It’s been far too long since I infected your eardrums with the genre that I (and probably only I) like to call skanky glitch crunk, so I went shopping at Addictech and we rolled with the funky, wobbly, squelchy midtempo vibe for most of the show. The chatroom showed their love for the sounds, and I only managed to play about a third of what I bought, so you can probably expect more crunk to pop up at random intervals in future shows Had to shoehorn some psybreaks onto the end as I needed to play some killer promos and, of course, to spin my own little tune in celebration of it finally being released
Special thanks to Mouldy Soul for sending over some of his fresh new squelch, and Spectral Theory for rising to my challenge to get his new tune finished in time!

Download (153.4MB 192kbps MP3 111’43″) 302 downloads

Download (153.4MB 192kbps MP3 111’43″) 302 downloads
Link to generate podcast enclosure

Time for a long-overdue update to the Watchlist, where I list artists and labels who have proven themselves worthy of close attention. And it’s also overdue to give some recognition to those who are forcing forward the field of drum&bass, so this time around the focus is primarily on them…

Before we get there though, let’s deal with the other artists making their way onto this exclusive list. First up is Opiuo, one of a good handful of Aussie guys who are breaking new ground in the midtempo glitch-crunk market. If we’re being brutally honest, Opiuo’s sound is so instantly recognisable and unique, that sometimes it seems like he’s recycling his own tunes a little too much… but nonetheless he deserves recognition as the fattest thing to happen to midtempo since VENT’s Bear Crunk.

Sensient has been around quite a while, but until recently I only owned one of his rare forays into breakbeat. That all changed on seeing him live at Ozora this year. Deep, driving, maxi-minimal, hypnotic, and uber-squelchy, this is another artist with a totally unique sound. It doesn’t necessarily easily fit into a mix, but it deserves to be shoehorned in wherever possible.

We have two new players representing psybreaks — not just that, but progressive psybreaks, the very genre I most want to hear more of in the world… At the lighter end we have Blazer, keeping it rolling, hypnotic, techy and trippy. At the heavier end, still very psychedelic but rising more to a electro/tech-funk/acid mentality, is Triple Agent, whose music I have been very excited about from the beginning but initially dissuaded me with a psychotic tendancy to have odd bars with odd numbers of beats right in the middle of the mixin/out zones. He hasn’t abandoned this trope entirely, but has calmed it down enough that his tunes are now mixable (thanks Luk!)

So then, we turn to the drum’n'bass…

There are two main subgenres of dnb that I’m all over at the moment: blissed out daytime progressive, and gnarly twisted psychedelic neurofunk. One label in particular has been promoting excellent examples of both styles, and generally pushing the envelope, and that’s Hospital Records’ experimental baby brother Med School. Meanwhile two smaller labels that have also been consistently delivering the goods are Mindtech (generally on the twisted tip), and relative newcomer Offworld (generally on the proggy side).

Of all the artists on that progressive, sunny-afternoon vibe, it’s LM1 who most beautifully combines emotive melody with kickass rolling beats, precisely engineered and produced to perfection. If you’ve downloaded my mix Chilliquid Drum’n'Bliss you’ll already be familiar with the power of his tunes, and Frontier remains my absolute favourite track in this style of the past few years. So far…

If there’s an artist or label you think I ought to check out, let me know… get in touch via the contact page

This month started with a quick tour of midtempo, gentle into glitch-crunk, then switched into psybreaks, but most of the show was given over to the stack of great journeying chunky progressive I’d just bought… with a bit of minimal / tech-house to wind down. Big shouts to all the chatroom crew
Download (284.8MB 192kbps MP3 207’21″) 871 downloads

Download (284.8MB 192kbps MP3 207’21″) 871 downloads

A huge stack of quality breaks promos for the first half of the show, then we dive into the realms of glitchy, skanky and crunky midtempo shiz for the second half.
Download (170.4MB 192kbps MP3 124’05″) 584 downloads

Download (170.4MB 192kbps MP3 124’05″) 584 downloads

Sighs of relief all round as this week’s Adventure comes in only slightly over 2 hours. But what a show! Special bigups to all the artists contributing their unsigned works fresh from the factory… there’s some serious talent on display here…

Next show is on PsyMusic on 16th Feb and I’ve hopefully got a very special guest coming in… announcement shortly, mark the date now!

Download (183MB 192k MP3 133’43″) 874 downloads

Download (183MB 192k MP3 133’43″) 874 downloads

Welcoming the mighty Digital Fist for a return visit to a Quextal guest slot but his first on NSB, showcasing his specialist subjects of glitchy electrobreaks, deep-diving dubbreaks and techsteppin’ dnb, alongside your regular Quextal diet of crunky midtempo, twisted neurofunk, and all breaks progressive and psychedelic. Mr Fist’s selections are in this colour.

It’s a long one again I’m afraid There was a no-show from the next DJ so we carried on… Unfortunately we had to interrupt proceedings for an outside test broadcast, hence the mix is split into two parts…

Big ups all chatroom, and thanks to the two Misters, Mirra and Snook, for providing quality fresh unsigned goodies: Snap ‘em up, label piranhas!

Part 1

Download Part 1 (258MB 192k MP3 188’30″) 879 downloads

Download Part 1 (258MB 192k MP3 188’30″) 879 downloads

Part 2

Download Part 2 (60MB 192k MP3 44’02″) 791 downloads

Download Part 2 (60MB 192k MP3 44’02″) 791 downloads

Sorry this one took a while… way back in the mists of time before New Year’s Eve, we took a 4 hour epic voyage through breaks, techno, glitch crunk, progressive and dnb, all with the trademark trippiness of course!

Download (326MB 192k MP3 237’34″) 928 downloads

Download (326MB 192k MP3 237’34″) 928 downloads

Hopped on to cover for Full Lotus’s show on PsyMusic, and ended up doing a full 3 hours of prog/psy flavours of trance, house, techno, breaks, Goa, and midtempo breakbeat. Genre slut, me, but you should know that by now. Back on the same channel this Tuesday 7pm BST with special guest LuQas, do not miss it!

Download (242MB 192k MP3 176’27″) 1369 downloads

Download (242MB 192k MP3 176’27″) 1369 downloads

My occasional series of late-notice covers for random NSB DJs continues… this time I was standing in for JoeBot. His normal tune selection doesn’t have a lot of overlap with mine anyway, so I threw caution to the wind and, alongside some beautiful progressive breaks to lull you into a false sense of security, went through some styles of breaks that don’t seem to get much airing on NSB: deep hypnotic, progressive acid, chopped-up glitchy, growly electro zap… a quick dip in the funky sea of midtempo glitch-dub in the middle… and other stuff that Addictech might categorise as “Heavy” and “Dope”.

It seemed to go down well. For most of the show NSB was the most listened to breaks netradio station in the world, with about 30 more listeners than DI Breaks. Might have happened before but I’ve never seen it. Thanks to everyone who tuned in and all those supporting in the chatroom.

Very special thanks to Mike Metacognition – a good number of the tunes played tonight were introduced to me by him. The man has outstanding taste, so I plan to get him along as a guest on a future show. Respect. Ahh Yeh.

Thanks also to Ian @ Dead Famous for the fine promos.

Download (164MB 192k MP3 119’57″) 3141 downloads

1. Attack Release vs Robosapiens – Trip (Precision Cuts rx) [Dead Famous promo]
2. Kriece – After Dark
3. Digital Base – The Climax
4. Introspective – Slavery Incorporated (AMB rx)
5. Peace Division – No More Subliminal (main mix)
6. EMS – Colonized
7. Ion Driver – Magma
8. Lifecycle – On The Vine (Ion Driver rx)
9. Kilowatts – Feed
10. Proper Filthy Naughty – Future Burn
11. Skeetaz – Nein
12. Uriel – Pekinese (Arto Kumanto rx)
13. VENT – Bear Crunk
14. Bird Of Prey – Terradactyl Porn
15. Skeetaz – Skurry
16. Hardfloor – Skill Shot
17. Rektchordz – Tramp Stamp
18. Mr No Hands – Chuggy
19. Attack Release vs Robosapiens – Trip (original) [Dead Famous promo]
20. Santos – Combination
21. Monk & Canatella – Enter The Monk (Hybrid rx)
22. The Playfellow – Hyjack (White Papoo rx)
23. Mobius – The Lab (Ben & Lex rx)
24. Mars ft Profit – The Last Element (VIP)

Download (164MB 192k MP3 119’57″) 3141 downloads

Next show: NEW SHOW starting in the next couple of weeks on PsyMusic Radio, details soon!