Review:
Focusing very much on the sounds, vibes and atmospheres that raw, old school drum and bass and jungle evokes, Textures music Group is a new type of label. Creating and discovering fresh talent to fit their agenda can't be easy but this 10-track compilation is a little bit of perfection. Featuring some well-known names and some fresh-faced newcomers, it's the perfect antidote to a life filled with sterile, clear-cut productions. Get some 1999 soulfulness back into your playlist.
Review:
The word jazz is criminally misused. One can wear jazzy trousers. One can flash jazzy hands. Shucks, one can even cook a recipe called 'jazzy potatoes'. But real, actual, jazz - the idea of fusion, improvisation and the notion of not following formula - is hard to find outside of the genre itself. Until you hit the fringes and deeper or classical side of drum & bass. Textures Music Group's Jazz Legends series is a great example; the wily drum dynamics on Soultec's "The Happening", the stroppy sub bass wriggles on Blade's "Back In The Days", the cosy synth nests between the snares on Aquasion's "Sax In The City". The true spirit of contemporary jazz is alive and kicking at 170BPM right here.
Review:
Soul Deep affiliate Textures Music recruits an all-star cast of players to lay down their deepest, juiciest, rolliest, souliest burners for their third Jazz Legends compendium. Featuring the likes of MSdoS and Soul Deep founder Scott Allen, each cut pokes and prods the most soulful, warmest corners of drum & bass. Highlights include the filtered synth breezes on Payback's remix of "Blue Sky High", MSdoS's early Hospital sounding jazz stepper "Dragon's Lair" and the smouldering double bass meltdown, busy drums and gutsy vocal sample on Aquasion's "Rain Days". Crank it.
