Drum & Bass - help me get my head/ears around it

[Mykesbass]

I make a real point of not disliking any musical genre, but I have never been able to get what d&b is supposed to be doing. Anyone got any suggestions of what to listen to with the hope of understanding, and then possibly liking some of the stuff?

Thanks, Mike.

[Nail Soup]

And while we’re at it, are Jungle and D&B the same thing?

[Nail Soup]

I jumped from this thread over to Facebook. Within about 30 seconds this was in my feed

[Mykesbass]

13 minutes ago, Nail Soup said:

I jumped from this thread over to Facebook. Within about 30 seconds this was in my feed

We were talking about Scottish Widows the other day - my daughter remembers the ads from when she was little. First and on Twitter when I next looked...

[Fishfacefour]

If you like reggae at all, use that as the way in. Some great jungle tracks based off dancehall vocals. I tend to hear it as double time drums with reggae speed bass.

It partly comes out of sound system culture so the sound is meant to be felt as much as heard.

I'll post some favourites when I get a chance later.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 6, 2022 by Fishfacefour

[Reggaebass]

My eldest boy is a big jungle fan and my youngest is more into  D&B  so I would say it’s an age thing  , I think jungle tempo tends to be faster with more lyrics, I’ve been to quite a few clubs with them but didn’t last all night 😁,  this is a memorable one for me 

 

[Eric.C.Lapton]

There’s also “Bassline”

 

But this, jungle along with drum and bass all stem from break beat which encompasses most electronic music 

[Mykesbass]

13 minutes ago, Reggaebass said:

My eldest boy is a big jungle fan and my youngest is more into  D&B  so I would say it’s an age thing  , I think jungle tempo tends to be faster with more lyrics, I’ve been to quite a few clubs with them but didn’t last all night 😁,  this is a memorable one for me 

 

Although I wouldn't go as far as saying I like that, I can see how it fits together. The D&B that's giving me grief is what I keep hearing on 6Music, which seems to be that drum pattern, and very little else as like a breakdown within a track. Just all a little gratuitous.

 

Looking forward to @Fishfacefour's examples.

[Mykesbass]

17 hours ago, Eric.C.Lapton said:

There’s also “Bassline”

 

But this, jungle along with drum and bass all stem from break beat which encompasses most electronic music 

See, I can get my head around that track. It's when the drum pattern suddenly comes in at three times that speed that I don't get it.

Edited August 7, 2022 by Mykesbass

[Frank Blank]

Try some Photek, particularly the first two albums...

 

Modus Operandi (1997)

Form & Function (1998)

 

I'm not sure there is anything to 'get' about any music, you either like it or you don't. I avoided Jazz for years because I thought I didn't 'get' it, or 'understand' it until I found myself just digging Duke Ellington. Personally I like some D&B because the grooves are huge. Come to think of it the reason I like some D&B is very similar to why I like some very heavy bands that just ride riffs, I'm thinking of Helmet here, they get into a really good riff and just groove. It's simple and quite pure, no guff.

 

 

[Eric.C.Lapton]

Here’s another Drum and Bass artist you might like 

 

 

[Frank Blank]

An absolute classic and one that certainly was an in for me...

 

 

[timbo1978]

20 minutes ago, Frank Blank said:

An absolute classic and one that certainly was an in for me...

 

 

I concur. This I can get into. And I also have eclectic tastes

[Frank Blank]

Digging GoGo Penguin at the moment, not D&B but there is a hint of it in there...

 

 

[timbo1978]

Another Jazz meets D&B example...

 

The bad plus

 

 

 

[Fishfacefour]

Some quick links.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mykesbass]

9 hours ago, Frank Blank said:

Try some Photek, particularly the first two albums...

 

Modus Operandi (1997)

Form & Function (1998)

 

I'm not sure there is anything to 'get' about any music, you either like it or you don't. I avoided Jazz for years because I thought I didn't 'get' it, or 'understand' it until I found myself just digging Duke Ellington. Personally I like some D&B because the grooves are huge. Come to think of it the reason I like some D&B is very similar to why I like some very heavy bands that just ride riffs, I'm thinking of Helmet here, they get into a really good riff and just groove. It's simple and quite pure, no guff.

 

 

Thanks Frank, will give Photek a listen.

 

As for 'getting' d&b, I'm just curious to hear some of it working musically. At the moment, all I hear is the same rhythmic effect bulldozing its way through everything it encounters. There has to be more to it than that! Oh, and I don't want to be one of those prejudiced old boys sitting in the corner saying 'that's not music'!

[Nail Soup]

10 hours ago, Mykesbass said:

that drum pattern

A lot of Jungle D&B is based around the 'Amen break'..... here's a short YT vid on the topic.

The man on the rght is the drummer who originally payed it - Gregory Coleman.

 

[zbd1960]

I've had a listen to quite a few of the links that have been posted above. It's interesting that some are stylistically similar to the minimalist genre in the classical world, obviously some are not. Some for me give me the same problems I have with C20th 'avant garde', 12 tone serialism, etc. as in 'where's the music?'.

 

Musical preferences are very personal. In my younger days I was very much a 'classical only' person. My tastes and interests are much wider now, and even for genres that I don't get on with I can still appreciate good musicianship even if I don't like the music! 

[Leonard Smalls]

Sort of!

 

 

[Leonard Smalls]

And Bill's more ambient take:

 

 

[Buddster]

36 minutes ago, Nail Soup said:

A lot of Jungle D&B is based around the 'Amen break'..... here's a short YT vid on the topic.

The man on the rght is the drummer who originally payed it - Gregory Coleman.

 

Very good post there. Nice video. 

 

I was working in studios around this time mixing tracks with a lot of dance/remixers. Everyone and their donkey was using this loop (bIt like the DX7 in the early 80s). 

 

I struggled with a lot of this music at the time as it's not my taste. But as an in house engineer you do what you got to do. Same with house music. Where's the music? But get into a club, accept it is what it is and let it get to you and then it makes sense! 🕺

[Reggaebass]

I’ve always been a prodigy fan on the side and I’ve heard some of their tracks  referred to as  jungle/dance , I’d say more dance myself but similar tempo 

 

[Fishfacefour]

15 minutes ago, zbd1960 said:

I've had a listen to quite a few of the links that have been posted above. It's interesting that some are stylistically similar to the minimalist genre in the classical world, obviously some are not. Some for me give me the same problems I have with C20th 'avant garde', 12 tone serialism, etc. as in 'where's the music?'.

 

Musical preferences are very personal. In my younger days I was very much a 'classical only' person. My tastes and interests are much wider now, and even for genres that I don't get on with I can still appreciate good musicianship even if I don't like the music! 

 

Listening to individual tracks only gives you half the picture. This is dance music and the performance is in the mixing of the tracks together to make new hybrids. 

The 'music' exists in the timbre, the rhythmic complexity and subtleties in programming. It's hard to appreciate in a single YouTube track.

Also most of the tracks originally had an extremely short shelf life, only existing as dubplates. The attraction was similar to reggae dancehall where the newest sounds are an attraction. This is why they style changed so rapidly over a relatively short space of time (93-95), after that it became codified in to a genre, with bandwagon jumpers a plenty ( cough David Bowie).

 

 

 

[Fishfacefour]

simple, but sonically devastating in the right context