Technical Itch

2 outstanding artists Teebee & Ed Rush & Optical both of their recent albums are highly recommended, A+ Grade - stunning multidimensional crisp deep futuristic production - and with the elements you require dark bass lines, aggressive beats, acid, loads of creepy vocal samples.

Teebee - Through The Eyes Of A Scorpion - on Certificate 18 Teebee Profile

Ed Rush & Optical - The Creeps - would have won last years Technics Mercury Music Prize - If I woz the sole judge.

dark bass lines, aggressive beats, acid, loads of creepy vocal samples

It's hard to find drum and bass that doesn't fit this description, actually. Tech Itch's "Reborn" is probably the fix you're looking for. Also check Dom+Roland and )EIB( aka Bad Company.

It strikes me that this whole massive style of drum & bass hit a relatively early peak in '98 with Dom & Roland's Industry album and has yet to be bettered since (although at the time Dom's frequent adherence to intricate-but-hard breaks must have seemed somewhat quaint in the face of straight 2-step dominance). One of the best d&b albums ever, perhaps the last truly great one and certainly the d&b album I listen to most of any.

Teebee is frequently awesome as well though. Haven't heard his actual albums but his tracks are frequently the peaks of compilations. Search: his R&B bootlegs.

See also: Klute circa 98-99. And J Majick's remix of Hatiras' "Spaced Invader" was the best drum & bass track last year.

ps. "whole massive style" = the type of d&b Alex describes in his question.

Techstep is so 90's. I thought the whole idea of drum and bass was that it was constantly changing, ever-progressive. Look to DJ Marky and Patife. Or Dj Craze. He's not really a producer, but he mixes better than any dance music DJ. ever.

anything on the renegade hardware, dread records and no u turn labels from the mid-90s.

My fave dark jungle tracks from that period:

Nasty Habits (Doc Scott) - 'Shadow Boxing' (31 records)

Adam F - 'Metropolis' (on Metalheadz recs)

Droppin Science (Danny Breaks) - vol 10, one side is called the bear, i think, but the other side is the one with the 'time passes' choon..awsome! (droppin science recs)

UFO - 'Extra terrestrial' (Rengade hardware)

If you're looking more at albums / comps / CDs them good places to look are:

Torque - no u turn comp

Goldie.co.uk - recent mix CD with some of this stuff on

Metalheadz platinum breaks vol 1 and 2

Panacea - low profile darkness (a bit less 'danceable'!)

Also, there is a renegade hardware comp available, and Tim's suugestion re Dom and Roland is a good one.

oh, btw... a friend of mine dropped Stronghold by Tech itch at a uni jungle night and cleared the floor with the rinsin' amen!

Panacea Low Profile Darkness is my absolute favorite jungle/drum'n'bass rekkid ever. So noisy and dark and noisy. Grrr.

If OTM means On The Money (I'm newish here), Martian is OTM. Through The Eyes Of A Scorpion is my favourite D&B album so far. Tech Itch's Diagnostics, from 1999, is excellent too.

Martin is OTM. Diagnostics was the one neurofunk album I heard in 99 that actually pushed drum programming somewhere, instead of filling the mix with toms and maracas and bongos (read: ram trilogy). They also stuck with Amen breaks long after everyone else was deep into 2- step nonsense.

(can't believe nobody mentioned Decoder in this thread...)

Anyway, Technical Freaks compilation finally available on CD for those of us adverse to paying 20 quid for an album. It's pretty much a continuation of the Penetration series (a lot of the Peel Session was current and future Penetration releases) and just continues to get faster and gritier (and closer to, but still some way off from, this: why drum and bass sucks in 2004)

(the Hidden Sound Remix 12" was the second DnB i heard (after Photek's Ni Ten Ichi Ryu) and was again courtesy of Peel. have been picking up everything i've seen by him ever since (but have given up on Photek...))

(other recommendations, answering the initial question: Dieselboy's mix cds (always Tech Itch heavy), The Killabites 2 compilation that they mixed, the two Decoder albums, the Substance Knowledge Magazine mix and Stakka & Skynet's 'Clockwork' album. and Twisted Individual.)