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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Around 1995 a group of producers stripped the warmth out of jungle and replaced it with machine drums, distorted bass and a science fiction mood.
Techstep emerged in Great Britain in the mid 1990s, developing around 1995 from jungle and hardstep. Wikipedia says Ed Rush and Trace gave the style its name.
The mood is dark and science fiction. The drums come from quantised drum machine kits and percussion sounds rather than natural breakbeats, with hardstep kicks and snares, and the bass is heavily processed and distorted rather than deep and clean. Industrial and techno influences run through it. The tech in the name points to the brutalist Belgian hardcore aesthetic, not to Detroit techno.
Techstep was a reaction to the pop and virtuoso elements in jungle and early drum and bass. It adopted a simpler, colder sound and stripped out the R and B influences.
Pioneers named are Ed Rush, Optical, Teebee and Noisia. Important labels were Moving Shadow and Metalheadz. An early landmark is DJ Trace's 1995 remix of T Power's Mutant Jazz on S.O.U.R. Recordings, co produced with Ed Rush and the engineer Nico. Compilations that carried the sound include Torque on No U Turn, Techsteppin on Emotif, and the Platinum Breakz series and MDZ 01 on Metalheadz.
Several of the original techstep producers went on to develop neurofunk, which we cover in a separate guide.
Our Fifty Cuts Deep list has a Neuro and Tech band, tracks 41 to 50.
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 1999 compilation gave the style its name, and by 2005 it was one of the biggest selling corners of drum and bass.
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