Drum & Bass

Drum and bass (drum n bass, drum'n'bass, DnB, d'n'b) is an electronic music style also known as jungle.

Originally an offshoot of the United Kingdom breakbeat hardcore and rave scene, it came into existence when djs and producers mixed reggae basslines with sped-up breakbeats, predominantly sampled from 80's funk and hip hop records. Pioneers such as Fabio, Grooverider, Andy C, Roni Size, DJ SS, Brockie, Mickey Finn Kenny Ken, Goldie, and other DJs quickly became the stars of the genre. Over the first decade of its existence, drum and bass saw many permutations in style, incorporating everything from reggae and jazz to techno and trance. Today it is usually heard in nightclubs, and its most recognizable features include a heavy emphasis on fast tempo drums in addition to loud intricate basslines.

For the most part, drum and bass is a form of dance music, mostly designed to be heard in clubs. It exhibits a full frequency response and physicality which often simply cannot be fully appreciated on home listening equipment. As befits its name, the bass element of the music is particularly pronounced, with the comparatively sparse arrangements of drum and bass tracks allowing room for basslines that are deeper than most other forms of dance music. Consequently, drum and bass parties are often advertised as featuring uncommonly loud and bass-heavy sound systems.

Drum and bass is often heard via a DJ. Because most tracks are designed to be mixed by a DJ, their structure typically reflects this, with intro and outro sections designed for a DJ to use while beat-matching, rather than being designed to be heard in entirety by the listener. The DJ typically mixes between records so as not to lose the continuous beat. In addition, the DJ may employ hip-hop style "scratching", "double-drops" (where two tracks are synchronized such that both tracks drop at the same time), and "rewinds."

Most mixing points begin or end with the "drop". The drop is the point in a track where a switch of rhythm or bassline occurs and usually follows a recognisable build section and "breakdown". Sometimes the drop is used to switch between tracks, layering components of different tunes, though as the two records may be simply ambient breakdowns at this point, this could be considered lazier than blending the music where breakbeats play together. Some drops are so popular that the DJ will "rewind" or "reload" by spinning the record back and restarting it at the build. This is a technique which can easily be overused as it breaks the continuity of a set. "The drop" is a key point from the point of view of the dancefloor, since the drumbreaks often fade out to leave an ambient intro playing. When the beats re-commence they are often more complex and accompanied by a heavier bassline, encouraging the crowd to dance. "Jump up" initially referred to the urge for those seated to dance at this point, though it came later to refer more specifically to a style of the music. A "rewind" would be popular here as the crowd could dance from the start of the record, and to the change in music they hadn't anticipated.

DJs are typically accompanied by one or more MCs, drawing on the genre's roots in hip hop and Reggae/Ragga.

There are however many albums specifically designed for personal listening. The mix cd is a particularly popular form of release, with a big name dj/producer mixing live, or on a computer, a variety of tracks for personal listening. Additionally, there are many albums containing unmixed tracks, suited for home or car listening.

Early Pioneers of Drum and Bass

Early heroes of dnb music include A Guy Called Gerald (seminal track "28 Gun Bad Boy") and 4hero ("Mr Kirk's Nightmare") who later developed own styles, leaving the drum and bass mainstream. In contrast, producers such as Remarc, Mickey Finn, Jonny Waines, Goldie and Omni Trio continue to be active within the genre. The majority of the early producers and DJs still produce and play in today's scene, forming something of a jungle 'old guard'.

Jungle to Drum & Bass

The phrase "Drum and Bass" had been used for years previously in the London soul and funk pirate radio scenes (and was even a bit of a catchphrase for UK Radio 1's R&B Guru Trevor Nelson in his pirate days, who used it to describe the deeper, rougher funk and "rare groove" sound that was popular in London at the time. A formal station ID jingle used on legendary London pirate Kiss FM from the late 1980s would proclaim "Drum and Bass style on Kiss").

Since the term jungle was so closely related to the raggae influenced sound, DJs and producers who did not incorporate raggae elements began to adopt the term "drum and bass" to differentiate themselves and their musical styles. The mid 1990s also saw a large splintering of the scene. Each sub-genre would tend to be known by its name as opposed to either jungle or drum and bass, though today all sub-genres are usually grouped by the umbrella term drum and bass.

As intelligent drum and bass gained in popularity, the ragga jungle sound became more stripped-down; The complex chopped beats were dropped in favor of simplified rhythms featuring loud, aggressive-sounding snare drums. This hard percussive style eventually became known as hardstep. Simultaneously, certain producers developed a more hiphop and funk influenced style known as jump-up, which was exemplified by artists like Mickey Finn and Aphrodite (with their Urban Takeover label), and the releases on the Ganja Kru's True Playaz label. Outside these genres, which became the most popular styles, other artists pushed a smoother, dubby style of music which had more in common with the jazzy and soulful interests of intelligent drum and bass. Records in this style were often referred to as rollers.

Through 1996, hardstep and jump-up sounds were very popular in clubs and at raves, whereas intelligent drum and bass was pushing a sound which was considered more accessible to the home listener. This resultied in the popularity of the style with mainstream music magazines, as CD album releases by 4 Hero and Goldie were more readily-available than the underground dubplates which characterised the club-based styles. Stylistically, drum and bass began to adopt an ever more diverse range of influences, crossbreeding with many other forms of dance music to produce a series of hybrid sounds. In 1997, a sound which was influenced by the double-bass work of jazz musicians came to the forefront, producing a funky, accessible style which achieved mainstream success for artists such as Roni Size and Reprazent. The group's New Forms album won the UK's Mercury Prize, and their innovative live band helped drum and bass to break out of the DJ circuit, winning acclaim for performances at music festivals and on television shows.

Around this time, drum and bass also sealed its popularity by winning a Friday night slot on Radio One, the BBC's flagship radio station. Initially presented by a revolving groups of jungle luminaries, hosted by MC Navigator, the station eventually secured the presenting services of Fabio and Grooverider, two of the oldest and most-respected DJs in the scene.

The birth of Techstep

As a lighter sound of drum and bass began to win over the musical mainstream, many producers continued to work on the other end of the spectrum, resulting in a series of releases which highlighted a dark, technical sound which drew more influence from Techno and the soundscapes of science fiction and anime films. This style was championed by the labels Emotif and No U-Turn, and artists like Trace, Ed Rush and Optical, and Dom and Roland, and is commonly referred to as techstep. Techstep focused intensely on studio production and applied new techniques of sound generation and processing to older jungle appraoches. Self-consciously underground, and lacking the accessible influences of much other drum and bass, techstep is deeply atmospheric, often characterized by sinister or science-fiction themes, cold and complex percussion, and dark, distorted basslines.

As the 1990s drew to a close, drum and bass withdrew from mainstream popularity and concentrated on sounds which were popular in clubs, rather than on mainstream radio. Techstep came to dominate the drum and bass genre, with artists like Konflict and Bad Company amongst the most visible. As time went on, techstep was becoming more minimal, and increasingly dark in tone, and the funky, commercial appeal represented by Roni Size back in 1997 was waning. However, 2000 saw an increasing movement to "bring the fun back into drum and bass", heralded by the chart success enjoyed by singles from Andy C and Shimon (Bodyrock) and Shy FX and T Power (Shake UR Body). In the clubs there was a new revival of rave-oriented sounds, as well as remixes of classic jungle tunes that capitalised on nostalgia and an interest in the origins of the music. Many felt that jungle music had weathered the support, and then hostility, of the mainstream media (which had declared that "Drum and bass is dead" in the late 90s), and that the revival of chart success indicated that the style was more than a passing fashion.

Since 2000

Since the revival in popularity in 2000, the drum and bass scene has become very diverse, despite its relatively-small size, to the point where it is difficult to point to any one subgenre as the dominant style.

In 2000, Fabio began championing a form he called Liquid funk, with a compilation release of the same name on his Creative Source label. This was characterised by influences from disco and house, and widespread use of vocals. Although slow to catch on at first, the style grew massively in popularity around 2003-2004, and by 2005 it was established as one of the biggest-selling subgenres in drumnbass, with labels like Hospital Records and Soul:R and artists including High Contrast, Calibre, Nu:Tone, London Elektricity and Logistics among its main proponents.

The decade also saw the revival of Jump-Up. Referred to as "Nu Jump Up", or pejoratively as Clownstep, this kept the sense of fun and the simplistic, bouncing basslines from the first generation of Jump Up, but with tougher, harder production values. Prominent Nu Jump Up artists include Twisted Individual, Generation Dub, and DJ Hazard.

Sales figures for 2004 suggest that liquid funk and Nu Jump Up combined probably account for a significant majority of the drum and bass market.

The period also saw the rise of a style known as Dubwise, which returned drum and bass to its reggae-influenced roots, combined with modern production techniques which had advanced immeasurably since the early days of jungle. Although the dub-influenced sound was not new, having long been championed by artists like Digital and Spirit, 2003-2004 saw a significant increase in its popularity and visibility, with new artists like Amit at the forefront.

Similarly, whilst there had long been a niche dedicated almost entirely to detailed drum programming and manipulation, championed by the likes of Paradox, the first half of this decade saw a revival and expansion in the subgenre known variously as Drumfunk, "Edits", or "Choppage". Major labels include Inperspective and the new wave of artists in this style include Fanu, Breakage, and Fracture and Nepture.

The new millennium also saw a fresh wave of live drum and bass bands. The likes of Reprazent and Red Snapper had performed live drum and bass during the 1990s, but the re-creation of London Elektricity as a live band focussed renewed interest on the idea, with acts like The Bays, Keiretsu, Deadsilence Syndicate and Ultra-Violet pursuing this avenue.

The Global Scene in 2005

The other major development largely occurring since the turn of the millennium is geographical: from UK-oriented beginnings, drum and bass has firmly established itself worldwide. There are strong scenes in other English-speaking countries including the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. It is popular across Europe, especially in Germany and in The Netherlands, Baltics and Russia. It is also popular in South America. Asia also has a drum and bass scene in places like Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Hong Kong. São Paulo is sometimes called the drum and bass Ibiza. Brazilian drum and bass is sometimes called Sambass, although in Venezuela, artists have created Industrial forms of Drum and bass, and also Drill N Bass / IDM, mixing also with Latin rhythms like Salsa or Latin Jazz.

Defining characteristics

Basslines
Regarded by many as being the most important musical element in drum and bass. Basslines exist in many forms, but most notably they originate from sampled sources or synthesizers. Live played basslines are rare. Sampled basslines are often taken from double bass recordings or from publicly available loops. Synthesized basslines are very common and have sprouted a classic sound known as the Hoover or Reese.

Tempo
Drum and bass is usually between 160-180 BPM, in contrast to other forms of Breakbeat such as Nu skool breaks which maintain a slower pace at around 130-140 BPM. A general upward trend in tempo has been observed during the evolution of drum and bass. The earliest Old School rave and breakbeat-descended jungle was around 155-165 BPM, whilst 21st Century material rarely falls below 170BPM, and often hits 180BPM.

Jungle vs Drum and Bass

The difference between jungle and drum and bass is one of the most common debates within the community. There is no universally accepted semantic distinction between the terms "jungle" and "drum and bass". Some associate "jungle" with older material from the first half of the 1990s (sometimes referred to as "jungle techno"), and see drum and bass as essentially succeeding jungle. Others use jungle as a shorthand for ragga jungle, a specific sub-genre within the broader realm of drum and bass. In the USA, the combined term "Jungle Drum and Bass" (JDB) has some popularity, but is not widespread elsewhere. Probably the widest held viewpoint is that the terms are simply synonymous and interchangeable: drum and bass is jungle, and jungle is drum and bass.

Dj Hype: "At the end of the day I am a ambassador for Drum and Bass the world over and have been playing for 16 years under the name Hype... To most of you out there Drum and Bass will be a important part of your lives, but for me Drum and Bass/Jungle is my life and always has been... We all have a part to play and believe me when I say I am no fucking bandwagon jumper, just a hard working Hackney man doing this thing called Drum and Bass/Jungle"