- In case you hadn't noticed, drum & bass is going places. I'm not talking about the occasional tune that you hear on Radio One. As far as I can tell 175 BPM broken beat has been regularly popping its camo-clad head through the mire of pop music for the last 20 years. No, I'm talking about the extraordinary level of musical innovation proffered by artists in the Autonomic Camp—people like dBridge, Instra:mental and ASC. It's an upheaval which has even lead Skream and Distance—two of the biggest names in the most revolutionary genre of our generation—to start producing within this older so-called stagnant genre. This "new" drum & bass is virtually unrecognisable from its heavy hitting forefathers. Often using a half time beat, it takes a much more considered approach, swapping bass attacks and pounding beats for complex drum patterns and atmosphere.
Although Med School have been going in a slightly different direction, they've also been devoted to dismantling drum & bass. And many Med Schools artists namecheck the Autonomic sound as an influence. There are points of comparison: Both share a tendency to pull apart beat structure and replace traditional kicks and snares with odds and ends such as the reverberation of water droplets or an indistinct click. However while the Autonomic sound relies on crackling ambience, you'll often find Med School on a melancholic tip, offset by euphoric synths and vocals perhaps inherited from their big sister, Hospital.
Like Autonomic, though, the stuff out on Med School is refreshingly hard to pin down. From the start of New Blood 011, as the warm bass of Nuage's "Missing You" drifts out of the speakers, calmly offset by the heavily auto tuned voice and dancing staccato notes, the album ebbs and flows through a variety of moods and rhythms. Tracks like the stunning "Distinctions of the Same" by Russia's Bulb and Furi Anga's "Rainbow Unit" are on the minimal side, full of intricate clicking beats and haunting vocals. There's a surprising dubstep tune from Eleven 8, and a powerful throbbing heartbreaker in the form of "Relapse" by Lung. For those looking for more classically drum & bass fare, look no further than Sato's "Fuse" or Anile's "Change of Direction."
One of the great triumphs of New Blood 011 is the way that, despite the often radically different styles, it holds together. There is a persistent feel of melancholy, barely discernible voices galore and gentle, all-encompassing basslines. After the release of last year's excellent New Blood 010 compilation, this year's offering had a lot to live up to. They've managed to pull it off with some serious style.
Tracklist 01. Nuage - Missing You
02. Anile - Change Of Direction
03. Spherique - Snowflakes Catcher
04. Lung - Relapse
05. Eleven8 - Colours Of Distance
06. Bulb - Distinctions Of The Same (feat Tiiu)
07. Flame - Watcher
08. Furi Anga - Rainbow Unit
09. Luca - Saint Bond
10. Rawtekk - Snowflakes
11. Sato - Fuse
12. Subreachers - Elysian Fields
13. Nuage - Remember The Lights
14. Clarity - Underneath The Leaves
15. Krone & Malsum - Rainforest (feat Strago)
16. Melo - Insight