After a well documented dispute with Goldie over the rights to “Pulp Fiction”, Alex Reece left the Headz camp and swiftly found his home on 4th & Broadway Records, a subsidiary of the well known Island Records.

He released his debut album entitled So Far in 1996, a collection of laid back, jazz infused, and sometimes vocal, drum and bass tracks. Featured on this album, along with an edited version of Pulp Fiction renamed Pulp Friction, was the original mix of Feel The Sunshine (which apparently made it into the UK top 20).

The DJ Pulse remix definitely takes it up a few notches in my opinion. Whilst the original was a jazzy affair, the Pulse version is a little more atmospheric, with a slightly sombre vibe.

Like the original it moves along in a two step fashion, but with hints of the apache break littered throughout, featuring the original vocals by Deborah Anderson (who sounds a bit like Bjork on this at times). Like everything Creative Wax boss Pulse did around this time, its pretty solid.

Being a released on a subsidiary of a big label like Island Records (itself a part of Polygram at the time, and now Universal), I assume it was press in large volumes, so there are plenty of copies available on discogs from just 50 pence!

Add it to your wants list and tag it onto your next order.

The post Alex Reece – Feel The Sunshine (DJ Pulse Remix) appeared first on Drumtrip - Hardcore / Oldskool Jungle Blog.

The man knows his stuff and draws for a selection that really represents what the Facebook group is all about; deep and atmospheric moods with clinical beats.

Remember to check out and join the group which has grown to nearly 2,000 members in just a few months; its a great place to chat about beats and discover new relics.

Beautifully Crafted Jungle Volume 4: Nibbers, looks like…

KMC – Polaris
Hybrid – Eat Static (PFM Remix)
Seba – Connected
Paradox – From My Mind
Mandalay – Flowers Bloom (PFM Secret Lover Remix)
Omni Trio – Together VIP
Leon Mar – Tha Men Who Fell To Earth
Intense – Visions
Indo Aminata – Leo Leo (Peshay Vocal Mix)
T Power Feat Mc Ultra – Mutant Jazz
Alex Reece – Jazz Master (Kruder & Dorfmeister Remix)
Everything But The Girl – Single (Photek Remix)

The post Beautifully Crafted Jungle Volume 4: Nibbers appeared first on Drumtrip - Hardcore / Oldskool Jungle Blog.

Jungle in 1995 was a complex beast, it demanded you to stick your head down, soak up the bassline and occasionally flick your lighter. This certainly wasn’t the era of smiley faces and putting your hands in the air, although strangely enough, it was one of the most united and atmospheric.

Before anyone could demand a third or fourth reload on Leviticus’ ‘Burial’ a flood of hard stepping rough came flooding in from the likes of DJ Rap, Dillinja and Krome & Time.

By 1996 producers creativity was at an all time high and the sound as we knew it was due for a massive upheaval, mainly driven by the likes of Shy FX, Congo Natty, Aphrodite and DJ Red.

This was the unmistaken sound of jump up drum & bass, a sound that took elements from the past, combined with a slightly increased bmp, rubberised basslines and hip hop samples. It was also the rebirth of the ‘feel good factor’ and although many junglists took an instant dislike to certain producers efforts it really did take over the scene for sometime.

Rather than opting for the obvious classics of the era, the Drum & Bass Arena forum have delved deep into their record collection and pulled out a collection of diverse tracks that portray the time period in a totally different light altogether.

Come with it

Tracklist

JamieS23
London’s Most Wanted – Bear Witness (Mix 2) [Chronic]
Tonic – Hip To The Hoppa [Dee Jay]
Special K & Ruff Cut – Kill Or Be Killed [Lowkey]
Maldini – Kosmo [Phat Trax]
Tekniq – Hold it Now (Tekniq Remix) [Formation]

Tim-Reaper
Roni Size – Fashion [V]
Alex Reece – Basic Principles [Metalheadz]
Current Affairs – Turbulence (Just Jungle Remix) [Moving Shadow]
Northern Connexion – Re-Think [Back 2 Basics]
DJ Trace & Ed Rush – Untitled [Dub]

Dubplate-Derek
Concept 2 – Soon Come [Liftin’ Spirit]
Ed Rush – What’s Up [No U-Turn]
Joint Venture – Don’t Ever Stop [Liftin’ Spirit]
DJ Die – Play It For Me [V]
The X – New Dawn (ST Files Remix) [Jump Up]

Postman Pat
Swabe – Uno Dos Tres [Dope Dragon]
Jeru vs Dillinja – Me Or The Papes [White]
Lemon D – This Is L.A. [Metalheadz]
Mask – One People [Dope Dragon]
Bill Riley – In At The Deep End [Protocol]

SmokeyMcPot
Nemeton – Transamazonia (LTJ Bukem Remix) [One Little Indian]
Earl Grey – The Lick [Rugged Vinyl]
Dead Calm – Urban Style [Moving Shadow]
PFM – Wash Over Me [Good Looking]
Cloud 9 – Snow [Moving Shadow]

The post The 2014 D&BA Forum Essential Jungle Mix 95-96 appeared first on Drumtrip - Hardcore / Oldskool Jungle Blog.

When Law first approached me to do a mix for the Drumtrip Sessions, I knew that it would have to be a themed mix & not a theme that’s been widely done. I had a few potential ideas for themes, including a mix of D&B tunes on non D&B labels/compilations (Trace – The Beacon, Dillinja – In The Mood etc), a mix based around the various musicians and producers from other scenes who have had a brief flirtation with D&B (David Bowie – Little Wonder, Todd Terry – Blackout) but after giving it a lot of thought I decided that the best theme to go with in the end would be a mix of some lesser known D&B remixes commissioned by various labels for non D&B artists.

Around the 95-98 era, when Jungle was starting to fade away and was slowly evolving into D&B, it caused a lot of ears to prick up with interest. Artists like Goldie, Photek, 4hero, Grooverider, Peshay, Source Direct, Roni Size, Wax Doctor and many more were all putting out full albums on major labels and D&B was seen as the freshest, most exciting thing around and everybody wanted a piece of the action. Back when CD/12” singles were still selling healthy amounts you’d usually buy a tune and get the radio edit and a longer club mix as well as maybe a remixes of the original track as extras.

As soon as D&B began to get noticed, labels would hit up the bigger artists of the time for remixes to go on these singles, both to cash in on the then-current D&B hype as well as to market the original artist to a new audience. It would soon be pretty normal to go down to the record shop, browse through the CDs in the Pop/Rock/Electronic sections and see artists like Optical, Roni Size, Alex Reece, Boymerang and Krust doing remixes for a surprising wide range of artists from different scenes. Often the pairings that you never dreamed could work well (Krust remixing Korn, The Ganja Kru remixing Natalie Imbruglia) were where you’d get some of the interesting results.

I’ve become an avid CD collector over the past year or two, browsing Discogs hunting for obscure tracks that not too many heads might have heard before, and now that I’m starting to run out of official compilations and artist albums to buy, I’ve started to make a move to buying up remix albums and CD singles which have D&B remixes on them. Many of these are available at absolute bargain prices; very few of them turn up in mixes or tracklistings elsewhere and some of them are pretty bloody obscure. It took me a long while to gather up enough material for this mix, so I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed compiling it.

(PS – Thanks to Executive Steve for the editing!)
(PPS – Apologies for bad mixing at times, think it was about 2am when I done this mix.)

Kenny Larkin – Loop 2 (Alex Reece Remix) [R & S]
David Holmes – Gone (PFM Remix) [Go! Discs]
Friends From Rio – Maracatudo (Wax Doctor Remix) [Far Out]
Espiritu – Baby I Wanna Live (DJ Pulse Mix) [Heavenly]
Project 23 – Pleasure & The Pain (Peshay Remix) [Dorado]
Peter Andre – Flava (Jungle Mix) [Mushroom]
Palm Skin Productions – Evolution Of The Beast (Part 1) [Mo Wax]
Flora Purim – What You See (Ghost Of Flora’s Dream) [B&W Music]
Grace – If I Could Fly (LTJ Bukem’s Roll It Mix) [Perfecto]
Hunch – Visible From Space (Aquasky Mix) [Clean Up]
Blue Amazon – And The The Rain Falls (Blame Remix) [Jackpot]
The Art Of Noise – Camilla The Old Old Story (J Majik Remix) [China]
Max Reich & Johannes Foufas – Alchemy (Seba Remix) [SVEK]
Q-Tex – Do You Want Me (Funky Technicians Remix) [23rd Precinct]
Deepika – History (Crystl Clear) [RCA]
Ken Ishii – Overlap (Lemon D Remix) [R & S]
Garbage – Milk (Goldie’s VIP Trash Your Sh*t Mix) [Mushroom]
N.G.O. – Windermere (Dillinja Roll Out Mix) [JVC]
Empirion – B.E.T.A. (Doc Scott Remix) [XL]
?? – Shinobi X (Remarc & Lewi Cifer Remix) [Breakdown]
Sugizo – Michael In The Cage (Source Direct Remix) [Invader]
Wink – Simple Man (ft. The Interpreters) (Optical Remix) [Sony Soho Square]
Project 23 – Sugarize ‘Lost Inna Dream’ (Boymerang Remix) [Dorado]
David Bowie – I’m Afraid Of Americans (V5) [Virgin]
Dub War – Million Dollar Love (DJ Rap Remix) [Earache]
Turntable Terranova – Precipice (DJ Krust Remix) [Hypnotic]

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An end of an era really but even in those 14 years Drum & Bass has changed drastically, and as its Radio One it comes as no surprise there is no longer space for them on the airwaves but at least D&B will still be represented by DJ Friction.

Grooverider over the years has had his critics and seems none too fussed by it either, championing his own brand of toytown D&B for the youth who are probably more interested by Dubstep’s explosion in recent times.
But it is impossible to overlook the impact the Rider has had on Jungle and D&B having pioneered the genre since its inception.

Mixing acid, house, funk and soul in the 80’s with Fabio, he went on to launch the hugely successful and somewhat jungle-incubating club night Rage before becoming king of the hardsteppers in the mid 90’s.

His label Prototype was regarded as one of drum and bass’ more future thinking and prestigious imprints as well as being infamous for the incredible amount of time it took to get a Prototype track from dubplate to general release.
Things haven’t quite been the same since the turn of the millennium but I wanted to post up a set to show what Grooverider used to be all about, pure hardstepping jungle.

So download and enjoy Rider at his peak alongside MC’s GQ and Bassman recorded live at Amnesia House 29th May 1994.

-Download-

00:00 M Beat – Incredible [Renk]
00:40 Q Project – Champion Sound (Doc Scott remix) [Legend]
04:18 Omni Trio – Soul Promenade [Moving Shadow]
06:40 System Ex – Version [Entity]
09:11 Brainkillers – Screwface [3rd Party & Kemet]
13:38 Atlas – Drifting Thru The Galaxy [Dee Jay]
15:57 Swift & Zinc featuring Steve B – Dezire (Z Mix) [2000 AD]
18:10 The JB – Stand Easy [Back 2 Basics]
20:56 Dubtronix – New Age EP [B9]
24:08 A-Zone – Calling All The People [Whitehouse]
26:43 Alex Reece – Basic Principles [Metalheadz]
30:00 Deep Blue – The Helicopter Tune [Moving Shadow]
34:38 A. Rayner & E. Rayner – Pronounced Percussion [Clockwork]
36:50 Asend & Ultravibe – What Kind Of World [Back 2 Basics]
40:16 Hardware – Nightstalker (VIP Mix) [Face Of The Future LP]
42:52 Darkus & GE Real – Fantasy Mixed [Q Dance]
45:58 Engineers Without Fears – Spiritual Aura [Dee Jay]
50:44 Renegade – Terrorist (Grooverider remix) [Moving Shadow]
55:28 System Ex – Feel It [3rd Eye]

The post Grooverider @ Amnesia House ‘The Big Bank Holiday Bash Part II appeared first on Drumtrip - Hardcore / Oldskool Jungle Blog.

This tune I came across listening to the excellent “The Secret Art of Science” mix cd by DJ DB. Released on the short lived Basement Records sub-label Precious Materials in 1996 it has an excellent chilled jazzy vibe to it and some excellent progression towards the end.

Nautilus consisted of Ben McColl, DJ Orbit and Matthew Brooks. Ben McColl and Matthew Brooks also produced together under the alias Appaloosa and had releases such as “Unplugged” on Recoil Records and “Night Train” with DJ Dream on Looking Good Records. It is no suprise with a release such as small adventures that around the same time they had releases on Good Looking Records, it definately has a Good Looking sound to it! Matthew Brooks is still involved with music and has in recent years released a string of Mash Up mix cds on Ministry of Sound with Nick Barnes under the “Cut Up Boys” alias.

The Precious Materials sub label featured a more jazzier Jungle sound than its parent label Basement Records and was active between 1994 and 1996. Although the sub-label was short lived it featured releases from prominent artists such as Alex Reece producing under the Jazz Juice alias with Paul Saunders aka Wax Doctor. Parent label Basement Records featured artists such as Jack Smooth, Basement Phil, Kev Bird, DJ Mayhem, Wax Doctor, Roger Johnson, Alex Reece and Top Buzz. ‘Jungle Techno’ is a sound drawn from the label, with the phrase credited to Mikee B (one third of Top Buzz) who once famously commented that a Basement Records tune he was listening to had sounds that were actually similar to those in a jungle, mixed with Detroit influenced soundscapes.

Small Adventures can be picked up here on vinyl for approximately £4 or you can get it on unmixed cd on the Sunday Best chill out album for £2.

A worthwhile purchase in my opinion.

Ben

The post Tune of the day: Nautilus – Small Adventures appeared first on Drumtrip - Hardcore / Oldskool Jungle Blog.