DUSTY CRATES

Once upon a time drum & bass was king.

By 2000, Houston had become one of North America’s headquarters for dominating beats and tougher basslines. Any new d&b soldier in the area had to earn respect (and status) from either pride of DJs at the forefront of the d&b movement — Purrin Lion or Protoculture – if they wanted to step up to the decks.

Shortly after Matrix Crew‘s Chris Anderson and Andrei Morant introduced “jungle” over the KTRU Rice Radio airwaves in 1996, I started covering its progression at home and abroad for Public News, Tha Pride and URB magazine. All truth told, I fell in love.

At its peak in 2000, Houston’s d&b crews (reluctantly) fraternized on successive UK-headlining events, monthly Micros at 2020 Commerce and weeklies across the street at Club Hyperia. Audio 3 (Lionel Gonzales), Classic (Brad Slack) and Ramsey (Mike Davila) spearheaded Static, a weekly d&b night and ad hoc DJ crew made up of oftentimes opposing units. That collaboration ushered in a new era of d&b here nearly a decade ago.

Today, Heavy DNB is the only d&b event in town that’s endured featuring local and out-of-town talent on a quasi-monthly basis at various venues. Our own DIRB! crewmate, SDF-One, and Pejman have become musical curators of sorts, carrying on the d&b sound via Heavy DNB installments. And this month’s round-up brings it full circle (see flyer below).

This Saturday, March 6, a founding member of each d&b crew, Matrix’s Andrei Morant, Purrin Lion’s BMC and Static/Protoculture’s Ramsey, steps up the bpms at The Blue Room (Wired Live, 1503 Chartres, 77003). Ramsey also dropped us his new February Mix 2010 to share just in time. After listening to the mix, it also reminded me of that long-lost love.

Ramsey February Mix 2010 (dnbshare)

Track List

I Need You – Subwave (Medschool)
Bone Structure – Rockwell (Critical)
Dark age – Total Science & SPY (CIA)
Lonliness feat Riya – SPY (CIA)
Tribes – Rockwell (Critical)
Jerhico – Total Science & SPY (CIA)
Spectrasoul – 4points (Metalheadz)
Slum Dub – SPY (Soul:r)
Stars Get Down – Subwave (Medschool)
Jubei – Outcast (31 Records)
Icicle feat Noisia – Driftwood (Shogun Audio)
Alix Perez feat Peven Everett & Spectrasoul – Forsaken (Shogun Audio)

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