(aka Delusibeta's 2500th post spectacular)Welcome to the Drum & Bass thread.What is drum & bass?Drum & Bass is a genre of electronic music, mainly focusing on sub-bass and drum breakbeats (hence the name), mainly around 160-180BPM tempo. If you want more detail,
this post over on the Something Awful forums is really in-depth (albeit a bit old).
Cut to the chase: what do you recommend?For newcomers to the genre, here's my recommendations.
Pendulum - Hold Your Colour
To use a clunky anime metaphor, this is yer Cowboy Bebop. It's hard to find a DnB fan who doesn't like this album, and it's very much an ideal entry point to the genre. Their later albums,
In Silico and
Immersion sounds substantially more rock-y, venturing into territory already well covered by The Prodigy, leading to the traditional claims of selling out (and, in my opinion, isn't as good)
Samplers:
Chase & Status - More Than Alot
Chase & Status - No More Idols
Chase & Status' debut also has a lot of fans. A large quantity of big tunes are present and correct. Like Pendulum, their next album ([i]No More Idols[/b]) had more guitars (and more dubstep), however in my opinion is still quite good (I prefer it over Pendulum's later albums), and is probably worth a look.
Samplers:
Various Artists - Fifteen Years of Hospital Records
For those that prefer the liquid end of the spectrum, the kingpins of the sub-genre, Hospital Records, recently released a 37 track compilation covering their decade and a half in the business, and then slapped 15 new tracks on the front for good measure. Essential for newcomers to the genre, and bloody good value to boot (especially the digital version, which gets you all 52 tracks in mixed and unmixed form. (Note for people outside the UK: probably be best to
buy it direct to get the old tracks)
Samplers:
There's plenty more where that comes from, but those are my recommendations for getting into the genre.
Where should I look to find more?YouTube seems to be the main place to find it. Pretty much every tune worth its salt is on there. Recommended channels include:
UKF Drum & Bass: The major channel for mainstream drum & bass. If you've heard it on the radio, it was uploaded here two weeks ago.
Drum & Bass Arena: The traditional hub, the YouTube also hosts their DNBTV archives: three and a half years worth of live mixes. Did someone say "archive binge"?
Liquicity: Probably the premier channel for liquid.
Also good: label channels.
Hospital RecordsRam RecordsShogun AudioFinally: podcasts. Recommended podcasts include
Drum & Bass Arena Podcast (iTunes link)Hospital Records Podcast (iTunes link)Shogun Audio Podcast (iTunes link)________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Right then, discuss and post more D&B.
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