Building a Drum and Bass library

Setun

Saw this on www.allaboutjazz.com a few years ago, and now that I'm regularly listening to this music/have more knowledge about the genre, I thought it'd be interesting to see what albums were recommended on a 'jazz website.' Some good choices imo (have been listening to the Photek one a lot lately, and I highly recommend it), but still a few I'm completely unfamiliar with (Bisk intrigues me...)

Squarepusher: Feed Me Weird Things (Rephlex, 1996)
Tom Jenkinson's first full-length as Squarepusher builds off dainty guitar and fretless bass work, which he inevitably envelops with spectacularly manic and detailed drum work. Second only to his followup EP Vic Acid, this is drill-n-bass at its finest.
Aphex Twin: Richard D. James Album (Elektra, 1996)
Not to be outdone, Aphex Twin leaps full-on into the meaty beats on his eponymous record. This one remains melodic and atmospheric at heart, but massive helpings of rapid-fire beats raise the energy level several notches.
Autechre: Tri Repetae++ (Warp, 1996)
Warp was becoming an influential label for inventive d-n-b. On this double set, Autechre approaches the field from a stark, purist attitude that relies upon decorated, evolving loops instead of outright melody.
Amon Tobin: Bricolage (Ninja Tune, 1996)
After a brief stint as Cujo, Brazilian artist Amon Tobin took d-n-b by storm, favoring jazzy samples and highly stylized, often swinging, rhythms. His later records are all quite good.
Bisk: Strange or funny-haha? (Sub Rosa, 1997)
With Bisk's debut, Time, out of print, you'll have to settle for second best. This innovative Japanese composer approaches d-n-b as a colorist and trickster, relying on a massive palette of sounds and rhythms, even quite jazzy at times.
Plug: Drum'n'bass for Papa (Nothing/Interscope, 1997)
Plugger Luke Vibert pulled together material from previous releases to create this two-CD set. It's a warm, mysterious work: the beats form coherent structures around which swirl bells and demons.
Lamb: Lamb (Mercury, 1997)
Crossing the border into trip-hop, this ambitious duo fuses warm, tenuous female vocals with song form construction that relies upon percolating, off-center d-n-b rhythms. Timing is everything here.
Photek: Modus Operandi (Astralwerks, 1997)
After popping out scores of tracks everywhere, Photek finally got it together to make this full-length debut. It fuses hypnotic ambience (including strange animal-like noises) with emphatic pulsing, looping beats.
Talvin Singh: OK (Polygram, 1998)
Something of a production auteur, Singh cooks up a spectacular recipe here, borrowing from tabla as much as sequenced drum hits, using spoken word and qawwali devotional music in the mix.
Squarepusher: Go Plastic (Warp, 2001)
Five years after breaking all the rules, Squarepusher's back. His sources here include a wide variety of instrumental, vocal, and computer-generated sounds; and despite its mostly song-form orientation, this is volatile, incendiary stuff.

Would you consider them good albums for "building a d'n'b library"?

quote taken from http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=18764

Scubadevils

Yeah the Photek album is essential if you are looking to get some D&B albums. I'm not a huge D&B fan but dip my toe in from time to time. Keep meaning to delve further.

Another that springs to mind is 'Logical Progression' - amazing:

http://www.discogs.com/LTJ-Bukem-Logical-Progression/release/2398

Oh and this is great if you can find a copy -

http://www.discogs.com/release/66863

Been several threads over in Dance & Electronic covering this genre - some members over there big into D&B.

cornbb

Nice thread. I don't know a lot about Drum'n'bass - but I do like most of what I hear, especially the sort of stuff recommended above. Its very interesting to see "build a drum'n'bass library" recommendations based on IDM-y d'n'b rather than the more mainstream LTJ Bukem/dance oriented stuff. I'm already familiar with Squarepusher, Autechre, Aphex Twin and Amon Tobin so checking out some of the other stuff on the list would make a lot of sense. So cheers for that.

Seeing as we've been talking about Squarepusher rather a lot I'm gonna chip in and say that Burning'n Tree is well worth checking out if any d'n'b fans are looking to get into Squarepusher.

Setun

Yeah thought I'd post it here because it's kind of "under the radar/off the wall" drum and bass. The Photek album is crazy, some really repetive but very interesting drum loops broken by sparse injections of samples (eg a gun reloading/weird animal calls etc). Well worth a purchase. The Bisk album sounds amazing from random samples I managed to find on some mp3 site.

John

Probably not d'n'b in any traditional sense but I recently picked up Top Dollar by Toby Dammit and it is phenomenal. He's a drummer that has worked with Iggy Pop, Swans, The Angels of Light, Thomas Wydler (from Die Haut/Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds), Rufus Wainwright and The Residents. This is a solo drum album with samples and "atmospheres". Really heavy charged stuff.

jiltloop

cornbb wrote: »

Nice thread. I don't know a lot about Drum'n'bass - but I do like most of what I hear, especially the sort of stuff recommended above. Its very interesting to see "build a drum'n'bass library" recommendations based on IDM-y d'n'b rather than the more mainstream LTJ Bukem/dance oriented stuff. I'm already familiar with Squarepusher, Autechre, Aphex Twin and Amon Tobin so checking out some of the other stuff on the list would make a lot of sense. So cheers for that.

Seeing as we've been talking about Squarepusher rather a lot I'm gonna chip in and say that Burning'n Tree is well worth checking out if any d'n'b fans are looking to get into Squarepusher.

Yeah burnin'n tree is a very good album and not one that you'd see around too much. It's very direct drum'n'bass and I found it quite surprising when I first heard it. Squarepusher's older stuff often has a bit of humour in it or is a bit tongue in cheek but this album is very dead set and serious. Definately worth a listen.

rottenhat

That looks like a list put together by someone who doesn't really grasp that music aimed at the dancefloor can be just as experimental as more self-consciously avant-garde stuff, and I can only imagine the derision it would get from the serious drum'n'bass heads. I would thoroughly recommend that you get Black Secret Technology by A Guy Called Gerald, which was remastered and reissued last year - probably the best album to come out of the jungle scene. Long out of print, but also absolutely stunning Vol 1: The Deepest Cut by Omni Trio (NB avoid later Omni Trio stuff, it's dreadful). Also long gone, Routes From The Jungle (compiled by Kevin martin, aka the Bug) was pure gold, and I guess the No-U Turn compilation Torque was really good even if techstep turned out to be a bit of a dead end musically.

Dragan

For some very solid and chunky DnB then check out State of Mind, very good stuff. Early Pendulum is a must.

DominoDub

After seeing this tread ,,I have started to rip some of my old CD's ,,now playing one off my first D&B purchases and one of the first D&B CD Album's

T Power's "The Self Evident Truth Of An Intuitive Mind" on SOUR.

http://www.discogs.com/TPower-The-Self-Evident-Truth-Of-An-Intuitive-Mind/release/40831

This I think was that the start of the transition from Jungle into the ambient & Jazz style D&B that would follow. eg Goldie - 4hero etc.

Got this and the virgin "Routes From The Jungle" comp at the same time.

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Routes-From-The-Jungle-Escape-Velocity-Volume-1/release/105553

Martyr

i mainly collect singles on vinyl/mp3 rather than full lp's but i'd say bukem should be in the list for that easy listening groove style of dnb.

i loved pfm's western, axis's high point, voyager's apollo..loads of stuff by paradox, seba, The lightless ep by fanu,This Too Shall Pass LP by breakage...too many to mention.

1 of my favourite albums of anything would be this:
Journey Inwards - LTJ Bukem

have a listen here

also worth checking out earth volumes, points in time, logical progressions 1,2..good bit from good looking records.

Alaska [Paradox] Presents - Arctic Foundation

dnb is such a diverse style now..it would be hard for me atleast to compile a list of just dnb, i'd have to break it up into different sub-genres of dnb...

i'd have audio's edge of reason (barricade is class) as favourite and stuff by current value, limewax and tech itch, unknown error, kryptic minds and leon switch, fracture and neptune..loads of stuff out there these days which is good.

Lukasz.

Daddio wrote: »

Saw this on www.allaboutjazz.com a few years ago, and now that I'm regularly listening to this music/have more knowledge about the genre, I thought it'd be interesting to see what albums were recommended on a 'jazz website.' Some good choices imo (have been listening to the Photek one a lot lately, and I highly recommend it), but still a few I'm completely unfamiliar with (Bisk intrigues me...)

Would you consider them good albums for "building a d'n'b library"?

quote taken from http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=18764

okay,great albums,but some(most) are very experimental,which is cool and all that,but it all depends on what kind of drum and bass you are looking for.

drum and bass is like wine,you taste many kinds,some good,some bad,but eventually you will find the type you really like.and youll end up sticking to that! for a while at least!

i would recommend these albums if you want to go and get some drum and bass:just to get started! thats all.

artist: Goldie
album : Timeless (get the double disc set) quite expensive actually.

Artist: Roni Size
Album : New Forms (very jazzy drum and bass,im surprized that wasnt mentioned in the mag you mentioned......hmmm)

Hmmm,from djing and that,and ive noticed that some good DnB artists release some great singles,on cd,but predominatly 12" vinyl.

Some of these would be (now check these guys out) Peshay,J Majik,Lemon D three of my favourites who always produce the goods.j majik's work from the 90's was his better work though

Oh,and also check out "Total Science" they have some interesting tracks.

watch out for mainstream Drum and bass,some of it is awful.

Executive Steve

Lukasz. wrote: »

Some of these would be (now check these guys out) Peshay,J Majik,Lemon D three of my favourites who always produce the goods.j majik's work from the 90's was his better work though
.

they've been utterly dreadful for the best part of a decade now though.

utterly.


Everyone should go check out the irish label "Subtle Audio", they've been putting out vinyl releases for a few yewars and just did a two cd label retrospective - they're a lot more relevant to the spirit of this forum than 99% of drum and bass is these days.

Executive Steve

cornbb wrote: »

Nice thread. I don't know a lot about Drum'n'bass - but I do like most of what I hear, especially the sort of stuff recommended above. Its very interesting to see "build a drum'n'bass library" recommendations based on IDM-y d'n'b rather than the more mainstream LTJ Bukem/dance oriented stuff. I'm already familiar with Squarepusher, Autechre, Aphex Twin and Amon Tobin so checking out some of the other stuff on the list would make a lot of sense. So cheers for that.

Seeing as we've been talking about Squarepusher rather a lot I'm gonna chip in and say that Burning'n Tree is well worth checking out if any d'n'b fans are looking to get into Squarepusher.

the only problem i ever had with squarepusher was that in the early days of his career he was basically just trying to make jungle records and failing badly; there's more genuine WTF rhythm moments on any given 93-era baby kane, teebone, bizzy b or equinox than there was in any of squarepusher's oeuvre until he stopped sequencing and just went proper far out, and done on equipment without one thousandth of the sophistication of the setup available to mr jenkinson.

same goes for most of those crusty "drill 'n bassers" who were briefly in vogue in the late nineties - compared to classic jungle it was sort of like going and hearing joe satriani or eric clapton playing "the blues" when you could just as easily listen to muddy waters or bb king - ie. all rather pointless and more of a celebration of virtuosity within the context of a musical language that they played no part in inventing than any meaningful attempt to add to it.

Lukasz.

[cm]tyranny wrote: »

they've been utterly dreadful for the best part of a decade now though.

utterly.


Everyone should go check out the irish label "Subtle Audio", they've been putting out vinyl releases for a few yewars and just did a two cd label retrospective - they're a lot more relevant to the spirit of this forum than 99% of drum and bass is these days.

yeah,totally agree with that.
thanks for the heads up about that irish label,will definatly check em' out.

Executive Steve

Lukasz. wrote: »

yeah,totally agree with that.
thanks for the heads up about that irish label,will definatly check em' out.

Their label boss dj Code has a whole bunch of extraordinarily good mixes up online too, he posts on here a little bit as well...

Dublin heads can tune in to my show on radio na life 106.4 FM every wednesday night at 21.00 as well!

DominoDub

Adding some more of my old CD's to iTunes and these two gems still standout .

They are from the start of the Jazz / Ambient D'n'B scene in 1996 .

Artcore
http://www.discogs.com/Various-Artcore/release/11405

and this classic mix disk with very early LTJ Bukem & MC Conrad.

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Promised-Land-Volume-1/release/15622

Scubadevils

Thats funny, I was just thinking about that first Artcore compilation earlier today and that I must buy a copy again... had it years ago but sold it along with several others in my late teens to fund my clubbing habit! I'm now gathering them all up again thankfully...

What reminded me of it though was the Detroit Techno compilation also on React called 'True People' which I was listening to today.

http://www.discogs.com/Various-True-People-The-Detroit-Techno-Album/release/12123

Both excellent compilations.