Spread The Vibes - Drum & Bass Version

Spread The Vibes Challenge

Last week, I was tagged in a post by @edje, a music industry guru who is very much in to Techno and clubbing, bringing decades of experience with him to the Music Community on PeakD and often leaving comments that end up longer than my posts! So I guess I'll just write a 10,000 word post and give him another challenge to write a longer comment haha! Just kidding, music vibes only!

The aim of the challenge is to listen in to the piece or pieces of music that have been shared with you and you share your reaction to how the music made you feel before sharing your music. The full guidelines of the challenge are to post:

• Your reaction to the music that was shared with you
• Your music selection and related story
• Your invites of other HIVE members
• Link to the post you react to
• Post Tags has - to include #spreadthevibes #music
• Post Community - any community you like.

Reaction To The Shared Music

As I'm typing this post, I'm actually tuned in to one of the 3 Techno sets that Mr Edje shared with us. This is the XLR8R Podcast 430 by Etapp Kyle and although Techno isn't normally a genre I'd settle down and listen to given that my main love is Drum & Bass, I have to say, I'm really enjoying the deep vibes in the tunes that are mixed in too:

I'm not too strong on genre convention outside of the drum & bass realm but I'd say the basslines of Techno with the minimal sounds and atmospheric pads that crept in to the above mix really gripped me and had me in a trance. Sometimes with electronic music, things can get repetitive if not done properly and you can lose the interest of your audience. This is something I learned from being a part of a few record labels who taught me to always have something that changes after a certain amount of bars in the music.

However, the vibes in this mix are hypnotic and the long progressions are not something I mind at all. I think you do have to be in the right frame of mind to listen in to an hour long (or longer) set of music but when it's done properly, being a DJ and creating a long mix is an art in itself and you can create a wonderful journey yourself.

My Music Selection(s)

I have to go right back to my own discovery of Drum & Bass after hearing the Bass, Breaks & Beats mix by DJ Hype blasted out by my brother back in 2003-4. This was my first experience of DnB and as soon as I heard the fast pace and high energy beats, I was hooked! These were sounds I'd never heard before, big basslines, some raw sounds but all intertwined in a 80 minute mix (maybe less, you could only have 80 minutes max on CDs back then)!

So I went in to my local town at some point that summer, popped in to Virgin Megastore and went on a shopping spree in the Drum & Bass mix session and found a mix that would transform my brain into some superspeedway of bass, smooth vibes and liquid sounds. I am of course, talking about Hospital Mix 4 mixed by Cyantific from Hospital Records. This features some iconic tunes from London Elektricity, High Contrast, Q Project, Logistics, Danny Byrd, Cyantific and Syncopix around 2005.

From this, I went on to buy Hospital Mixes 1-3, Weapons of Mass Creation and when I was at Uni doing my first course back in 2005-2008, I ended up downloading various liquid drum & bass mixes, some recorded live at events and wishing I was there partying with others. The scene has changed since with the genre going down the more commercial pop, speed garage route but I fully get that DnB is looking for a commercial presence, rather than remaining in the underground.

But I do like the underground myself! In the last 3-4 years, I had been one half of the Platform Project that aimed to showcase underground drum and bass producers along with some of the more well known tunes to give them a platform to grow. In some shows, the artists we featured went on to get signed by labels and propelled their careers - we'd like to think we had some part in spreading the word!

We may revive the Platform Project later in 2021 but we are taking a break for the moment so we can come back stronger, recharged and give you some even better mixes if we do return.

One thing is for sure, this pandemic can definitely do one and at the end of 2020/beginning of 2021, I put together a mix called "To Better Days". This is a 30 minute mix of some of my tunes that I felt are the most positive, melodic and high energy ones I have made to hopefully give us that push we need to get through. Here it is for you to enjoy if you wanted to really complete your drum & bass fix!

Invitations

I'd love to invite anyone who wants to join in really but going to invite fellow dnb heads @beautifulbullies @trucklife-family @vibeof100monkeys I know on PeakD and anyone else reading this on my blog, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!

Now, hopefully my music PC will be back in action, this is like some form of torture not being able to work on music projects or DJ mixes, listening to that Hospital Mix 4 again is properly taking me back - we need to rave again once this is all over!

Take care

Nicky