90's Tech-Step C/D, S/D

would it be fair to say that this kind of d 'n b is making a bit of a comeback, with DJs like Ben UFO mixing it with techno and ravey breaks type stuff?

I find this playlist fascinating (esp. as I initially went into it expecting something like Wormholes...), although as always with drum & bass I find it impossible to articulate just what it is I'm hearing. But e.g. Jonny L - Common Origin is much more... chilled? than anything I associate with techstep.

(This applies even more to J Majik - Gemini.)

I find this playlist fascinating (esp. as I initially went into it expecting something like Wormholes...), although as always with drum & bass I find it impossible to articulate just what it is I'm hearing. But e.g. Jonny L - Common Origin is much more... chilled? than anything I associate with techstep.

― toby, Wednesday, 3 February 2021 11:09 (eleven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah as I suggested upthread I was trying to pick out a kind of secret thread or narrative that runs through some techstep and surrounding sounds, and avoid entirely the kind of orthodoxy that almost everything had hardened into by about 1998.

"Common Origin" doesn't make sense as techstep in the classic No-U-Turn sense, but does make sense as 'neurofunk' (https://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/essays/the-wire-300_simon-reynolds-on-the-hardcore-continuum_5_neurofunk-drum_n_bass-versus-speed), albeit that it is still at the quiet end - it bears a clear relationship to "Piper" (which it was the b-side to) which was probably the neurofunk anthem. Dark, clinical, cold. It's not coincidental, though, that so many of the early masters of this sound (see also Photek, Source Direct, Hidden Agenda) had previously made floaty "atmospheric" drum & bass.

The J Majik track (and parent album Slow Motion) is slightly different again - you could describe it as the logical conclusion of the mid-1990s Metalheadz sound which in any event feels somewhat transitional in retrospect ("Metropolis", "The Angels Fell", "Dark Metal", Photek, Hidden Agenda, J Majik's own previous tracks for the label) souped-up (or chilled down) for the techstep/neurofunk era, but also feels very aligned with the 1996-1998 roster of Reinforced artists: Sonar Circle, Arcon 2, G-Force & Seiji (one of the tracks on the album is an Arcon 2 remix which suggests this alignment wasn't inadvertent or unknowing).

Slow Motion is really great - if there was one less downtempo track (though "Chakra" on this tip is amazing) and one more track like "Gemini" it would be in the running for top 3 90s D&B album.

Nice selection!

Can I just add that all the recent Metalheadz remasters are worth listening to - they genuinely seem to bring out some new details in the tracks, the Nast Habits in your playlist being but one example.

Also I kind of object to notions of this sound “making a comeback”. 2020 may have been the best year ever for dnb and that’s coming from someone listening since the so called halcyon days. Maybe more for the actual Junglist Massive thread on here but check anything on The Dreamers Recordings, straight outta Turin, Italy as an example.

yeah, that's fair enough, I'm just a dabbler in this stuff, not an expert!

Yeah as I suggested upthread I was trying to pick out a kind of secret thread or narrative that runs through some techstep and surrounding sounds, and avoid entirely the kind of orthodoxy that almost everything had hardened into by about 1998.

Yes - sorry, I meant to say that this was based on my initial expectations (from having coincidentally just created a Spotify account to listen to your Melbourne/Vancouver mix, saw the "techstep" mix, and listened to it expecting something exhausting).

Clearly I need to give Slow Motion a listen. I'm continually astonished by the depth and range of "golden years" drum n bass/jungle, even zooming in on 1997 (perhaps this shouldn't be so surprising to me, given that my own introduction to drum n bass was in 1997 via a random purchase of Spring Heel Jack's Busy Curious Thirsty, which doesn't fit into my naive "everything from 1997 onwards is techstep).