Beatport Top Drum And Bass

[Terresa Cherrie]

Withits links to Caribbean culture more pronounced and the authorities cracking down on countryside raves, the jungle scene took root in urban London, where it attracted far more Black participants than the rave scene, which skewed white and suburban. By the time Notting Hill Carnival rolled around in August of 1994, jungle was blasting from speakers across the city.

By the beginning of the 2010s, the world of electronic music had undergone seismic shifts. Dubstep had grown from a contingent of South London low end fanatics to a cornerstone of stateside EDM with a shiny Americanized sound. Meanwhile the late DJ Rashad and his Teklife crew were expanding their influence beyond the limits of Chicago and turning underground scenes across the globe onto a new uptempo dance sound that absorbed the spiritual influence of jungle and channeled it in radical new directions. Underpinning both movements was a near total embrace of digital production, from digital audio workstations like Ableton, Logic and FL Studio to powerful software synths like Massive. A new generation native to the digital era was also coming of age.

Interest in jungle and drum & bass seems to be growing at the moment, but these sounds have long been indispensable parts of electronic dance music that have maintained their own distinct identities, dedicated communities and unique conceptions of club culture. Yet, even with their storied histories of influence and innovation, their enduring places on stages and in clubs around the world and their brushes with mainstream notoriety, jungle and drum & bass have remained decidedly underground. As pop culture shifts and accelerates around it, drum & bass continues to forge its own path according to its own culture and the efforts of the artists, labels and fans who keep it alive

Grafix has spent the last decade as a much-respected fixture in Drum and Bass. Initially recognized by the likes of Andy C and High Contrast, and known for his collaborations with Fred V and his more recently, solo tracks such as 'Acid Generation', which reached number 1 in the Beatport Drum & Bass chart. Fully revitalized and now exclusively signed to the legendary Hospital Records, Grafix, aka Josh Jackson, celebrates his next phase by cracking open his sound archive for 'Drum and Bass Essentials', an exclusive new Loopmasters pack.

Staying true to the revolutionary blueprint of Drum and Bass but also taking emotive inspiration from neighbouring genres including Techno, Electronica and Indie Dance, this diverse pack gets to the heart of Grafix impeccable and diverse productions. Featuring 552MB of sound, this specially curated collection is resplendent with the ingredients for high-energy rave moments, cinematic soundscapes and the sort of crossover records that have previously gained support from influential radio Djs including Danny Howard, Charlie Tee and Mollie Collins.

'Drum and Bass Essentials' locks into Grafix's own ruthless, clinical drum programming in contrast to warm, textured synthesizers, alongside powerful bass lines and energizing risers and effects, this generous collection of sounds leaves the door open to create either experimentally-tinted compositions or straight-up, future-classic jump-up anthems.

Recorded in studio-quality 44,1Khz and featuring midi, patches, one-shots and loops delivered at 174BPM, this thrilling pack will add a hefty shot of creativity to Liquid, Classic or any other take in the evolution of Drum & Bass.

The popularity of drum and bass at its commercial peak ran parallel to several other UK dance styles. A major influence was the original Jamaican dub and reggae sound that influenced jungle's bass-heavy sound. Another feature of the style is the complex syncopation of the drum tracks' breakbeat.[8] Drum and bass subgenres include breakcore, ragga jungle, hardstep, darkstep, techstep, neurofunk, ambient drum and bass, liquid funk (also known as liquid drum and bass), jump up, drumfunk, sambass, and drill 'n' bass. Drum and bass has been influenced by many other genres like hip hop, big beat, dubstep, house, trip hop, ambient music, techno, jazz, rock and pop.

Drum and bass is dominated by a relatively small group of record labels. Major international music labels had shown very little interest in the drum and bass scene until BMG Rights Management acquired RAM in February 2016.[9] Since then, the genre has seen a significant growth in exposure. Whilst the origin of drum and bass music is in the UK, the genre has evolved considerably with many other prominent fanbases located all over the world.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a growing nightclub and overnight outdoor event culture gave birth to new genres in the rave scene including breakbeat hardcore, darkcore, and hardcore jungle, which combined sampled syncopated beats, or breakbeats, and other samples from a wide range of different musical genres and, occasionally, samples of music, dialogue and effects from films and television programmes. From as early as 1991, tracks were beginning to strip away some of the heavier sampling and "hardcore noises" and create more bassline and breakbeat led tracks. Some tracks increasingly took their influence from reggae and this style would become known as hardcore jungle (later to become simply jungle), whilst darkcore (with producers such as Goldie, Doc Scott, 4hero, and 2 Bad Mice) were experimenting with sounds and creating a blueprint for drum and bass, especially noticeable by late 1993.

By 1994, jungle had begun to gain mainstream popularity, and fans of the music (often referred to as junglists) became a more recognisable part of youth subculture. The genre further developed, incorporating and fusing elements from a wide range of existing musical genres, including the raggamuffin sound, dancehall, MC chants, dub basslines, and increasingly complex, heavily edited breakbeat percussion. Despite the affiliation with the ecstasy-fuelled rave scene, jungle also inherited associations with violence and criminal activity, both from the gang culture that had affected the UK's hip-hop scene and as a consequence of jungle's often aggressive or menacing sound and themes of violence (usually reflected in the choice of samples). However, this developed in tandem with the often positive reputation of the music as part of the wider rave scene and dancehall-based Jamaican music culture prevalent in London. By 1995, whether as a reaction to, or independently of this cultural schism, some jungle producers began to move away from the ragga-influenced style and create what would become collectively labelled, for convenience, as drum and bass.[10]

The emergence of related styles such as liquid funk brought a wave of new artists (Carlito & Addiction, Solid State/DJ Dextrous, Subject 13 and Fellowship being amongst the early pioneers to champion the sound) incorporating new ideas and techniques, supporting continual evolution of the genre. As of 2014[update], drum and bass makes frequent appearances in mainstream media and popular culture including in television, as well as being a major reference point for subsequent genres such as grime and dubstep,[11] and producing successful artists including Chase & Status, Netsky, Metrik, and Pendulum.

Drum and bass incorporates a number of scenes and styles, from the highly electronic, industrial sounds of techstep to the use of conventional, acoustic instrumentation that characterise the more jazz-influenced end of the spectrum.[6][14] The sounds of drum and bass are extremely varied due to the range of influences behind the music. Drum and bass could at one time be defined as a strictly electronic musical genre, with the only "live" element being the DJ's selection and mixing of records during a set. "Live" drum and bass using electric, electronic and acoustic instruments played by musicians on stage emerged over the ensuing years of the genre's development.[15][16][17]

A very obvious and strong influence on jungle and drum and bass, thanks to the British African-Caribbean sound system scene, is the original Jamaican dub and reggae sound, with pioneers like King Tubby, Peter Tosh, Sly & Robbie, Bill Laswell, Lee Perry, Mad Professor, Roots Radics, Bob Marley and Buju Banton heavily influencing the music.[18][19] This influence has lessened with time, but is still evident, with many tracks containing ragga vocals.

As a musical style built around funk or syncopated rock and roll breaks, James Brown, Al Green, Marvin Gaye, Ella Fitzgerald, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, the Supremes, the Commodores, Jerry Lee Lewis, and even Michael Jackson acted as funk influences on the music.[20][21][22][23][24][25] Jazz pioneer Miles Davis has been named as a possible influence.[26] Blues artists such as Lead Belly, Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton, Muddy Waters and B. B. King have also been cited by producers as inspirations. Even modern avant-garde composers such as Henryk Gorecki have received mention.[27] One of the most influential tracks in drum and bass history was "Amen Brother" by The Winstons, which contains a drum solo that has since become known as the "Amen break", which, after being extensively used in early hip hop music, went on to become the basis for the rhythms used in drum and bass.[8]

By the late 1980s and early 1990s, the tradition of breakbeat use in hip hop production had influenced the sound of breakbeat hardcore, which in turn led to the emergence of jungle, drum and bass, and other genres that shared the same use of broken beats.[29][30] Drum and bass shares many musical characteristics with hip-hop, though it is nowadays mostly stripped of lyrics. Grandmaster Flash, Roger Troutman, Afrika Bambaata, Run DMC, Mac Dre, Public Enemy, Schooly D, N.W.A, Kid Frost, Wu-Tang Clan, Dr. Dre, Mos Def, Beastie Boys and the Pharcyde are very often directly sampled, regardless of their general influence.[31]

Clearly, drum and bass has been influenced by other music genres, though influences from sources external to the electronic dance music scene perhaps lessened following the shifts from jungle to drum and bass, and through to so-called "intelligent drum and bass" and techstep.[32][33][34][35] It still remains a fusion music style.

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