A plain guide to drum and bass subgenres, from liquid to darkstep
Drum and bass runs at 160 to 180 beats per minute and splits into light, mainstream and heavy branches. Here is what each name means.
By D-N-B Desk
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A 1999 compilation gave the style its name, and by 2005 it was one of the biggest selling corners of drum and bass.
Liquid drum and bass started in the UK in 1999, when DJ Fabio and Sarah Sandy released a compilation called Liquid Funk on their Creative Source label.
Wikipedia describes fewer bar oriented samples and more instrumental layers, both synthesised and natural, with harmonies, melodies and atmosphere. Jazz, soul and blues are the main influences, alongside ambient, funk, disco, house, trance, soca, Latin, breakbeat and acid jazz. Intelligent and atmospheric variants lean on synth lines and sound calmer and more synthetic.
Adoption was slow at first. It grew massively in popularity around 2003 and 2004 and by 2005 was one of the biggest selling subgenres of drum and bass. High Contrast's 2007 album Tough Guys Don't Dance is credited with bringing it back to the mainstream, with If We Ever charting on Radio 1's dance singles.
Artists named include Netsky, LTJ Bukem, High Contrast, Logistics, London Elektricity, DJ Marky and Calibre. Labels named are Hospital Records, Good Looking Records, Creative Source, Fokuz Recordings and Shogun Limited.
Our Fifty Cuts Deep list has ten liquid tracks, tracks 21 to 30, including High Contrast's If We Ever and Netsky's Iron Heart and Eyes Closed.
Drum and bass runs at 160 to 180 beats per minute and splits into light, mainstream and heavy branches. Here is what each name means.
By D-N-B Desk
A term from a 1997 magazine article, a pair of V Recordings and Virus records, and a style built on bass sounds that keep changing shape.
By D-N-B Desk
A few seconds of drums on the B-side of a 1969 soul single became the backbone of jungle and drum and bass. Here is where it came from and who got paid.
By D-N-B Desk