roni size & reprazent - new forms

The surviving member of Foul Play (after Steve Gurley's departure in early 1994 I think), John Morrow, now has an act called Skeleton Army making house / uk bass type stuff.

somehow i missed this poll but flopson otm this album rules!!!!!

I own a Twisted Individual album and tbh I'm not sure why

I'm sure there's another (superior) DJ Die mix of Watching Windows that never got released but got played loads at the time?

― Twelves, Wednesday, 16 October 2019 09:16 (twelve hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Do you mean something other than the Gnarly mix?

I haven't heard the Jacob's Optical Stairway album in 20+ years, but IIRC it was more like Detroit techno, not D&B? Or am I confusing it with some other 4 Hero side project?

― Tuomas, Wednesday, 16 October 2019 08:32 (thirteen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

You might be thinking of Marc Mac's (first) album under the Nu-Era moniker.

Jacob's Optical Stairway is strongly detroit-influenced in terms of the melodies, but no more so than say T-Power's first album. The beatwork is pretty much pure jungle.

I remember when getting into dnb Jess I think recommending the dj hype drum n Bass selection mixes (esp 4) more than any specific album artist albums, also an option flopson

And of course I guess this is more proto dnb but if you haven’t heard “history of our world vol 1” you’ll love it

Also the album art is cool af

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Drum-Bass-Selection-4-Reload-Part-4-Running-It-Red/release/82629

I guess maybe that’s more jungle ... whatevr

Do ppl not recommend remarc any more?

kind of ironic (though not incorrect) that you're caveating that a compilation called 'drum n bass selection' is 'more jungle'.

the remarc comp is very good but there was an element of contrastanning at work, like, 'this relatively anonymous producer who just churned out dancefloor killers is actually more important/consistent/enjoyable/etc. than yr geniuses like goldie' - which is not an unreasonable position to adopt but in that case you may as well just boost comps and dj mixes?

should have said, 'there was an element of contrastanning at work to the critical hosannas that greeted its release'

ya I’ve history, it’s great

what i should do is post an upload link for grooverider's (long out of print) 'hardstep selection vol. 2' DJ mix a/k/a the best album ever made

Do you mean something other than the Gnarly mix?

It seems the Gnarly mix is the one I've been puzzling over, thanks Tim. The commercial 12"/CDS had a "DJ DIe Remix" which is shorter and less good, which is a baffling choice.

It does seem like this is the first time the Gnarly mix has been available on CD/digitally. It's as good as I remembered.

what i should do is post an upload link for grooverider's (long out of print) 'hardstep selection vol. 2' DJ mix a/k/a the best album ever made

― Tim F, Wednesday, October 16, 2019 8:41 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

pretty sure jess mentioned this too tbf

Jacob's Optical Stairway is strongly detroit-influenced in terms of the melodies, but no more so than say T-Power's first album. The beatwork is pretty much pure jungle.

It is also one of the greatest electronic albums ever made. There's honestly not a single duff or even mediocre track on it.

This would easily make it into my top 20 albums of all time, still listen to it a lot and if anything it just grows on me more. It's a wonderfully tasteful and unique album, of its time but somehow timeless, in that it's very 1997 but hasn't dated at all. Even the artwork doesn't suffer from any of the design tropes of the time.

I went to one of the live gigs for In The Mode, first concert I'd been to where everyone was dancing! Made a change from men appreciatively nodding their heads and drinking pints.