Various – On the Lam (Make:Shift Records)

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On the Lam

It has been 2 years since the first 12” came off the production lines at Canadian Make:Shift Records and little but silence has followed. After that abortive beginning, On the Lam is intended to be the label’ manifesto to the world: to push drum “n’ bass into new directions.

The first CD reveals the results of such a push – people like Fanu, Alpha Omega and ASC lay down some incredible tracks that stay away from the darkest depths of DnB while still innovating. Anyone familiar with the newer 12”s by Noisia will know that you can push broken beat into new realms, but the producers featured here do what Noisia seem to have failed to achieve: keeping a coherent, melodic structure in place. On tracks like Sincere Trade’ “Bend from Heat’s we almost seem to have drifted away from DnB totally, entering the cold environs of electronica before a more familiar, if still different, break starts to work.

Label frontman c64 provides the content for the second CD in the form of a 77 minute DJ mix, this time very firmly situating itself on the dark side of DnB. The tracks are almost 100% culled from Make:Shift or Gamma Ray artists and provides a pretty good example of what’s going on in the Make:Shift guys’ heads.

If you’re getting bored of the endless stream of seemingly computer generated DnB then this 2CD set is definitely an essential purchase. If you think you’re already listening to cutting edge DnB, then you could do worse things than buying this set, if only to tell me I should be checking out DJ Jihad from Ghent or wherever. The CD set is limited to 400 copies so be quick!

www.makeshiftrecords.ca

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