n'bass scene in Cardiff, Wales. From his book "Rave To The Grave", 2020 © - part 2

[buildanddestroy]

Peshay Studio Set (1996)

[street-singer]

PLAYLIST

Celebrando sons, artistas e vertentes sobre as quais escrevi em meu tempo cobrindo dance music e eletrônica para o Portal Skol Beats, DJ Mag e rraurl (2007-2010).

[bazedjunkiii]

100% darkjungle x breakcore murderation from way back. yours truly played this vinyl and dubplate set on german fm radio exactly 19 years ago to this day. it's a war!

[jasper-rolls]

Song: Deep Wave Artist: Tanchiky feat. Hatsune Miku Album: Prhythmatic Drum'n'bass Circle: On Prism Records

[centralbeatz]

Back into the fray with another tough hitting exclusive session with a debut set from Melsyma this February at the Old Red Bus Station! With distinctive and original tracks on the likes of RAM, Sofa Sound Bristol and Symmetry Recordings, Melysma has a bright year ahead with shed loads of new Drum & Bass smashers in the pipeline - we know you’re gonna love this one. 

Support comes from T3stament who’s been mad unstoppable at present, tearing up decks across at pretty much every party across Leeds lately, as well as Delta from local crew ‘Olympus’ who have a reputation for seriously fresh and technical tune selections. Our resident collective of Skye, Myras & LD50 keep the vibe pulsing all night with LD adding hype on the mic.

All this for only £4+BF - we’ve got a mammoth party line up, all you’ve got to do is just get down and jump into the vibe!

[priokskfm]

#MixOfDay #Podacast #Radioshow #LiveDjset KISSMABASS #22 ft. Kwatee Our special serias of KISSMABASS Podcast. Compiled and recorded by Kwatee special for Mudra music, october 2023. Follow Kwatee: https://ift.tt/5dkTFJM Welcome to our home: www.mudramusic.ru www.t.me/mudramusic www.vk.com/mudracommunity
 https://ift.tt/JStfpQu https://ift.tt/j43iR2B https://ift.tt/icwozls Tracklist: loading ... dnb, jungle, Kwatee, KISSMABASS, halfstep, mudra, 'n', "modern drum & bass", "future beats", "hi-tech dnb", "bass music", "rave for the brave", "Mudra music", "broken beats", "liquid drum'n'bass", "kissmabass podcat", "dance floor sound"

[spilladabalia]

Photos by & © Aiyush Pachnanda, documenting the drum'n'bass scene in Cardiff, Wales. From his book "Rave To The Grave", 2020 © - part 1