Drum and Bass Arena Awards 2014

Join Date: May 2014. Have you heard any other albums or d&b in general not hospital related this year?

I don't deny that majority of listeners ca(o)me from known artists, labels & tracks but it's pretty obvious that most of the lesser known labels and artists are just being ignored by the curators and creators of this genre. Bar a few exceptions from time to time, mostly generated by hype. That's why most people never get to the stage of hearing any further.

I get in dnb thanks to mainstream dnb (Hospital, Ram etc..).

But the thing is I like Liquid dnb so I like labels like Liquicity, Fokuz, Ingredients Records etc.. too.
It's just that Keeno's LP is my favourite one this year even though I listened to Tokyo Prose, Technimatic, Logistics, Lenzman and others too..
 
And the other reason i know that this whole thing is a big old load of bollocks; so all of these people are filling out the forms for their votes etc so Wilkinson afterglow best track, camo & crooked best producer, hospitality best night.... are we honestly meant to believe that the voters then all decided to vote for mancunian MC DRS as best MC, who has never done a RAM night or played at Hospitality in the last year? The average person who listens to Etherwood or camo & krooked probably doesnt even know who DRS is! The whole thing is rubbish

It's kind of expectable that the labels with most fans, most prominent artists, most releases and the biggest promo take the cake. It's like everywhere else, you can't possibly expect a public vote going in the favour of anything underground. Etherwood is cool imo, I voted for him last year as the newcomer producer because quite frankly there wasn't anyone better (no other newcomer to the scene has released an album I would love that is). Newcomer DJ award was a joke, but hey, that shit happens. Most of the people voting doesn't even fill in MCs as they don't know their names, hate them or don't care at all about them hence those categories might bring quite different (and more reliable) results. Even Zeitgeist wasn't too far off as when we held a private poll in a few people, it was the only album to show up in everyone's top 10 albums of the year. Just because you don't agree with results doesn't mean they've been manipulated.
 


Best DJ: Frank Lampard

Best Producer: Trevor Mcdonald

Best MC: The Ultimate Warrior

Best Vocalist: Oscar Pistorius Dead Girlfriend

Best Newcomer DJ: Prince Charles

Best Newcomer Producer: Kim Kardashian

Best Newcomer MC: Kanye West

Best Club Night: Manumission

Best Festival: 9/11

Best Live Act: Islamic State

Best Track: Fuck Her In The Pussy

Best Album: Hillsborough Disaster

Best Label: Big Black Butts 2

Best Music Video: Basswhore
 
It's kind of expectable that the labels with most fans, most prominent artists, most releases and the biggest promo take the cake.

to be fair to the awards, we had frederic robinson shortlisted as best newcomer last year, so they can't be that heavily weighted.

If anyone fancies throwing a rogue spanner in the works for us again this year, vote Kimyan Law for best newcomer thx.
 
to be fair to the awards, we had frederic robinson shortlisted as best newcomer last year, so they can't be that heavily weighted.

If anyone fancies throwing a rogue spanner in the works for us again this year, vote Kimyan Law for best newcomer thx.

That reminds me I need to listen to Mixed Signals again. That was the album of the year for me. Really looking forward to that Kimyan Law LP.
 
My choices:

Best DJ: Stray (Fabriclive sets sprang to mind)

Best Producer: Ulterior Motive (they deserve it)

Best Newcomer DJ: Dexta

Best Newcomer Producer: Hidden Turn (My choice was between him and Hyroglifics)

Best MC: SP:MC (year after year)

Best Newcomer MC: MC XL

Best Vocalist: Zoe Klinck (tbh I prefer it was split into female / male vocalist awards)

Best Club Night: Fabriclive

Best Festival: SUNANDBASS

Best Live Act: Neosignal

Best Album: SPY - Back To Basics Part 2

Best Video: Manicured Reality (SPY Feat. MC Lowqui)

Best Label, hardest decision of them all: Dispatch Recordings
 
My choices:

Best DJ: Icicle

Best Producer: S.P.Y.

Best Newcomer DJ: Mistanoize

Best Newcomer Producer: Tokyo Prose (newcomer enough I suppose)

Best MC: SP:MC

Best Vocalist: Riya

Best Album: Lenzman - Looking At The Stars

Best Label: Program (love every release apart from the Slang Banger one)

Best Track: Ed Rush - Scarabs
 
Best DJ: Stray (for bringing some variety)
Best Producer: Ivy Lab
Best newcomer DJ: Mistanoize
Newcomer producer: Hyroglifics
Best MC: DRS
Best Vocalist: Zoe Klinck
Best album: Underground sonics
Best Label: Metalheadz (killed it so hard this year)
Best track: Response Desperate Planet

For music video can we all agree to vote for one of the Technimatic ones where they're just relaxing with the LP playing? But let's standardise it so it registers, Techinmatic - Beneath The Skies, it'll be a larf if it wins, doubt it though because there aren't that many of us.

 
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That reminds me I need to listen to Mixed Signals again. That was the album of the year for me. Really looking forward to that Kimyan Law LP.

Completely agreed, Mixed Signals was my favourite album of last year, if not ever, absolutely stunning. I hope Kimyan Law delivers an equally stunning album!
 
It's kind of expectable that the labels with most fans, most prominent artists, most releases and the biggest promo take the cake.

Don't get me wrong any public voted award can blow a dick. All of them are a joke. It's simple math that the people with the most followers and biggest "vote for us" promotion will win. This award is not about quality or representation at all of the state of drum & bass IMO, well okay it's showing who got the biggest following :uberlaugh. So yeah, couldn't give a fuck.
 
Best DJ - Fierce
Best Newcomer - Mistanoize
Best MC - SP (seeing him at the rinse pop up store reminded me of his class)
Best Producer - Fre4knc
Best Newcomer - Hyroglifics
Best Label - Flexout
Best Event - Flexout
Beat Live Act - who cares

Ones to watch - Taelimb, Antidote, Conduct, PRTCL...




Best Gurn - Danwell
 
Best newcomer - Friction, all the years

On a serious note (and against my better judgement) all this 'there's no point in voting' as its expected that the bigger labels will always win is part of the reason the bigger labels always win. The majority in here follow similar tastes so if everyone voted it would make a difference to the shortlist at the very least. Recognition for the smaller labels artists in shortlists can lead to someone listening and finding something they like.

Tl:dr - raise awareness for underground dnb 2k14
 
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