Drum ’n’ Bass Essentials

Drum ’n’ Bass Essentials

Born in London’s club scene and Bristol’s early ’90s rave-concentrated electronic underground, drum ’n’ bass smoothed out the gritty edges of the jungle movement that spawned it. A foundation of raging basslines and punishing breakbeats is tinged with jazz and dub samples at every turn, fuelling the throb of the decade’s dark dance clubs where the kind of disaffected youth who needed to sweat their troubles away gathered. Roni Size and his Reprazent collective and Goldie’s Metalheadz label became hubs of the scene and helped unfurl the global D’n’B movement led by Pendulum in Australia and DJ Marky in Brazil. It’s spawned a rich legacy of offshoots—including techstep and breakcore—but across all spins on the drum ’n’ bass sound, the soul-drum break of The Winstons’ late-’60s classic “Amen Brother” is the ever-present force that still fuels the movement.

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