- As one part of the well respected drum'n'bass label Trouble On Vinyl, Renegade Recordings mainly deals with the atmospheric, jazzy and funky side of drum'n'bass, leaving the other labels to concentrate of other facets of the genre. The last well recieved mix CD from the label was Renegades Of Funk done by jungle jazz supremo, Peshay. This time around relative new comers to the scene, The Insiders lock down the beats and provide a smooth mix to listen to while studying, deep listening, and just plain loungin' around.
It seems that some of their influences lie in house and techno as well, due to the fact that two of their tracks from their latest 12" - Detroit b/w Chicago, represent a junglists take on both sounds. Now all they need is New York, Belgium, Germany and others to complete the set!
German duo Tronik 100, really set the mood for this mix and they appear five times throughout the mix with Night Fever, Deep Love, Feel Your Love, Eternal and The Sound all sitting on a similar theme - chilled out jungle laced with female vocal snippets and lots of synthesiser action.
A personal highlight of the mix comes in at number 3 with D-Kay & Epsilon's Quiet Earth - interesting concoction of folk guitar sounds, seagulls and rolling drum breaks. Apparently D-Kay has been pulling out the tunes recently so it's a good homage to the man to include Where We Stand which appears shortly afterwards.
Sometime True Playaz cohorts, Mathematics show the UK how it's done in New York. Rhode Runna adds in a little more percussion to the mix for a little tribal action, and Move On sits a little deeper with it's muffled percussion.
Rounding out the mix is the charged up Disco Biscuits by Drumsound and the soon to visit Simon Bassline Smith. It makes for a good ending tune with it rising synth sample and of course the vocal samples telling the listener to "Free Your Mind" which usually happens on the Disco Biscuits anyway!.
The underlying theme to this whole mix - atmospheric synth washes, female vocal snippets and tech stabs all throughout. The Insiders have mixed the selection so that it has several peaks throughout the mix and lets it mainly sit on that chilled out groove throughout. Definitely a good mix for chilling out and loungin' to and one for those who like LTJ Bukem/Good Looking Records style of music.