Arriving at the Abercrombie Hotel’ DNBBQ, down on the corner of Abercrombie and Broadway in Sydney, the first thing you hear is the clattering high hats echoing off nearby terraces. Next is the bass. You can expect to hear dub, grime, hip-hop and dancehall, but you’re most likely to find yourself up against a full-on drum’n’bass onslaught.
It’s intense. But the 12-hour party that kicks from 4pm is set around a barbecue, so you know there’ a laconic Aussie element to proceedings too. It makes sense with drum’n’bass, a musical genre that’s at once frenetic, with its tear-out basslines, Amen breaks and mad percussion, but also rides low-slung basslines and Jamaican patois cool. DNBBQ has been one of the main outlets for this music in Sydney since the scene’ fortunes drifted in favour of electro house, and whatever replaces that; and along the way it’s become a key live space too. All good so far.
There’ no shortage of staple drum’n’bass on the first side of this two and a half hour double disc compilation, although the tendency seems to swing between floating Good Looking style beats and rocking junglist styles. It’s definitely weighted to the latter, Semper Fi and Shuey’ contributions are perfect examples, respectively rocking squealing horns and patois lyrics with devastating effect. In fact, most of Sydney’ veteran drum’n’bass DJs are represented, along with those already mentioned; you’ve got ALF (The Obvious’ “Lines of Thinking’ is a major highlight), Dave Edwards (the deep deep groove, “Ion’) and the crew behind DNBBQ, Foreign Dub.
The problem with the first half of the compilation is drum’n’bass’ problem too: there’ little to no rhythmic invention, to the extent that, when someone even subtly messes with the format, for example, on Fangle’ “Drowning World’ it’s just about a revelation. But just when you think you can’ take another rolling tune, Freddy Fred’ “Monolit’s couples long junglist snare rhythms with whimsical keys and ethereal vocals – it’s a real highlight.
The night’s live constituency is well represented too. Big Bud, Rastawookie, Lordz of the Fly and Agency Dub Collective all make appearances, some better than others. For example, while Big Bud’ take on reggae-infused drum’n’bass is seriously listenable, the Lordz find themselves lost, on “Wake Up’, in a no-man’-land between live jam band and reggae pop. Rumpunch too, just on the low-fi.
Like most compilations, DNBBQ has its highs and lows, but for a round up of Sydney’ drum’n’bass scene, this compilation is hard to miss, and every now and again a track flips the script, like Moving Ninja’s industrial dubstep, Jonny Faith’ bhangra-infused and dancehall-fired rhythms on “World’ First Hippy’, or Ishu’s ‘Night Vision’, which shares the dancehall vibes with Lotek, Gina and Janny. Now that’s the kind of sound I’d like to find myself dancing around a barbecue to this summer.
Matthew Levinson
