Drum and Bass

So being a little late discovering hip hop only in the waning years of the mid 90s ( I actually had some Hammer, Vanilla and Young MC tapes but that dosn’t count). I was only a couple of years late in the explosion of a new style of break beat music that was to become known as Drum and Bass.
Drum and Bass a genre born through the union of hardcore raves dark sounds and the frantic drum break of the Winston Brothers Amen break(Much like Baltimore is based on the Sing Sing and It Takes Two breaks). This was music where engineering and production excelled. Drums were chopped, compressed, gated and equalised into the sound of the future. Admittedly a slightly dark version of the future but uplifting as well.
Now back then as many of my peers are at pains to explain. There was no Internet. MP3s and social networking sites did not exist. There were only two ways for cutting edge dance music to be distributed to the general public: Community radio and the clubs. Being young and broke the former became the lifeblood for this music hungry youth. 2SER FM was at the forefront with its many genre specific DJ orientated dance shows. Many late night hours were spent with my finger hovering over the pause and record buttons of my tape deck. Producing countless mixtapes that would fill many shoeboxes. One such show, which aired on Monday nites, was Montage. Hosted by the one like DJ Vaughn. Montage played the latest cutting edge tunes from Drum and Bass’s finest. Artists like Dillinjah, Lemon D, Goldie, Doc Scott E Rush and Optical, Roni Size, Adam F and many more had me addicted to this new futuristic sound. Not working at the time I could only collect songs by recording onto my trusty tape deck. I all but wore out my parents and many sets of my own. I prided myself on my knowledge and artists and labels. Happy with every bit of knowledge I gleamed. I became both a connoisseur and critic.
I wasn’t the only person addicted though and there were a number of nights, parties and Djs you could go out to hear the sounds of the Jungle. Jungle Massive Australia. Represented by The Cleaner and Frenzie amongst others. Dave Edwards’s Bass Code parties. 4th and West crew. Matt and Kayla. DJ Mechwarrior who always used to offer a nice change of pace at the Jungle Punk techno parties. DJ V-Tek who eventually took over Montage when Vaughn moved on.
Eventually around 2000 the whole tech step sound, which I had embraced along with jump up, and a myriad of other sub styles. Drew the scene to the same ugly state that was befalling techno. A harder, faster more minimal style, devoid of innovation funk and soul. The genre that was born of innovation became stale and I grew disinterested. Many of my favourite mix tapes were over dubbed (an unfortunate economic necessity) by different music.
Ten years later. New technology has allowed me to go back and revisit many of the artists and tracks that I loved so much. Among many that I had missed as well. Its nice to find that music still stands the test of time and sounds as cutting edge now as it did back then.