Nu:Logic - Memories

Still haven't had a chance to check Nu:Logic's album "What I've Always Waited For" despite the fact it dropped about twelve years ago.

Lovely bit of liquid from two producers who are more or less keeping Hospital afloat right now. Great for staring out the window and wondering where it all went wrong.

After Action Report: Hospital Fabric Takeover 7/1/11

A simple Fabric takeover may seem like a bit of a step down for Hospital, considering that it was only last September the label sold out the 5000-odd capacity Brixton Academy, but with the Hospitality brand going nationwide over the last couple of years, it was nice to have another London Hospital night, and there was certainly a lot of buzz around this one, despite it coming so soon after Xmas and NYE.

Fabric can really be a hit or miss venue. Either you'll get in nice and early and have a great time wobbling around on Room 1's bouncy floor before crashing in Room 3, or you'll queue for three hours to be groped by security on the way in, become hopelessly confused by the club's bizarrely dysfunctional maps and accidentally wander into the girl's loos, at which point someone's coke-addled boyfriend will punch you in the mouth. Whatever happens, you'll mostly end up having a good time.

Anyway, onwards to the DJs:

Stanza opened in Room 1, with a really good mix of old Hospital tracks, recent D&B anthems and a few newer curve balls. Essentially the standard This Is Drum And Bass sort of mix, but all the better for it and a good warm up for the night ahead.

Next up was S.P.Y., easily one of the strongest contenders for Producer of the Year 2010. Having been on fire throughout the year, I was really looking forward to seeing the Brazilian DJ and he did not disappoint on the night. By Your Side has yet to get old, and when we ambushed the man himself by the merch stand, he seemed like a bloody nice chap, and very impressed by the response the track has been getting over the past year.

S.P.Y doesn't get all of the Room 1 glory however, as Nu:Tone's subsequent set more than kept the energy going. Gotta give a nod to Natalie Williams' magnificent vocal work as well, and hearing the Room 1 crowd singing along to System was strangely beautiful, although sonically pretty damn horrible. Dan Gresham's new album is hitting the streets at the end of February, and from the stuff he's been dropping recently, it's gonna be good.

Other Takeover highlights were Joe Syntax, who kept things fixed well into the deep end in Room 3, along with London Elektricity, whose Room 3 Med School set reminded everyone that drum and bass is serious business. At 2.00 - 3.30, Blu Mar Ten were perfect for a battery recharge ahead of Cyantific's incredible Room 1 onslaught, and I urge you to check their promo mix if you haven't already done so. Rounding off the evening were Sigma, who pulled the trigger on the night with a heavy final set.

All in all, a fantastic night of D&B. See you at Hospitality Brixton in April.

Hospital Christmas Cracker

Just in case there was any doubt about how amazing Hospital Records are, they released a bunch of free tracks to anyone who had bought anything from the Hospital Webstore in 2010.

Pick of the bunch has to be Logistics - I Need You (of course)


Next up is a slice of deep minimal from Bop and Despot - Removing The Past


Thinnen provides an amazing rework of Nu:Tone's Strange Encounter


Last up is the instrumental version of Danny Byrd's Wait For Me.


Can't wait for the Hospital Fabric takeover next week!

Netsky - Radio 1 Essential Mix

2010 has been a huge year for Netsky, with the Hospital marketing machine pushing his album hard at the start of the year and plenty of business in the form of remix work for everyone from the Swedish House Mafia to Plan B.

However, despite being packed with massive tracks, I found Netsky's self-titled album a little lacking in substance. It's a completely stereotypical D&B album, the sort of thing you'd draw if by some dark magic you got "Drum and Bass" in a game of Pictionary. Whilst it ticked all the boxes for the modern D&B album (the liquid roller, the Jenna G vocal track, the dubstep track, several heavily-rinsed dancefloor tracks) it still felt like Netsky was struggling to transfer his individual style across from his singles and remix work into album form.

Anyway, I should really shut up, because Netsky's Essential Mix is fantastic, a serious contender for Essential Mix of the Year.

Grab it now!

Tracklist

After Action Report: Hospitality - Brixton Academy 24/09/10

The Hospital Records crew can always be relied on to run a good party, and the past few years have seen the Hospitality nights rise from a promotional side-interest to both a major aspect of the label and one of the UK's biggest D&B events.

Whilst it was sad to see Matter close it's doors, Hospitality always seemed a little bit big for that place, despite it being a custom-built superclub. The gantry of death was pretty cool, and Room Two had a great vibe, but there often seemed to be too much pushing and not enough dancing.

It was therefore with some trepidation that we rolled out to Brixton for the largest Hospitality yet. With something in the region of five thousand tickets shifted, it seemed like we'd be in a for a night of long time queuing and jabby elbows.

On the night however, these fears seemed to be completely unfounded, with the Brixton Academy easily able to accommodate the five thousand-odd liquid ravers messing the place up. Hospitality evolved from a club night into a full on rock concert/religious pilgrimage a long time ago, and the open plan set up and balcony of the Academy was much more suited to this than Matter's main room ever was. There was plenty of room for bad dancing, and the soundsystem backing it all up was truly trouser-shaking.

Having missed B-Complex because of previous commitments, we steamed across London at Warp Nine in order to catch Nu:Tone and Logistics. The frantic scramble was rewarded, and we were able to catch the majority of their set. Hearing By Your Side go off was definitely something special, and Nu:Logic was probably the highlight of the evening, despite the best efforts of MC Ruthless.

London Elektricity also played a blinder, with the Hospital CEO clearly revelling in his role as superstar DJ and label chief. When you're playing to a crowd that size, it must be pretty rewarding to reflect on just how healthy the Hospital brand is right now, and Tony Coleman really is at the top of his game. A live performance of Just One Second by Elsa Esmeralda rounded off the set perfectly, making LE a hard act to follow.

Fortunately, High Contrast was next up, packing fresh tracks from his current project. I'd never heard this stuff before, but going on these tracks, Lincoln Barrett's new album going to be one of the biggest things to happen in 2011.

The other standout performance of the night has to be Danny Byrd, who raised the roof with a brilliant set, plugging his new album and throwing plenty of old skool rave classics in as well.

So overall, one of the best D&B parties of recent times. Link To The Past going off five times in one night was both awesome and hilarious, with every DJ apparently running it out. Here's hoping Hospitality will return to the Brixton Academy before too long. Matter was fun, despite the drawbacks, but The Academy seems much more suited to this sort of large scale D&B shindig. Twenty thumbs up!



£4.45 for a Gaymers though?
FAAAARCK ORF!

Summer Beats

Hurrah, the summer is here.

I thought I'd compile a bit of a list of summery D&B for those long evenings chilling in the garden, driving round town with all your windows down or just generally causing noise nuisance.

• For me, the summer of 2009 was completely dominated by Hospital Records' Sick Music, and for the summer of 2010, Hospital have given us Netsky's self-titled debut LP. Stand out tracks for me have to be Iron Heart and Secret Agent, both of which are definitely big club anthems, but sound equally at home on your stereo.
  
• Talking of Sick Music, 2010 has also seen the release of Sick Music 2, and whilst the general consensus seems to be that it's not quite as head-kickingly awesome as Volume 1, it is definitely worth a purchase. Sonic's All I Wanna Do and Turn Up (The Music) by Camo & Krooked have already been big tunes for me this spring, and there are plenty more great tracks on the album. Go get 'em!
  
• Further chilled summer vibes can be found with Robot Redford. Check out Bonfire Youth:
  
  
  
  More tracks and information on his MySpace page
  
  
• Another producer who seems to have really hit his stride recently is Lenzman.
  
  
  
  Also check out Lenzman's mix for Reprise Agency here
  
  
• Back on a Camo & Krooked tip, here's another hands in the air electro D&B anthem from Beta Recordings. Lovely stuff.
  
  
  
  
• Last up, I'll leave you with Airwalker's absolutely massive Big Sky. Shame the Summer Solstice was yesterday. This one would be perfect for raving round Stone Henge.
  

All that and it's still only June. Crikey.

Catching Up With A Month of D&B

Having been outta the country for a while, I've returned to the UK to find my computer crammed full of podcasts and various other mixes that have stacked up during my absence, some of which are so good I've gotta share the love:

• As usual, the Hospital Records Podcast is bloody marvellous, and it's always good when Tony Coleman goes off on a rant: http://podcast.hospitalrecords.com/HospitalRecordsPodcast.xml
• Fairly new to the scene, the Shogun Audio Podcast, hosted by Friction, is also worth subscribing to: http://www.shogunaudio.co.uk/podcast.xml
• Random Movement keeps things deep, with a lot less chatter: http://www.randommovement.org/
• Lifted Music also have their own podcast if you like your D&B dark, sweary and from Harpenden: http://www.liftedmusic.co.uk/podcast
• On a similar tip, there's the Black Sun Empire podcast. Always worth a punt, especially if you like NeuroDubstep for some reason: http://www.blacksunempire.com/
• Spearhead Records chief BCee is currently putting out a sort of monthly podcast on behalf of digital music provider Juno: http://www.junodownload.com/plus/category/podcasts/
• John B has also been running his podcast for ages. Grab it here for some high quality electro-tinted drum and bass music: http://www.johnbpodcast.com/

As for old-fashioned, "radio-casts" or whatever they're called, the Radio 1 D&B Show with Fabio and/or Grooverider is usually fairly enjoyable (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00948qq). Guest mixes can usually be found ripped and uploaded to dodgy Russian D&B websites shortly after the broadcast. However, it's not a patch on Nerm's old Electro East show on the BBC Asian Network, which was sadly dropped at the start of this year.

Also, Ministry of Sound have started a Monday night D&B show with Hospital Records, Metalheadz and Artificial Intelligence taking turns at hosting. Listen to it here: http://www.ministryofsound.com/radio/artist/DrumBass