Drum and Bass has split into two scenes again. As the genre went completely pop in the last few years — with girly tunes like Wilkinson’s Afterglow and artists like Chase & Status breaking through into the mainstream charts — there’s a strong push for a more agressive sound. Seemingly as an instant reaction to bubblegum drum and bass, there’s now more aggressive and dark tunes coming out than ever before. Labels like Virus are making a comeback and their gritty sound has started to evolve again since there’s such a dire need for it to push back against bubblegum drum and bass.
I have just had Virus Recordings’ Audio as a guest on my show which completely covers this sound.
I love seeing this and it’s a testament that drum and bass never seems to stop evolving. It always goes up and down, goes into the mainstream and then goes underground again. There’s always so much stuff happening in it. For now though, I think the next year of drum and bass will be one filled with raw and aggressive tunes.
And it’s not just drum and bass. People are starting to get sick of the over-produced polished sound coming out of electronic music right now. It’s all going raw very very soon.
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