WEEKENDMIX 10.11.13: DREAMING IN SPACE: A DNB ODYSSEY

Last week the movie Gravity hit the theater. Being a fan of all things space, sci-fi, and well, Sandra Bullock, I’ve been eager to watch it. In fact it’s on my to do list for this upcoming weekend. In the meantime, the anticipation was getting to me and countless episodes of How The Universe Works just wasn’t cutting it; it was exceptionally hard during the day when Morgan Freeman just couldn’t come to the rescue. Music however could and there’s a genre of music I can always depend on when I want to satiate my space fix and that’s exactly what I did this week. Now, it’s time to share this secret with you. What genre am I talking about exactly? Well, Drum and Bass of course.

Listen, I’m not going to get into a debate about which music is a better soundtrack for ones space fantasies; I’m sure everyone has their fave. And I’m sure plenty of these people believe nothing can hold a candle to Johann Strauss II’s timeless waltz, An der schönen blauen Donau (On the Beautiful Blue Danube) featured in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Yet a compelling argument could be made for DnB, especially the fluctuating and atmospheric sounds of the DnB sub-genres Liquid Drum and Bass and Intelligent Drum and Bass -yes these are real genres- even if there is no atmosphere or liquid in space.

If you enjoy DnB but aren’t familiar with these latest additions to the DnB fold well, you’re in for a treat. Imagine the complex sample laden layers of DnB stripped down and replaced with even more harmonies and melodies and you have Liquid DnB. Intelligent DnB is more calm, more ambient, with a lot more synthetic sounds, and even more spacey if you can believe it. If “regular” DnB pulls on your emotional strings then Liquid and Intelligent DnB are going to send you off the deep end or lift you so high you’re going to feel like you’re out of this world. And that’s what I’m aiming for with the following three mixes. You know, for you to be whisked away, to feel like you’re floating in the great vastness of space. If that doesn’t work, just close your eyes and imagine Sandra Bullock is there with you. Works every time.