I'm watching you Wozowski.

I had the great honour recently of being asked to do a mix for DOA of jungle tunes contributed by members from the Grid section of the site. The Grid is where the producers hang out and I wasn’t sure what to expect really. But I gottah say the quality of the tunes and the nailing of the 94-95 jungle sound was spot on. There were a few exceptions that I wouldn’t personally call jungle, but they were still great tracks and went into this mix.

So if you are a jungle fan and want a mix of never before heard tracks all written in 2010 then this one should fit the bill nicely. A big thanks to Ben Kei and Drumbeat Agenda for getting me involved and all the producers for being so generous with their production output.

DOA Jungle Competition Mix – 1hr+ of brand new tunes in a 94-95 jungle stylee

Sonny Jim – Loop
Poshek – Unknown
ATheory – Inside Your Love
dib – Watch We For
Amen Fyre – Badboy Sound
Skywalka – Bad Boy Ting
DJ A Twat – Jah
DJ Rubdown – Hold It Down
Lite On – Untitled
Mocks – One Big Ghetto
Lethargik – Down Time
Over Drive UK – Test Primitive
Ben Kei – jungle Fiddler
Drum Mekanik – Jungle Vision
Adsih – Shotdown
Frantik – Deadline Pressure (Dancehall ‘Ear Dis)
Candy Hands – Journey Outwards
Artists Unknown – Bad Hearing Organisation
Sonny Jim – Junglist
Barry of Button – New Fashion For 94
Drumbeat Agenda – The World Is Yours
DJ id – Cocaine 12

This is a new series of mixes I’m going to do from year to year that looks back at where D&B was at 10 years ago. This mix is part 1 of 2 that looks at the year 2000. I’ve concentrated on the more melodic stuff for this mix and the part 2 will look at the big smashers.

The new millennium seemed to fit D&B perfectly as it was always a forward looking music. D&B parties seemed to explode again after dying off a little in 98-99 and a new generation of producers and labels started to forge their own new sounds. Music technology was getting better and cheaper allowing more and more people who had always loved the music to finally start writing their own tunes. It seemed like everyone was trying to make D&B.

J. Majik had one of the biggest hits of the year with Love Is Not A Game and a little known label called Hospital was starting to show some serious promise. LTJ Bukem released his first solo album Journey Inwards to critical acclaim and Klute, Marcus Intalex & ST Files and Omni Trio continued to show how it was done when it came to melodic D&B.

Decadance 2000: Part 1 – 1hr of Melodic D&B from the year 2000

J. Majik – Love Is Not A Game (Original Radio Edit)
Fellowship – Coming On Strong
Klute – Three of Us
Real Time – Mine
Omni Trio – Secret Life
LTJ Bukem – Deserted Vaults (Instrumental)
Grand Unified Featuring Kadeem – Music Makes Me Feel This Way
London Elektricity – Superstructure (John B Remix)
London Elektricity – Wishing Well (Danny Byrd Remix)
London Elektricity – Round The Corner (Origin Unknown Remix)
Citizen & DJ Kalm – Venus
Marcus Intalex & ST Files – Moonwalk
Klute – Chicks
Bad Company – Colonies
Future Cut – Busted
Total Science – Let It Go
Big Bud – Millennium (Carlito Remix)

This year has been a good year for big vocal numbers with a smashing beat behind them. Hospital as always are leading the charge, but labels like Horizons, Esprit, Spearhead and Fokuz are also putting out some amazing dance floor drum & bass. Netsky is on fire right now and artists like S.P.Y., Lenzman and Bachelors of Science keep consistently banging out great vocal D&B.

Some people have been calling this sound ‘commercialised’, but to be honest I don’t hear it. It might be accessible and something your girlfriend might drag you onto the dance floor to jump around to. But when has that ever been a bad thing?

1hr of New Vocal D&B

Madmen & Poets – Leave It
Netsky – Your Way
Netsky – Mellow
Netsky – I Refuse (Shock One Remix)
Lenzman – Coincidence
Coldbreaker – Don’t Give Up
Robot Redford – Dying Star
Dephzac – We Are Together
Total Science & S.P.Y. Above the Clouds
Bacelors of Science – The Ice Dance (Lenzman Remix)
Netsky – Let’s Leave Tomorrow
Stunna – Back In Time
D Kay & Concept – For Love or Money
Blue Sonix – Luv Me (Logistics VIP)
Chew Lips – Karen (Netsky Remix)
Fat Freddy’s Drop – Cay S Crays (Artificial Intelligence Remix)
Netsky – Iron Heart
Netsky – Memory Lane

Remember The Nothing from the Never Ending Story? A huge black mass of clouds that swept across the land and cleared all before it. Well this mix reminded me of this. I’m not normally a hard D&B kind of guy, but I do enjoy mixing the heavier stuff every now and then. Lately as a genre it has been on the improve, producers are dropping the over the top scull stepping for a more junglistic vibe and melody seems to be creeping back into the heavier beats.

The Nothing – 1hr of heavy rain

Ash – Bashment
Nolige – Leave Me
Clive Concept – Out of Control
Breakage – Temper
Mindscape & Munk – Into the Night
Bachelors of Science – Warehouse DayZ
Dub Tao 0 East of Underground (Bungle Remix)
Muffler – Dirrrty
Jubei – Alignment
Antibreak – From the Wreckage
Breakage – Foundation
Maldini & Sylo – Oceanic
Engage – Helium
Royalston – The Test
AK1200 – Juniors Tune (Digital Remix)
Raiden – Aquarius

Elementz of Noize are one of those under-rated outfits that slips under the radar mainly due to the fact that they were good at just about every genre they tried there hand at. Alan Clark & Justin Maughan started out making Intelligent drops like the amazing ‘Astral’ and ‘Yes’ in 1995. But as things started turning to the dark side they released a load of classic Tech Step barn stormers on SOUR Recordings. Tunes like ‘Communicate With The World’, ‘Talking Mad Shit’ and thier biggest hit ‘Hit Tha Deck’ were monster Tech Steppers that threw out the subtlety of Ed Rush and replaced it with bitchslapping beats and cavernous b-lines to make dancefloor damage.

After the Tech Step sound died out they moved to Emotiv and had a few releases on Fuze Recordings. Their new sound was still Tech based but had a more stipped back Stepper rhythm. Then in 2002 they returned to their melodic roots with the killer 12″ of ‘Clock/Guided by Lights’, showing that a tune could be musical and still hard as nails. Although they haven’t released much since this time, their legacy is still one of a back catalogue very few misses and a shed load of hits.

Bring The Noize – 1.5hrs of Elementz of Noize

Elementz Of Noize – Yes
Elementz Of Noize – Astral
Elementz Of Noize – Trrriple
Elementz Of Noize – Stick Up
Elementz Of Noize – Neon (Ray Keith Remix)
Elementz Of Noize – Flexiwidatek
Elementz Of Noize – Science
Micro-Burst – Punkmutha
Shapeshifter – Communicate With The World
Shapeshifter – Mass Hysteria
Elementz Of Noize – Hit Tha Deck
Shapeshifter – Talking Mad Shit
Ray Keith – D4 Toxic Waste (Elementz Of Noize Remix)
Elementz Of Noize – Cold Light of Day
Elementz Of Noize – Guided By Lights
Elementz Of Noize – Clock