Drum & Bass Recommendations April 2011

Review: Drum and bass artist Seba is no stranger to receiving phenomenal feedback on his outputs. Swedish Sebastian Ahrenberg has been making music for more than a decade and first released on the label Good Looking many moons ago. Constantly evolving and ever changing, Seba sets standards within the drum and bass realm with his ethereal atmospheres, crisp breaks and sublime basslines defining his territory. "Before I Can Breathe" rolls out with a steppy beat and old skool Reese bass, but it's the haunting vocals that make this track stand out from the crowd and ease it into a melancholic and sensual piece. On the flip Seba's darker characteristics come out to play with an eerie string introduction that treads heavily into tight beats and dark distorted undertones.

Review: After seemingly exploring all the different sounds you can affix the term step to, the one and only John B revisits the track which saw him return to the trance step formula upon which he made his name. "Redsky" was originally out in 2009 and saw Mr B drop waves of stadium sized euphoric trance synths over a fluid D&B flex with the vocal contribution from Shaz Sparks adding the requisite harmony. Those seeking something just that bit fiercer will find solace in the new B Side remix from Subsonik and Smooth which is notable for the frightening buzz saw lead.

Review: Rise Audio is the drum and bass label on everyone's lips at present. Causing a stir in recent months, a variety of Rise Audio dub plates have been receiving consistent A-list DJ support from the scenes elite, both in clubs as well as major radio stations worldwide. "Fire In The Sky" is Audio's freshest work - hot from the oven after his debut LP on Virus, Audio brings raw, stripped down drum and bass to the table. Sharp kick drums and a heavy snare pave the way for cosmic and eerie fillers and dark samples. As Audio drops the break, it's easy to see why this talent is steadily climbing the ranks and the raw and stabbing lower end to this track make it Juno's stand out pick of this vinyl. Allied present "N-Sphere" on the flip; a futuristic and techno tinged piece of work that's been mashing up floors relentlessly. Anticipation builds from start to finish, fuelled by a driving bass line and hypnotic drum beats.

Review: Dispatch are chuffed to present a truly international 12" with 3 producers cross-collaborating worldwide to present this powerful bass
heavy release. We start on the A-side with arguably New Zealand's finest export Cern collaborating with wonder kid Dabs hailing from
Italy, they both provide some real dance floor power in the form of "Oh the Horror". Dabs then works his way back over to the other
side of the globe Australia bound to work alongside rising talent Safire! They both bring us a modern day roll-out "Back and Forth" on
the flip... To make this story even more hard to explain the 2 tracks ended up on a UK based label however as far as we saw it the
instant we heard these 2 tracks we had to make sure Dispatch would become their home.
Huge support from the likes of Rockwell (both tracks featured on Shogun Ministry radio show), AI, Ant TC1, Spectrasoul (Shogun
Ministry radio show), Dose, Octane & DLR, Survival, BTK, Doc Scott, Kasra, Judda, Nymfo, Teebee and more.
a Cern & Dabs - Oh The Horror
aa Dabs & Safire - Back & Forth

Review: Arriving on vinyl that sits somewhere between gold and caramel is "Machines", a suitably expansive and futuristic stepper from husband and wife duo, ASC and Vaccine. Heavily pressurised bass rumbles the foundations of a punchy rhythmic thrust whilst a surfeit of industrial sonic textures adds a somewhat glacial depth for a track that demonstrates the continual fracturing of the drum and bass template. ASC goes alone on the B Side "Bleep Test", a digital rude boy strut through murked out sub bass frequencies led by a surfeit of bleeptastic melodies and metal tipped drums.

Review: One of electronic music's most forward thinking minds drops two cerebral cuts of darkly spacious D&B on Autonomic. Following the release of a slew of fine singles and the stunning 2010 long player Nothing Is Certain, ASC's sonic aesthetic is now inexorably linked with the oft-discussed Autonomic sound. Fans have been drooling over the release of these two cuts for a hot minute now, with the languid drums, eerie synths and ethereal vocal snatches in "Reform" slightly edging the more robust tribal rhythms and sub bass of "Starkwood". Brooding stuff from start to finish.