Back in September last year I wrote a post on our old blog about a new atmosphere in Drum & Bass and the changing attitudes of other producers I speak to, an article which generated a lot of comments from other artists and listeners alike.
i’ve heard the same things being said by producers from right across the whole spectrum of styles – people who are known for jump-up, people who are known for atmospheric & drumfunk, people who have been churning out Pendulum-style dancefloor bangers, people who have been writing very polite generic liquid – everyone seems to have had enough of just going through the motions. They want something more musical, more complex, more subtle, more *involved*. Producers are wanting to reintroduce light and shade into their music, both in terms of the dynamics of the tracks and also the content. Many of us are tired of that wall of sound, of that relentless 2-step snare. Sometimes it’s just what you need, but often it just crucifies any music that you try and work around it.
Finally producers are saying ‘enough is enough’ and one by one they’re stopping taking part in the volume war, not being afraid to make their music that little bit more delicate.
…so I was encouraged to read Rahul Verma’s article, ‘End of dumb & base’, in The Independent last week. Partly because it’s good to see drum & bass getting mainstream media coverage and also partly to see similar sentiments being echoed so publically. I won’t paste the whole article, but here’s a few relevant quotes…
..save for Marky’s slinky Brazilian spin on the genre, and Pendulum’s populist rock & bass, new progressions have been in short supply in recent times. Drum & bass just hasn’t gone anywhere.
Even its grip on dance floors is loosening as ravers, tired of brainless anthem-bashing, flirt with dubstep and funky. D&b’s failure to capture hearts, and minds outside of a dark sweaty environment means it’s often dismissed as rudimentary and one-dimensional and ridiculed as “dumb & bass” and “clownstep”.
However, the green shoots of recovery that began peeping through the topsoil with Commix’s Call To Mind LP in late 2007, have been watered by last year’s Chase & Status’s More Than Alot album, and are set to flower in 2009. Blame and Selah’s soaring, euphoric “Because Of You” is all over Radio 1, as is Chase & Status’s “Against All Odds”. The juicy bongo funk jam starring rapper Kano, abetted by a slick Blaxploitation style video, is destined to chart…
Newcomer Mistabishi, whose forthcoming LP Drop is another example of bright, inventive d&b, believes producers focused on DJs too much. “The music became very centred on what happened in the DJ booth and that clique, which meant the end product was for the DJ not for a raver or listener. It’s changed now,
Cambridge pair Commix (Guy Brewer and George Levings) also revel in flipping the d&b script. Take their sublime mix for the globally renowned London nightclub, Fabric, for example, which surprisingly isn’t aimed at the dance floor. “When we were doing the Fabric mix we thought ‘who are we writing it for?’ People listen to these mixes at home or an iPod so we don’t want to just tear this out. You go to a dance floor for that,” says Levings. “We wanted to set a vibe, present an interesting cross-section of music and make sure it flows well, rather than play three minutes of the 20 big tunes of the moment,” explains Brewer.
Drum & bass is on the cusp of an exciting “beyond dance floor” era led by producers including Commix, Chase & Status, Sub Focus, D Bridge, Instramental and Alex Pirez. “What we do is not just about moving kids on a dance floor but creating an interest so that people want to listen to drum & bass at home. It appeals to people interested in a broad spectrum of dance music,” continues Brewer.
Commix hope that one day d&b – like techno – will develop an intellectual and conceptual dimension. “In techno you’re allowed to experiment. There’s so much room to breathe and it’s not just about the dance floor,” says Brewer. “We want d&b to be seen as credible music not just rave music.”
While I may not agree with everything in the article, or the examples used to illustrate the point I think it is, at least, a good indication that drum & bass is starting to get a stage where it has the capacity to be ‘quality electronic music’ in the same way as techno or house does. True, there’s a trade-off in terms of energy and innovation as a genre settles into its house rules, but I think, pound for pound, it’s a reasonable exchange.
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