Let's talk about dnb baby

[JungleBeast]

In my opinion, the scene is really boomin right now, there's loads of new music and a load of diversity. Hasn't been like this in a while and I feel like this year will probably be one of the standouts of this decade, my only complaint is that I wish there were more 'in your face' tunes. I was listening to an old Kemal & Rob Data set and heard Stratus - The Leader, tune still smashes it after all this time! So what do you guys think about the scene right now?

 

[M&B]

For me, the current state or boom in dnb started around 2013.

From 2008 to 2012, there was so much shitty music pumped out aimed at the brostep people, and some music pushed in a very Radio friendly direction. Those tunes are still made, but the people who discovered dnb through netsky for example, are now finding old tunes, classics, and getting into techy, deep, soulful music again.

for Example, I think Nu:logic's What I've Always Waited For with tunes like Everlasting Days and Trippin' in Space was a huge record for 2013, and one of the albums that marked the return to many artists roots. It wasn't a massively ground breaking album sound wise, but it was an album that had a bit of an soulful, sample based sound, full of breaks, but was pretty popular amongst a lot of people, but just the guys that like sample based, soulful tunes.

Obviously thats just one example of tons of great music that came out during the early 2010's, and there is still tons of crappy music made and a lot of "pop" sounding dnb, but the underground has grown bigger and more tight knit as a community.

The scene is still growing and theres more great music coming out every year, and some of the bigger guys on the scene are not feeling as much like they need to make a Top 40 hit (Although some try anyway), because theres a growing fanbase of proper dnb tunes.

 

[DeeGun]

dnb died in 2001, making rooster noises.

 

[thedude]

Not a whole lot of lasting "Anthems" coming out these days though it seems. Lots of good music, not as much "Great" music that will last.

 

[Large Marge]

my only complaint is that I wish there were more 'in your face' tunes

you wanna listen to more jaamp aap maate

I think its pretty good right now. hear a fair amount of quality tunes in most subgenres that I usually check for. still hear the occasional track that actually surprises me and makes me go woah. obviously the scene is fragmented as hell though, and has been for ages

 

[hydr0]

i think basslines are pretty stale, and as the dude states, not too many anthems. i do enjoy what skankandbass is posting so far but the biggest problem i see is that drum patterns are extremely repetitive. this one comment from an ed rush tune sums it up perfectly

"I like how Drum N Bass before ~2009 had the drums really smashing through the tracks. Nowadays, they just sidechain everything and make the drums quiet so the whole track can be much louder. It has much more impact when the drums are louder."

the snares are annoying too, but one thing im looking forward to is future beat, or heavy half time dnb like mefjus - continuous vip. haven't found a lot more future beat since then my thoughts are

make drum beats more complex/layered/different
make recognizable unique tunes, too much stuff sounds the same and has a lack of innovation

 

[Anth]

depends what kind of drum & bass your into..to me dnb picked up around 2012-2013 and has been getting better each year especially with what labels like samurai, 31, metalheads, dispatch, warm communications, ingredients, cx, narratives, exit, paradox music etc are putting out , and i can see it continuing for a long time now

 

[IV4]

I wonder sometimes if I am listening to the drum and bass everyone else is on this fourm. Every year has it's ratio of good songs vs bad. Many of these songs are subjectivity good or bad to the listener, and most main stream drum and bass is quantitatively good.
Listen to what you like, the music will evolve, the question is will you? Personally, I love this music from 96 as much as 2016, and everywhere in between.
If you want a certain kind of dnb go and find it, it exist in mass quantities, just don't bring up a false nostalgia of days gone by.

 

[dambusters]

Some of it is really good
A lot of it is really boring
Some is just plain embarrassing nonsense

 

[iamdjsimm]

I'm glad the scene is still as healthy as it is but I fear it'll never be as good as it was!

I'm old, I like my 90's d&b, I'm saying it

There's a lot of new music that I really enjoy but there's only been a couple of anthems that will stand the test of the time over the last few years. I miss the fact that a tune was that good it was played across the board by everybody.

 

[Vydx]

Its the same with every genre, there are classics from the years of the genre's inception. The further you go in future the more branches a genre develops and fewer anthems come about as a result.

Personally don't care about anthems, surely it's all about what you like above all else, not what others like.

 

[encounter]

IV4 and Vydx on point. Everybody feels a bit nostalgic here and again. The only thing that changed from back then to now is quantity.

 

[Dbrief]

The live DnB scene where I live is absolutely poppin off, with free nights popping up all over the place.. just what it needs! Started to be heard out and about a lot more aswell.. the re-rise is coming!

 

[balistics]

It has been pretty good over the past years there's no doubt about that, but as always it has it's strong & weak points. There's been a really nice resurgence of jungle going on for the past 18 months which i've been enjoying, plus the return of many pioneers of the industry which personally I think has been really beneficial for the scene as a whole. But at the other end of the scale there's almost no decent neuro around at the moment, that subgenre is really fallen off. There's still an absolute ton of rubbish, that's always going to be the case, but if you know your stuff there's plenty of amazing music to find out there.

 

[WhoSayReload?]

Who ordered some no nonsense "in your face" records?

 

[DjTiesticles]

I wonder when articles will appear claiming that dnb is dead like they did years ago

I can't see myself ever falling out of love with this music. It's going be strange when I'm a pensioner and I'm sat there listening to some dnb. God knows what my children (if I have any)/grand children will think

 

[WhoSayReload?]

I think Bad Company raised some interesting points in their recent interview where they talked about bringing the old gear back and getting the tunes sounding rougher around the edges. I think the synthetic ping pong sound of drums that you get in many dancefloor tracks will soon sound outdated and will be ditched in favour of bringing back real acoustic sounding kind of hybrid drums with the help of addictive drums etc.

So maybe there'll be a whole movement back to analogue gear or the progression of software to bring a realistic analogue quality. I just hope that this trend of stupidly-well-engineered tracks but with no vibe stops. Icicle needs to go back to Under the Ice era basically

And honestly I reckon the reason a lot of those tunes worked back in the day and are so memorable is because there's no filler, just simply crafted records.

 

[bugo]

i live in chch nz. The scene here was definitely at its healthiest between 2006 - 2008. I went to a BSE & Teebee show where people literally camped out to get the remaining pre sales. Then just about every second person you saw was a dj, and most of those the trendy dick kind that think skeptical tunes are 'forward thinking' and not just boring drawn out murky fart noises.
It's great again atm, most of them have moved onto whatever next big thing they think they're "purists" of & the people that love the music (all styles) are still about.

Funny how sub genre can be like race to some idiots

 

[InitialRisk]

Well for me, being a fan of the 90's/2000's rolling style Quarantine/Virus etc sound, this kind of Drum & Bass doesn't really exist anymore other than a few releases here and there so there is not much appealing to me these days tbh.

Am not a fan of the Eatbrain style neuro that seems to be the order of the day at the moment, just soulless noise to me, even more so now that Bodyrock triplet beat sound seems to be big, that just makes me cringe everytime I hear it.

Also the whole middle ground of Drum & Bass doesn't really exist either, it's either jump up, Neuro or liquid/experimental.

The other sound I used to like was the stuff in between jump up and tech/neuro which years ago Total Science for instance were the kings of it.

Why no one now does this "middle ground " sound I have no idea as surely it would appeal to a more broader fan base.

All in all, I still love drum and bass and have done since I started buying records in 1993.

But, for me, it's harder to find music I really like, looking at Beatport etc and seeing how the weekly Drum & Bass page is now no where near as busy as it used a few years ago is testament to that too.

 

[dambusters]

Well for me, being a fan of the 90's/2000's rolling style Quarantine/Virus etc sound, this kind of Drum & Bass doesn't really exist anymore other than a few releases here and there so there is not much appealing to me these days tbh.

Am not a fan of the Eatbrain style neuro that seems to be the order of the day at the moment, just soulless noise to me, even more so now that Bodyrock triplet beat sound seems to be big, that just makes me cringe everytime I hear it.

Also the whole middle ground of Drum & Bass doesn't really exist either, it's either jump up, Neuro or liquid/experimental.

The other sound I used to like was the stuff in between jump up and tech/neuro which years ago Total Science for instance were the kings of it.

Why no one now does this "middle ground " sound I have no idea as surely it would appeal to a more broader fan base.

All in all, I still love drum and bass and have done since I started buying records in 1993.

But, for me, it's harder to find music I really like, looking at Beatport etc and seeing how the weekly Drum & Bass page is now no where near as busy as it used a few years ago is testament to that too.

Pretty much summed up my feelings on the matter. I look on Beatport now and other than releases I have been waiting for or know are coming, there is almost never anything worth listening to in the top 100 or outside of the few labels that can still be relied on to release proper stuff. It is what it is, but I can't accept the notion that it's as good as it ever was, because it really isn't.