- This, the second label compilation on Ireland's thoughtful Subtle Audio, is the quintessential drum & bass DJ's record. The three-disc collection is packed with varied and eminently mixable beats from a cherry-picked roster. Their 2010 vision of drum & bass is comfortingly literate and artcore. But what ultimately makes Subtle Audio Vol. II worthwhile is label head Code's talent for sequencing music. While, at first blush, Vol. II seems to suffer well-known album symptoms—an excess of music, a few downtempo diversions highlighting versatility, a certain self-consciousness—these concerns finally fade away. The tracks on its two unmixed discs are immaculately paced, so much that you can hear a story in the silences between.
Vol. I, also on point, was a timid release in comparison. Vol. II is a breezy and expansive listen, and this is surprising given that its emotional palette ranges from quietly optimistic to darkly quiet. Sileni makes a welcome (if beatless) return with his "Random Intro" to the first disc, and Reinforced virtuoso Alpha Omega sounds as effortless as ever on "Impulse," a healthy volley of drums stepping on classic synths. Most of the names that follow are less familiar, and their styles are harder to pin down. After a tribal stomp courtesy of San.Dra follows a track entitled "Taking Seriously" by The Blunt Needles that is borderline Braindance, and you'd be forgiven if you expected three hours of wanton diversity. But then Macc & DSP clear the table with their monstrous "Los Angeles," a locked cabin full of angry drum kits thrashing at the door. Another highlight, "Serpentine" by CJ Weaver and Indidjinous, has the low-end gravitas of a happy (well, happier) Boymerang; and it's deftly flipped on its head by the reverb-drenched snares of Mindmapper's tentative "Staccato."
There's a journey made every six minutes, and sometimes within individual tracks—for instance, in how Earl Grey's "Hazel Grove" shifts from Autonomic-style restraint to lush, junglist drum interplay in the blink of an eye. (To say nothing of Nic TVG's wild electroacoustic songs, jazz via laptop.) The second, fiercer disc has Dissident's submerged, Offshore-style synthetics giving way to Sileni's long-unreleased squirmer "Real Horrorshow"; Enjoy's nearly-prog techstepper "The Crook" balanced with CJ Weaver's writhing and minimal "6,000 Degrees"; retro Apache breaks moving to Motor City soul as Earl Grey hands it off to Nubian Minds. And though there are few of the monumental moments of drum & bass in its heyday—the contemporary wobble and hiss of Sub's "Katana" being a great exception—there is also little of its stern over-determination, its paralyzing lust for genius and perfection. Subtle Audio here betrays a stargazing outlook, turned outward rather than inward. It lets drum & bass feel somehow, of all things, playful.
Code's back-catalogue mix on the third disc ebbs and flows like water. His percussive showcase reveals another side to Subtle that the painstakingly sequenced Vol. I mix missed. There's a real exuberance to be found in drumfunk, choppage, leftfield drum & bass, and otherwise jungle in the 2000s. It's a secret best expressed by a DJ. Code's optimism might be rare, but it's also contagious.
TracklistCD1
01. Sileni - Random Intro
02. Alpha Omega - Impulse
03. The Blunt Needles - Taken Seriously
04. San.Dra - Retreat
05. DSP & Macc - Los Angeles
06. Parallel - Into The Deep
07. Kontext - Thaw
08. Earl Grey - Hazel Grove
09. CJ Weaver & Indidjinous - Serpentine
10. Mindmapper - Staccato
11. Naibu - Nightscape
12. Nic TVG - From A Bar In An Airport
13. Sub - Katana
CD2
01. Kontext - Thaw (Dissident Remix)
02. Sileni - Real Horrorshow
03. Parallel - The Complications Between Us
04. Mindmapper & Fre4knc - Fangtooth
05. Enjoy - The Crook
06. CJ Weaver - 6,000 Degrees
07. Nic TVG - Sorry I Puked On Your Dress
08. Earl Grey - Asthma Trim
09. Nubian Minds - Highway Cruising
10. DSP & Dj Trax - Lyrica Haze
11. Sub - Sensualism
12. San.Dra - No Signal In Paradise
13. Naibu - Theme For The Cycle
CD3: Mixed by DJ Code
01. Macc - 4L + N
02. Accidental Style - Space Funkt
03. Dissident - Imager
04. Senses - All Over
05. Polska - Blakoh
06. Macc & dgoHn - Mustard Greens
07. Sileni - Pressing Buttons
08. Dan Habarnam - Janee
09. Polska - Dumster
10. Dissident - Oneiroid Pychosis
11. Mecca - Virtual Affair
12. Sileni - Bouncing Octagonal Fragments (Macc Remix)
13. Nebula - Encounters
14. Equinox - Your Love's So Cold
15. Nebula - Hidden Oasis
16. dgoHn - Elle