Trance'n'Bass

I haven't heard it yet, nut John B's supposed to have a mix CD Brainstorm out now with this stuff.

It sounds like a good idea, but how much is this approach different from Hybrid, or circa '98-style LTJ Bukem?

nut = but

yeah bukems done enuff sweeping synth epics to go around everyone

i was kinda hoping this would be full on bonzai shit with breaks, that'd work?

I've heard some psy-trance with drum & bass that just didn't work at all.

If it's the sort of stuff that the artists on the "Trance'n'bass" cd have done before (I haven't actually heard that cd so I'm not sure), the "trance" is more implied than full-on. It's trance'n'bass in the same way that Peshay's "U Got Me Burnin" might be called "house'n'bass", or perhaps less so even. Basically there's an emphasis on hypnotic interlocking synth motifs, but it's not quite as upfront as trance - perhaps more like tech-house or prog-house actually. Also the beats are very smooth and repetitive in order to get a motorik-style glide going. It's probably the style of jungle that takes the whole fast-and-yet-slow aspect to the absolute extreme. I suppose structurally something like LTJ Bukem's "Music" is a good reference point, but this stuff is cooler and more synthetic - definitely a product of the machinic nature of latter-day d&b.

The best track in this style is definitely Lexis's "Destination Unknown", which sounds a bit like The Modernist gone d&b.

there was a free cd of this stuff with muzik (? maybe mixmag) last month. i remember thinking it was pretty good though slightly disappointing - i'll give it another listen later and see what i think...

Yeah I should emphasise that as a style it's not nearly as surprising as you expect it will be.

there's one very fine release on renegade hardware from about 99-00 - usual suspects' "doorway". features tough chunky beats, dirty bassline, and an absolutely nasty trancey lead synth. came out only on the vinyl sampler from the renegade hardware "armageddon" comp, iirc.

it's got an interesting stripped feel to it - sounds like the good dirty minimal trance (still with the tweaky synths though) i hear in my head.

i dunno if it falls into the remit, but a lot of Klute's stuff has that linear, driven sound that trance has, the lush prolonged synth progressions, the feeling of constant propulsion. It works to varying degrees, the basslines are often the weakest link but the beats bubble for sure, and again are layered in excelsis (am i wrong in associating the trance sound with excess, I admit I don't know too much about it).

Of course it's all a but sophis, the greatest trance n bass will always be early Jonny L stuff, but there was a period when Doc Scott was putting out these end-of-nite tunes, which were awash with that exaggerated melancholy that makes 'Ooh I like it' so good. I seem to remember an Art of Noise remix which typified this sound, and one of System 7.

Sidenote: Has anyone heard 'Blue Skies' by Doc Scott? that track is such a tearjerker.

I was at a psy-trance night four years ago when I was first exposed to that psy-breakbeat Tim mentioned. The dj had previously being playing quite squelchy hard stuff when he suddenly veered off into breakbeat territory. It was awful, and the sudden change stopped the dancefloor in its tracks. The thing is that up until that moment if someone had suggested it to me I would have thought it was a great idea, but the stuff the guy was playing was dreadful. The breaks sounded tacked on and didn't integrate with the psy stuff at all, and the basslines were practically clodhopping in their leadeness. Very nasty indeed.

Haven't I already talked about this elsewhere? The John B mix is extremely coherent, though all we are talking about is drum & bass with added trancey effects, by no means a real blend of the two. One of many kind of interesting little directions going on in D&B at the moment, and it's hard to guess which ones are going to explode, if any.

anyone else heard the jungle bootleg remix track that includes samples of FSOL Papua Neu Guinea - absolutely storming - take me awayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy with added breakbeats.. what a track !