Two drum and bass tracks from Barcode Recordings (that need improving)

A person is either passionate about the music they love or somewhat eccentric (or preferably both) if they argue that dark, heavy, underground and experimental music should be played at whatever speed the listener enjoys hearing it at the most. That is, assuming the listener has the technical capability to do this.For example, my 33rpm vinyl copy of the Stratosfear album by krautrock and electronic music pioneers Tangerine Dream always gets played at 45rpm. At the extreme end of the extreme scale, the Slayer track Angelof Death slowed down by 800 per cent transforms this speed / thrash / death metal classic into a terrifyingly slow descent into the bowels of the abyss.One could argue that an awesome song remains awesome no matter what speed it gets played at. Or, you could think of it as an early warning sign that the release being played is rather ordinary. Such was the case, I found, with this mystery dark drum n bass record that I acquired some years ago at a fair.

My copy of Stitches / Last Walk (bar05) by Psidream and Mechwarrior. You mean you couldn't tell from the Barcode Recordings cover art?   

This 12-inch vinyl record is 2004 release on the hard and dark drum and bass Barcode Recordings record label. A promotional copy in a plain sleeve with no other artwork other than “Bar Code promo” printed on one side, I established its identity on its catalogue number: bar05.Now I don’t claim to know the dark drum n bass scene inside out. However, I know what I like when it comes to this music — and this just ain’t it.bar05 features two collaborative drum and bass tracks by two drum and bass artists. The tracks are Stitches (side A) and Last Walk (side B) by two producers calling themselves Psidream and Mechwarrior. Stitches is a chilled out sort of track — there’s no other way to describe it — with a vaguely dubbed and ’70s chillaxed kind of vibe to it. If you’re into that laid back sound then this may be your cup of tea, but it’s not for me.Last Walk has more depth and is somewhat greyer (I wouldn’t go so far as to say darker) distorted bass lines to it. The broken beats are heavier and I will buy you a cookie if you can trainspot the sampled dialogue that goes “And what is the truth” or “And what is it”.Yet both in cases these tracks seem go on for too long. They are 7:10 and 6:28 minutes long respectively, and they seem to pretty much repeat the same damn thing again and again. I found it lacking in imagination and much too repetitive, even by the admittedly repetitive standards of this sort of electronic music.

Barcode Recordings

Barcode Recordings is a heavy drum n bass record label that clearly enjoys enough respect and admiration to be able remain in business. A quick glance at the names on the Barcode Recordings roster goes a long way to explaining why. Evol Intent, Current Value, Counterstrike and Raiden are just a few among many more.However, this release just doesn’t seem to have much imagination or capture any magic.Call me harsh. Call me ignorant. Call me whatever you like. Given how much it costs to press a vinyl record I am constantly amazed at how generic the tracks like the ones on bar05 end up on expensive physical media. I can fully see these tracks on a compilation, but the fact that they’re on a vinyl record has me shaking my head.Having said that, I strongly suspect that the rest of the Barcode Recordings catalogue is much stronger when you consider the previously mentioned artists.

Who buys vinyl records these days anyway? Not the people who bought this record I suspect.

KSHEEPV001: Dark drum n bass by DJ Hidden and Evol Intent

This post is about It Begins / Malice Afterthought, a dark dark drum n bass 12-inch vinyl record on Killing Sheep Records. Its catalogue number is KSHEEPV001 to use ‘traditional’ vinyl record nomenclature.

Before I get any further, though, I’d like to share some background on this record and why I’m posting about it…

First and foremost, apologies for the poor quality photos. I’m currently using my phone to snap photos because I was recently burgled.

Now then. I don’t rate myself as an expert, let alone someone who is reasonably knowledgeable when it comes to heavy drum n’ bass or similar dark electronic music. I bought this vinyl record five or six years ago from Noise-X-Change because I really liked its dark, brooding, menacing vibe.

As far as I can tell, Killing Sheep Records is a now-seemingly-retired Australian electronic music record label that specialised in dark and heavy drum n’ bass. It had its origins in Newcastle, NSW, operated for a large part out of Melbourne (please correct me if I’m wrong on this one), and while releasing some excellent dark and heavy drum n’ bass, was notorious for its tongue-in-cheek attitude. For example, I distinctly recall its founder operating a website that posted loads of emails (and the hillarious responses) from people trying to scam free records in return for “promotion”.

KSHEEPV001 was the label’s first ever vinyl record. Released in 2004 with full cover art, this 12-inch record contains two drum and bass tracks: It Begins by DJ Hidden, one half of the famous drum n bass duo that is The Outside Agency; and Malice Afterthought, a co-operative track by The Enemy (of Evol Intent fame) and Kid Kryptic, two more American drum and bass artists from the Unites States.

The B-side is what I rate as ‘ambient’ of the two tracks — in a sicko kind of way I mean.

It’s got a meandering, minimal but still kind of disconcerting synth and rapid-fire beat that gets my head nodding in no time, although it’s more than six minutes long and takes a while to get going. In fact, I much prefer the more minimal and haunting second half that leads out of Malice Afterthought. It’s got a cool and creepy vibe that’s less in your face, given that there’s a bit less going on.

Side A is where all the action is.

Side A would have to be the one with (dare I say), ‘dance floor’ appeal, for lack of a better term. It has a quiet, ambient intro that samples a line that goes “It begins” and some other dialogue. I will give you a cookie if you can tell me where this sample came from.

This is followed by what I reckon is the highlight on this record: some terrifyingly dark, deep, hard, distorted bass sounds. I honestly rated this brief sequence of noises as one of my favourite electronic intros of all time. I thought it was so good that I would often try and mix in just the intro when playing this record in my bedroom (all the while fantasizing that I was mixing drum and bass tracks to a packed warehouse full of freaks going bonkers, as bedroom DJs are inclined to do). It’s creepy as hell, just the way dark drum n bass should be, and it’s the part of a track you want to time so that it plays just when someone walks past and you seriously want them to notice.

The intro is followed by a balls-out, in your face expulsion of beats and distorted heavy bass. I imagine it’s nothing too out of the ordinary for heavy and dark drum n bass tracks, but I’m sure it would have no trouble causing sonic mayhem when played in a dark warehouse.

Check out KSHEEPV001 (and buy the damn track if you can) on the Killing Sheep Bandcamp page.

Killing Sheep Records

I own about half a dozen or so Killing Sheep Records vinyl records. While I feel there are better tracks on the label’s roster, this one rates right up there for me simply for the brilliant intro on DJ Hidden’s It Begins.

Yes, I'm a music nerd.

There are bass music record labels and then there are bass music record labels. Whatever that type of low-end, distorted, nasty electronic music means to you, this release contains one of the nastiest, darkest, best electronic music intros (let alone one of the best drum n bass intros) I’ve ever come across.

As an added note, the KSHEEPV001 vinyl record is now more than 10 years old. Many a young producer out there producing drum n bass, ‘bass music’ or pretty much any other form of dark, heavy, underground or subversive electronic music could learn a thing or two from this.

Who buys vinyl records these days anyway?

The same people who think playing vinyl is like flyfishing. Here's why...  

I’ve probably mentioned one too many times what a hapless record store junkie I am and how my fixation with music once got to the point where it was all about the buzz of shopping — retail therapy — and acquiring CDs and records when perhaps it should have been about experiencing it.

I’m better now thankfully. It’s been years since I’ve purchased music by the kilo and what was once an incessant preoccupation now resembles nothing more than a serious hobby (I hope). Yet even after that big reality check there’s an aspect to the pursuit of music collecting that never fails to set my heart racing: the thrill of getting my hands on vinyl records.

Whether it’s flicking through a dusty op shop (even if 93 per cent of op shop records consist exclusively of Kamahl, Gilbert & Sullivan and Scottish bagpipe waltzes), gazing longingly at the rock and metal picture discs at my favourite record store, or expectantly unpacking a pizza box-sized package in the mail, there’s something about these thin pieces of round plastic that just keeps me coming back for more.

I want all of them! Except maybe the new Morbid Angel at the front left.

And yet, vinyl records must surely be an anachronism in this day and age.

The photo below was taken after I spent money on three records (this one, this one and this one, all from noise-x-change). Yet I could have so easily downloaded or purchased the same tracks for considerably less. I got a grand total of eight tracks for my money yet I’m limited to a large and bulky setup that involves a turntable, speakers, an amp, and of course somewhere to store the damn things. With a download (legitimate or otherwise) I could have enjoyed this music far more often, in the order I choose, on my portable media player.

Why indeed?

I’ll preface this by saying that once upon a time I fantasised about DJing hard-hitting, balls in your face electronic music in clubs and suspicious abandoned buildings. I bought dozens of records but the closest I got was my bedroom with me as the crowd (although I did once manage to play track B1 on this Nasenbluten album to a bunch of goths). Yeah, I had some semi-serious aspirations — for one thing it looked like sooo much fun. And while that dream has long since faded, it didn’t stop me from attempting to practice my DJ skills (or total lack thereof) on the two turntables I acquired.

Anyway. Having said that, I have a theory about why I believe people still think vinyl records are wonderful — and it has nothing to do with what the posers claim is the superiority of analogue sound. Yes, if you have a perfectly balanced stereo that’s connected to an equally refined stylus that happens to be playing in a room with excellent acoustics then chances are you probably can pick a mild, ‘warmer’ difference to the sound.

On the other hand, if you’re like pretty much everyone else then all those years of gigs and clubbing have almost certainly caused irreparable damage to your hearing and you probably can’t hear the difference anyway.

So no, I don’t believe much in the mystical ‘warmer’ superior sound of vinyl. And making vinyl records even more of a pain in the arse is the fact that they require maintenance — and my two cats never cease to indirectly remind me of this fact. Hell, they cause the maintenance.

One’s a fluffy ginger long-hair and I am forever removing statically accumulated orange fur from records. Then, recently, I found the other one (at seven kilos he’s something of a fatso) actually sprawled out on the platter! I’m certain it’s not the first time he’s done it and I suspect he has something to do with the two or three hundred dollars I had to spend on repairing suspicious damage to the tonearm on my turntable. That, and he somehow managed to switch the damn thing on (I can just see the pro-digital brigade here, waggling their fingers as they dish out patronising reminders about how your cat would never log into iTunes and mess up your settings).

Yeah, he might look cute now, but when nobody’s looking he spreads his FUR everywhere.

Worse still, there’s the eternal risk of permanent scratch damage to the not-so microscopic grooves or even the risk of record breakage. And then there’s the problem with storage. A modest collection can take up a disproportionately large amount of a good bookshelf.

Indeed, who in their right mind would accumulate these things?

You might also ask why there are certain people who actively collect valve radios, hand-powered model aircraft, old woodworking tools and wooden boats, when in each instance a far more advanced alternative is readily available.

The people who love crappy-sounding valve radios and wooden boats that take months of painstaking labour to restore (I’ve heard of wooden racing skiff hulls that have as much 80 per cent of their timber removed during the 'restoration') do it for some weird nostalgic reason that inexplicably give them hours of enjoyment and satisfaction.

It’s fun.

And for that very same reason I love playing with vinyl records and fantasising I'm DJing somewhere else, nowhere near the masses of cat fur and expensive repairs and rapidly diminishing storage space.

The best analogy I can come up with is a comparison to the sport of flyfishing, a specialised and gentlemanly pursuit that takes years to perfect.

Yet behind the mysticism and cult following lies the fact that it’s really nothing more than a specific means of delivering an artificial lure to a fish — one which just happens to be far more challenging than other methods, according to fishing celebrity Steve Starling. There are many far more effective means of catching those fish but the flyfisher chooses the fly rod. It’s a self-imposed limitation that’s highly challenging. But its practitioners reckon it’s the most fun there is.

So too is it with vinyl records.

They’re light years behind current technology. They’re a costly pursuit. They take up space. And a proper DJ setup can be a raging pain in the arse to maintain. 

But it'smuch more fun to do it that way.

Which really, if it’s anything but that, isn’t worth doing.

Plus, mechanical devices with moving parts are kinda coo. Except maybe valve radios.