History of drum and bass - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated to DnB, drum n bass and drum & bass) is a type of electronic dance music

Electronic dance music

Electronic dance music is electronic music produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...

also known as jungle. This article deals with the history of this musical style.

Beginnings in the UK

Drum and bass began as a musical paradigm shift of the United Kingdom breakbeat

Breakbeat

In 1992, a new style called "jungalistic hardcore" emerged, and for many ravers it was too funky to dance to. Josh Lawford of Ravescene prophesied that the breakbeat was "the death-knell of rave" because the ever changing drumbeat patterns of breakbeat music didn't allow for the same zoned out,...

hardcore

Hardcore techno

Hardcore techno is a type of electronic music typified by the rhythmic use of distorted and atonal industrial-like beats and samples...

and rave

Rave

Rave, rave dance, and rave party are parties that originated mostly from acid house parties, which featured fast-paced electronic music and light shows. At these parties people dance and socialize to dance music played by disc jockeys and occasionally live performers...

scene of the late 1980s; and over the first decade and a half of its existence there have been many permutations in its style, incorporating elements from dancehall

Dancehall

Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s. In the mid-1980s, digital instrumentation became more prevalent, changing the sound considerably,...

, electro, funk

Funk

Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...

, hip hop

Hip hop

Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...

, house

House music

House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...

, jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, heavy metal

Heavy metal music

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...

, pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

-created fusion of hardcore, house and techno (with a strong accent of both the UK industrial and Belgian New Beat sounds), pioneered by Joey Beltram

Joey Beltram

Joey Beltram is an American DJ and record producer, best-known for the pioneering recordings "Energy Flash" and "Mentasm"....

, L.A. Style

L.A. Style

L.A. Style was a Dutch electronic dance music duo, founded and produced by radio host Wessel van Diepen, who also created Nakatomi and the very successful Vengaboys, also produced by Fonny de Wulf, Michiel van der Kuiy [aka Denzil Slamming] & FX.The group was fronted by Rapper/Singer/Songwriter &...

, Frank De Wulf, CJ Bolland, Richie Hawtin

Richie Hawtin

Richard Hawtin is an English-Canadian electronic musician and DJ who was an influential part of Detroit techno's second wave of artists in the early 1990s and a leading exponent of Minimal techno since the mid 1990s...

and others. This scene existed briefly from approximately 1989-1993, a period of cross-pollination with the UK hardcore sound. This sound did survive in various forms in its mother countries - primarily Belgium, Holland and Germany - beyond 1992, but by then the general scenes in these countries had moved forwards to trance, industrial techno or gabba

Gabber

Gabber , is a style of electronic music and a subgenre of hardcore techno. "Gabber" is a slang word of Yiddish origin that means "mate", "buddy" or "friend"....

(with happy hardcore

Happy hardcore

Happy hardcore, also known as happycore, is a genre of music typified by a very fast tempo , often coupled with solo vocals and sentimental lyrics. Its characteristically 4/4 beat "happy" sound distinguishes it from most other forms of hardcore techno, which tend to be "darker". It is typically in...

/hard house being the equivalent 'Belgian Techno' - derivative sounds in the UK). London and Bristol are the two cities which are most associated with Drum and Bass.

Returning to the UK, drum and bass (as jungle) has its direct origins in the breakbeat hardcore part of the UK acid house rave scene. Hardcore DJs typically played their records at fast tempos, and breakbeat hardcore emphasised breakbeats over the 4-to-the-floor

Four to the floor

Four-on-the-floor is a rhythm pattern used in disco and electronic dance music. It is a steady, uniformly accented beat in 4/4 time in which the bass drum is hit on every beat in common time...

beat structure common to house music. Breakbeat hardcore records such as Lennie De Ice's "We are I.E" (1991), The Prodigy

The Prodigy

The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music group formed by Liam Howlett in 1990 in Braintree, Essex. Along with Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, and other acts, The Prodigy have been credited as pioneers of the big beat genre, which achieved mainstream popularity in the 1990s and 2000s...

's "Experience" (1992), Rebel MC's "Comin On Strong" feat Tenor Fly (Rough Neck Mix) (1990), 'African' (1991), 'Wickedest Sound' (1991) and "Tribal Bass" (1991), Euphoreal's 'Jungle Music' (1991), Project One's 'Ferrari' (1990), Noise Factory's 'Jungle Techno' (1991), Top Buzz

Top Buzz

Top Buzz are a British DJ / MC team, which performed at rave events in the 1990s.Top Buzz was originally formed in 1988 by MC Patrick McPhee and DJ Mikee B, playing at house events, before being joined by DJ Jason Kyriakides several years later...

'Jungle Techno!' (1991), A Guy Called Gerald

A Guy Called Gerald

A Guy Called Gerald is the stage name for the musician, record producer and DJ Gerald Simpson ....

's 'Anything' (1991) & '28 Gun Bad Boy' (1991), Shut Up And Dance

Shut Up And Dance

Shut Up and Dance are an English music duo that fused hip hop, house and hardcore, and are best known for their single "Raving I'm Raving", which reached No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart in May 1992.-Career:...

's "£10 to get in" / "£20 to get in" (both 1989), the Ragga Twins

Ragga Twins

Ragga Twins are a jungle group from Hackney, England, composed of London UNITY sound system veteran MCs Deman Rockers and Flinty Badman . Socialist Worker referred to them as "one of the most influential acts to emerge from the rave scene"...

' "Spliffhead" (1990) & '18 Inch Speaker' (1991), Genaside II

Genaside II

Genaside II was a British electronic group active in the 1990s and early 2000s. Their music started as rave, developing into jungle, breakbeat and bigbeat. Its main member was Kris Ogden, though some other members went on to form the band Archive. Their 1991 song Narra Mine provided a sample for...

's "Sirens of Acre Lane" (1990) and "Narramine" (1991), G Double E's 'Fire When Ready' (1991), DJ Dextrous

DJ Dextrous

DJ Dextrous, Dextrous or Dex is the stage name of composer, producer and DJ Errol Francis. Born and bred in North London's Stoke Newington area, at Brooke House Boy's School he associated with DJ Hype as well as Smiley and PJ from the group Shut Up and Dance, DJed at school discos, played trumpet...

' "Ruffneck Biznizz" (1992), Nightmares On Wax's "Aftermath" (1990) and LTJ Bukem

LTJ Bukem

LTJ Bukem is the stage name used by the drum and bass musician, producer and DJ Danny Williamson . He and his record labels Good Looking and Looking Good Records are most associated with the jazzy, atmospheric side of drum and bass music....

's "Demon's Theme" (1992) are generally credited as being among the first to have a recognizable drum and bass sound. The very first record would arguably be Meat Beat Manifesto

Meat Beat Manifesto

Meat Beat Manifesto, often shortened to Meat Beat or MBM, is an electronic music group originally consisting of Jack Dangers and Jonny Stephens formed in 1987 in Swindon, UK...

's "Radio Babylon", recorded in 1989, and is still recognisably 'drum and bass' in sound today.

The first officially-released and distributed non-compilation Progressive Hardcore/Jungle/Drum and Bass album to be released anywhere in the world was the Apache 'Delirious' album - written and produced by Alex Romane [currently producing for Urban Sunrise and Nathan Robinson during 1991/92 and released by BMP Records [Bristol] in 1992. Both continued to work underground and went on to work with other artists with Alex Romane writing and producing 'War' for Daddy Freddy [4 times world's fastest rapper and creator of Raggamuffin Hip Hop] in 2002. 'War' was Daddy Freddy's first ever Drum and Bass track and is even more relevant today because of its strong political pro-democracy anti-war vocal.

Some hardcore tracks at the time were extremely light and upbeat; the most extreme example of this were the so called "toy-town" tracks such as Smart E's' "Sesame's Treat" which features the children's show "Sesame Street

Sesame Street

Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...

" theme song. This style of hardcore would many years later be known as happy hardcore

Happy hardcore

.

In response to these lighter tracks, some producers started focusing on darker, more aggressive sounds; this style became known as darkside hardcore, or darkcore. Strange noises and effects, syncopated rhythms made from rearranged funk breaks

Break (music)

In popular music, a break is an instrumental or percussion section or interlude during a song derived from or related to stop-time – being a "break" from the main parts of the song or piece....

and loud bass lines defined the genre. Examples of darkcore include Goldie

Goldie

Clifford Joseph Price, better known as Goldie is an English electronic music artist, disc jockey, visual artist and actor. He is well known for his innovations in the jungle and drum and bass music genres, having previously gained exposure for his work as a graffiti artist...

's "Terminator" (1992), Rufige Kru's 'Darkrider' (1992), Top Buzz

Top Buzz

's "Living In Darkness" (1992) and Nasty Habits' (aka Doc Scott) "Here Comes the Drumz" (1992). These took their cue from the darker sounds of 'Belgian Techno', as found in tracks such as Beltram's "Mentasm" and "Energy Flash" (1991), as well as the dark breaks of 4 Hero

4 Hero

4hero are an electronic music band from Dollis Hill, northwest London, comprising producers Mark "Marc Mac" Clair & Dennis "Dego" McFarlane. While the band is often cited as "4 Hero" or "4-Hero", the name is presented as "4hero" on their own albums and websites.4hero are known as early pioneers of...

's "Mr Kirks Nightmare" (1990) and The Psychopaths' "Nightmare" (1991) among other examples. These tracks were not widely called jungle or drum and bass by the mainstream media at their time of creation (although the terms "jungle" and "jungle techno" were in common use in the rave scene by then, with "drum & bass" appearing here and there on particular mixes of several vinyl releases), but they can nevertheless be found on later jungle and drum and bass compilations. The first major round-up of these tracks which was to use the term 'drum & bass' was probably "The Dark Side - Hardcore Drum & Bass Style": a compilation on React Records, released March 1993, which featured both "Here Comes The Drumz" and "Terminator".

This darker, more aggressive sound appealed to many in the dancehall and reggae communities. Both darkcore and dancehall shared an emphasis on rhythm and bass, and the tempos were well suited to be mixed together. Soon many elements of dancehall reggae were being incorporated into the hardcore sound.

The Jamaican sound-system culture began to influence the emerging sound through the use of basslines and remixing techniques derived from dub

Dub music

Dub is a genre of music which grew out of reggae music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae...

and reggae music, alongside the fast breakbeats and samples derived from urban musics such as hip hop, funk, jazz, and r&b alongside many production techniques borrowed from early electronic music such as house, and techno.

As the yet un-named genre evolved, the use of sampled funk breakbeats became increasingly complex. Most notable and widely spread is the Amen break

Amen break

The Amen break is a brief drum solo performed in 1969 by Gregory Cylvester "G. C." Coleman in the song "Amen, Brother" performed by the 1960s funk and soul outfit The Winstons...

taken from a b-side funk track "Amen, Brother" by the Winston Brothers (The Winstons

The Winstons

The Winstons were a 1960s funk and soul music group, based in Washington, D.C.. They are known for their 1969 recording of an EP featuring a song entitled "Color Him Father" on the A-side, and a song entitled "Amen, Brother" on the B-side. Half-way into "Amen, Brother", there is a drum solo The...

). During this time producers began cutting apart loops and using the component drum sounds to create new rhythms. To match the complex drum lines, basslines which had less in common with the patterns of house and techno music than with the phrasings of dub and hip hop began to be used. As the beat-per-minute range rose above 165, the emerging drum and bass sound became incompatible for straight-forward DJ mixing with house and techno, which typically range dozens of beats-per-minute less (making it impossible to play the tracks at the same speed on club equipment). This sonic identity became highly distinctive for both the depth of its bass and the increasingly complex, rapid-fire breakbeat percussion. Vastly different rhythmic patterns were distinctively being used, as well as new types of sampling, synthesis and effects processing techniques, resulting in a greater focus on the intricacies of sampling/synthesis production and rhythm. This notably included early use of the time stretching

Audio timescale-pitch modification

Time stretching is the process of changing the speed or duration of an audio signal without affecting its pitch.Pitch scaling or pitch shifting is the opposite: the process of changing the pitch without affecting the speed...

effect which was often used on percussion or vocal samples. As the influences of reggae and dub became more prominent, the sound of drum and bass began to take on an urban sound which was heavily influenced by ragga and dancehall music as well as hip hop, often incorporating the distinctive vocal styles of these musical genres. This reggae/dancehall influenced sound is most commonly associated with the term jungle.
Particular tracks from the 1992 - 1993 period that demonstrated some of the beat and sampling progression within drum and bass include: A Guy Called Gerald

A Guy Called Gerald

A Guy Called Gerald is the stage name for the musician, record producer and DJ Gerald Simpson ....

's "28 Gun Bad Boy

28 Gun Bad Boy

28 Gun Bad Boy is the third album by house music and drum and bass pioneer A Guy Called Gerald, released in 1992. This was the first full length Drum and bass artist albums released. The track "28 Gun Bad Boy" is one of the very first examples of drum & bass/old school jungle music.-Track listing:...

", 2 Bad Mice "Bombscare" (1992), Kaotic Kemistry "Illegal Subs" (1992), DJ Crystl "Warpdrive" (1993), Foul Play "Open Your Mind" (Remix) (1993), Bizzy B "Ecstacy is a Science" (1993) and Danny Breaks / Droppin Science "Droppin Science vol 1" (1993). This was an ongoing process however and can be demonstrated as a gradual progression over dozens of tracks in this period.

Early pioneers

Pioneers such as Andy C

Andy C

Andy C , born Andrew John Clarke, is an English DJ and producer and co-founder of the RAM Recording Studio. He is the son of Mick Clarke, bass player and founder member of the Rubettes, who had hits in the seventies like Sugar Baby Love, Tonight and I Can Do It.He is considered a pioneering force...

, Krust

Krust

Krust or DJ Krust is an English drum and bass producer and DJ who is part of the Bristol based Reprazent collective, as well as releasing his own solo material such as "Burnin" which was released on Kickin Records.Krust was interested in hip hop, acid house and rave music as a youth, and was a...

, Dj Die

DJ Die

DJ Die , is a British music producer and DJ. He was a founder of drum and bass label Full Cycle Recordings and a member of acts Reprazent and Breakbeat Era....

, DJ Hype

DJ Hype

DJ Hype is a stage name of drum and bass producer and DJ, Kevin Ford. His 1993 track, "Shot in the Dark", appeared in the UK Singles Chart in 1993.-Biography:...

, The Invisible Man, Bizzy B, Aphrodite, DJ SS

DJ SS

DJ SS is an English drum and bass DJ and record producer. SS is short for Scratchenstein, which is a name he used when he was a hip hop scratch DJ, and a part of the hip hop act, The Formation Five, whose name inspired the name of his record label...

, Fabio

Fabio (DJ)

Fitzroy Heslop better known by his stage name of Fabio, is a drum and bass DJ and producer from the UK. Fabio has been described as one of the best DJ's of all time. He runs the Creative Source record label.-Biography:...

, Grooverider

Grooverider

Grooverider is a British drum and bass DJ.-Biography:Grooverider began his DJing at illegal raves and warehouse parties in the UK in the late 1980s, and rose to prominence with partner Fabio through his sets at nightclub nights such as 'Rage'. Grooverider was also on the London pirate radio...

, Goldie

Goldie

, Foul Play, Shy Fx, Krome & Time, LTJ Bukem

LTJ Bukem

, Omni Trio, Ray Keith, Rebel MC, Rob Playford,and others quickly became stars of the genre whilst other producers such as Alex Romane chose to remain underground. Most of the early producers and DJs still produce and play in today's drum and bass scene, forming something of a jungle 'old guard'. Some important early artists such as A Guy Called Gerald with his seminal early jungle LP, "Black Secret Technology"), Alex Romane [with new music form Tech Beat] and 4hero ("Mr Kirk's Nightmare") later developed their own styles, leaving the drum and bass mainstream.

These early pioneers heavily used Akai

Akai

Akai is a consumer electronics brand, founded by Saburo Akai as , a Japanese manufacturer in 1929. It is now headquartered in Singapore as a subsidiary of Grande Holdings, a Hong Kong-based conglomerate, which also owns the formerly Japanese brands Nakamichi and Sansui. The Akai brand is now used...

samplers and sequencers on the Atari ST

Atari ST

The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...

to create their tracks. Without these electronic instruments, the first wave of consumer priced but versatile electronic instruments, it is doubtful drum and bass (or many electronic music styles) could have appeared. The exception to this was Alex Romane, who was using Boss analogue guitar pedal effects sampling processors and other guitar pedal effects processors [before using Akai's] during 1990/91 to create and play freestyle Drum and Bass live [at the time known in London as 'Progressive Hardcore'].

Jungle name

While the origin of the term 'jungle' music to refer to the developing electronic sound of the 1990s is debatable, the emergence of the term in musical circles can be roughly traced to Jamaican/Caribbean toasting (a pre-cursor to modern MCs), circa 1970. References to 'jungle', 'junglists' and 'jungle music' can be found throughout dub, reggae and dancehall genres from that era up until today. It has been suggested that the term 'junglist' was a reference to a person either from a section of Kingston

Kingston, Jamaica

Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the rest of the island...

, Trenchtown

Trenchtown

Trench Town is a neighborhood located in the parish of St. Andrew which shares municipality with Kingston, the capital and largest city of Jamaica. In the 1960s Trench Town was known as the Hollywood of Jamaica. Today Trench Town boasts the Trench Town Culture Yard Museum, a visitor friendly...

also known as 'the Concrete Jungle' or from a different area, 'the Gardens', which was a leafy area colloquially referred to as 'the Jungle'. The first documented use of the term in drum and bass is within a song featuring jungle producer and lyricist Rebel MC - "Rebel got this chant alla the junglists".

Junglists

"When I'm weak, you're tellin' me that I'm strong. When I'm right, you're tellin' me that I'm wrong! But I know, now I understand, now I see, I see your wicked plan. I'm a junglist!" - Tribe of Issachar "Junglist" (Congo Natty) 1996

The appearance of jungle also resulted in the appearance of the junglist

Junglist

Junglist is a slang term first referring to a person living in an area of West Kingston, Jamaica, called Jungle. Then after as a term referring to a dedicated listener of jungle and/or drum and bass. Tracks from this genre often contain calls and references to the "original junglists" and "jungle...

subculture, which, while not nearly as distinctive, alienated, ideological or obvious as other youth subcultures, and having many similarities with hip hop styles and behaviour, does function distinctively within the drum and bass listening community. Many drum and bass listeners would and do refer to themselves as junglists, regardless of their attitude on whether jungle differs from drum and bass (see below).

Jungle to drum and bass

The phrase "drum and bass" had been used for years previously in the London soul and funk pirate radio scenes and was even a bit of a catchphrase for UK Radio 1

BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...

's R&B Guru Trevor Nelson

Trevor Nelson

Trevor Nelson MBE is an English DJ and presenter.Born in Hackney to a family of St Lucian heritage, he attended Central Foundation Boys' Grammar School in Cowper St, Islington, London EC2 and Westminster Kingsway College...

in his pirate days, who used it to describe the deeper, rougher funk and "rare groove" sound that was popular in London at the time. A station ID jingle used on legendary London pirate Kiss FM

Kiss 100 London

Kiss is a UK radio station broadcasting on FM and Digital Radio, specialising in hip hop, R&B, urban and electronic dance music. It also broadcasts on DAB Digital Radio around the UK & nationally on Freeview, Sky and TalkTalk TV...

from the late 1980s would proclaim "drum and bass style on Kiss".

However, as the early nineties saw drum and bass break out from its underground roots and begin to win popularity with the general British public, many producers attempted to expand the influences of the music beyond the domination of ragga-based sounds. By 1995, a counter movement to the ragga style was emerging.

Since the term jungle was so closely related to the raggae influenced sound, DJs and producers who did not incorporate reggae elements began to adopt the term "drum and bass" to differentiate themselves and their musical styles. This reflected a change in the musical style which incorporated increased drum break editing. Sometimes this was referred to as "intelligence", though this later came to refer to the more relaxing style of drum and bass associated with producers such as LTJ Bukem

LTJ Bukem

. Perhaps the first track to explicitly use the term "drum and bass" to refer to itself was released in 1993. The producer The Invisible Man described it:

"A well edited Amen Break

Amen break

The Amen break is a brief drum solo performed in 1969 by Gregory Cylvester "G. C." Coleman in the song "Amen, Brother" performed by the 1960s funk and soul outfit The Winstons...

alongside an 808 sub kick and some simple atmospherics just sounded so amazing all on its own, thus the speech sample "strictly drum and bass". A whole new world of possibilities was opening up for the drum programming... It wasn't long before the amen break was being used by practically every producer within the scene, and as time progressed the Belgian style techno stabs and noises disappeared (thankfully!) and the edits and studio trickery got more and more complex. People were at last beginning to call the music Drum and Bass instead of hardcore. This Amen formula certainly helped cement the sound for many of the tracks I went on to produce for Gwange, Q-Project and Spinback on Legend Records. After a while, tracks using the Amen break virtually had a genre all of their own. Foul Play, Peshay, Bukem and DJ Crystal among others were all solid amen addicts back then too."

Towards late 1994 and especially in 1995 there was a definite distinction between the reggae and ragga sounding jungle and the tracks with heavily edited breaks, such as the artists Remarc and The Dream Team on Suburban Bass Records. Ironically, one compilation which brought the term to the wider awareness of those outside the scene, 'Drum & Bass Selection vol 1' (1994), featured a large amount of ragga influenced tracks, and the first big track to use the term in its title (Remarc's 'Drum & Bass Wize', 1994) was also ragga-influenced.

The Dream Team consisted of Bizzy B and Pugwash; Bizzy B did however have a history of complex breakbreat tracks released before any real notion of a change in genre name. This also coincided with an increase of the use of the Reese bassline (Reese Project, Kevin Saunderson

Kevin Saunderson

Kevin Saunderson is an American electronic music producer. At the age of nine he moved to Belleville, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit where he attended Belleville High School and befriended two students, Derrick May and Juan Atkins...

), as first featured on "Just Want Another Chance" by Kevin Saunderson (also famous for the group Inner City) released in 1988. Mid-1995 saw the coincidentally named Alex Reece

Alex Reece

Alex Reece was an influence of the jazzstep sound, a mix of drum and bass and jazz, and one of the musicians under the Metalheadz collective, who also works under the pseudonym of Fallen Angels....

's "Pulp Fiction" which featured a distorted Reese bassline with a two-step break, slightly slower in tempo, which has been credited as an influence in the new tech-step style which would emerge from Emotif and No U-Turn Records.

"Pulp Fiction was (and still is) a seriously badass tune, it was highly original at the time, and of course it will remain in the classic oldskool bag for many years to come. It was also the track that spawned hundreds of imitators of its "2-Step" style which unfortunately also lasted for many years to come.... hmmm... oh, and because the 2-step groove generally sounds slower, DnB then began to speed up way beyond 160bpm... say no more."

This has also led to the confusion of equating the "tech-step" sub-genre with drum and bass, as distinct from jungle, but "drum and bass" as a style and as a name for the whole genre already existed in 1995 before the release of Dj Trace's remix of T-Power's "Mutant Jazz" which appeared on S.O.U.R. Recordings in 1995 (co-produced by Ed Rush

Ed Rush

Ed Rush is the recording name of Ben Settle; a prominent jungle/techstep/neurofunk DJ, who often produces tracks in collaboration with Optical. Hailing from west London, he came to prominence with the release of the track Bludclot Artattack in 1993...

and Nico). Also note that Trace (artist)

Trace (artist)

DJ Trace is the recording name of Duncan Hutchinson, a British electronic music artist, disc jockey and founder of DSCI4 Records. Hutchinson's remix of T Power & MK Ultra's Mutant Jazz, entitled simply The Mutant Remix and released on the Rollers Instinct record label in 1995 is said to be one of...

, Ed Rush

Ed Rush

and Nico already had a history of producing jungle/drum & bass and hardcore in a variety of styles.
The media may have also emphasised a difference in styles. This was especially the case in the sub-genre dubbed "intelligent" drum and bass by the music press, and its ambassador was LTJ Bukem

LTJ Bukem

and his Good Looking label alongside Moving Shadow

Moving Shadow

Moving Shadow was a UK-based jungle/drum and bass record label that was started in 1990 by Rob Playford. Alongside such labels as Suburban Base, Formation Records, D-Zone, Reinforced, and Metalheadz, Moving Shadow grew to become one of the best-regarded and longest-lived labels in its genre,...

artists such as Foul Play, Omni Trio and Cloud 9.

Some say that the move to drum and bass was a conscious and concerted reaction by top DJs and producers against a culture that was becoming tinged with gangster types and violent elements, and stereotyped with the recognizable production techniques of ragga-influenced producers. The release of General Levy

General Levy

General Levy is a London born ragga vocalist, regularly employed on studio tracks by drum and bass DJs. He is best known for the track "Incredible" which he recorded with M-Beat.-Biography:...

's "Incredible" record in 1994 is taken by many as being the key-point in the transformation. This ragga influenced track contains a statement by General Levy claiming to be the "original junglist" at a time in which he was proclaiming publicly that "I run jungle" which in turn angered the most powerful and influential drum and bass producers, resulting in a blacklisting of General Levy and possibly a conscious step away from the ragga sound.

"The whole tag jungle took on a real sinister... It just got so smashed in the press. We were like: "If we’re going to carry on we’re gonna have to change the name here, cos we’re getting slaughtered here."" - Fabio.

Intelligent drum and bass maintained the uptempo breakbeat percussion, but focused on more atmospheric sounds and warm, deep basslines over vocals or samples which often originated from soul and jazz music. However, alongside other key producers in the scene, LTJ Bukem

LTJ Bukem

, arguably the single most influential figure behind the style, is especially noted for disliking the term, owing to the implication that other forms of drum and bass are not intelligent. From this period on, drum and bass would maintain the unity of a relatively small musical culture, but one characterised by a competing group of stylistic influences. Although many DJs have specialised in distinctive sub-genres within jungle and drum and bass, the majority of artists within the genre were and remain connected via record labels, events and radio shows. It is extremely important to note that many producers make tracks in more than one sub-genre of drum and bass.

Around 1995-1996 there was a general splintering of the drum and bass scene. Sub-genres could be referred to by their names as opposed to either jungle or drum and bass, though all sub-genres were usually grouped by the new umbrella term drum and bass. This continues today.

Roni Size

Roni Size

Roni Size is a British record producer and DJ, who came to prominence in 1997 as the founder and leader of Reprazent, a drum and bass collective...

, Krust

Krust

and Dj Die

DJ Die

DJ Die , is a British music producer and DJ. He was a founder of drum and bass label Full Cycle Recordings and a member of acts Reprazent and Breakbeat Era....

might be considered the people that made Drum and Bass more mainstream.

Confusion is increased by the term jump-up which initially referred to tracks which had a change in style at the drop, encouraging people to dance. Initially these would usually be breakbeat-heavy drops in this new drum and bass style, but producers of around the same time were creating tracks with hip-hop style basslines at the drop. This would become a new sub-genre "jump-up", though many of the early jump-up tracks included edited amens at the drop. Influential artists include DJ Zinc

DJ Zinc

Benjamin Pettit, better known by his stage name DJ Zinc, is a drum and bass / breakstep DJ from the United Kingdom. Zinc is well known for 1995's "Super Sharp Shooter", a hip hop / jungle fusion.-Biography:...

, DJ Hype

DJ Hype

DJ Hype is a stage name of drum and bass producer and DJ, Kevin Ford. His 1993 track, "Shot in the Dark", appeared in the UK Singles Chart in 1993.-Biography:...

, Dillinja

Dillinja

Dillinja, is an English drum and bass DJ, record producer and entrepreneur.-History:...

and Aphrodite (artist)

Aphrodite (artist)

Aphrodite also known as A Zone or DJ Aphro, is a UK jungle and drum and bass DJ/producer commonly referred to as the "Godfather of Jungle", who works along with Micky Finn on their joint Urban Takeover label...

amongst many others. The Dream Team would also produce jump-up tracks, usually under the name Dynamic Duo on Joker Records, in a style with similarities and differences to their Suburban Bass releases. Notice also the early use of the term "jump up jungle" rather than "jump up drum and bass". The pigeon-holes for genres changed so quickly that jump-up was quickly also called drum and bass even as a sub-genre.

Around this time, drum and bass also sealed its popularity by winning a Friday night slot on Radio One

BBC Radio 1

, the BBC's flagship radio station, the legendary "One in the jungle" show. Initially presented by a revolving groups of jungle luminaries, hosted by MC Navigator, the station eventually secured the presenting services of Fabio and Grooverider, two of the oldest and most-respected DJs in the scene. Many DJs made a suddent shift from pirate radio to legal radio at this time.

Up to this point, pirate radio

Pirate radio

Pirate radio is illegal or unregulated radio transmission. The term is most commonly used to describe illegal broadcasting for entertainment or political purposes, but is also sometimes used for illegal two-way radio operation...

was the only radio source of jungle music and in particular Kool FM

Kool FM

Kool FM is a London pirate radio station, started on 28 November 1991.Kool FM has stated that it has been "the very first pirate station ever to play Hardcore Jungle". Simon Reynolds called it "London's ruling pirate station" in an account of the beginnings of jungle music in the early to mid 1990s...

, Don FM

Don FM

Don FM was an influential London pirate radio station, which along with a handful of other stations, critical in the development of Breakbeat Hardcore, Jungle and Drum and Bass music. It first broadcast in November 1992 on the frequency of 105.7FM from South West London. On the 28th March 1994, it...

and Rush FM's contribution to the development of this sound should not be overlooked or denied. It is doubtful whether jungle would have gained popularity without pirate radio stations. The transition in name from "jungle" to "drum and bass" occurs at the same time as its legal appearance on airwaves.

One another aspect to note in the evolution of drum and bass is that the advent of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994

Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994

The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It introduced a number of changes to the existing law, most notably in the restriction and reduction of existing rights and in greater penalties for certain "anti-social" behaviours...

specifically aimed at stopping illegal raves prompted the move of jungle (and other electronic music genres) into legal (mostly) nightclubs.

Jungle vs. drum and bass

Nowadays the difference between jungle (or oldschool jungle

Oldschool jungle

Jungle is a genre of electronic music that incorporates influences from genres including breakbeat hardcore, and reggae/dub/dancehall. There is debate as to whether jungle is a separate genre from drum and bass as many use the terms interchangeably...

) and drum and bass is a common debate within the junglist community. There is no universally accepted semantic distinction between the terms "jungle" and "drum and bass". Some associate "jungle" with older material from the first half of the 1990s (sometimes referred to as "jungle techno"), and see drum and bass as essentially succeeding jungle. Others use jungle as a shorthand for ragga jungle, a specific sub-genre within the broader realm of drum and bass. In the U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, the combined term "jungle drum and bass" (JDB) has some popularity, but is not widespread elsewhere. Probably the widest held viewpoint is that the terms are simply synonymous and interchangeable: drum and bass is jungle, and jungle is drum and bass.

"At the end of the day I am an ambassador for Drum and Bass the world over and have been playing for 16 years under the name Hype... To most of you out there Drum and Bass will be an important part of your lives, but for me Drum and Bass/Jungle is my life and always has been... We all have a part to play and believe me when I say I am no fucking bandwagon jumper, just a hard working Hackney man doing this thing called Drum and Bass/Jungle." DJ Hype

DJ Hype

DJ Hype is a stage name of drum and bass producer and DJ, Kevin Ford. His 1993 track, "Shot in the Dark", appeared in the UK Singles Chart in 1993.-Biography:...

The birth of techstep and "drum and bass" is dead

As a lighter sound of drum and bass began to win over the musical mainstream, many producers continued to work on the other end of the spectrum, resulting in a series of releases which highlighted a dark, technical sound which drew more influence from techno music and the soundscapes of science fiction and general film. This style was championed by the labels Emotif and No U-Turn, and by artists like Doc Scott, Trace

Trace (artist)

, Ed Rush

Ed Rush

, Optical

Optical (artist)

Matt Quinn, better known as Optical, is a drum and bass producer and DJ from England.He is best known for his work with Ed Rush, fellow head of the Virus Recordings label, and as a pioneer of the techstep and neurofunk sound...

, and Dom & Roland

Dom & Roland

Dom & Roland is the alias of British drum and bass producer Dominic Angus. The addition of "Roland" in the artist name refers to his Roland sampler. In 1996 he was signed to Moving Shadow recordings, and his tracks were oriented towards the dark hardstep genre. He has released records on other...

. It is commonly referred to as techstep, which in turn gave birth to the neurofunk

Neurofunk

Neurofunk is a subgenre of drum and bass which emerged between 1997 and 1998 in London, England as a progression of techstep. It was further developed by juxtaposed elements of heavier and harder forms of funk with multiple influences ranging from techno, house and jazz, distinguished by...

subgenre. Techstep focused intensely on studio production and applied new techniques of sound generation and processing to older Jungle approaches. Self-consciously underground, and lacking the accessible influences of much other drum and bass, techstep is deeply atmospheric, often characterized by sinister or science-fiction themes (including samples from cult films), cold and complex percussion, and dark, distorted basslines. The sound was a conscious move back towards the darker sounds of Belgian Techno and Darkside Hardcore (again the already mentioned darkcore), albeit with a greater electro / techno emphasis than darkcore.

The sound also marked a period when drum and bass became more insular and began to draw inspiration from itself rather than other musical genres. The sampler at this time became less important with home computer equipment and generated beats and sounds becoming capable of creating an entire drum and bass track from scratch.

As the 1990s drew to a close, drum and bass withdrew from mainstream popularity and concentrated on the new more ominous sounds which were popular in clubs, rather than on mainstream radio. Techstep came to dominate the drum and bass genre, with artists like Konflict

Konflict

Konflict, also known under their separate artist names Kemal and Rob Data, were a musical duo that composed Drum and Bass music, consisting of Kemal Okan and Robert Rodgers. Their music had a strong techno influence and it was influential in the shaping of the neurofunk sub-genre...

and Bad Company amongst the most visible. As time went on, techstep became more minimal, and increasingly dark in tone, and the funky, commercial appeal represented by Roni Size back in 1997 waned. A characteristic of this was the increasing disproportion of male to female club goers and a generally more aggressive and dark atmosphere at clubs.

The withdrawal of drum and bass from the mainstream was not only a result of its growing fascination with its own (progressively darker) sound, but also resulted from the explosive birth and growing popularity of UK garage

UK garage

UK garage is a genre of electronic dance music originating from the United Kingdom in the early-1990s. UK garage is a descendant of house music which originated in Chicago and New York, United States. UK garage usually features a distinctive syncopated 4/4 percussive rhythm with 'shuffling'...

(2 step and 4x4 garage, aka speed garage), a musical genre heavily influenced by jungle, with similar beats, vocal and basslines but slower speeds and more friendly (or at least radio-friendly) beats. Drum and bass suddenly found itself losing popularity and established drum and bass producers expressed shock at its sudden alienation and abandonment by the general public. This turn fuelled the harder sound of techstep.

"And then garage came along: the death knell for drum and Bass. It was the new drum and bass. It was the biggest kick in the teeth for us ever...Yeah! They had all the girls, it was where all the girls from the jungle scene had gone. drum and bass was at its worst." - Fabio.

Perhaps ironically despite media declarations that "drum and bass/jungle is dead" and killed by garage, drum and bass has survived after a difficult period with the turn of the millennium seeing an increasing movement to "bring the fun back into drum and bass", heralded by the chart success enjoyed by singles from Andy C and Shimon ("Bodyrock") and Shy FX and T Power ("Shake UR Body"). In the clubs there was a new revival of rave-oriented sounds, as well as remixes of classic jungle tracks that capitalised on nostalgia and an interest in the origins of the music. Many felt that drum and bass music had weathered the ignorance, then support, and then hostility, of the mainstream media (which had declared that "drum and bass is dead" in the late 90s), and that the revival of chart success indicated that the style was more than a passing fashion.

In turn, UK garage, after a brief period of extreme popularity, has found itself pushed to the underground and mostly superseded by grime

Grime (music)

Grime is a style of music that emerged from Bow, East London, England in the early 2000s, primarily as a development of UK garage, dancehall, and hip hop...

. Drum and bass' survival reflects the tenacity of its original producers and artists who continued and continue to produce drum and bass, as well as the vitality of the new generation of producers, such as London Elektricity

London Elektricity

London Elektricity is the DJ and stage name of musician Tony Colman who is best known as a recording artist of five albums, international DJ and formerly a live drum and bass act "London Elektricity Live".-History:...

and Step 13

Step 13

Step 13 is a British live drum and bass / rock and roll band from London.-History:Step 13 was founded in 1996 as a collective of djs and musicians, linked by a common interest in music experimentation...

Since 2000

Since the revival in popularity of the genre in circa 2000, the drum and bass scene has become very diverse, despite its relatively small size, to the point where it is difficult to point to any one subgenre as the dominant style though techstep appears to be losing its previous dominance, with a "return to old skool" movement apparent in tracks & clubs.

In 1998, Fabio began championing a form he called "liquid funk

Liquid funk

Liquid funk is a sub-genre of drum and bass. While it uses similar basslines and bar layouts to other styles, it contains fewer bar-oriented samples and more instrumental layers , harmonies, and ambience, producing a calmer atmosphere directed at both home listeners and nightclub...

". In 2000 he released a compilation release of the same name on his Creative Source label. This was characterised by influences from disco

Disco

Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...

and house, and widespread use of vocals. Although slow to catch on at first, the style grew massively in popularity around 2002-2004, and by 2004 it was established as one of the biggest-selling subgenres in drum and bass, with labels like Hospital Records

Hospital Records

Hospital Records is an independent record label based in South London. Primarily releasing Drum and bass, the label was started in 1996 by Tony Colman and Chris Goss, and has grown in recent years to become one of the most well known labels within UK dance music...

, State of the Art Recordings and Soul: R and artists including High Contrast

High Contrast

Lincoln Barrett, better known by the stage name High Contrast , is a Welsh drum and bass DJ and producer.-History:...

, Calibre

Calibre (artist)

Calibre, birth name Dominick Martin, is a Drum and Bass, and Liquid Funk, music producer and DJ hailing from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He originally started producing at a young age and has spent many years refining his sound. He is a classically trained musician playing a variety of musical...

, Solid State

Solid state

Solid state may refer to:In science:* Solid-state chemistry* Solid-state physics* Solid-state laser* Solid matterIn electronics:* Solid state , circuits built of solid materials* Solid-state fan...

, Nu:Tone

Nu:tone

Nu:Tone is a drum and bass artist on the Hospital Records label. His musical style is generally drum and bass and the subgenre liquid funk.-Background:...

, London Elektricity

London Elektricity

and Logistics

Logistics (artist)

Logistics is the stage name of Matt Gresham, a drum and bass music producer and DJ from Cambridge, England. He is signed to Hospital Records and has been releasing music since 2004, which he creates using the Reason 3 and Cubase sequencers...

among its main proponents. Alex Reece and LTJ Bukem were amongst the first producers to experiment fully with deep smooth drum and bass, and as such could be considered the forerunners of liquid funk.
The decade also saw the revival of jump-up. Referred to as "nu jump up", or pejoratively as clownstep, this kept the sense of fun and the simplistic, bouncing basslines from the first generation of jump up, but with tougher and more edgey production values, including increased sound compression. Notable artists are DJ Hazard, DJ Clipz and Taxman.

This modern period has also seen the development of the style known as "dubwise", which returns drum and bass to its reggae-influenced roots and combines them with modern production techniques which had advanced immeasurably since the early days of jungle. Although the dub-influenced sound was not new, having long been championed by artists like Digital and Spirit, 2003-2004 saw a significant increase in its popularity and visibility.

Similarly, whilst there had long been a niche dedicated almost entirely to detailed drum programming and manipulation, championed by the likes of Paradox

Paradox (artist)

Paradox is the pseudonym of Dev Pandya, a producer from the UK who has in recent years championed a new sub-genre of drum & bass known as drumfunk, which focuses on either finding obscure breakbeats or re-sampling much used drum & bass breakbeats from their original source and transforming them...

, the first half of this decade saw a revival and expansion in the subgenre known variously as drumfunk, "edits", or "choppage". Major labels include Inperspective and Synaptic Plastic and the new wave of artists in this style include ASC, Fanu, Breakage, Fracture and Nepture, 0=0 and Equinox.

The new millennium also saw a fresh wave of live drum and bass bands. The likes of Reprazent and Red Snapper had performed live drum and bass during the 1990s, but the re-creation of London Elektricity as a live band focussed renewed interest on the idea, with acts like The Bays, Keiretsu, Southampton based Gojira, Step 13

Step 13

, Deadsilence Syndicate, and U.V Ray (feat. Yuval Gabay) as well as Birmingham's PCM, pursuing this avenue. In addition the popular Breakbeat Kaos

Breakbeat Kaos

Breakbeat Kaos is a British independent record label based in London, UK that specialises in drum and bass. It is jointly owned by Fresh and Adam F, who founded the label in 2003 by merging Fresh's Breakbeat Punk with Adam F's Kaos Recordings. The label's first release was a 12" double A-side...

label has begun to focus more and more on bringing a live sound into drum and bass, both in the records they release and in the live band (music played on live acoustic instruments, including guitar) night the previously signed group Pendulum have hosted in London (e.g. October 2006 at the Fabric club).

In 2003, Metalheadz

Metalheadz

Metalheadz is a pioneering drum and bass record label based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1994 by Kemistry & Storm and Goldie, it has been home to some of the drum and bass scene's brightest talent and is notable for the high quality of its back catalogue....

signees Dylan and Robyn Chaos (aka Faith In Chaos) pushed the harder sound of drum and bass by founding the Freak Recordings

Freak Recordings

Freak Recordings is a UK-based drum n bass record label, owned and run by Dylan Hisley, which deals predominantly in heavier subgenres of drum and bass. It is affiliated with labels Obscene Recordings and Tech Itch Recordings, with the latter of whom it has formed a sub-label, Tech Freak...

label and sublabels Obscene and Tech Freak, together with artists like Technical Itch, Limewax

Limewax

Limewax is a drum and bass producer and DJ from Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine, whose style tends towards the harsher sounds of hardstep and darkstep. However he is most recognisable as a Skullstep artist....

, Counterstrike

Counterstrike (drum and bass group)

Counterstrike, is a drum and bass producer duo from Cape Town consisting of Justin Scholtemeyer and Eaton Crous. They are considered to be one of the pioneers of the South African drum 'n bass scene...

, SPL, Current Value, and many others, leading to the creation of the Therapy Sessions

Therapy Sessions

Therapy Sessions is a franchise of drum and bass events created by Anger Management booking agency and UK based label Freak Recordings.The first Therapy Sessions event happened at the Herbal club in London in 2003, and from then it has expanded worldwide with shows in the United States, Romania,...

drum and bass festivals in London. The Therapy Sessions franchise quickly expanded worldwide with greater repercussion on Eastern Europe with an attendance of more than 10.000 fans in cities like St. Petesburg.

Since around 2008, Drum & Bass developed yet more sub-genres. The first notable genre being "Autonomic" (Popularised by the group of artists under the same name of "Club Autonomic", consisted of Instra:mental and dBridge, among others, who 'joined' the club at a later date). This sub-genre is identified primarily by its use of very wide, open sounds, deep complex basslines and it's play on the popular and predictable drum patterns of 'regular' Drum & Bass. Notable artists include ASC, Consequence, Distance, dBridge, Instra:mental, Skream, Stray and Vaccine (among many others), With popular labels that promote the sound being Exit Records (Owned by dBridge himself), Nonplus+ Records (Also Co-owned between dBridge and Instra:mental), Auxiliary Records (Owned by ASC) as well as the self-titled record label Autonomic. Arguably the first track to quintessentially define Autonomic as a soundscape (and also the first release on the Nonplus+ label) was Instra:mental's track 'No Future'.

"The Autonomic Podcast" released for free by those in Club Autonomic, is an essential apitomisation of the Autonomic sound. The Autonomic podcast often comes in 3 sections: Opening with a number of tracks that influenced the artists in their early years of both life, and production, filled in the middle with a one hour or so long mix of Autonomic tracks, followed by another section of 'influences' (named as such on the podcasts themselves). The podcasts became a source for all the latest Autonomic sounds, many of which remain unreleased. Due to this, it became so incredibly (and unpredictably) popular due to fans proclaiming it as 'the next evolution of Drum & Bass', that their server suffered a large-scale crash due to high demand for downloads of the mixes.

A second sub-genre is Minimal Drum & Bass, also known as "Microfunk". This sub-genre is categorised by its extremely barebones approach to the Drum & Bass sound, drum patterns usually comprise only a few short, often computer-distorted beats and snares and rolling hats, although the complexity in the way these simple sounds are ordered can be huge, often requiring a number of drum machines and drum tracks to achieve what the artist seeks. Alternatively, much of Minimal can use sampled native instruments, with distortion such as reverb placed on them afterwards, so as to give a more 'natural' feel to the track. Other attributes of the sub-genre include sweeping synth chords and harmonisation and deep basslines. Notable artists include Bulb (A.K.A Fill), Bop, Oak, Mike-L, Furi Anga, Ultracode, Despot, Diagram, Jason oS, Nuage, Beastie Respond, Flatliners, Anile, June Miller, Rockwell and Karelia.

The Minimal Drum & Bass sound can be heard in a large number of places, but is well demonstrated in Mike-L's "DeepMelodies", Elusive Elements' "Elements" and Bulb (A.K.A Fill)'s "Into the Deep" series of mixes.

Drum 'n' bass and jazz fusion

American Grammy Award-winning record producer, jazz fusion pioneer, and bassist

Bassist

A bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...

Bill Laswell

Bill Laswell is an American bassist, producer and record label owner....

touched on drum and bass

Drum and bass

Drum and bass is a type of electronic music which emerged in the late 1980s. The genre is characterized by fast breakbeats , with heavy bass and sub-bass lines...

in the ‘90s with his Oscillations releases and the compilation Submerged: Tetragramaton. Laswell stepped up his work in drum 'n' bass starting with Brutal Calling (2004), an eight-track hard drum 'n' bass album with Ohm Resistance label owner Submerged (DJ)

Submerged (DJ)

Submerged is a Brooklyn-based DJ, bassist, founder of Ohm Resistance and co-founder of Obliterati, American avant garde drum and bass and experimental music labels, and a prolific multi-genre electronic music producer, first notable for his work with Grammy Award-winning bassist and producer Bill...

/producer Kurt Gluck followed by a series of releases and live dates. Laswell’s newest project in this vein is Method of Defiance. The first release focused on the core of Laswell and Submerged once again, with contributions from Toshinori Kondo

Toshinori Kondo

Toshinori Kondo is an avant-garde jazz and jazz fusion trumpeter. He resides in Tokyo, New York City, and Amsterdam....

and Guy Licata.

The second release under the Method of Defiance moniker was a compilation style project focusing on drum 'n' bass. Inamorata stretched the concept out, pairing Laswell’s bass with a different combination of respected jazz and world musicians and drum 'n' bass producers on each track. Artists including Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock

Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...

, John Zorn

John Zorn

John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...

, Pharoah Sanders

Pharoah Sanders

Pharoah Sanders is a Grammy Award–winning American jazz saxophonist.Saxophonist Ornette Coleman once described him as "probably the best tenor player in the world." Emerging from John Coltrane's groups of the mid-60s Sanders is known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on...

, Nils Petter Molvaer, Toshinori Kondo

Toshinori Kondo

Toshinori Kondo is an avant-garde jazz and jazz fusion trumpeter. He resides in Tokyo, New York City, and Amsterdam....

and Buckethead

Buckethead

Brian Carroll , better known by his stage name Buckethead, is a guitarist and multi instrumentalist who has worked within several genres of music. He has released 34 studio albums, four special releases and one EP. He has performed on over 50 more albums by other artists...

were paired with drum 'n' bass producers including Amit

Amit

Amit is a common male name. It is common in India, Nepal, Israel, Pakistan, Iran, Middle East, and Bangladesh.In Nepali, Sanskrit, Hindi, and Bengali, Amit means infinite or immeasurable or boundless. It is the wordstem root of the Amitabha Buddha and one of the 108 names of Hindu God Shri Ganesha...

, Paradox

Paradox (artist)

, Submerged

Submerged

Submerged is an action film, released in 2005. The film stars Steven Seagal, Christine Adams, William Hope, Gary Daniels, Alison King and Vinnie Jones. The film was directed by British director Anthony Hickox.- Plot :...

, Evol Intent

Evol Intent

Evol Intent is a hardstep drum and bass group formed in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. in 2000. The group is composed of The Enemy , Knick , and Gigantor ....

, Fanu and Corrupt Souls

Corrupt Souls

Corrupt Souls was a drum and bass group from Washington D.C, United States. The members were Telemetrik and Impulse . Alvarado has gone on to release a solo album in 2008 titled "My Lightyear" on Black Sun Empire Recordings....

. He also released a full-on collaboration with Finnish drum 'n' bass maestro Fanu on Ohm Resistance (US) and Karl Records

Karl Records

Karl Records was a United States based record label active in the late 1950s and early 1960s.-Label History:The Karl label was owned by rockabilly and country singer Clay Eager . The label specialized in rockabilly music and country and western music. The label was run out of Springfield, Ohio...

(Europe), entitled Lodge, which includes contributions from Molvaer and Bernie Worrell amongst others. The concept of the group has once again morphed into a full band concept. In 2009, Rare Noise Records released 'Live in Nihon', which showcased this new direction/grouping. The group now consisted of Laswell, Guy Licata, Dr. Israel, Toshinori Kondo

Toshinori Kondo

Toshinori Kondo is an avant-garde jazz and jazz fusion trumpeter. He resides in Tokyo, New York City, and Amsterdam....

and Bernie Worrell

Bernie Worrell

George Bernard "Bernie" Worrell, Jr. is an American keyboardist and composer best known as a founding member of Parliament-Funkadelic and for his work with Talking Heads. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic...

North America beginnings and scene

The rave scenes in the US (New York) and in Canada (Toronto) embraced the transition of hardcore

Hardcore techno

Hardcore techno is a type of electronic music typified by the rhythmic use of distorted and atonal industrial-like beats and samples...

to jungle around 1994. America's longest-running party, Konkrete Jungle also born in NYC, discovered the first US drum and bass MC's Blaise (Naughty Ride), Panic and Johnny Z. Outside of NYC. Dieselboy

Dieselboy

Dieselboy is the stage name of Damian Higgins, an American drum and bass DJ, producer, remixer, founder of the Human Imprint music label, and co-founder of its sublabel SubHuman : Human Imprint which launched in September 2010...

in Pittsburgh, Karl K & Kaos with MC Dub2 in Philadelphia and DJ Slant & DJ Stress from the 2Tuff

2Tuff

2Tuff Crew is a collective founded in 1994 to bring drum'n'bass music to Washington, DC and establish a d'n'b scene. 2Tuff Productions has been active ever since throwing one-off events, weekly parties and taking their sound on road nationally and worldwide. The 2Tuff Crew was founded by Andrew...

Crew along with Krazy Josifer and MDF1 from the Life of Leisure Crew in Washington DC. This small handful of US East Coast pioneers spent years in the underground playing "back rooms" before the sound caught on throughout America.

Perhaps most responsible for the extensive introduction of drum and bass to the U.S.in the 1990s was Bassrush, headed by Raymond Frances, whose innovation was to present House, Techno, and Drum & Bass in separate rooms—making Drum & Bass, for the first time, a major feature at U.S. rave parties. The Bassrush DJ Agency also introduced many major UK DJs to the American scene, including Shy FX, Kenny Ken, and DJ Randall.

While New York and Toronto thrived in this culture in the early '90s, new scenes were rapidly gaining recognition in the mid '90s in: Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Orlando, Denver, Seattle, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. Producers and DJs such as AK1200

AK1200

AK1200 is the stage name of a Florida-based musician Dave Minner working in the jungle and drum and bass genres.He started DJing in 1989 playing mainly Electro, and in 1990 he opened a record store in Orlando, Florida called The Hottie Shop. His early working relationships were with record labels...

(ORL), DJ Dara

DJ Dara

DJ Dara is an Irish drum and bass DJ operating mainly in North America. He is a member in the D'n'B group known as the Planet of the Drums...

(NY), Danny the Wildchild (CHI), Krazy Josifer (DC) and in particular Dieselboy

Dieselboy

(PIT) who helped push the genre further and darker, by producing, promoting, releasing compilations available for the public, and performing at raves. He is also one of the first US producers and DJs to break out on the international scene. Evol Intent

Evol Intent

Evol Intent is a hardstep drum and bass group formed in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. in 2000. The group is composed of The Enemy , Knick , and Gigantor ....

, Ewun and SPL have followed suit.

These artists have had a profound effect on the surrounding areas movements, causing drum and bass to spread in the majority of the United States. Clubs such as Buzz (DC), Breakdown (DEN), Seminar (CHI), Firestone (ORL), Platinum (PHI), Eklektic (SF), Science (LA), Masquerade (ATL) and Baltic Room (SEA) helped generate a scene outside of the then prosperous rave scene. Crews like Life of Leisure however promoted this scene heavily in Suburban area's all across MD/DC/VA.

In 2000 Dieselboy

Dieselboy

joined forces with AK1200

AK1200

and DJ Dara

DJ Dara

DJ Dara is an Irish drum and bass DJ operating mainly in North America. He is a member in the D'n'B group known as the Planet of the Drums...

to create an annual tour, the Planet of the Drums

Planet of the Drums

Founded during the summer of 2000, the Planet of the Drums is the alliance of four of America's most popular drum and bass DJ's: AK1200 , DJ Dara , Dieselboy , and MC Messinian...

. Since 2001 Messinian

Messinian

The Messinian is in the geologic timescale the last age or uppermost stage of the Miocene. It spans the time between 7.246 ± 0.005 Ma and 5.332 ± 0.005 Ma...

(James Fiorella, Philadelphia, PA) has been the MC. At ten consecutive years (2009), it is the longest-running annual tour in electronic dance music history.

In 2009, Dieselboy created The Monsters of Jungle, a tour concept featuring artists on his label, Human Imprint

Human Imprint

Human Imprint Recordings is an American drum and bass record label founded by Damian Higgins in New York City in 2002...

. The aesthetic is '80s metal meets drum and bass. It launched at the 11th Annual Starscape Festival in Baltimore, Maryland, in June 2009 as a multi-media stage production including custom visuals, and new music and spoken word audio prepared especially for the show. The first Monsters of Jungle tour featured Dieselboy, the Upbeats (New Zealand), Evol Intent, Ewun, Demo, Infiltrata, Joe Way, Mayhem, SPKTRM, MC Messinian, and MC Dino.

South America

Brazil's fusion of Drum & Bass and Bossa Nova or Samba gave birth to the term Sambass which was pushed by DJ Marky

DJ Marky

Marco Antonio Silva a.k.a. DJ Marky is a Brazilian drum and bass DJ.Together with DJ Patife, XRS Land and Drumagick, Brazilians were forging a new sound in drum and bass that became popular around the world with releases such as LK and Só Tinha Que Ser Com Você.-Career:He was brought to the...

together with DJ Patife

DJ Patife

Wagner Borges Ribeiro de Souza , better known by his stage name DJ Patife, is a prominent Brazilian drum and bass DJ....

, XRS

XRS

Xerxes de Oliveira is a drum and bass producer from Brazil. He uses several pseudonyms including XRS, XRS Land, Friendtornik, and Kapitel 06...

and Drumagick

Drumagick

Drumagick are the brothers JrDeep and Guilherme Lopes . They are DJs and drum 'n' bass producers who live in São Paulo, Brazil.-History:...

, and shortly after the sound conquered the UK scene due to the global popularity that Marky achieved, supported by a residency at The End

The End (club)

The End was a nightclub in the West End of London, England. Started in December 1995 by DJs Layo Paskin and Mr C, The End was world-renowned. It was also responsible for the label End Recordings....

club and his work for BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 1

. In Venezuela, DJ Alex (Venezuela's first Drum & Bass DJ and founder of the Simpl3 crew), also known as Modovisual for his graphic design, has created several designs for international events and also merchandising for Dogsonacid.com. Venezuelan producer and DJ Zardonic has been leading the harder sound of Drum & Bass by headlining the first Therapy Sessions

Therapy Sessions

events taking place in Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

and Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, as well as pushing the country even further on the map due to his signing to Dieselboy's Human Imprint

Human Imprint

Human Imprint Recordings is an American drum and bass record label founded by Damian Higgins in New York City in 2002...

label.

Literature

A History of Rock Music, , 1951-2000 by Piero Scariffo (ISBN 978-0-595-29565-4), nonfiction in HTML form
All Crews: Journeys Through Jungle / Drum and Bass Culture by Brian Belle-Fortune (ISBN 978-0-9548897-0-8), nonfiction
Knowledge Magazine Article on the history of drum & bass radio pirates by Sarah Bentley
Roots 'n Future by Simon Reynolds (ISBN 978-0-330-35056-3), nonfiction
Rumble in the Jungle: The Invisible History of Drum and Bass by Steven Quinn, Transformations, No 3 (2002), nonfiction (ISSN 1444-377) PDF file
State of bass, jungle: the story so far by Martin James, Boxtree (ISBN 978-0-7522-2323-0), nonfiction
The Rough Guide to Drum 'n' Bass by Peter Shapiro and Alexix Maryon (ISBN 978-1-85828-433-0), nonfiction
King Rat by China Melville (ISBN 978-0-330-37098-1), fiction

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.