Various – 2012 Atmospheric Summer Sampler

You could easily call this an album rather than an EP, but 'sampler EP' is how the label are touting it and who am I to disagree? As regular readers will know, Plush Recordings has long been one of TIWWD's favourite D&B labels, flying the flag for liquid funk regardless of the vagaries of fashion, and the eight tracks here certainly don't do anything to alter that.

I'm not gonna go into every track in detail – because there's eight of them and we'd be here all afternoon – but Blueprint's piano-sprinkled Lost Notes and Self-Definition's funk-fuelled roller Fusion stand out from a fine pack of liquid gems, while Venture and 360 joYnt supply a couple of deeper numbers to bring the EP to a suitably chilled-out close.

Suffice to say if you like your drum & bass jazzy, soulful and house-y then this EP is pretty much a must-buy for this week.

Out: This week

About: Plush Recordings are based in Denver, Colorado and can be found on Facebook or at their own website.

Blu Mar Ten – Love Is The Devil Remixes Pt 2

Here we have a second twelve of remixes of tracks taken from Blu Mar Ten's recent Love Is The Devil long-player*. And what a delightfully varied EP it turns out to be!

The Beginning, as remixed by Joe Syntax, is the one straight-up D&B cut here, a fine 90s-style stepper – hype sheet comparisons to Full Cycle are perfectly justified. Elsewhere though, Blu Mar Ten get taken into other territories entirely.

In the hands of newcomer Sincopate – who won a Kmag competition to get this opportunity – All Or Nothing, originally a fierce-ish D+B roller, becomes a sunny, proggy/Balearic house cut. But as uplifting and drifty as that is, it can't quite compete for me with Blue Skies… or rather the Unquote Remix thereof, which takes what was originally a glitchy, techy slice of minimal D+B and transforms it into a moody, ominous slab of the deepest dubstep that Burial or Youngsta themselves would be proud of.

So basically, three high-quality tracks that individually will appeal to a wide range of DJs, or that collectively should please anyone with a broad mind and a love of well-crafted electronic music. You can't ask for much more than that really – if only all remix EPs were as adventurous and inventive as this!

Out: This week

About: This is out on Blu Mar Ten's own self-titled label via ST Holdings… and it's a strictly limited 12" pressing so get yer skates on! Oh yeah, and you can also find BMT on Facebook and Soundcloud, naturally.

*Though, to be fair, you'd probably worked that out already.

This Chris – Framed EP

Something of a change of pace now! It's been a while since I had anything through from Junglepress, so much so that I was beginning to think I'd fallen off their list… so it was with great pleasure that, just the other day, I downloaded this brand-new slab of liquid funk action from Plush Recordings.

There are three tracks on offer, and while all three certainly fit under the liquid funk banner, let's be clear: we're talking the firing, energetic High Contrast/Hospital Records end of the liquid spectrum, as opposed to the mellow, ambient/intelligent side of things.

There's no great reinventing of wheels going on, admittedly. And I'm not sure how popular this sound actually is on the D&B scene 'proper' right now, which as far as I can see seems to be all about either 190mph tear-outs with big stoopid trance/electro synths,  or dark, moody, dubstep-informed minimalism. The former, I think is shit… the latter I do like, but it's a very boys-y music.

Whereas liquid, well… that was always the sort of D&B that girls and househeads and jazzers can dig too. And there's not a huge amount of it about, so these three soul-infused, yet uptempo and floor-friendly grooves are very welcome indeed – the atmospheric title track particularly.

Out: This week


About: This Chris is, we're informed, a "local producer"… except being told that by a label based jointly in Denver and South London doesn't actually help a great deal! Never mind though, I can at least tell you that his full name is Chris Jameson… and I can also tell you once more that Plush Recordings are an excellent label that can be found at their website and on Facebook.

A slight delay… and a free D&B album

Thanks for rolling by This Is Why We Dance today!

Unfortunately my girlfriend has unexpectedly had to go into hospital, so you'll understand if reviewing records isn't the number one thing on my mind right now.

However, it is looking likely NOT to be anything serious or life-threatening, fingers crossed and touch wood, so normal service will be resumed ASAP, all being well. So please do check back tomorrow…

In the meantime, here's a link to the new Concord Dawn album, Air Chrysalis, which he's giving away free via D&B Arena…

http://drumandbassarenablog.com/2012/06/28/five-minutes-with-concord-dawn/

Nickbee & Sunchase – Summo/Belltine

Ukrainian D&B… that's a phrase you don't hear very often. Possibly because this is the debut release from a label called 22:22, which claims on the hype sheet to be the very FIRST Ukrainian drum & bass imprint. I have no way of checking whether that's true or not, but that said, I have no reason to disbelieve them either!

But either way, this is their first release, and it's actually rather good. Nickbee gives us Summo on the A, a midpaced roller with middle eastern/Indian-sounding flourishes and lots of rasping bass that stops just the right side of stoopid, while over on the B, he teams up with label owner Sunchase for Belltine, a slightly more hi-octane affair with a liquid-y feel but a jump up-inspired sound palette.

It's very solid stuff… let's hope we hear more soon.

Out: This week

About: The label may be new to the scene but Nickbee and Sunchase aren't, having had previous releases on the likes of Moving Shadow, Hospital, Cyclone, Drone Audio and Noisia's Invisible. Anyway, here's where you can find 22:22 online and here's Nickbee and Sunchase's respective Soundcloud pages. You can HEAR THIS at either of the latter.

Duoscience – Thanks/Think

I wasn't going to blog any more tonight but this literally just landed, and it's ace. Regular readers will know, Plush Recordings is pretty much my fave D&B label right now and this is yet another sterling liquid funk offering from them… or rather from rising Brazilian producer Duoscience.

Thanks is a classic Hospital-style liquid roller, reminiscent of vintage Bukem or Alex Reece material, while Think is a headnoddin' stepper with house-y organ drops and subtle Far Eastern overtones. And both are ruddy flippin' lovely, to be frank.

I wish I got sent more records like this…

Out: This week

About: Plush Recordings, as I tell you about, ooh, every six weeks or so, are based jointly in Lowestoft, UK and Denver, USA. Here's their website and Facebook… they've just started doing a podcast, too.

So many tunes, so little time 4

Okay just quickly then, before the first full week of 2012 gets underway, here's the 'best of the rest' from the past couple of weeks…

Montana & Stewart – Love Is The Key
One for those who like their house music ultra-soulful and laidback to the max, this features an impressive line-up of the scene's big players: Kafele, Mark De Clive-Lowe, Richard Earnshaw and Clemens Rumpf, with a sweet vocal from Eliki
More info

Ohm Hourani & Dany Fares – Imperial My Ass
Tough tech-house from Montreal's Casbour Records that leans heavily towards the techno end of the spectrum. Bonus cut Four O Two offers a slightly housier ride, albeit still with those rollin', poundin' techno 4/4s dominating.
More info

Vlada Asanin – De Tapas
More tough techno/tech-house here… but this time with a split vocal consisting of, on the one hand, one of those ominous, distorted techno voices and, on the other, a chef giving you some advice on cooking “traditional Spanish tapas”. Oddly.
More info

Pao C – Full Moon
The original here is a pleasant enough slice of deep, proggy tech-house with Balearic overtones. You then get NINE remixes to play with, covering various bases… Simon Firth's would be my first port of call.
More info

Steve Ward – Footprints To A Forgotten World EP
Three tracks, five mixes in total, flirting with deep, ambient, prog and tech flavours. The Marcus Fix Remix of Chartreuse Verte does it best for me. Oh yeah… and for every download sold, they'll plant a tree in Melbourne. Which is nice.
More info

Hapkido & Nais – West Of The Border EP
Tuff, driving house (not tech-house) music that doesn't take itself over seriously, but gets on with the business of moving booties on the dancefloor. Of the three tracks, the sax-dripping Boy would be my pick.
More info

Philly Soundsystem – Amenology EP
Three tracks of hi-octane but not stoopid-gnarly D&B, of which Stronger is the cut most likely to bring a nostalgic smile to the faces of the veteran ravers.
More info

Omid 16b presents – 3 Days, 4 Nights
Omid Nazourideh presents a V/A ep on his own Sex On Wax imprint, featuring Mark Holmes, Dabilla, Jay Storic and of course Omid himself. Tough house for bigger rooms is the general order of the day, with Holmes' Coming Home the standout for me.
More info

Various – Restyled Vol 4
Trendy Mullet have had lots of props on here in recent months… here they come good once again with an EP featuring new mixes of some of their back cat gems. It's all good, as they say, but T Ruggieri's mix of the Inland Knights' Control is particularly worthy of your attention.
More info

As ever, apologies to the artists/labels in question that these have had to be very short n' sweet reviews, but there's only so many hours in the day.

This Chris – Just Another/Touch Of Ice

Bit of a change of pace now as move into D&B territory… but it's not actually THAT much of a switch really, when you think about it, because we're just going from sumptuous deep house to sumptuous deep liquid funk.

In fact, I wouldn't have any qualms about dropping Just Another into a deep house set at all… the actual mixing might be interesting but the same things I said about the Tony S release below – the beautiful warm sounds, the sparing sound palette, the roomy, echo-y mixdown, the minimally-applied touches of vocal – all apply just as well to this.

On the B, Touch Of Ice is a little more firing in the percussion department and does a little bit more in the way of building and dropping… but we're still in decidedly chilled-out, late night kinda territory.

Just nice mellow vibes all round, really.

Out: This week

About: This comes on Plush Recordings, who've featured on here before but – just to jog your memory – are a label exploring the deeper side of D&B who are based jointly in Denver, USA and Lowestoft, UK.

Mr Explicit & Balistik – Philadelphia

Seems like a while since we discussed any D&B on here, so let's rectify that right now with this rather lovely liquid funk cut from Mr Explicit & Balistik.

Philadelphia Sunrise comes in two mixes, the Original plus a refix from Utah Jazz. Truth be told they don't vary huge amounts, stylistically, but the Original is perhaps slightly better geared for dancefloor action, with more peaks and troughs, while Utah Jazz's rub sounds a little more smoothed-out, possibly with radio play in mind. That said, it's also got a certain low-end menace that's not there on the Original.

Whichever mix you choose, though, this has enough energy for the dancefloor, yet is deep n' dreamy enough for home listening too. It's the bollocks, frankly. And that's all you need to know.

Out: This week

About: This comes on Plush Recordings, who are based in the remarkably unlikely combination of 'Denver and Lowestoft'.

David Boomah & Serum – Why They Wanna

Continuing with tonight's more eclectic theme, here we have a FIRING slab of D&B and dubstep courtesy of Mr Boomah, whose dulcet reggaefied vocals have graced several by Shy FX and others over the years.

Here though he teams up with rising D&B star Serum, for a pleasingly old skool sounding jungle roller of an A-side that brings some seriously heavy sub-bass pressure. It's not the most groundbreaking tune perhaps but it's quality for sure.

But that's by no means the end of the story, because on the B we also have Mission Impossible, remixed by French producer Von D into a very different-sounding but equally heavy dubstep headnodder. It's about as rough and sawtoothed in the bassline department as TIWWD cares to go, TBH, but Boomah's sweet vocals counterpoint the gnarly bottom end nicely, moving the track beyond the limitations of mere 'brostep', as I believe the kiddies call it, with the two parts adding up to a far more satisfactory whole. Just be sure to have your bass-face at the ready.

Out: This week

About: This comes on the legendary V Recordings, and I'm sure you don't really need me to tell you anything about them so we'll leave it there!

Sato - Glide

Don't know why but Monday always seems a good day for making sure TIWWD is covering its fair share of D&B and dubstep. So here's a nifty little two-tracker from Ingredients Records to get your week started.

Glide itself is a dark, uncompromising workout that sounds kinda Metalheadz-ish to these ears (albeit with the caveat that I've never set myself up as any great expert on D&B, despite having followed the sound since its birth). S'good, but the moody, techy Detroit Lies Bleeding on the B, with its samples of news broadcasts and stomach-churning sub-bass rumbles, is even better.

Out: Thursday (8 Sept)

About: Sato comes from Gateshead, and that's about as much as I can tell you about the lad.

Ingredients Records I can tell you more about though, the label's run by Clive Psylence and if you haven't already done so, their recent Recipe Book Vol 1 compilation is well worth checking. In the meantime, you can find out a lot more by visiting 'em on Facebook, Soundcloud and MySpace… and there's also an interview with Clive, plus a free DJ mix to download, at Knowledge's website.

Marshall - Restless EP - D&B freebie!

Just found this (legal) free download release posted up on the excellent Everyday Junglist blog and thought you'd wanna know about it too... a top-quality three-track EP coming from that place on the D&B spectrum where things get all forward-thinking and experimental and future-y and dubstep-ish.

Won't say any more, just enjoy! You can find the free download on the Manifesto Music homepage and don't forget to check out Everyday Junglist regularly for more quality D&B goodness.

Inka/Melos - Song For You/Jupiter

Right then, sorry it's been a whole week... there WERE reasons but I won't bore you with them. Anyway, now we're back we're also going to have a bit of a change of pace. Cos the whole point of TIWWD was meant to be partly about writing about music other than house, but because there's so much good house about, that hasn't happened as much as I like.

So for the next few days we're gonna concentrate on the dubstep/D&B/future garage/etc side of things. Partly because of what I just said… also because there's a LOT of deep techy house about, and a lot of it IS starting to sound a bit on the samey side... whereas in that whole post-dubstep arena I've been hearing some really interesting, forward-thinking stuff.

That said, you wouldn't really call this latest from probably my fave D&B label to be particularly forward-thinking, to be honest... it's just two slices of rather good liquid funk. I'm liking both cuts: if pushed I might go for Inka's Song For You cos it's slightly more rolling, but then Jupiter by Melos does that thing that seems to be the in thing in liquid circles right now of using old skool jungle beats, and I do like a bit of vintage jungle, so that's cool, too.

Out: Not until next week, actually, but gonna do all the recent/upcoming D&B/dubstep/etc bits in one batch...

About: This is No 14 from Vibration Records, and if I hadn't liked pretty much everything to date, they wouldn't be probably my fave D&B label, would they? Find out more here. Oh yeah, and they're on Soundcloud as well, naturally.

dRamatic & dbAudio - The Green Box

I'm really, really, REALLY tired this evening, so tonight's solitary blog post is gonna be this liquid D&B cut, just in the hope that it might wake me up a bit… and cos there's only one mix. If I try and write about 17 different mixes of some lush, soothing deep house cut then it'll take ages and I'm likely to nod off mid-sentence!

Not got HUGE amounts to say about The Green Box cos I'm no D&B expert, it's just a really nice rolling, liquid groove. The kind of D&B that househeads like, in other words… check it.

Out: This week

About: This comes atcha on the comparatively new but seemingly quite well-respected D&B imprint Ingredients Records, and apparently is the 'digital exclusive in addition to Recipe 14's Break The Vacuum'. I'm not even entirely sure what that means, and frankly I'm a bit too tired to care right now, but, y'know… it's good.

Various – VR010

Sticking with the D&B vibes a minute, and here's the latest from a label I certainly have come across before: the excellent Vibration Records, the Essex boys (I think) who are doing a sterling job of keeping proper musical D&B alive in the face of so much post-Pendulum/Chase & Status noisy kiddy electro trance rawk stadium bollocks. There, I said it ;-)

The EP is made up of four tracks from four artists: Dave Owen & Sconeboy, Undersound, Blue Motion, and ATP & Calculon. All four tracks follow a deep, musical, liquid-y kinda vibe, and all four are strong, but if pushed I think it's Owen & Sconeboy's jazz-tinged Coming Apart, with its echoes of classic DJ Krust material, that's working the best for me. It's a close call, though, cos as I said: this is a very strong EP all round.

Out: This week

About: Find Vibration Records online here.

Survival & Silent Witness – Graham's Tunnel/Bullet

After all that deep tech house, if this was a DJ set or Mixcloud show I might want to be flipping the script a little here… so let's look at a couple of this week's D&B releases, starting with this moody little two-tracker.

Mostly if you say 'techy' in a drum & bass context, it makes you think of horrible in-your-face Ed Rush/Optical/Bad Company boys' noise fodder. This, though, is techy for sure, but not horrible or in-your-face In the least.

Y'know how liquid funk could sort of be described as 'housey drum & bass'? And you know how house has gotten a lot techier in the past couple of years? Well then. Think a techier, slightly darker take on liquid and you get something like these two cuts. Graham's Tunnel is the noisier of the two and perhaps owes a slight debt to dubstep in terms of its structure; I'm liking Graham's Tunnel but I'm loving Bullet.

Out: This week. And apparently already big with the likes of Marcus Intalex, Doc Scott and dBridge, if thatt's any help.

About: This is on a label called Audio Tactics, which I'll confess I don't think I've come across before. Their website is 'coming soon' but here they are on MySpace.