Metro - drum & bass round up

Here's my round up of current d&b LPs in today's Metro newspaper. You can read it in on the Metro website here.

MUSIC EXTRA

Drum & bass

DJ Fresh: Kryptonite
Breakbeat Kaos


Klute: Music For Prophet
Commercial Suicide

Netsky: Netsky
Hospital

Utah Jazz: Vintage
Vintage

In recent years drum & bass has been eclipsed by dubstep as the nation’s preferred bass music of choice. However, the tension between the symbiotic genres has spurred creativity, resulting in d&b’s rejuvenation (ironically just as dubstep’s feeling stale): so here’s a selection of the scene’s current crop of artist albums.

DJ Fresh is a maverick: he was part of d&b super-group Bad Company, established the Breakbeat Kaos imprint (behind Pendulum’s early releases) with Adam F, reconfigured drum & bass’ DNA to incorporate electro and has since worked with the Pet Shop Boys. DJ Fresh’s second LP, Kryptonite is typically free spirited – the intense Talkbox, infusing high frequencies with murmuring electro is set to a pummelling backdrop, and the ominous Acid Rain’s choral intro gives way to the piercing hum of swarming bees. Elsewhere Starfall wrong foots at every turn as electro house explodes an off kilter rhythm topped with Val Beestings punk vocals, and Heavyweight is a hum-dinging fusion of electro, bass and drums. Kryptonite confirms DJ Fresh’s ability to operate simultaneously inside and outside the d&b box.


Klute’s an unsung d&b hero, who’s built a reputation as the producers’ producer over the course of five albums ((Pendulum, Goldie and Marcus Intalex are fans). Sixth LP Music For Prophet is becoming of a confident, skilled producer – Klute crafts a tearful symphony from rippling piano melodies, hand claps, strings, and a galloping rhythm (Knowing How To Get There). He incorporates unexpected influences: a rumbling didgeridoo melts into molten sub-bass (Make It Stop), Ashram suffuses ‘nightingale of India’ Lata Mangeshkar’s crystalline tones, with comforting bass, sitar and tabla. Of course Klute’s capable of dancefloor damage, as the stocky Buy More Now’s combines serrated bass with driving drums. Music For Prophet is not so much cinematic drum & bass, but a 3-D IMAX experience.

Utah Jazz’s second LP Vintage is a long player in the proper, old school sense, in that it’s an album that’s been painstakingly crafted and oozes finesse and attention to detail. It’s fair to describe Vintage as lush, instrument-led soul and funk imagined through d&b. Opener Comfort Zone’s sweeping strings, twinkling ivories, and measured progression, sets the tone. The sun-kissed Bring Back The Love’s filtered soul, and funk licks, is what Roy Ayers would sound like if he made d&b, and Take No More has more emotion than a Bollywood film. There’s variation too: both Enter The Jungle, where the Ragga Twins cut loose over cheery, choppy jungle, and NRG 93’s rave stabs, shuffling breakbeat and speeded up vocals, are glorious examples of riot music – nevertheless both retain a musically rich, textured quality that characterizes Utah Jazz’s output.

Belgium’s Netsky’s the new wonder-kid on the d&b block and his debut self titled LP, out on respected label Hospital Records, features sing-a-long anthems including jaunty summer jam Moving With You starring Jenna G, and Escape’s flamenco-guitar and MC Darrison sing-jaying. Netsky’s instrumental tracks are equally epic: Iron Heart sees gentle horns and piano erupt into ravey drum & bass that rolls towards an almost unbearably euphoric crescendo, while the tropical Let’s Leave Tomorrow is seagull sampling blissful Balearic d&b. On this basis parallels with Hospital Records original boy wonder, High Contrast don’t seem so far fetched.