#frogbeats

By James Denney In the run up for our collaborative party on Saturday 11th April the Frogbeats and Handpicked crews got together over a few beers at Sub Hub to chat shit and broadcast some choice grooves.

With only a couple of days to go until the party the hype is gearing up. At Sub Hub we provided an impromptu selection of cuts from the crate of Handpicked head honcho Mr. Tuner.

I’ve known Mr. Tuner for a few years now, seen him perform countless parties, and watched as Handpicked became a name in the Hip-Hop game. His love for digging through the crates both dusty and digital, his productions and his enthusiasm has elevated his crew’s parties to the next level. Expect the flavours of the Handpicked crew all night long in the Vic.

I’ve played jungle and D&B in Sub Club alongside Rize and Pharo for Frogbeats’ ‘Unleash The Beast’ for 3 years. Sub Club will continue to be a great venue, but for this Saturday we felt like stepping up the size of the system and production with the extremely talented Too Much Fun Club who will be drawing live on stage to the good vibrations of the Frogbeats crew, accompanied by animated projections mapped in real-time to their drawing.

Welcome to the first instalment of Peaz Inna Podcast from Frogbeats and Samson Sounds!!

This session is dedicated to The Furry Chillum Warm-up party (March 20th, Artschool, Glasgow), a night we are hosting for a taste of the Eden Festival 2015. We present a showcase of all the acts performing on the night - with three special live tracks from Samson Sounds - to get you in the mood for this fantastic party to be :).

A big thank you to Mungo's Hi Fi for letting us use their kitchen as a studio! Tracklist:

0.00 - The Dream (Trinity Roots)

6.17 -  Take it Slow(Boozoo Bajou feat. Joe Dukie and U Brown)

9.20 - Swing Bit (Samson Sounds - live)

14.13 - Right On (Ray Barretto - Whiskey Barons Got Some Afro Mix)

18.09 - Samedia Shebeen minimix

26.27 - Heroes (K.O.G. and the Zongo Brigade)

30.20 - Talking Drum (Samson Sounds - live)

35.26 - Swank n Jams minimix

47.43 - Viarejo (Clap Clap)

50.46 - Jabulani (K.O.G. and the Zongo Brigade)

54.16 - Hum (Claude)

Written by: Russell McMahon and James Harrison Edited by: Sarah Case

To truly appreciate music you should know where it comes from. In this blog series we are going to look at the different sub-genres of Drum & Bass and how they came to be. So here’s your “what’s it all about” guide to Drum & Bass from a Frogbeats perspective.

Let’s start with the easy stuff. Drum & Bass, or DnB, generally operates at a tempo of between 160 and 180BPM and tends to be more syncopated than the electronic styles out of which it grew. It tends to focus on break-beats and huge bass-lines influenced by dub and reggae. DnB is one of the most diverse genres of electronic music, with its own sub-genres forging connections with just about every other type of music from techno to blues.

To understand where DnB comes from you need to be familiar with Jungle. This is the Granddaddy of Drum & Bass, which came about from the underground dance scene in the early 1990s. DnB came out of the acid house and rave scene back in the 1990’s by crossing Jungle with the more popular electronic music styles of the time. Liquid Funk

Naturally music evolves from generation to generation as new artists step in to create their own signature sound. This is what occurred in the turn of the millennium when artists such as Fabio began championing a new form of DnB called ‘Liquid Funk’ on his Creative Source label. This took influences from Funk, Disco, Latin, Jazz & Soca (Carribean music originating from Trinidad & Tobago) generally using the raw sound of instrument in recording. The tempos vary a lot. 

 Atmospheric & Intelligent

From liquid funk came two styles of DnB: ‘Atmospheric’ and ‘Intelligent’. These are adaptations of Liquid Funk but have a more synthetic sound, using smooth, melodic and dark synths, deep bass and samples in place of the organic elements of new instruments. This made Drum & Bass more widely accepted than ever before, taking the genre from full-on drug fueled raves in a muddy field to music you can appreciate and relax to on a sober sunny afternoon.

Here is an example of an ‘Atmospheric’ track – Nasty Habits – Deep Beatz

Here is an example of an ‘Intelligent’ track – Alix Perez – Fade Away

Liquid Drum & Bass

Artists from the UK such as Eveson, Alix Perez and Lenzman began catching on in the late 00’s and forged ‘Liquid DnB’. These innovative artists tended to steer away from Amen Breaks and 808s, and brought new sounds to the Drum & Bass scene. It was essentially a hybrid between Liquid Funk and the more electronic Intelligent/Atmospheric DnB, making it subtly different from Liquid Funk itself. It resulted in a vast platform for producers to create original music since so many genres could be combined and digital production became more accessible. In terms of the mood the music sets, Liquid DnB which borrows more of the sentimental and melodic characteristics of jazz and house vocals over the fast drums and big basslines. The results are fluid-like. It’s more about creating the feel and setting the scene than making people dance.

Upcoming Dates

FEEL FREE TO COMMENT

To truly appreciate music you should know where it comes from. In this blog series we are going to look at the different sub-genres of Drum & Bass and how they came to be. So here’s your “what’s it all about” guide to Drum & Bass from a Frogbeats perspective.

Let’s start with the easy stuff. Drum & Bass, or DnB, generally operates at a tempo of between 160 and 180BPM and tends to be more syncopated than the electronic styles out of which it grew. It tends to focus on break-beats and huge bass-lines influenced by dub and reggae. DnB is one of the most diverse genres of electronic music, with its own sub-genres forging connections with just about every other type of music from techno to blues.

To understand where DnB comes from you need to be familiar with Jungle. This is the Granddaddy of Drum & Bass, which came about from the underground dance scene in the early 1990s. DnB came out of the acid house and rave scene back in the 1990’s by crossing Jungle with the more popular electronic music styles of the time. Liquid Funk

Naturally music evolves from generation to generation as new artists step in to create their own signature sound. This is what occurred in the turn of the millennium when artists such as Fabio began championing a new form of DnB called ‘Liquid Funk’ on his Creative Source label. This took influences from Funk, Disco, Latin, Jazz & Soca (Carribean music originating from Trinidad & Tobago) generally using the raw sound of instrument in recording. The tempos vary a lot. 

 Atmospheric & Intelligent

From liquid funk came two styles of DnB: ‘Atmospheric’ and ‘Intelligent’. These are adaptations of Liquid Funk but have a more synthetic sound, using smooth, melodic and dark synths, deep bass and samples in place of the organic elements of new instruments. This made Drum & Bass more widely accepted than ever before, taking the genre from full-on drug fueled raves in a muddy field to music you can appreciate and relax to on a sober sunny afternoon.

Here is an example of an ‘Atmospheric’ track – Nasty Habits – Deep Beatz

Here is an example of an ‘Intelligent’ track – Alix Perez – Fade Away

Liquid Drum & Bass

Artists from the UK such as Eveson, Alix Perez and Lenzman began catching on in the late 00’s and forged ‘Liquid DnB’. These innovative artists tended to steer away from Amen Breaks and 808s, and brought new sounds to the Drum & Bass scene. It was essentially a hybrid between Liquid Funk and the more electronic Intelligent/Atmospheric DnB, making it subtly different from Liquid Funk itself. It resulted in a vast platform for producers to create original music since so many genres could be combined and digital production became more accessible. In terms of the mood the music sets, Liquid DnB which borrows more of the sentimental and melodic characteristics of jazz and house vocals over the fast drums and big basslines. The results are fluid-like. It’s more about creating the feel and setting the scene than making people dance.

Upcoming Dates

FEEL FREE TO COMMENT

Stumbled upon a collective called Den Sorte Skol today courtesy of a lovely chap, Mayawaska, who recently put together a Transcontinental mix for our Broadcast series. They are a 3-piece from Copenhagen and have put together some of the most beautiful mixes I have heard with the concept of taking hundreds of samples, from dozens of records, from all over the world. Their latest mix, Lektion III, is available for download (available in FLAC/WAV). If you are not skinto, then you should drop them a donation via their site to keep their work going.

"Lektion III is a 1,5 hour-long journey through music history and beyond build from thousands of sampled pieces lifted off more than 250 old vinyl records from 51 different countries on six continents. A musical odyssey that blends everything from Moroccan traditional songs, Indian hymns and field recordings of Cameroonian Pygmies to forgotten Yugoslav psych, French avant-garde rock and early German electro into a dark and giddy, genre-melting trip."

Click here their website.