Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “Drum & Bass”
Writing about the years 1999-2000 was always going to be a difficult one for me. Not because there wasn’t great Drum & Bass being produced (there was), but because when I write these articles I try to fit the narrative around defining moments that shaped the history of Drum & Bass… and I couldn’t actually think of any!
Whilst Jump-Up heralded a return to the boisterous abandon of early 90’s rave, there was another burgeoning sub-genre of D&B that painted a much bleaker picture of British life in the late 90’s. Spearheaded by Nico’s No U Turn label, ‘Techstep’ was a sharp, angular, and gloomy foreboding sound far removed from any kind of ‘jazzy’ laid back coffee-table sophistication.
The formula was simple: Take the drums from your last record, slightly re-arrange the bassline, stick a well known Hip Hop sample in there, and bam! – Your next release was ready for the pressing plant.
In 1996, Dance music’s reign at the forefront of public consciousness had mostly been eclipsed by the rise of Britpop, with Bands such as Blur, Oasis, and Supergrass, providing the soundtrack to a distinct period of British cultural identity that had resulted in the whole “Cool Britannia” phenomenon. Bubbling away in the background however, and now freshly detached from the jungle scene (which had since sunk into oblivion), drum & bass was busy carving out its own place in this perceived cultural upsurge of the mid-90’s.