Part of the Moving Shadow management, Shaun O’Keefe AKA Deep Blue teams up with original Shadow artist, Blame on this release from 1996.

Transitions starts with a cold string that almost sounds like its breathing before a simple metallic beat moves the track along. Gentle percussion gives the track more rhythm and a cold horn section add to the atmospherics as the beats just keep on rolling.

Re-Transitions is a pure blue note. The simple metallic beat from Transitions is expanded for more dance floor appeal, Superb edits on the beats and an acidic hook keep your attention locked on the groove. As the track nears its completion an uplifting chord section that sounds like it could have come straight from the Motor city itself puts some ice cold soul into the proceedings.

Two rolling tracks from Rob Playfords label showing that sometimes the simplest of ideas often work the best.

As with a lot of the Shadow releases from this time, there are plenty available online to buy, and a steal on Discogs from under £2.00.

The post Deep Blue & Blame – Transitions / Re-Transitions appeared first on Drumtrip - Hardcore / Oldskool Jungle Blog.

His work with respected producer Pete Parsons though showed another side to Trace. Infact it shows how Trace was able to become so well respected in the hardstepping and jazz influenced camps that are present within the scene.

Released on DeeJay recordings in the summer of 1995, “By Any Means Necessary” is a rolling, uplifting track that although sounding straight out of LTJ Bukem’s box created a punch good enough for any dancefloor with its sharp breaks, dreamy atmospherics and sweet bassline.

A short Malcolm X vocal sample used throughout the track helps this track stick in your mind long after the record has stopped spinning.

On the flip is the speed mix paying homage to the legendary club of the same name. Starting with a shorter introduction and steppy Apache beat the track soon changes pace as it cuts into the classic “think” break.

Less atmospherics that the original mix make this slightly misleading as you would expect a mix of a track dedicated to Bukem’s Speed to be atmosphered out to the max! Still the Speed mix is another highlight of the great work Trace and Pete Parsons did together in the mid 90s.

The post DJ Trace – By Any Means Necessary appeared first on Drumtrip - Hardcore / Oldskool Jungle Blog.

As it was never clear on the label who Baraka actually was – although Kid Andy is listed as ‘co-ordinator’, many people (myself included) had speculated that Baraka was in fact an alias for Jonny L. The main evidence would be the similarities in the amen work on this and Jonny L’s remix of U Can Be My Lover.

However, a while back when browsing the Beautifully Crafted Jungle Facebook group, I noticed this post from one half of Serial Killaz; Tobie Scopes.

Baraka was Kid Andy, aka Andy Lysandrou – the guy who owned Boogie Beat. I was good friends with him at the time.

Jonny L might have engineered it, as they both went on to be True Steppers together (who then produced that Out Of Your Mind track with Dane Bowers & Victoria Beckham). He didn’t mention Jonny’s name to me at the time, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t involved of course.

What Tobie doesn’t know about jungle / D&B really isn’t worth knowing!

Andy Lysandrou is also the man behind the essential UK garage label Ice Cream (along with Tim Deluxe), a label probably best known to the masses for the speed garage anthem RIP Groove by Double 99.

So there you have it, mystery solved.

The post Who was Baraka? It wasn’t Jonny L after all… appeared first on Drumtrip - Hardcore / Oldskool Jungle Blog.

Admittedly his post-millenium D&B work might not be amazing, but throughout the 90s he was immense. From his early days on his own Planet Earth imprint, to outings on Goldie’s Metalheadz, Grooverider’s Prototype, Bryan G’s V Recordings and more – Lemon D was a mainstay of the D&B scene.

“Break It Up”, perhaps one of his lesser celebrated tracks, is a nice snapshot of where D&B was at in 1996. Gone are the jungle vibes and ushered in is a familiar sounding two-step drum pattern, with moody atmospheric synths (that sounds very much like the same sample Photek used in “First Sequence”), and a steady bassline holding things together.

To keep you interested “Break It Up” subtly progresses throughout, with both the beat and bass pattern switching around. Definitely a grower.

This one can be found on Reinforced’s Enforcers Vol 9 + 10 EP.

The post Lemon D – Break It Up appeared first on Drumtrip - Hardcore / Oldskool Jungle Blog.

Bay B Kane, real name Mel Jalal Tanur, quickly solidified with his place in the burgeoning hardcore scene in 1992. One most well known early tracks was the Simon & Garfunkel sampling “Hello Darkness“, released on his own label “Ruff Guidance“.

He perhaps hit his peak around 1994; a year when jungle was crowned king of the UK underground. He became known for his intense, dark and atmospheric tracks; often utilising the amen break alongside sharp bass stabs, and utilising samples from sources that other producers may have overlooked.

1994 was also the year when he created arguably his most well known work; the sub destroying slice of ‘intelligent’ drum and bass known as ‘Thunder‘ (under the alias “The Rood Project“). Despite being released on an established label such as White House, even today it’s popularity endures making it a tough one to track down for a fair price.

Today’s “tune of the day” track however flew under the radar a little for me personally – White House release 33, “Let Me Go / Unfolding Perspective“.

I first caught wind of this release around 10 years ago when I heard a friend spin “Let Me Go“. I was instantly hooked on the sample and amen combo – a sample I later found out was from the Gloria Estefan track “Can’t Stay Away From You“. If you know the Estefan track, but not “Let Me Go”, you might wonder how he managed to flip that sample to make a dark jungle track. Just listen, it works magnificently.

Eventually I tracked the tune down, at which point I discovered the B-side named “Unfolding Perspective”.

Unfolding Perspective is a little similar to Thunder in places. Both tracks have that atmospheric, dark and sombre vibe, and they both start with a similar sounding bleep riff on the intro. Unfolding Perspective however, probably goes to even deeper places.

Kane’s signature amen break is soon let loose among a foreground of pounding bass hits and ominous choir chords; until a masterful second breakdown occurs.

The breakdown samples a haunting vocal by Diana Ross, taken from the intro of her 1973 collaboration with Marvin Gaye entitled ‘You Are Everything‘. Once again, as he did for “Hello Darkness” and “Let Me Go”, Bay B Kane lifts a sample from an unlikely source and uses it to create a completely different atmosphere. The result is quite mesmerising.

Bay B Kane had a knack for writing deep and atmospheric drum and bass (without ever quite entering Good Looking territory), yet still maintaining the rugged, rough and ready sound that made jungle so popular in the first place.

Beyond 1995, with jungle being the past and two step D&B being the order of the day for the rest of the decade, Bay B Kane decided to call it a day. However he has had something of a comeback in recent years, making records in the style he is known and loved for. Check him at at soundcloud.com/bay-b-kane

The post Bay B Kane – Unfolding Perspective appeared first on Drumtrip - Hardcore / Oldskool Jungle Blog.

The first signing of the label was the break beat hardcore outfit Bass Selective (Royal, Samuel, Hay, Clarke and Elizabeth Troy on vocal duties). Bass Selective went on to record four EPs; the highlight of their outputs being the piano-driven anthem Blow Out part 2.

Bass Selective disbanded in 1993 and one of the founding members, Marc Sebastian Royal emerged with the recording alias T.Power. He was readily signed as a solo artist by SOUR; a flying start for an illustrious and prolific recording career. It was only two years later however, that he would create serious waves in the drum and bass proceedings.

Fast forward to 1995, a year that proved pivotal for both T.Power and SOUR, Marc Royal started to experiment with new sounds, abolishing the stereotype that SOUR was a strictly “ragga jungle” label. The result has been the impeccable, genre-defining Mutant Jazz; co-written with Nigel Samuel (also a former member of Bass Selective, who had adopted the one-off moniker MK-Ultra), Mutant Jazz brought jungle closer to the abstract jazz territory of Ninja Tune and Mo’Wax and is still considered today as one of the genre’s absolute classics.

A few months later, T.Power’s first personal album, entitled The Self Evident Truth Of An Intuitive Mind, was released to critical acclaim; a pioneering, ground-breaking release that pushed the drum and bass boundaries even further. That same year T Power also launched his short-lived own imprint Deep Thought Records recording under the alias Atomic Dog.

In the aftermath of T.Power’s album success, came the Police State EP. The title of his album had provided a hint about T.Power’s views, who had always insisted that drum and bass is a form of intelligent music; however the Police State EP made the connection more apparent.

Thought-provoking, exhilarating and reminiscent of the “Intellect” part of his album, the EP is profoundly influenced by the works and lectures of Noam Chomsky, an American linguist, philosopher, political commentator, activist, cultural figure and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA.

Prospect For Democracy

The tune of the day is the dystopian Prospect For Democracy, taken from the the Police State EP (SOUR029/TPOW001, 1995). The title is inspired from the eponymous Noam Chomsky speech at the MIT, which was recorded live in November 1994.

Prospect For Democracy is a 13-and-a-half minutes composition, fusing ambient, techno and drum and bass flawlessly.

The track starts with two-step trademark T.Power drum beat, over warm synths and a desolated sax riff until the first breakdown, when vocal snippets** from Chomsky’s aforementioned lecture are introduced. In the second breakdown, the tempo changes for 3 minutes, with kick-in-the stomach gong percussions and additional chords, until the track resumes to a glorious climax.

A shorter version of the track is available on YouTube:

The next year T.Power released his second album entitled Waveform and decided to take a sabbatical from drum and bass. The album was engineered by Chris Stevens, with whom he formed the group Chocolate Weasel, recording for Ninja Tune. In 1999, Royal re-surfaced as T.Power, experimenting with nu-breaks for Botchit & Scarper, a breakbeat-oriented label established by members of the SOUR managing crew ca. 1995.

Return To Drum & Bass

In 2001, T.Power returned to drum and bass teaming-up with Andre Williams (widely known as Shy FX) recording a string of releases, under a variety of guises (Agent BLK, Automaton, Ebony Dubsters, Shy FX & T Power), on Shy FX’s labels.

Their collaborative work made an immediate impact; blending their highly credible drum and bass with pop sensibility, Shake Ur Body (featuring the vocalist Di), released on EMI’s subsidiary Positiva, climbed to #7 of the UK singles chart and received widespread support from both club and commercial radio djs, contributing to the introduction of drum and bass to wider audiences.

As a follow up, Shy FX & T.Power released the album Set It Off on Pete Tong’s F.F.R.R. in 2002. In 2005, Shy FX decided to consolidate his releases onto a new label and launched Digital Soundboy Recordings. In collaboration with T.Power, they subsequently released the album Diary Of A Digital Sound Boy the same year.

In 2009, Royal reincarnated into Mr. Sofalumpkins; an alter-ego (described as a trans-dimensional gestalt entity, embedded through divergence of time and space in our reality, as several inanimate objects) for his live Ableton performances and improvisations.

A short re-appearance in drum and bass took place in 2013 for a single co-produced with John Rolodex on V Records. As of 2014, Marc Royal announced that The Lazy Nine, the first album under his real name, is scheduled for release on his new imprint Adastra Recordings later this year.

In his own words:

“If you want to know all about Adastra Recordings, you might want to brush up on your Latin. “Ad astra” is a Latin phrase meaning “to the stars”, but unless you’re a songwriter for Broadway musicals, “to the stars” just doesn’t cut it if you’re known for abstract basslines and unfathomable melodies.

Adastra Recordings is the most obvious step forward for a music producer like TPower who, after more… than twenty years of defining and redefining his craft, continues to indulge in the relentless pursuit of the purity of tone and the injection of science into sound that’s external to the creative process itself.

In essence, there is a much deeper understanding of music going on here and an immense feeling of reverence for the artistic methodologies from which music is born. It is TPower’s continuous exploration of the humanization of the electronic process and the seemingly effortless translation of waveforms into an orchestration of sounds that are relatable and communicable that characterizes the bulk of his extensive collection of work”.

*”Whatever happened to … Sound Of the Underground Records?” coming soon

***excerpts from Chomsky’s lecture about democracy, education, financial institutions and the new world order, as viewed 20 years ago. The live recording is available for online streaming and on audio cd. Parts of the transcript appear in a wide array of Chomsky’s bibliography.

The post T.Power – Prospect For Democracy appeared first on Drumtrip - Hardcore / Oldskool Jungle Blog.