The Desert Sound Coalition has been a part of the Southern California desert party scene for a solid decade now and this installment of their event marks their ten year anniversary. I’m happy to be a part of the lineup as it’s been a long time since I played at a desert party. All the details that are available now are on the Facebook event page, I’d also keep your eyes there for all the future updates you’ll need to attend the show!

I’m happy to be playing for the Vital Signz crew at their monthly Sacred Sounds event, a club night in Downtown LA that caters specifically to the deeper sides of drum & bass. It all goes down on Friday March 18th at the 2nd Street Jazz Club where I’ll be playing alongside Adamantium, Ghost MD, Animate, and Keep Deep. Here’s more of the vital details:

Cover: $10 for 18+; $5 for 21+ before 11PM / $10 after

2nd Street Jazz Club
366 E. 2nd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
[ Google Maps ]

[ DOWNLOAD THE MIX ]

Tracklist:
01. Seba & Lotek – Universal Music [Good Looking Records - GLRLP002 - 1997]
02. Big Bud – Emotionography [Good Looking Records - GLR026 - 1998]
03. Intense – Careless Minds [Good Looking Records - GLR018 - 1996]
04. Apollo Two – Atlantis (I Need You) (LTJ Bukem Remix) [Good Looking Records - GLR003 - 1993]
05. Seba & Lotek – So Long [Looking Good Records - LGR005 - 1996]
06. Mark J – Flight 19 [Looking Good Records - LGR018 - 1998]
07. Appaloosa & DJ Dream – Night Train [Looking Good Records - LGR009 - 1998]
08. Seba – Connected [Looking Good Records - LGR014 - 1998]
09. Axis – High Point [Looking Good Records - LGR020 - 1999]
10. Lexis & Universal – Groove Therapy [Looking Good Records - LGR007 - 1996]
11. J-Laze – Stratosphere [Looking Good Records - LGR027 - 1999]
12. Tayla – Resolution [Good Looking Records - GLRCD003 - 1998]
13. Artemis – Elysian Fields [Good Looking Records - GLR020 - 1997]
14. DJ Crystl – Mindgames [Earth Records - EARTHLP002 - 1997]
15. Rantoul – Default [Looking Good Records - LGR041 - 2002]
16. Rantoul – The Ladder [Good Looking Records - GLR035 - 1999]
17. Intersperse – Equanimity [Looking Good Records - LGR037 - 2001]
18. PFM – For All Of Us [Good Looking Records - GLR016 - 1996]
19. Intense – Dark Skies [Good Looking Records - GLRLP002 - 1997]
20. Chameleon – Links [Good Looking Records - GLR014 - 1995]
21. Seba – Camouflage [Looking Good Records - LGR016 - 1998]
22. New Balance – Reflections [Looking Good Records - LGR010 - 1998]
23. Blu Mar Ten – Futureproof [Good Looking Records - GLR021 - 1997]
Total Running Time: 1hr 39min

About the Mix
For the third installment of the Deceast Mix Series I’ve gone back to one of my favorite periods in music, the mid-to-late 1990s atmospheric drum & bass era typified by the Good Looking Records label. Started by LTJ Bukem, a DJ and producer who played an integral role in starting the atmospheric D&B sound, Good Looking Records grew to include multiple labels under the GLR banner: Looking Good, Earth, 720 Degrees, Cookin’, and Ascendant Grooves being the most well-known. During its heyday from the early-mid 90s to the early 2000s, atmospheric drum & bass was characterized by lush and expansive synth pads, deftly manipulated breakbeats and booming 808 bass. It generally had a blissed-out vibe that placed less importance on dancefloor considerations than on the sheer emotion a producer was trying to evoke through their music, however songs within the genre range from the mellow and minimal through to the more dark and kinetic material.

The atmospheric D&B scene ran quite strongly throughout the majority of the 1990s. There were dozens of well-established genre-defining artists and record labels whose names would be familiar to anybody frequenting their local dance music record store. Most cities claimed at least one DJ that specialized in playing atmospheric D&B, if not an entire crew. The headlining names, many of which are represented in this mix, toured regularly both in Europe and abroad, including several jaunts across the US.

As the tempo of D&B continued to evolve during the 1990s towards its current 175BPM range, atmospheric became less prominent until the style essentially disappeared from the contemporary music landscape. Good Looking Records went into an extended hiatus while LTJ Bukem pivoted to focusing on more dancefloor-friendly liquid funk that rose in popularity during the early 2000s. While there is still the occasional nostalgic new release that follows the genre conventions of atmospheric D&B, the style of music has pretty much disappeared from the contemporary musical landscape.

This captivating style of music didn’t continue into the next decade intact, but its influence has gone on to inform a lot of music across not only the entire drum & bass spectrum but has also impacted all sorts of electronic music in general. Download a copy, kick back, and take a listen to what the future sounded like to a group of young musicians looking forward into the 21st century.

dBridge and his Exit Records imprint are celebrating the release of the first installment in the Mosaic series today. Mosaic Volume One features music from the likes of dBridge himself as well as luminaries on the deep side of bass music like Scuba, Synkro, ASC, Distance, Commix and many more. The full tracklist is below.

CD1
1. Scuba – In_2
2. Stray – Pushed
3. Distance – Fading
4. dBridge – Forgot What I Needed to Forget
5. Synkro – Open Arms
6. dBridge – Rendezvous
7. Dan Harbanham – Nu Este Roze
8. dBridge – Decayed
9. Consequence – Splinter
10. ASC – Modular Concepts
11. Croms – Invisible Cities

CD 2
1. Commix – City Section
2. Indigo – Time
3. Mode – Stepping Stones
4. Instra:mental – Scene 3
5. Skeptical – Another World
6. Skream – Motorway
7. Genotype – Further Searching
8. Code 3 – Chasm
9. Abstract Elements – Essence of Time
10. System – Observation Point
11. Loxy & Resound – Vertigo

You can pick up the vinyl version which includes a free copy of the CD release at quality record stores online and around the globe while you can snag your digital copies via iTunes.