The final in the silly season mixes is all about tough beats and booming b-lines. Rough D&B never really goes out of style, but it does eveolve and this year saw artists like Dom & Roland, Conrad Subs and Bungle bring back an original jungle vibe with a heaping serve of heaviness.

Metalheadz had a stellar 2020 with so many great LPs dropping it felt like every month there was something worth dropping from Goldie’s stable of production talent. But they weren’t alone with Dom & Roland’s self titled label, Doc Scott’s 31 Recordings and a whole host of other bringing the absolute heat.

Dead Set – 1hr of Ruff and Rowdy Beats

Goldie – The Mirrored River (Grey Code Remix)
Goldie – Prism (Dom & Roland Remix)
Heitor Leal Farnese – E näo foi à lápis (Thermal’s Black Dog Remix)
T95 & DRS – On Site
Soul Intent & Acid Lab – Clash of Headz
High Contrast – If We Ever VIP
Conrad Sub – Bump & Grind
Conrad Subs – Love Me Tender
Goldie feat. José James – Truth (Zero T VIP)
Hyroglifics – God Given
Bungle – Runaway
Polaris – Eternal Conflicts
DJ Marky & Pola & Bryson – Run the Streets
Myth – Long Time
Muffler – Super Heavy
DJ Marky – Parlet
Total Science – Lightweight (Break Remix)
Goldie – I Think of You (Digital & Spirit Remix)

I don’t often dip into the heavier side of D&B, but always enjoy it when I do. With old classics being remixed like Benny L’s remix of Dark Soldier and T>I’s Minimal VIP of Ray Kieth’s – Renegade, plus new drops from the likes of Adred on Metalheadz, A-Sides and Amon Tobin and Double Click’s – Two Fingers project there is plenty in here to be happy about.

Special shout out to Thermal for his Black Dog Remix of Heitor Leal Farnese – E näo foi à lápis. Remixes don’t come much more obscure, or tougher than this. Thanks for thinking of me.

Beast – 1hr of Heavy D&B

Dark Soldier – Dark Soldier (Benny L Remix)
Symplex & Camel – Twilight
A-Sides – Tower
T>I – Foot Drop
Duoscience – Magido
Ray Kieth – Renegade (T>I Minimal VIP)
TeeBee – Blue Rose (Chrisp & TeeBee’s Lynch’ed Remix)
Halogenix & IMANU – Technoid
Adred feat. Commix – Interface 01
A-Sides – Edge VIP
FX909 – The Call
Next Chapter – Nowhere Fast
Kings of the Rollers – Somebody Else (feat. Lydia Plain)
Survival & Script – Chant (Survival VIP)
Rohaan – Burner
Artificial Intelligence – Uprising (Revisited)
Adred – Amenity
Mayhem, Logam & Gridlock – All I Do (Gridlock VIP)
Two Fingers – Fight! Fight! Fight!
Heitor Leal Farnese – E näo foi à lápis (Thermal’s Black Dog Remix)

Hard times call for hard tunes and this mix is full of new heavy hitters designed to make you pogo around your lounge room.

Shouts to Kings of the Rollers, Work Force and all the other producers keeping me sane during the lock down. Special shout out to Thermal and Boredome from DOA for the free tunes. keep up the great work.

True Sound – 1hr of Hard & Heavy Hitting D&B

Naibu – Use of Weapons (Fracture & Neptune Astrophonica Remix)
Rene LeVive & Future Cut – Deeandbee
L Plus – The Planet
Boredome – Rush Hour
Survey – Far Gone
Seba & Jr Vallo – Wasabi
DLR feat. M-zine & Scepticz – Still Alive
Madcap – B-Boy
Klute – Broadside
Rene LeVive & Future Cut – Eyes
Jaybee, Dave Owen & D-Lo – SXSW (VIP)
Ed:it – Generally Speaking
Hybrid Minds feat. Charlotte Haining – Higher Love (Particle Remix)
Kings of the Rollers – You Got Me (S.P.Y. Remix)
Acid_Lab – Life
FD – Blue Sky Research
Ed:it – the Limit
Digital & Need for Mirrors – Deadline (Need for Mirrors Remix)
Work Force – So Good

There’s been a lot of good things happening in D&B lately, and the Harder end of the spectrum has seen a return to form it has sorely been missing. Taking a look back to move forward a lot of these tunes have a old-school D&B or Rave feel to them but with modern production techniques.

You only need to have a look at the artists to see a LOT of the familiar and legendary names – Digital, Spirit, DKay, John B and Calibre all come in swinging. But there is also a new breed bringing their own take to the tougher style such as Mister Shifter, Kid Drama, Acid Lab and Artilect and making some truly speaker shaking sounds.

This is D&B at its rawest and most real. And I have to say, it’s nice to have it back.

Full Pelt – 1hr of Hard D&B

Bou – Gun Crime
Benny L – Skysteppa
Mister Shifter – Dreada
Digital & Spirit – Phantom 2018
DKay – The Martians
Foreign Concept – Black Tea
Calibre – Jacob
Calibre – Under You and You
Touchy Subject – Sky Larkin (Lewis James Remix)
Sunchase – Slap
DKay – Desire (feat. DJ Lee)
Kid Drama – Mirrored Lake
Acid Lab feat. Slider, Expose & Anastasia – Paradoxical
Amoss – Timedrops
Digital & John B – You & Me
Fushara – Survival
Derrick & Tonica – Fata Morgana
Artilect – System of Fear
Digital & Spirit – Deaddial
Artilect – System of Fear (Tease)

Heavier D&B has been having a resurgence lately with labels like Metalheadz, Critical and Tech Itch Recordings all pumping out some quality darker beats.

Blocks & Escher’s heavily anticipated Something Blue LP contains the years first big anthem in Something Borrowed, Something Blue while the mysterious Brakken collaboration output has born fruit on their very first release.

A special shout to Trigga & Chimpo who’s massive Who Run Tingz track I finish off with. I’ve been hunting this tune for the last 12 months thinking it was new and only to realise it came out about 3-4 years back. 😛

If you like your beats hard you’ll love this, if you unsure give it a go and who knows you might just grow to love it as much as I do.

Rudebwoy – 1hr of Hard D&B

Blocks & Escher – Something Borrowed, Something Blue
Brakken – Rat
Lowriderz & Electrosoul System – Face Off
1991 – Jungle Cats
Ulterior Motive – Step Change
Soul intent – Give You Back
Synth Ethics – Cloudbreak
Chase & Status – Tribes
Surreal – Change the Program
Andy Skopes & Mr Joseph – Call to Arms
Technimatic – Night Vision VIP
Goldie – I Adore You (Total Science Remix)
Alibi & Command Strange – Skyline VIP
Brakken – Blue River
End.User – Stillness (Re-Edit)
Mohican Sun – Sprialled
Alibi & Command Strange – Ahead of Me VIP
Trigga & Chimpo – Who Run Tingz

It always takes me around 6-12 months to collect enough heavy D&B to pull together a good hard D&B mix. The good thing about me being fussy around this style is you know that what you are getting is carefully curated and every tune brings something different and interesting to the mix.

In this case we have tracks like the UFO Mix of Ed Rush & Optical’s classic roller Pacman which was never released and only ever popped up as a dub plate on some 2002 mixes coming out of the US. Or Rockwell’s excellent nod to rave in the cheekily named Please Please Please (Play This on the Radio). Digital and Spirit feature heavily too, which is never a bad thing.

For those about to rock, we salute you.

Concrete – 1hr of Hard D&B

Total Science, Digital & Spirit – Fall Down
Skynet – Underground –
Apostroph’ – Tolerate
Ed Rush & Optical – Pacman (UFO VIP)
Future Cut – Horns (Gremlinz & Overlook 2015 Remix)
Keen x Krakota – Reality
BCee & S.P.Y – Is Anybody Out There (The Vanguard Project Remix)
Clart – Team Playa
Ray Keith – Virus
Gremlinz – Tactical Rail
Mefjus – Dissuade (Emperor Remix)
Signal – Descent
Rockwell – Please Please Please (Play This on the Radio)
Ulterior Motive – Tech2
Rockwell feat. Sam Binga – itsok2behapp-e
Digital feat. LJC – In the Lurch
Mecca – Analysis
Spirit – International
Survival & Script – Sahara
Vicious Circle & Nocturnal – Welcome to Shanktown