I’m aware that plenty of people are not really a fan of these types of mixes, thinking they are a bit lazy or obvious. I can understand that argument to an extent – it would be easy to just mindlessly mix a bunch of tunes by the same producer.

But a lot of the producers I love were / are capable of a huge range of styles. This means you really have to have a think about your selection and the progression of your mix.

When mixing I don’t plan out tracklists, but I do make a careful consideration before selecting my next tune. This, in my opinion, is one of the most important skills in DJing; being able to make a quick decision on what will go nice with your current tune, whilst setting up your mix for the direction you wish to take it in.

There is another reason I love an all artist mix. It fits nicely with my nerdy, and maybe slightly OCD tendencies for order within my collection. If I collect Source Directs back catalogue, I want to then archive in a series of mixes (and of course, listen to it myself).

Anyway, it occurred to me I have 20+ all artist mixes already uploaded to my Soundcloud account, so it made sense to add them to a playlist.

These date back about 10 years, with several volumes celebrating some really prolific producers. I think there are five Dillinja mixes alone, five Photek mixes and three Source Direct. There are also mixes documenting the works of more contemporary producers like Breakage and dBridge, as well as old favourites of mine like The Invisible Man, Adam F, Seba, Nookie, Crystl and Omni Trio.

Tracklists each mix can can be found within the description of the relevant Soundcloud page.

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My set was bang either side of Moving Shadow artists DJ Trax and Hopa; so fittingly, I went with an early Moving Shadow selection.

Frontline operates the first and third weekend of every month, so stay tuned to the website and mixlr account for full the schedule.

01. Kaotic Chemistry – Drumtrip
02. Cosmo & Dibs – Oh So Nice
03. 2 Bad Mice – Hold It Down
04. Kaotic Chemistry – Strip Search
05. Kaotic Chemistry – Space Cakes
06. Blame – This Piano Track
07. Cloud 9 – You Got Me Burnin’
08. DJ Trax – High Time
09. Omni Trio – Mainline
10. Omni Trio – Step Off (Gold Blend Mix)
11. JMJ & Richie – Case Closed
12. JMJ & Richie – Hall Of Mirrors (Omni Trio Remix)
13. Omni Trio – I’ll Be There
14. Foul Play – Open Your Mind (Nookie Remix)
15. Deep Blue – Fantasy #2
16. 2 Bad Mice – Pitch black (Boom Boom Version)
17. Omni Trio – Thru The Vibe (2 One 1 Mix)

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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.

Since the turn of the millennium there has been a worrying phenomenon within the D&B scene – really great producers often get bored and look elsewhere. Well, its not quite as simple as that so let me explain.

Since it’s creative peak in the mid 90s, beyond 2000 drum and bass has become a little stagnant.

Yes there has been fleeting moments of creativity to speak of with producers such as dBridge, Instra:mental, ASC, Fracture, to name but a few, flying the flag and always looking to pursue a new sound. But generally speaking, the D&B mainstream is much the same as it was in 2004, in 2014.

I am not one of these people who insists that progression to new sounds is always a great thing, its not always the answer. After all I run a blog where the tagline that says it’s “1994 everyday”.

However, as a punter you have to understand and appreciate that creative producers get bored with creating the same old tried and tested formula D&B almost enforces upon them. “You must set the tempo at 174, You must have a 64 bar intro, you must have a drop, you must have a breakdown, you must have a second drop. you must have a DJ friendly outro, you must master your track as loud as fuck etc etc”.

D&B fans are quite a precious bunch; just ask DJ Zinc when he started (very successfully) experimenting with tempo’s below 174bpm. He said in a recent interview with Uncle Dugs that part of the reason he quit mixing D&B regularly because he was so tired of people asking him to play D&B when he was mixing other genres.

Instra:mental, Boymerang, Skanna, Photek, 4Hero (kinda), Breakage are a just a few names that come to mind; fantastic producers who have moved on from the D&B scene for one reason or another. I am not saying the pressure to conform is ultimately responsible, but I’m sure that in most cases it has been a contributing factor.

It’s not all doom and gloom though. I thought 2013 was a great year for D&B with some exciting new sounds and producers coming through. A mixture of new talent like Sam Binga, Om Unit and Stray getting recognition. And established producers, known for their work in other genres, have been looking to D&B (jungle in particular) for inspiration, such as Machinedrum and Special Request (AKA Paul Woolford). Things are looking pretty good.

Omni Trio

But my reason for this lengthy rant / moan / observation is that I recently stumbled upon an interview with one of the greatest jungle / D&B producers there ever was; Omni Trio.

Omni Trio was a unique talent. Even before he started producing hardcore under his Omni Trio, London Steppers and Splice aliases, Rob Haigh was already a seasoned musician with several releases throughout the 80s as well as being a member of bands ‘Labyrinth’ and ‘The Truth Club’ in the 1970s.

He got involved in the burgeoning hardcore scene after he opened a traditional record store called ‘Parliament’ in Hertford, UK around 1990.

It wasn’t until encounters with Paul Rhodes, a DJ who was a resident at the night club next door to the shop, that he began his experiments with hardcore which culminated in releases on the shop’s in-house label ‘Parliament Music‘.

Rhodesy and Rob produced for the label as ‘Rhodes-K‘ and ‘Splice‘ respectively before Rob went on to release as Omni Trio on the Hertford / Watton-at-Stone based Moving Shadow. With Rhodesy also working at the shop, Parliament quickly became known as hardcore, and then jungle specialists.

Rob never want to raves or really paid much attention to the music beyond his own record store. Regardless of this he went on to become one of the most respected and praised producers to come out of Moving Shadow and Jungle Drum and Bass scene in general.

Rob continued to produce for the label up until around the millennium when he released his last album on Moving Shadow; the beautiful ‘Even Angels Cast Shadows‘. His last dalliance with D&B was a solo album on his own ‘Scale Records’ called ‘Rogue Satellite’ and a project known as Black Rain.

Black Rain consisted of Rob and Sean O’Keeffe and catered for the more experimental D&B market. Although I have no idea how well the label did, I fear that by then, 2003, the creative and experimental ship may had already sailed within D&B circles. Which is a great shame as it was a fantastic partnership which produced some great tunes.

Back to the interview; I found it on headphonecommute.com, and in between discussing his recent solo piano work as simply Rob Haigh and Silent Storm, they get to the inevitable question about his Drum and Bass years and his reply is a familiar tale…

Do you think you will ever return to drum’n’bass? – And while I’m still talking about dnb, what are your thoughts on the evolution of that genre?

Rogue Satellite was a conscious attempt at a really minimalist approach to drum and bass. And after that I wanted to take it even further – and not have to adhere at all to what were becoming drum and bass conventions. I wanted to experiment with time signatures and different approaches to composition. By the early noughties, in response to the rise and popularity of UK garage, drum and bass was on the offensive in order to stay relevant to mainstream club audiences – but this was at the expense of some of its innovative edge. I had a lot of material already written that just didn’t seem to fit in with where drum and bass was going – I felt it was the right time to pursue this fresh direction.

He does not categorically say he will never return, but you would assume its unlikely after all these years. Which is a great shame as he is one of the true greats.

As such, I think its only right to end on some of his more recent, post-D&B work. From his 2013 album ‘Darkling Streams’.

Shout to headphonecommute.com. Read the full article at here,

You can check out my “All Omni Trio mix” here

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Foul Play were a trio consisting of John Morrow, Steve Bradshaw (who sadly passed away in 1998) and the highly influential Steve Gurley.
They started life releasing two very sought after EP’s on their own label Oblivion and were quickly picked up by Moving Shadow boss Rob Playford.

As remix masters they were responsible for edits of Omni Trio’s anthemic Renegade Snares and Feel Better, as well as Hyper On Experience’s ‘Lord Of The Null Lines’. Arguably the popularity of these three remixes surpassed that of the originals.
But they also created amazing tracks of their own, none bigger than the likes of Open Your Mind and the Mary J Blige sampling ‘Being With You‘, as well as the ever-elusive and ridiculously expensive ‘Drowning In Her‘ under their 4 Horseman alias.

Today’s track though was a bit of a gamble in two ways.
Finest Illusion, released in 1993, like many tracks of that era bridged the gap between jungle and all out hardcore.
But whilst everyone else was welcoming the ‘darkcore’ styles littered with gangsta hip hop or ragga samples, Foul Play went in the opposite direction and went for happy vibes with uplifting synths and that hardcore trademark the chipmunk vocal.

This is where the problem began, the vocals used were taken from an excellent funk / rare groove act called The SOS Band, the track sampled was the equally great ‘The Finest‘.
As quickly as Moving Shadow sister label and shop Section 5 released the 12″, it appears someone from The SOS Band camp may have caught wind of it and it was quickly withdrawn from record shops the country over.
It then reappeared, using the same metalwork master, as a black label release with no label or reference to any of the material on the wax. You will now be hard pressed to find a copy of either release for less than 60-70 pound!

The original mix was well received and got a lot of air play across the London pirates and as such Foul Play re-created the track, without the vocal and Moving Shadow did the rest; releasing it as the as a B-side known as the ‘Legal Mix‘.

Enough chat, enjoy some vintage hardcore…

The post Tune Of The Day – Foul Play – Finest Illusion (Illegal Mix) appeared first on Drumtrip - Hardcore / Oldskool Jungle Blog.

We may well have been drunk when it was mixed together but most of the set is very passable.
What I love about this selection is nearly all of these tunes were purchased on Christmas eve for a pittance.
Around 2002 (we were 16/17 years old) on our travels around the local estate in the county town of Hertford we came across an individual desperate for some immediate cash in exchange for about 50 old hardcore and jungle tracks

Back then I wasn’t quite as clued up on my jungle history as today but Wheeler duly obliged and relieved the guy of his tunes, if I remember it was all for about £30.00 or so, a paltry sum of money for any batch of 50 records.

It was only a couple of years later we realised that value of some of these tracks, as well as over half the tunes featured in this mix, we also found the black press of Foul Play – Finest Illusion (for some reason I played the legal mix here) which I have seen fetch three figures.
One of my since personal favourites too; the Nookie produced Man Like Pennywise – Mystery, which is also worth a few quid, as well as the original press of Bukem – Atlantis and a fair few Moving Shadow bits.

One of the records had a logo on it we were already well familiar with, and it was that of local record shop Parliament Music which had been opened by Omni Trio around a decade earlier. Unbeknownst to me at the time Parliament ran their own label in the early 90s with Omni Trio heading it up and releasing several pre Moving Shadow tracks. The track in question was the excellent piano led slice of hardcore Pianism, under his Splice alias.

With eBay and online retailers you don’t get too many of these stories anymore, with people often far more enlightened about the value of their black plastic discs but I will always remember the day we came across that guy.

To the mix…

Law b2b Wheeler – Hardcore and Jungle Classics Mix by The Law on Mixcloud

1.) Splice (Omni Trio) – Pianism – Parliament Records
2.) Urban Takeover – Some Justice – Urban Shakedown
3.) Liquid – Sweet Harmony – XL
4.) 2 Bad Mice – Bomb Scare – Moving Shadow
5.) Sonz Of A Loop Da Loop Era – Peace & Loveism (4 Hero Remix) – Surburban Base?
6.) Blame – The Music Takes You (2 Bad Mice Remix) – Shadow
7.) Pennywise – Mystery – Symphony Sounds
8.) LTJ Bukem – Atlantis (I Need You) – Good Looking
9.) Omni Trio – Rollin’ Heights (Foul Play Remix) – Shadow
10.) Foul Play – Finest Illusion (Legal Mix) – Moving Shadow
11.) Nookie – Give A Little Love (N.H.S Remix) – Absolute Records
12.) Norty But Nice – Give It To Me Baby – Norty But Nice
13.) LTJ Bukem – A Couple Of Beats – Good Looking
14.) Goldie – Terminator 2 – Reinforced
15.) Doc Scott – Drumz VIP – Metalheads

We would love to hear your stories of cheap and bargainous jungle purchases….

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