Old school break chopping goodness on our latest exclusive from Imanzi! The Norwich-based producer lands on Portuguese label Skalator Music on March 10th with the appropriately titled Ragga; on ode to the classic ragga jungle of days gone by. No prizes for originality but this one is still crispy as hell. Junglist massive!
Experimental jungle-tinged riddims a-plenty on today’s exclusive as we premiere Mark Kloud’s Get War. Taken from his new EP forthcoming on Vermont label Party Guy Records, Mark’s flair for experimental drum patterns is on full show here with a satisfyingly chaotic assortment of kicks, claps and breaks flying around the mix atop a layer of meaty bass vibration. Sick one!
We’re big fans of Beat Machine Records here at DNB Dojo so naturally we were well on board with helping them give away a copy of their latest Swinging Flavors vinyl 7″. Featuring a sick jungle/footwork crossover from Itoa and an equally tight remix from Astophonica artist Sully on the flip, this is more essential breakbeat business from one of the most exciting labels in the scene!
To be in with a chance of winning, all you have to do is like the DNB Dojo Facebook page, like the Beat Machine Facebook page, and send an email to competitions@dnbdojo.co.uk with your name & address and the subject line “Swinging Flavors Competition”. The lucky winner will be drawn on Feb 22nd.
Time for the first Dojo podcast of 2017! Hex is in the mix again with an hour of the best beats from the Dojo inbox representing liquid, jungle, dancefloor rollers, neuro bangers, halftime steppers and everything in between. New music from Dub Phizix, Samurai Breaks, Tim Reaper, Cyantific, Blu Mar Ten, Kid Drama and more…check it out.
You can check out the podcast via Soundcloud below or head to Youtube or iTunes to stream. You can also grab a download from Google Drive.
Whether it’s in their capacity as label curators or as artists in their own right, we’re big fans of Blu Mar Ten here at DNB Dojo. In a time when so much music, drum & bass included, is a packaged commodity designed to appeal to a very specific marketplace and lacking or devoid of originality, BMT stand as a beacon of the creativity and inspiration that makes the best music so exciting. If you subscribe to the adage that 99% of everything is rubbish, then these guys are the 1% of the 1%.
Enter Empire State, the team’s seventh studio album and their fourth for their own Blu Mar Ten Music imprint. Picking up pretty much exactly where Famous Lost Words left off, the album plays like a love letter to all the facets of D&B, focusing on the deeper and more melodic side of the music but with some unashamed dancefloor rollers thrown into the mix. More experimental tracks like Monologue and Fall From Grace dial back the beats, allowing Blu Mar Ten’s knack for shimmering synth work to shine through, while straight up rollers such as Immortal Beloved provide that uptempo euphoria the duo do so well.
Robert Manos makes a welcome appearance on the effortlessly crispy Keep It Together, while the rest of the album’s vocal-led tracks feature the enigmatic strains of Kite, a female vocalist that we can literally find nothing about anywhere. The pair clearly have a talent for spotting gifted singers; as with Agnė Genytė’s contributions to their previous LP, Kite lends raw emotion and a less obvious style of delivery to the vocals here, and the album sounds fantastic for her presence.
Empire State probably won’t convince the naysayers of the merits of the more melodic end of D&B, nor is it packed full of cutting-edge, genre-bending or trend-setting material. If however you want an album featuring some of the most finely crafted D&B and a ton of depth and feeling, Blu Mar Ten deliver in spades. As always. Check out the previews below and hit up the BMT Store to grab a copy on vinyl or digital now.
We’ve long been fans of Italian label Beat Machine and their club focussed Swinging Flavors 7″ series so we’re pretty excited to share exclusive previews of their brand new release from Itoa! Jungle meets footwork with a sick remix from Keysound / Astrophonica badman Sully to boot, and these tracks are bringing a classic sound into 2017 with a nice modern twist.
Check out the previews below and keep your eyes peeled for full length premieres on the Beat Machine soundcloud between now and the release on Jan 26th. Hype!
The Dojo podcast returns with a bumper two hour long second episode just in time for Christmas! Blog owner Hex is back on the decks with all the best cuts from the Dojo inbox representing the full spectrum of D&B sounds. Check it…
You can check out the podcast via Soundcloud below or head to Youtube, Mixcloud, Hearthis.at or iTunes to stream. You can also grab a download from Google Drive.
We’re proud to present another exclusive premiere from our pals at Ground Mass and man of the moment Samurai Breaks! Taken from his forthcoming Silverback EP, Malicious Intent mixes up deep sub and halftime riddims with junglist break chopping and an inspired metallic snare melody. Experimental, but with an eye on the dancefloor! Look for this at all good digital stores from Dec 20th.
To celebrate the release of his second LP for DJ Vapour’s 36 Hertz imprint we’ve got a big new mix from Jem One! Packed full of steppers, rollers and amen smashers, this is quality break-loaded D&B with an old school tinge and it still sounds fresher than ever. No tracklist on this one as there are a fair few dubs in the mix! Check it out and hit up the 36 Hertz Bandcamp to pre-order new album The Infinite Circle now.
As usual you can check out the mix via Soundcloud below or head to Youtube, Mixcloud, Hearthis.at or iTunes to stream. You can also grab a download from Google Drive.
Our latest exclusive mix comes from an artist we’ve been keeping an eye on for a while, so we’re hyped to welcome Samurai Breaks to the Dojo Mix Series! Hailing from Leeds but now based in Prague, the last month has seen Sam launch his Tsunami Bass Weight imprint with a big VA compilation and release a sick new single via Halogen Music. With releases coming soon on Ground Mass and support on Noisia Radio, we’re tipping Samurai Breaks for a big 2017.
Sam’s mix for DNB Dojo takes in the full range of 170BPM music with deep, halftime head nodders sitting alongside techstep rollers from the likes of Icicle and Mikal. There’s plenty of space in the bumper 106 minute selection for music from Terabyte, Subtitles Music, Critical, Free Love Digi and plenty more alongside a host of tasty dubs from the man himself and his cohorts at Tsunami Bass Weight. Sick selections; get to know!
As usual you can check out the mix via Soundcloud below or head to Youtube, Mixcloud, Hearthis.at or iTunes to stream. You can also grab a download from Google Drive.