- Fabio & Grooverider have been DJing since 1986 and have been in the scene since the early acid house days. The pair have been responsible for DJing and pushing the sound since its inception and have been named as Knowledge magazine's lifetime acheivers. Together the duo host a weekly show on BBC's Radio 1 which has been one of the longest running shows on the station. Now they've finally teamed up to deliver a double whammy mix compilation for Drum & Bass Arena - the home of drum & bass on the web and one of the most popular websites in dance music. Drum & Bass Arena is the first time these two heavyweights have actually appeared on a mix CD together and is also the first CD compilation released on Resist Records (ex-React Music).
Fabio takes a funky and uplifting ride through drum'n'bass on his mix CD, kicking off with the jazzy Gather Round by the Allied Forces featuring a jazzy piano lick and sax riff with a cheeky childrens show sample giving it a nice tongue in cheek flavour. Ill Logic & Raf deliver more uplifting drum'n'bass on Could It Be featuring a funky rolling beat, a liquid bassline and vocals oozing with sweet soul.
Roni Size's Strictly Social gets remixed by Nu:Tone who gives it a thick percussive vibe laden with various drum sounds with a guitar lick that sounds like its been lifted from a 50's surf music tune. Voted by Drum & Bass Arena users as the best tune on Fabio's CD is High Contrast's orchestral Racing Green featuring another funky melodic bassline and a string ensemble in the background.
The mix takes a turn towards darker and dubbier drum'n'bass with Calibre's Highlander dropping a booming bass line, jazzy female vocals before leading into the frantic tribal (junglistic!) beats on A-Sides' Exodus which peaks out the mix into a climax.
Post-climax, Fabio's mix settles back into a nice soulful journey through vocal infused drum'n'bass featuring the sweet vocals of Jenna G from Un-Cut on the jazzy, horn laden Chinese Silk featured here as the remix done by Calibre before closing out with another Calibre Remix of urban artist Jahiem on Put That Woman First which utilises a funky piano lick to accompany Jahiem's powerful vocals.
Grooverider on the other hand takes listeners on a harder and tougher peaktime ride through drum'n'bass beefing up the two elements which gave rise to its name - the drums and the bass - and what better way to start a tear out mix than with a tune by the master of tear out drum'n'bass, Dillinja. Feel My Pain features a warm male vocal presence which sits in direct contrast to the heavy basslines and machine gun beats being hammered out the speakers. Full Cycle's Clipz sends the bassline into a melody frenzy on the catchy Cocoa.
Codename John (Grooverider's alter-ego) sends the mix into funkier drum'n'bass territory on The Pussy laced with a jazzy piano riff and a freaky male vocal sample. Keaton & Hive's southern hip hop influenced Get It On features a massive bassline and tough hip hop MC ssamples that should get hands waving in the air. DJ Zinc's ever popular bassliner Ska gets a feature in remix form with both of the tunes mentioned above featuring on Andy C's Drum & Bass Arena edition from 2003.
DJ SS' Anger Management turns up the noise with dirty bass, industrial background noises and screeches. Sounds more like a scene in a horror movie where the creature nabs a helpless girl than a drum'n'bass tune. Nightbreed bring out distorted rock guitars and heavy metal wailing on Pack Of Wolves taking both Ram Records and Grooverider's mix down a hard rocky path.
Dynamite MC gets his Ride remixed by Dillinja who tranforms it into a hard bass heavy monster, while Dynamite spits his ragga-tinged slang on top. Shy FX rinses out more dark bass and cinematic vocal samples on Rah featuring a wicked acid hook before Grooverider brings the mix to a close with Shimon and Andy C's menacing Lockdown.
If I had to choose between both CD's Fabio's one would be it - funky, uplifting and so thick in texture are the beats - it's easy to find yourself shaking and grooving away, whereas Grooverider's mix, while built for a different dancefloor, gets a bit noisy and just plain messy. Still, fans of drum'n'bass can agree that this is definitely a landmark CD compilation as it features two pioneers of the scene mixing it up for a website that plays a big part in keeping the drum'n'bass scene healthy.