My days its been a busy month! Playing out every weekend has been a lot of fun, and I’ve saved the best till last.
Catch me supporting this ridiculous lineup over at detonate on the 22nd. I’ll be in the room with Calibre, Dub-Phizix and Enei. Bosh!
Latest
Bass Trap – Derby – Friday 8th March
Basstrap’s up this evening! If your’e in the local area gimme a shout on twitter @howitzer_dnb.
I’ll be dropping an early doors, 2 hour minimal/liquid/tech set to get the party started, any and all requests will be serviced if possible (and appropriate).
I look forward to seeing you there!
Phace – Motor EP Series (Neosignal)
Neosignal’s releases are few and far between, but when we do get a drop, you can be damn sure its the hottest drum & bass to splash down that month.
The Motor EP is no exception, with its massive neurofunk breaks and collabs from Noisa AND Mefjus I think its safe to assume you’ll be hearing these around a lot in the coming months!
Mise En Place Pt.2 – Ingredients Records
Those of you who remember the first part to Mise En Place will recall it was an epic EP from the guys over at Ingredients, bringing together some of the greatest talents in the industry for a special flavour.
Well the guys over at ingredients have just gone and one upped themselves.
This follow-up EP is brimming with incredible tracks from the likes of Villem, Break, Skeptical, Dub Phizix and dRamatic & dbAudio. Quite the line-up eh?
It’s as good as it sounds, take a listen!
The tune I find most interesting on this EP is Dub Phizix – Rainy City Music. He’s been blasting out the deep, dancefloor smashers relentlessly over the past year or so, which is what makes this such a stark contrast to what were used to; A slow, atmospheric, rolling tune, accented by spacious percussion and strings shows Dub Phizix’s lighter side.
Coming on 18/03/13
Mefjus – Signalz / Mefjus & Kasra – Cypher (Critical Music)
Big things coming from the critical camp once again with Mefjus and Kasra teaming up to bring you some more ridiculous beats.
This still maintains the classic Mefjus flavour, but feels a little different. Hopefully He’s been working on a progression from his breakthrough sound, which, while awesome, has been heavily rinsed by him and his imitators.
release date: 18/03/13
Seba – Identity (Secret Operations)
Seba is one of those artists thats been around longer than I can comprehend, it seems he’s always been part of the drum & bass scene and has always put out quality music!
After 16 years of releases, Seba has spent some time making his first ever LP for his own label; Secret Operations.
Its a guided affair with consideration for the listener, Seba has obviously taken time to digest the way his audience will hear this album and tailored the tracklisting accordingly.
the recent album sampler was a little confusing for me, it felt like a progression from the traditional sound and style I’m used to hearing from Seba. As such, I was expecting the LP to be a bit of a foray into the unknown; experimental beats with a view to coming out the other end re-imagined.
But fear not, it’s full to the brim with his classic and much loved techno influenced liquid drum and bass sounds. Soaring sound-scapes and tribal breaks will have you winding away the hours picking out the nuances in each track.
That being said, there are a few tracks that push Seba’s sound, a couple of slower tracks made it in there, I’m not going to pretend I know what genre it should be pigeon holed in. Safe to say it’s about 125 bpm and it makes a nice change of pace to the breakbeat speed of the rest of the album.
There is one track I’d specifically like to explore a little; Identity, the album titled track. A pulsing, hypnotic, off-key sound that never seems to transcend. Coupled with the processed speech of who I can only assume to be Seba himself, this is an odd sounding track that only makes sense in the context of the album as a whole.
This track feels like self justification on Seba’s part, maybe trying to educate a new audience, maybe trying to affiliate with the old. Either way, it strikes as a quite ego-centric track. A quote from the song: “There are those who create a sound and there are those who imitate that sound”
Now I’m not saying I don’t agree or understand the points the song communicates, Seba’s been round long enough to qualify himself as a creator of much of the techno inspired liquid dnb sound we hear today. I just don’t think he needed to say it. It can be misconstrued by the listener quite easily as artists ego and can taint the rest of the album with a sour taste.
However, looking past this and describing the album as a whole; it’s one of the best liquid albums I’ve heard in a long time and one I’ve been waiting for, for an even longer time.
It hasn’t quite moved me as much as some of Seba’s earlier works, but I’m a jaded cynic these days 😉
Free Alix Perez!
Shogun Audio are drumming up the fanfare ahead of the imminent release of Alix Perez’s second LP with a freebee from the forthcoming album!
Whats not to love? Get on the download! http://www.alixperez.com/
Liquid Sessions On Livity FM
If you didn’t catch the broadcast last night for whatever reason you can grab it here: http://www.livityfmradio.com/apps/podcast/podcast/288702
There was a little fuck up at the beginning of the broadcast, the recording may have missed a couple of minutes off the beginning, but you wont have missed much.
Tracklisting here:
Butterfly – Hibea
Embers – B Locks
The Aftermath – Flaco & Glen E.ston
Life Under Construction – Roygreen
Hard Times – S.T. Files & Response
Just Like You – Naibu feat. Key
Full Hd – Sunchase
Afterthought – Ivy Lab
Cant describe – Seba
Rainha – Zero T
Parity (Klute Remix) – Tokyo Prose & Phil Tangent
Zero Degrees (Stunna Remix) – Radicall
Don’t Want Your Love – Calibre
One Big Family (Hybrid Minds Bootleg) – Temple Cloud
Garden (Calibre remix) – Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs
Away With Me (feat. Tamara Blessa) (Calibre Remix) – SpectraSoul feat. Tamara Blessa
UnEarthed – Spectrasoul
Plugs – Calibre
The Hurting – Lsb
Brain Stimulation – Nymfo
Oblique – Sabre
Rainy City Music – Dub Phizix
Love So True VIP / Watch Out (Enei Remix) – Symmetry Recordings
When this landed in my inbox I had to change pants, my two favourite tracks of last year remixed by my two favourite artists. Who could ask for more?
Love So True VIP is a great take on an already amazing track, rather than pad it out with re-processed versions of the same sound, theres been many additions to the entire song and the intro is still a game changer on any dancefloor. That drop has been chiselled up into a bone breaker and generally twisted into an altogether heavier track, two thumbs up!
Watch Out came on symmetry late last year from a collab Eastcolors and Enei. It was a defining track for Eastcolors, and one that signalled a new direction for the young artist.
It was a quality tune in its own right, but when I heard Enei got his hands on it for remix duties, my curiosity couldn’t be contained.
It is a great remix, but there are elements that dont sit as well as in the original. That bass hit is tough, but sounds out by a fraction of a second, enough to instil confusion.
The vocal is an oddity too. Whilst its a wicked lick and sits in the song fine, don’t double drop it or layer it up. It’s off from the classic 4:4 of many tracks and makes my brain hurt as a listener.
This’ll make an incredible 12″ and is out at the beginning of March!
howitzerdnb 