Once upon a time Drum & Bass stood for stretching the boundaries of electronic music experimentalism and a drive to push the limits of the technology used in the process. It's a bit mad to think that creative highpoint was reached around 15 years ago, but as Drum & Bass was a sound that simply could not be ignored, it was no surprise the initial artistic integrity eventually succumbed to a culture of DJs peppering their sets with lowest common denominator, jump-up, dancefloor bombs that seem to have become synonymous with the very words Drum & Bass and catapulted a number of producers into the charts enough for the Top Shop brigade to swap their Hed Kandi C.Ds for the latest album by Pendulum.
It's been a tough time in Drum & Bass for those of us who crave just that little more (or less as the case may be in this instance) and look for those artists who still have the balls to push this music down more experimental pathways, whilst the rest of the scene burns down under the weight of its paint-by-numbers commercial successes. However, help has been at hand from some producers having the courage to notice the damage done to the scene through the lack of imagination and decided to take it up the challenging of tearing up the rulebook and flicking two fingers up at expectation.
D-Bridge & Instra:Mental present Autonomic have certainly farted in the mouth of the mainstream with their offering for the latest Fabriclive instalment, and for that, I salute them. Anyone already a fan of the stripped back, atmospheric releases from artists like Bop, Lynx and Kemo, and Instra:mental and D-Bridge themselves are in for a treat with this one. The spacious blend of Drum & Bass tracks, stripped down to their barest essentials creates a contemporary listening experience in tune with that creative peak of the mid-90s without reverting back to the time itself. Admittedly, the minimalist attitude taken to the production of the tracks on the album are monotonous at times (and god forbid minimal Drum & Bass becomes hugely popular, as a slew of records churned out by bandwagon jumpers would be shockingly dull), but the statement D-Bridge & Instra:Mental are making with this music is a bold one that will attempt to shake the foundations of how Drum & Bass is currently being perceived and will hopefully allow for the creative breath of life to revive the scene from the stagnant pool of jump-up tedium that has dominated it for so long.
5/5
Tim Forrester
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