Johnathan Thomas lands back on Onset Audio with a tidy new EP later this week, and we’ve got the exclusive on his collab with HammerZz – A Murder! Slouching halftime beats, scuzzy LFO bassline and soft, atmospheric pads make for 100% vibe. Hit up your favourite store to grab this from Friday 19th June!
Locked Up Music drop their 20th release today, combining a celebration of the label’s output with some fundraising for a good cause; all proceeds will go to Love Your Hospital, a charity which fundraises for the West Sussex hospitals where Locked Up boss Section works.
Better still, if you wait until Friday to grab the LP then you’ll be doing a charity double whammy – Bandcamp will be donating their share of all sales on June 19th to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Check out the beats below, do some good and grab yourself a fistful of dark D&B to boot!
I’m dropping the impersonal tone I generally employ in these blog posts on this occasion because this is a personal message from me, Hex. On June 2nd DNB Dojo took part in Blackout Tuesday, and I took time to reflect on the problem of racism, both inside and outside of the Drum & Bass scene. That reflection led me to the conclusion that I have not done enough. Angela Davis said it best when she said “In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be antiracist.”
It should go without saying that Jungle and Drum & Bass is a music firmly rooted in Black culture. I’m not going to go into depth on that history here because so many better writers, filmmakers and podcasters have already covered it in immense detail. Rosemary Pitts has posted an extensive list of watching / reading / listening material on the History of Black British Rave Culture over here on Instagram (also available on Facebook here courtesy of EQ50) which I’ll be working my way through over the coming weeks and months. I can already thoroughly recommend Brian Belle-Fortune’s absolutely seminal All Crews as essential reading for the passionate junglist.
Beyond that reading, I’ve been thinking about what I can do both as an individual and as the owner of a platform, albeit a small one. To that end, here are the actions that I’ll be taking going forward:
I’d like to reiterate that this space is welcoming to Black people and indeed people of all backgrounds. I listen to all music that comes to the Dojo inbox, and while I can’t promise to feature everything I will always respond and try and provide honest feedback and creative criticism. If that’s something you’re interested in then please get in touch: info@dnbdojo.co.uk.
Dissident & Cyberworm get the remix treatment from Dharma Kaya on today’s premiere! Taken from the forthcoming album of remixes dropping via Kos.Mos.Music, this one is a weighty halftime jaunt with some serious grit to the bassline. Wicked sound; look out for the album coming June 17th.
Mystic State return after a brief hiatus with the latest on their Chikara Project imprint and this time they’ve got Nottingham production duo Congi in for a collab. Closer harnesses the spirit of autonomic for a sparse, detailed slice of halftime experimentalism, with ghostly R&B vocals echoing across the mix for good measure. Lessons in depth…check it out and grab the full EP from Bandcamp right now!
British production trio Arcatype celebrate their brand new EP for CIA Records with a tidy selection of rolling D&B goodness on our latest guest mix! Featuring beats from the Mind Loop EP alongside cuts from the likes of Myth, Alix Perez, Total Science, FB and Dom & Roland, fans of the CIA sound will not be disappointed. Deep and dark but still plenty funky!
As always you can check out the mix via Soundcloud below or head to iTunes to stream. You can also grab a download from Google Drive.
Monika launches his very own imprint this month and we’re hyped to have the premiere of one of the tracks from the debut release! As we’ve come to expect from Monika, this one is packed full of hypnotic melodies, weighty bass and crispy drums; punchy enough for the club, deep enough for the living room. Wicked track; hit up Bandcamp to grab the full EP from today!
Brain Crisis land in our spotlight for today’s premiere. Taken from the second release on 2Whales new High Resistance imprint, Gloukos applies the detailed production we’ve come to expect from Brain Crisis to softer musical territory; more liquid than neuro but definitely drawing inspiration from both sides of the scene. Look for this coming June 8th at all good digital outlets…
Some chilled out halftime beats for you on today’s premiere as we present a cut from Samsara Beats’ new Isolation LP from pxlhz. Airy pads, Mobb Deep samples and plenty of boom in the low end – yes yes! Look out for the LP coming to Bandcamp June 5th, with other stores following June 15th.
Yesterday we took part in Blackout Tuesday, standing in solidarity with the Black community across the world. Today we return to what we love to do here at DNB Dojo; showcasing music that excites us from artists across the Drum & Bass scene. But we want to make it clear that this isn’t the end of our engagement with the problem of racism.
Going forward, we’ll be thinking about what we can do to better showcase Black artists within our scene, and how else we can be part of the solution rather than the problem. Expect more on that soon. In the meantime, we understand that not all spaces can feel welcoming to people from all backgrounds, not least Black people, and we want to make it clear that this one is.
We listen to all music that comes our way in the inbox, and while we can’t promise to feature everything we will always respond and try and provide honest feedback and creative criticism. If that’s something you’re interested in then please get in touch: info@dnbdojo.co.uk.