In a world where experimental electronic music exponentially splinters into a multitude of rogue genres that slowly shuffle the globe from demilitarized dance floors to sleeper cell bedroom studios and back, a team of disparate scientists tracks this solanum-like pandemic while desperately trying to interpret cryptic field recordings of Samhain’s past, not one day at a time, but from Amen to Zombie…

AMEN

Yeah, yeah I know, another AMEN right in the middle of Halloween-ing season.  But I’ll make this one just a short one.  The main reason is that Commix just put out Re:Call To Mind.  And since were right in the middle of the Cs I thought, Good time to pre-empt where Commix comes later in the Cs with this post.  Mainly due to the fact that, in my opinion, the rest of the catalog is hit or miss.

There’s the absolute classic Be True.  Which is worth the price of admission alone to the original Call To Mind album (and is also why people are clamoring about the remix album.  The Burial remix of “Be True” is finally showing its head on this album.  Even got a one-sided press, with a Metalheadz logo etching on the flip).  But to be honest I see the lowest level acceptable d&b for the rest of their body of work.  Which is in fact a diss on other producers.

Commix are master craftsmen.  Except no d&b below this level of quality.  And while they can crank out anthems like “Talk To Frank”, don’t miss things like Japanese Electronics and Underwater Scene.  Here’s a picture of a dead brown dog stuck in 8 bit world.

Commix – Re: Call To Mind

Now lets race through some Notable Releases:

Catacomb

Reppin’ Toronto’s healthy d&b scene is the revolving cast of heads know as Catacomb.  Now down to just Larry Miller, the moniker has been doing damage from ’06 until now.  Coming out of the gate in the vein with that new blend of Neuro-Funk championed by Phace and Misanthrope, Catacomb got unbelievable lucky landing the flip to Phace’s Crocker with a track called The Zodiac (which was released on Syndrome Audio and is the label Catacomb are associated with).  Everybody had that record because Crocker was the single just before Phace dropped the bombshell that was the album Psycho.

Not to say that they can’t hold their own, but with the buzz that the album Psycho created, that Neuro-Funk sound was en vogue and Catacomb were right there to provide healthy input to that splinter genre and inject new ideas as well.  Outstanding releases on this page are Immoral and Doom Raiders.

Cause 4 Concern

Man, I almost didn’t want to put any C4C on this page, but them being scene Dons, I guess I have to.  That is to say, their sound is a little stale nowadays.  But that didn’t mean that back around 2000 anything that had C4C on it and was on Timeless. You’d drop whatever kind of money it took to get that record in your box.

They’ve had their own label that releases only C4C material but releases have been spotty over the years.  They’ve had the imprint since 1999 and they’re not all gems.  In fact, there’s some really blah stuff.  I guess its the old argument of “is it more interesting to see an artist develop their super specific sound and then that define them, versus watching an artist develop through exploring different aspects of different genres?”  The former would always be the preference, were it not for bitin’ ass muthafukaz.

Directly below the C4C selection is a Cern & Dabs release that sounds exactly like prime-time C4C work.  Oh well, respect due.  And they can still crank out some hard as nails funk.  Check out Born Dead to be converted to digging your way though the back catalog for some futuristic d&b gold.

As a final note on how the might have fallen, the C4C release on Virus isn’t even worth mentioning.  What the F went on there?  That shit should never happen!

Cern/Duo Infernale – The Mirage/Fiction

Nice, good use of bass and samples. Proper modern d&b. Moody, futuristic with updated production values hanging on a d&b wire frame.  ”Duo Infernale” is the winner here. “Hear what the man said” about b-sides.

So it goes.

And now a word from ZOMBIE…

Call this one a ZOMBIE extra.  I thought it worthwhile to mention that if you should need some spooky music for your Halloween shin-dig and you don’t want to pull out any of the totally awesome stuff I’ve reviewed here, then seek out some Demdike Stare…

I am not going to go in to a whole treatise on Hauntology, its merits or shortcomings, but think of as like modern Spooky Sounds.  Symbiosis is sufficiently spooky enough to put your Halloween guests on edge, but has enough rhythm to fit nicely in the background of a costume contest.  Demedike get lumped in with Hauntology, but I think it’s really because they engage this sort of spooky dimension in their music, and less of a sense of the past “Hauntology-ing” the pieces.  Call it Spooky Sounds for a robot Halloween party.

Goodnight out there what ever you are.

In a world where experimental electronic music exponentially splinters into a multitude of rogue genres that slowly shuffle the globe from demilitarized dance floors to sleeper cell bedroom studios and back, a team of disparate scientists tracks this solanum-like pandemic while desperately trying to interpret cryptic field recordings of Samhain’s past, not one day at a time, but from Amen to Zombie…

AMEN

Ahhh, finally the spring heat has subsided and summer has people lazy in the shade sipping blood orange margaritas.  It also means that most working DJs are out working the festival circuits.  Which generally means that whatever is going to be the summer hit has already been released and the 12″ tap starts to squeeze shut and releases drip out.

However, Klute just put out Music for Prophet and ASC finally dropped Nothing is Certain in early July.  Both albums vie for top spots on the Juno bestsellers chart. And not much more in the way of good beats on the top of that list right now.

Icicle‘s Xylophobia is out on promo on Shogun Audio, a flash in the pan, been wanting a release of that one for a while.

Anyway, d&b as a genre has its summer persona and it’s all out in smooth vibe style.  Let’s check out the Juno catalog in our journey through C:

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In a world where experimental electronic music exponentially splinters into a multitude of rogue genres that slowly shuffle the globe from demilitarized dance floors to sleeper cell bedroom studios and back, a team of disparate scientists tracks this solanum-like pandemic while desperately trying to interpret cryptic field recordings of Samhain’s past, not one day at a time, but from Amen to Zombie…

AMEN

This marks the last entry for the Bs.  It has been a long — and some would say fruitful — passage through the sinuous curves of the Bs.  And, absolutely, I’m trying to make a boob joke here.  So to wrap it all up for the second letter of our alphabet, let’s take a look at some of the albums up for grabs on Juno.  This last time around I guess I’ll just go ahead and put up all the links to the Juno release pages so that you can click away and check out the music that I’m so fond of blabbing about.  I’ll just say a few things about what’s up with the releases and then let the music do the talking.

Notable Releases

Black Sun Empire – Cruel & Unusual

I’ve talked a bit about BSE in a previous A to Z and here’s a good way to get a bunch of cuts from them that don’t suck.  This release is a 4-piece vinyl.  I don’t usually tell non-heads/DJs to grab d&b albums on vinyl, but you get what you need and no unnecessary mixed CD like in so many other d&b packaged albums.  ”Masquerade” is a stand out track.

Blame – Two Revolutions

Kind of a shocker here.  Old head Blame still holds his own with an old-ish release on the influential 720 Degrees label.  Not an album, but a compilation of some nice Drum Funk and “intelligent” cuts on the label.  This time a 3-piece vinyl.  By the way: buy more vinyl.  Especially these old releases from the late 90s/early 00s.  It’s nice to listen to the production on the tops and tails of tunes when it’s done right.  Usually they get chopped or mixed when you buy electronic music compilations.  Also know as mixed CDs.  Boo to that shit.

9th Wonder EP – mixed by Breakage

Except when you have a mixed CD that’s mixed by someone who knows how to mix a CD for home listening.  Dieselboy comes to mind.  Most of the mixed CDs you get will make the error of trying to recreate the way a club set works.  Breakage does a nice job of balancing tempos and moods with his mix.  The first CD nicely brings together a label showcase of Progress and includes some hard to find cuts from their LTD sub-label.

Breakage is also worth a specific mention here, in that he just released his new album Foundation.  I’ve given it a few listens and I’m not entirely sure it’s that good.   Everyone’s zoomed in on the Burial co-lab.  It’s way hyped right about now so I decided to not include it in a list of some things that would get you used to the idea of listening to d&b.  And it’s mostly a dubstep thing.

Blu Mar Ten – Natural History

Now, before anyone says that the link above is broken, they sold out of the CD of Natural History and the link is to two bonus tracks from the album.  That being said, this album is very musical and absolutely showcases the producers’ talent.  If you track down one album off of this list make in this one.  Blu Mar Ten are also old guard and have tons of releases.  This was put out last year; Blu Mar Ten has been releasing 12″s for I’m guessing 15 years and this is their first album proper.  And it does not disappoint.

There was two other things that were on the page from Bizzy B and a Good Looking comp called Earth 7.  Not albums in the true sense of the word but still worth checking out.  I think I stretched the limits of an “album review” entry enough by including the Progress and 720 Degrees comps.  But it does illustrate a good point and gives you a rule of thumb.  Good d&b albums are few and far between.  Also, if an album has an unmixed as well as mixed CD that goes with it, don’t bother.  The mixed CD is there to filter out all the crap that only DJs require from the unmixed versions of the songs.  And you don’t want to pay double for some shit that the very people who are putting out the music are saying is 75% unnecessary to listen to.  Of course there are exceptions, but very few.  If you can go for the vinyl of an album, do that.  You usually get the critical cuts and since they’re kind of pricey to sell to the public (five pieces of vinyl can sometimes be like seventy bones) that serves as a filter for half baked b-sides.  Onwards to C!

So it Goes