From jump-up then onto the deeper stuff, I’m a D&B obsessive that for many years has insistently bought the genres wax, cut shapes at its events and written about its releases. Unfortunately like with anything (most recently I’ve made up for a life without cashew butter and have been spooning jars per day) things can be overdone and that became the case with D&B. DLR’s‘Seeing Sounds’ is the first album I’ve written a feature on since my estrangement from the genre and quite honestly I couldn’t think of a better LP to remind me of all of the things I’ve been missing and all of the worthy reasons to be obsessing over Drum & Bass!
Given DLR’s previous work, anticipating an LP situated more on the tech side of things was a fair assumption to make; tunes such as ‘Human Error (ft Break)’ and ‘Django’ wholly satisfy any cravings for traditional dance-floor tech material, whilst ‘The Grip (feat Ant TC1)’ and ‘I Play’ are groove intensive hard-hitters that make you question how a supposedly rigid drum pattern can curve around a soundscape!
Unmistakably tech sounds aside, DLR is the architect of an album that explores a broad range of styles, ‘Synesthesia (feat Hydro)’ and ‘Problematic’ are fundamentally interesting pieces of music, both see DLR mould his traditionally vigorous style to a drawn-out, atmospheric arrangement. The charm of these two tunes lays in the ambiguousness of a rhythm layered under the simultaneous exploration of a number of different sounds. ‘Seeing Sounds’ is everything you would expect and more, two of my favourite tunes on this album are ‘Empyreal’ (Hydro) and ‘Minds Eye (feat Viv May), both tunes contrast soulful vocals and delicate instrumentation with militant percussion and an abrasive bassline.
‘Seeing Sounds’ is an incredibly strong D&B album and no doubt its influences vary greatly, giving us an insight to these influences DLR stopped by and discussed 5 of his all time favourite albums:
http://in-reach.co.uk/dlrs-top-5-albums/
Given DLR’s previous work, anticipating an LP situated more on the tech side of things was a fair assumption to make; tunes such as ‘Human Error (ft Break)’ and ‘Django’ wholly satisfy any cravings for traditional dance-floor tech material, whilst ‘The Grip (feat Ant TC1)’ and ‘I Play’ are groove intensive hard-hitters that make you question how a supposedly rigid drum pattern can curve around a soundscape!
Unmistakably tech sounds aside, DLR is the architect of an album that explores a broad range of styles, ‘Synesthesia (feat Hydro)’ and ‘Problematic’ are fundamentally interesting pieces of music, both see DLR mould his traditionally vigorous style to a drawn-out, atmospheric arrangement. The charm of these two tunes lays in the ambiguousness of a rhythm layered under the simultaneous exploration of a number of different sounds. ‘Seeing Sounds’ is everything you would expect and more, two of my favourite tunes on this album are ‘Empyreal’ (Hydro) and ‘Minds Eye (feat Viv May), both tunes contrast soulful vocals and delicate instrumentation with militant percussion and an abrasive bassline.
‘Seeing Sounds’ is an incredibly strong D&B album and no doubt its influences vary greatly, giving us an insight to these influences DLR stopped by and discussed 5 of his all time favourite albums:
http://in-reach.co.uk/dlrs-top-5-albums/
