Mix: Tales Of The Interstitial episode XIV:
live on PsyMusic 21st Sep 2010

Chunky progressive, psybreaks, dnb, and plenty of psytrance in this month’s trippy hop round the genres. Going out to everyone who caught my set at Waveform on the Kaplick Solar Stage… see you again next year!
Download (250.2MB 192kbps MP3 182’11”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_psymusic_2010-09-21.mp3)] downloads

Download (250.2MB 192kbps MP3 182’11”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_psymusic_2010-09-21.mp3)] downloads

Categories: Mixes, Radio Archives // Tags: dnb, forest, interstitial, progressive, psybreaks, psymusic, psytrance

Artists: ?, Ace Ventura, Aerospace, Alex D'Elia, Atriohm, B-Phreak, Beat Rangers, Beatman, Curl, Dean, Dom, Electrypnose, Hedflux, Ilya Mosolov, Jerome Isma-Ae, LM1, Liquid Soul, Live Edit, Ludmilla, Lutzenkirchen, M Spark, Mesmer, Mesmer dub, Mute, Nick Bee, OOOD, Opiuo, Pena, Perfect Stranger, Re:Creation, Roland, Sensient, Tomcraft, Triple Agent, Way Out West, Weekend Heroes, Zen Mechanics

Labels: ?, Absys, Addictech, Armada, Auraquake, Ayra, Baroque, Broken Robot, D-A-R-K, Digital Nature, Dusted Breaks, Frequenza, Iono, Jee Digital, Joof, Neurobiotic, Open, Rune, Scarcity, Subculture, VIM, Vagalume, Zenon

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live on PsyMusic 21st Sep 2010

New additions to the Watchlist

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

Categories: News, Recommendations // Tags: dnb, midtempo, psybreaks, watchlist

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Mix: Quexotic Cover For Ben & Lex
Drum & Bass and Oldskool Special!
live on NSB 7th Jun 2010

Ali Mobius had been rolling some tasty dnb on the show before this one, so I decided to carry on in that vein.
Kicking off with the kind of laidback progressive dnb that I touted on my mix Chilliquid Drum’n’Bliss, then getting tougher, glitchier, more psychedelic and neurofunked, before the time machine circuits kicked in and we pay a visit to some absolutely classic mid-90s dnb, jungle, and then further back to the sound of the underground that first got me dancing, early 90s oldskool breakbeat hardcore. Bring the noise!
Download (165.7MB 192kbps MP3 120’40”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_nsb_2010-06-07.mp3)] downloads

Download (165.7MB 192kbps MP3 120’40”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_nsb_2010-06-07.mp3)] downloads

Categories: Mixes, Radio Archives // Tags: d&b, dnb, drum and bass, hardcore, nsb, oldskool, quexotic

Artists: Acen, Axi, Bass Flo, Bionic 1, Black Sun Empire, Citadel Of Kaos, Doc Scott, Electronic Experienced, Flytronix, Foul Play, Incident, Insulin, Invisible Man, Kharm, LM1, LTJ Bukem, Method One, Nino, Noisia, Operon, Part II: The Darkside, Part III: Kaleidoscopiklimax, Safire, Seathasky

Labels: Basement, Boombastic Plastic, Covert Operations, Dispatch, Golden Orb, Levitated, Looking Good, Metalheadz, Mindtech, Moving Shadow, Offworld, Production House, Subculture, Timeless

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Drum & Bass and Oldskool Special!
live on NSB 7th Jun 2010

Mix: Quexotic Adventures #014:
live on NSB 22nd May 2010

Download (167MB 192k MP3 121’44”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_nsb_2010-05-22.mp3)] downloads

Download (167MB 192k MP3 121’44”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_nsb_2010-05-22.mp3)] downloads

Categories: Mixes, Radio Archives // Tags: breaks, chill'n'bass, dnb, liquid, nsb, progressive breaks, psybreaks, quexotic, techbreaks

Artists: Access Denied, Bass Flo, Baymont Bross, Beta, Bones, Bop, DJ Sean Timothy, Fletric, Gelaz, Group Therapy, Hedflux, Hybrid, Kharm, Koma, LM1, Lady Packa, LuQas, Mesmer, Mike, Nick Bee, Operon, Parallax Breakz, Quadrat Beat, Quextal, Retroid, Seathasky, Slyde, Subwave, The Mind Hackers, The Peepshow Ownerz, Thinnen

Labels: Broken Robot, Covert Operations, Digital Sensation, Dispatch, Distinct'ive, Golden Orb, Levitated, Med School, Morphosis, Natural Breaks, Offworld, Scarcity, Slybeats, Sound of Habib, Subculture, TCR, VIM, breaks.sk, iBreaks, via Soundcloud

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live on NSB 22nd May 2010

Mix: Quexotic Adventures #013:
live on NSB 1st May 2010

\ Download (189MB 192k MP3 137’46”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_nsb_2010-05-01.mp3)] downloads

Download (189MB 192k MP3 137’46”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_nsb_2010-05-01.mp3)] downloads

Categories: Mixes, Radio Archives // Tags: breaks, chill'n'bass, dnb, electrobreaks, nsb, progressive breaks, quexotic

Artists: Amb, Andro, Asset, BETA, Beatman, Blazer, Bop, Chook, Colombo, Cuncic, DJ Sean Timothy, El-Tron, Error Response, Fashion Victim, Flack.Su (?), Freerange DJs, Hedflux, Hybrid, Hybrid Matrix dub, Ion Driver 2009-2-10, Jinx, Johan Soh, Killahurtz, Kultur, LM1, LuQas, Ludmilla, Malcevic, Modified Motion, Monosurround, Mr Dan, Myagi, Phace, Phrakture, Prince, Simulant, Skynet, Sparks, Squarefeet, Synkro, TN Tribute, Two Lone Swordsmen, Youthful Implants, Zipmix, remaster

Labels: Ape, Audio Therapy, Ayra, Broken Robot, Can You Feel It Media, Chi, Ching Ching, Darkdance, Distinct'ive, Exogenic, Flextone, Full Force, MS, Med School, Metamorph Muzik, Offworld, Skynet, Sound of Habib, VIMtronica, Warp, via soundcloud

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live on NSB 1st May 2010

Mix: Quexotic Adventures #011:
live on NSB 3rd Apr 2010

Yep, I’m afraid it’s another four-hour double-Quex feature! I can’t help myself… I had kinda hoped that the extension might happen this week, because otherwise I’d have had to make very, very difficult choices as to which of the massive pile of superlative new tracks making my hard disk groan and wheeze under the sheer weight of their super-heavy dopeness, would be selected to be played straight away; and which would be sent back down into the dungeon in tears after learning that, through no fault or inadequacy of their own, but just because it happened to be a bumper couple of weeks for decent releases, and the DJ had caught a bit of Bank Holiday Fever and gone somewhat manic with his Crate, they must wait another fortnight, or pray for a cover slot to bring them out of the darkness sooner…

Download (316MB 192k MP3 230’21”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_nsb_2010-04-03.mp3)] downloads

Download (316MB 192k MP3 230’21”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_nsb_2010-04-03.mp3)] downloads

Categories: Mixes, Radio Archives // Tags: chill, dnb, downtempo, electro, progressive breaks, psybreaks, quexotic, techno

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live on NSB 3rd Apr 2010

Mix: Chilliquid Drum’n’Bliss

Here’s something a little different for you… laidback deep and progressive dnb, minimal to liquid, designed to soundtrack a sunny day. I didn’t plan it this way (well, I didn’t plan it at all, I never do…) but it’s ended up dominated by just two recently-released EPs: New Blood 010 on Med School, and Lm1’s Blue Mountain EP on Offworld. But perhaps the fact that I’ve built almost a whole mix from them just serves to highlight the quality and variety on offer from those labels at the moment. Between this sort of thing and the twisted psychedelic techstep and neurofunk I’ve been pushing on my shows for a while, the prospects are looking good for a renaissance of inventive and beautiful dnb this year… as is the case with breaks. This is shaping up to be an amazing year of breaking new ground with the broken beat.

Anyway, hope you enjoy this little mix. As always I’d love your feedback. If it pushes your buttons, don’t forget that I now regularly serve up a slice of the tastiest dnb alongside the future breaks at 7pm UK time on the first and third Saturdays of every month on NSB Radio.

Download (75MB 192k MP3 55’04”) [downloadcounter(quextal_chilliquid_dnb_2010-03-28.192.mp3)] downloads

Download (75MB 192k MP3 55’04”) [downloadcounter(quextal_chilliquid_dnb_2010-03-28.192.mp3)] downloads

Link to generate podcast enclosure

Categories: Mixes, Promo Mixes // Tags: chill'n'bass, chilled, d&b, dnb, drum & bass, drum'n'bass, laidback, liquid, progressive, sunny

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Mix: Quexotic Adventures #006:
live on NSB 30th Jan 2010
with special guest Digital Fist

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”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_nsb_2010-01-30_with_digital_fist_part1.mp3)] downloads

Download Part 1 (258MB 192k MP3 188’30”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_nsb_2010-01-30_with_digital_fist_part1.mp3)] downloads

Part 2

Download Part 2 (60MB 192k MP3 44’02”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_nsb_2010-01-30_with_digital_fist_part2.mp3)] downloads

Download Part 2 (60MB 192k MP3 44’02”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_nsb_2010-01-30_with_digital_fist_part2.mp3)] downloads

Categories: Mixes, Radio Archives // Tags: crunk, dnb, dubbreaks, electrobreaks, glitch, midtempo, neurofunk, progressive breaks, psybreaks, quexotic, techstep

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live on NSB 30th Jan 2010
with special guest Digital Fist

Mix: Tales Of The Interstitial episode VI:
live on PsyMusic 29th Dec 2009

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”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_psymusic_2009-12-29.mp3)] downloads

Download (326MB 192k MP3 237’34”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_psymusic_2009-12-29.mp3)] downloads

Categories: Mixes, Radio Archives // Tags: crunk, dnb, glitch, interstitial, midtempo, neurofunk, progressive breaks, progressive psytrance, progressive trance, psybreaks, psydnb, psymusic, techno, techstep

Show Comments (1)

Mix: Quexotic Adventures #002:
live on NSB 5th Dec 2009

Yes, my new show has a name! Thanks to everyone who sent in their suggestions, there were some great ones, couldn’t decide between them so went for something completely different 😉

This week’s show featured some proper tripped out nuskool and epic progressive breaks of the style that got me hooked on it in the first place about 9 or 10 years ago (though these tunes are more recent!), some pslinkin psexy psybreaks, and for the final half hour, something that I hope to be exploring more in future, some twisting mind-expanding leftfield neurofunk-esque drum’n’bass. Oh yes indeed. Word.

Download (163MB 192k MP3 119’15”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_nsb_2009-12-05.mp3)] downloads

Download (163MB 192k MP3 119’15”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_nsb_2009-12-05.mp3)] downloads

Next shows:

• Tue 15th Dec, 7pm GMT, PsyMusic
• Sat 19th Dec, 7pm GMT, NSB (first and third Saturday of each month, plus the fifth Saturday in January 🙂 )

Various reminder services are available, but the most reliable one is the Facebook group and page. See you next time 😀

Categories: Mixes, Radio Archives // Tags: breaks, deep, dirty, dnb, drum'n'bass, electrobreaks, nsb, nsbradio, nuskoolbreaks, progressive breaks, psybreaks, psychedelic, psydnb, quexotic, trippy

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live on NSB 5th Dec 2009