Atmospheric drum and bass makes fantastic background music.  I don’t say this to be demeaning to the genre, but in the same vein as live dinner jazz, it frames a distinct yet unassuming mood for whatever you happen to be doing.  This is in distinct contrast to much of the flashier electronic music out there; music which likes to kick the front door of it’s hinges and loudly proclaim that you must pay attention to it.  On a day like this, after a busy weekend that had me running the full gamut of emotion, it’s music like this that I want to walk the neighbourhood with.

Mr. Sizef – Garmoniya Mirov
Dexcell – Midnight Circuit
Sub Focus – Last Jungle

Honestly, I wasn’t thrilled when I first heard this album. The opening tracks feature heavily shuffled rhythms with a quirky mash of samples, seemingly only for the reason of fusing shuffle and quirk. It ends up leaving these cuts as too much of a juxtaposition — tracks that scream “hey, look at me, I’m eccentric”, leaving you only wanting to punch their artsy presumption in the face. Thankfully, things get increasingly better as the album rolls along. By the time the snappy hip hop instrumental Sik Wid It rolled around I was hooked, doubly so with the dissonant downtempo musicality of First Light ft. Rayelle. And lastly the hands-up funky drum and bass roller of Full Ahead that I originally bought this thing for. Welcome to the weekend.

Mix N Blend – Sik Wid It
Mix N Blend – First Light ft. Rayelle
Mix N Blend – Full Ahead

Been doing my best to catch up on a lot of the drum and bass I’ve been missing in the last couple of months (so expect a couple of posts on the genre).  High up on my list of things to make time for was Blue Mar Ten’s latest.  A stack of airy atmospheric brooders, Natural History is the perfect soundtrack to match a grey, thoughtful day.

Blue Mar Ten – Believe Me
Blue Mar Ten – Bedroom Eyes
Blue Mar Ten – Overwhelm