DjOriented

There has been a lot of talk recently at Beatport HQ about what defines a ‘classic’? Can something under 12 months of age, or even an underground record that only shifted a few hundred units, be given such a title?

As ease of access to production software has reduced the barriers of entry to the contemporary electronic music scene, our shopping crates and digital music collections have vastly increased. To differentiate yourself and to stand the test of time a track needs to go classic, but what’s in a classic?

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The beat changed one day. Four-to-the-floor’s steady dominant drum march fractured, as chaotic new patterns emerged in the ranks of uniformity.

Once the familiar heartbeat of disco, house, and techno skipped, the boundaries tumbled down. The tempo rule book was thrown out, sounds warped, and strange new dance moves emerged. It was a jungle of rhythms, drums, and gut-wrenching basslines.

Two-step, breakbeat, dubstep, big beat, drum & bass, and garage - all dared to break the rules, all broke the beat.

Today Beatportal’s Caleb Rakes grabs his whistle and airhorn, and shouts ‘Oi Oi’ from the rooftops, as he takes a rewind through the disorderly and boisterous side of dance music with 20 tracks every broken beat fan should know.

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The beat changed one day. Four-to-the-floor’s steady dominant drum march fractured, as chaotic new patterns emerged in the ranks of uniformity.

Once the familiar heartbeat of disco, house, and techno skipped, the boundaries tumbled down. The tempo rule book was thrown out, sounds warped, and strange new dance moves emerged. It was a jungle of rhythms, drums, and gut-wrenching basslines.

Two-step, breakbeat, dubstep, big beat, drum & bass, and garage - all dared to break the rules, all broke the beat.

Today Beatportal’s Caleb Rakes grabs his whistle and airhorn, and shouts ‘Oi Oi’ from the rooftops, as he takes a rewind through the disorderly and boisterous side of dance music with 20 tracks every broken beat fan should know.

Read more on Beatportal

Before Justice and Simian Mobile Disco were famous, they played at the Filthy Dukes’ quirky Kill ‘Em All And Let God Sort Them Out club night.

The party began life six years ago as a poorly attended bash in the basement of a pub in London, but soon grew to become one of London’s most popular club events, helping to create the indie dance hysteria that later swept the globe.

The success of their parties soon led to Olly Dixon and Tim Lawton being asked to remix famous bands, even though they had never produced a single track.

After a string of remixes, the Filthy Dukes dropped their debut album ‘Nonsense In The Dark’, and this month saw the release of a new set of club remixes of their LP.

We caught up with the Dukes’ Olly Dixon to find out more about the beginning of their indie dance empire.

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Popular drum & bass publication Knowledge magazine famously described DJ Fresh as ‘perhaps the most influential D&B producer we’ve ever known’.

That was a few years ago, and since the release of Fresh’s 2005 debut album ‘Escape From Planet Monday’, we haven’t heard much from the UK producer. Until now.

This month sees Fresh return to form with one of the biggest vocal cuts of the year, ‘Hypercaine’ on Breakbeat Kaos. The stunning collaboration sees MC Stamina and Yolanda on vocals, and combined with Fresh’s monster riffs and drums, it is destined to become an anthem.

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Tim Shaw aka Tim Exile sits in a bar in Berlin’s creative hub, Friedrichshain, winding down after an extensive day of programming.

Warp Records’ new protégé moved from hectic London to blissed-out Berlin, which helped him craft the unique sound as heard on his latest album ‘Listening Tree’, whilst also re-developing his live set up and working on new technology to accommodate it.

With an extensive repertoire Shaw started off with drum & bass productions on legendary labels Moving Shadow and Evol Intent Records. Not content with being confined to the formulaic approach that the drum & bass world succumbed to, his style progressed into more IDM territory, which was predominately released on Mike Paradinas’ Planet Mu label.

Whilst this was happening, Tim worked on new technology and software to help him craft the sounds and ideas that were in his head. Working alongside product developers Native Instruments, Tim Shaw has helped develop some of today’s most common software packages and is behind the latest NI release, ‘The Finger’, coming September 14th.

The software package allows users to key in different effects with the use of a solitary finger.

If anyone has the had the luck of catching a live Tim Exile show over the past five years they will tell you that it is an electronic cabaret of extreme proportions, that engages the audience, by sampling them and using them as part of the piece. As he says, “It’s all about the performance.”

Recently his sound has progressed from experimental IDM to more melodies, and he has won over a new global fan base. “It’s all just a process of growing old,” he says.

We met Tim Shaw to find out more.

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Instra:Mental aka Alex Green and Damon Kirkamduo have shaken the very foundations of drum & bass with their new sound that owes as much to Detroit techno, as it does to music at 170bpm.

After a six year hiatus, Green and Kirkamduo returned to the scene and began exploring new territory characterized by minimal textures, old school references, and deep vibes. Their sound, if anything, is an amalgamation between minimal techno and jungle, and people are starting to notice.

Fans of Instra:Mental include ex Bad Company don DBridge, and dubstep’s Skream and Scuba. The pair’s latest release, ‘Watching You’, is a slow-burning slice of lush, ambient electronica which stretches well beyond the drum & bass universe.

The duo recently set up their own label NonPlus Records to release music that falls under the categorization of ‘good electronica’. In their goal to push things forward and open the eyes of many, Instra:Mental have their own Autonomic podcast which, after just eight episodes, has become a cult hit. The shows combine 80s hip hop, techno, and neo-junglist beats.

It’s time to see what all the hype is about.

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Fate works in mysterious ways. Planets align, stars collide, and DJs bump into each other in Kazakhstan, thus forming a label which combines their love of ghetto bass with oversized pussy cats. This is how the universe works, if you are DJs Deekline and Tim Healey.

Nick Deekline’s history as a producer stretches way back to the late 90s garage scene when he released one of the biggest tracks of the era, ‘I Don’t Smoke’ (da reefa), a sound which he hopes to bring back with his label cohort, Healey.

As the UK’s bass-driven scenes morphed into new and exciting sounds, Deekline became known within breakbeat circles for his cult label Rat Records, and for his duo, Deekline & Wizard.

Healey on the other hand, came from the other side of the galaxy, dominating charts and DJ playlists with his filthy, electro house beats as one half of Coburn. With tracks such as ‘We Interrupt This Programme’ and ‘Give Me Love’, Tim then moved into breakbeat, applying his trademark tricks to the sound before eventually teaming up with Nick.

The pair’s new label Giant Pussy Records combines all of Deekline and Healey’s breaks, house and dubstep influences, and as Tim sums it up, ‘ It’s a vault of sleaze, trash, and bass’.

We caught up with Deekline and Tim Healey to find out more about their Giant Pussy.

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His latest single might be 180 BPM, but drum & bass DJ Sub Focus is crawling when it comes to the release of his debut album.

For over 12 months every adrenaline-seeking dnb head has eagerly anticipated the British producer’s opus since it was first announced, an appetite that really began seven years ago after his debut 12-inch on RAM’s sister label Frequency.

Since then he has built a huge following with his radio-friendly remixes and singles that includes a reworking of The Prodigy’s ‘Smack My Bitch Up’, and the massive 2007 hit ‘Airplane’, a track that helped spearhead the latest drum & bass renaissance by bringing in a new generation of fans who weren’t necessarily into this type of fast-paced dance music.

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Ten years ago some of the biggest names in drum & bass formed one of the most important and influential fellowships the scene has ever seen.

DJ Fresh, Maldini, Vegas, and D Bridge created Bad Company, the first drum & bass supergroup, that went on to influence the likes of Pendulum, and Chase & Status.

The collective created genre-defining tracks that were raw and hard. ‘The Nine’ was voted by d&b publication, Knowledge Magazine, as the best drum & bass track of all time, whilst ‘Nitrous’ and ‘Planet Dust’ are still spun by high profile DJs today.

The group eventually parted ways. Fresh went on to spearhead Breakbeat Kaos and saw global commercial success with his album ‘Escape From Planet Monday’ and Maldini and Vegas carried on the Bad Company name, whilst D Bridge, aka Darren White set up his own label, Exit Recordings, to explore the more vocal and experimental boundaries of music.

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