Troubled Waters

Oh HELL yes! Finally some traditional drum & bass hits KZSU. DJ Clever mixes together a bunch of Offshore Recordings vinyl. Some quality D&B names here, including Seba and Deep Blue. The whole mix is spacey, but blazingly fast and hard (more so than LTJ Bukem, for example). This isn't the cheesy mainstream D&B shit – this is raw, and actually pretty minimal (vocals are kept to a minimum). Superbly mixed. Great stuff! Be warned, this is a continuous mix.

My favorite tracks: 4, 7, 14, 15.

- Captain Dee (7/04)

1. Stormy intro (literally). Suddenly kick ass drum and bass beat kicks in, only supported by wind, thunder, and gong noises.
2. Spacey ambiance, melodic beeps. Crisp beat borders on staccato. Haunting female vocals.
3. Floating melodies, chimes. Distant echoing vocals are well integrated.
*4. Beautiful ambient synths, beat seems to scurry in and out.
5. Crashing beat, sporadic chimes and sound effects. Spacier synths take over at end.
6. Wonky bass riffs, more chime melodies, more muddy synth ambience.
*7. Banging beat, conga drum melody, ambient background synths pick up in intensity and steal the focus at times.
8. Starts off with spoken sample, then stop and start beat. Rhythmic sound effects take center stage.
9. Spooky synth riffs, blip-y, rolling beat, quiet bird noises.
10. Frantic beat is almost drill and bass (this guy has definitely been listening to Squarepusher). Thick mix of samples in the back.
11. Confused beat with quirky noises all over the place.
12. Edgy beat full of brassy hits. Weird, sporadic samples.
13. Muddy sound, unintelligible whispers, quiet effusions of bass. Warm piano and dramatic synths in second half.
*14. Hollow, tribal-like beat is mesmerizing! Trippy female speech sample with lovely spacey ambience. Grooving synths and catchy bass towards end. I love this shit.
*15. Epic chorus of synths and sparkling melodies over banging beat. I feel like I’m in some wondrous ice cave.