- Drum & Bass Arena – Arguably the biggest d&b site on the web. Based in the UK, major hook ups with major players in the scene.
- Back To The Old Skool – ’88 to ’98 old skool style breakbeat, jungle, d&b, hardcore and rave.
- Bassic Records – D&B site featuring audio, news, events and pictures.
- BBC Radio 1 – Fabio & Grooverider – The online home of the national d&b show.
- BBC 1Xtra – D&B Section – D&B information and audio from the UK’s national urban music station.
- Chemical Records – Secure online store specializing in d&b updated every 15 minutes – audio of all tracks, charts and DJ sets.
- Clubarena.com – News, scene reports, visuals, radio, discussion and record reviews.
- Colorado Drum & Bass Network – Promoting local Colorado d&b DJs and producers.
- Dembro – Spreading the d&b gospel from Salzburg, Austria.
- DNB Cult – Bulgarian d&b resource. Events, reviews, community forums, and music showcases.
- DnBForum.com – One of the biggest d&b forums on the internet.
- DNB-Scene – Gathering the best d&b music on the internet, and rating it by quality. Hundreds of reviewed tunes available for download.
- Dogs On Acid – Online D&B forum also featuring: dubplates, news, release information.
- Drum ‘n’ Bass Massive – UK Drum & Bass. Featuring news, rave and dj/mc gallery, audio (mc samples & live events), videos, reviews, listings, interviews, articles, bookings and ringtones
- mtldnb.com – Montreal resource for drum & bass and breakbeat music. Portal featuring links, photo galleries, forum, articles and interviews.
- Northwest D&B – Focusing on the Pacific North-West Scene. DJ, MC, and producer profiles and event information.
- Oldskool Hardcore and Rave – Oldskool hardcore in effect. Charts, images, albums, events, toytown techno, 12″s, polls, links.
- Oldskool Madness – Old-skool audio archive, mix tapes and Monday Madness radio audio for download.
- Portsmouth Uni. DnB Society – News, reviews, information and related sites.
- Pukka Dawn – Huge collection of rave mixtapes for trading across all genres, including d&b.
- Record Vault – Specializing in rare and collectable d&b records.
- Dubplates Internet Radio – Drum and Bass, Nu Skool, Grime and Hip-Hop WebRadio with some extra features like MP3 Downloads, Forums and Games.
- f9radio.com – F9radio.com broadcasts drum and bass promos, funky breaks, beats, funk and beyond.
- Futuredrumz jungle dnb radio – Internet radio streaming live Drum and Bass, Jungle, Old Skool and Hardcore 24/7 around the globe. Featuring live Dj’s from the uk and across the world,Special Guest Shows and live dnb event broadcasts…
- FutureGrooves.de – Drum and Bass webradio – Drum and Bass webradio including video and audio streams, chat and more.
- Grand Theft Audio: urban internet radio – Grand Theft Audio is an urban internet radio station which provides an opportunity for unknown DJs and promoters of british urban music to display their talents.
Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated dnb) is a type of electronic dance music also known as jungle.
It began as an offshoot of the United Kingdom breakbeat hardcore and rave scene and came into existence in the early 1990s. Over the first decade of its existence, drum and bass saw many permutations in style, incorporating everything from reggae and jazz to techno and trance. Today it is usually heard in nightclubs and its most recognizable features include a heavy emphasis on fast tempo drums in addition to loud intricate basslines.
Drum and bass has its origins in breakbeat hardcore, a part of the UK rave scene. Hardcore DJ typically played their records at fast tempos, and breakbeat hardcore emphasised breakbeats over the 4-to-the-floor beat structure common to house music. Breakbeat hardcore records (commonly called ‘tunes’ within the community) Lennie De Ice’s «We are I.E» (1991) and LTJ Bukem’s Demon’s Theme (1991) are generally credited [1] as being among the first to have a recognizable drum and bass sound.
Most hardcore tracks at the time were extremely light and upbeat; the most extreme example of this was the so called «toy-town» track such as Smart E’s’ Sesame’s Treat which features the children’s show Sesame Street theme song. This style of hardcore would many years later be known as happy hardcore.
In response to these lighter tracks, some producers started focusing on darker, more aggressive sounds; this style became known as darkcore. Strange noises and effects, syncopated rhythms made from rearranged funk breaks and loud bass lines defined the genre. Examples of darkcore include Goldie’s Terminator (1992) and Nasty Habits’ (aka Doc Scott) Here Comes the Drumz (1992).
This darker, more aggressive sound appealed to many in the dancehall and raggae communities. Both darkcore and dancehall shared an emphasis on rhythm and bass, and the tempos were well suited to be mixed together. Soon many elements of dancehall raggae were being incorporated into the hardcore sound.
Whilst it has been suggested that it was the dancehall-aware black youth of Britain who fueled the drum and bass scene in the early days, this is not entirely true as there was substantial white following in northern British cities. The drum and bass subculture today has retained this racial diversity.
The influence of Jamaican sound-system culture can be found in the use of basslines and remixing techniques derived from Dub and Reggae music, alongside the fast breakbeats and samples derived from urban musics such as hip hop, Funk, jazz, and r&b alongside many production techniques borrowed from early electronic music such as house, and techno.
As the genre aged, the use of sampled funk breakbeats became increasingly complex (most notably and wide spread is the Amen break taken from a b-side funk track «Amen, My Brother» by the Winston Brothers) producers began cutting apart loops and using the component drum sounds to create new rhythms. To match the complex drum lines, basslines which had less in common with the simple patterns of house and techno music than with the complex phrasings of dub and hip hop began to be used. Gradually, the bass and drum elements began to dominate to the music and — combined with the liberal use of 32nd notes and abstract time signatures — drum and bass became incompatible with house and techno and began to develop its own separate identity. This sonic identity became highly-distinctive for both the depth of its bass and the increasingly-complex, rapid-fire breakbeat percussion. Vastly different rhythmic patterns were distinctively being used, as well as new types of sampling, synthesis and effects processing techiniques, resulting in a greater focus on the intricacies of sampling/synthesis production and rhythm. This notably included early use of the Time stretching effect which was often used on percussion or vocal samples. As the influences of reggae and dub became more prominent, the sound of drum and bass began to take on an urban sound which was heavily influenced by ragga and dancehall music as well as hip hop, often incorporating the distinctive vocal styles of these musical genres. This raggae/dancehall influenced sound is most commonly associated with the term jungle.
However, as the early nineties saw drum and bass break out from its underground roots and begin to win popularity with the general British public, many producers attempted to expand the influences of the music beyond the domination of ragga-based sounds. By 1995, a counter movement to the ragga style was emerging, dubbed «intelligent» drum and bass by the music press, and embodied by producers such as LTJ Bukem and his Good Looking label. Some say that the move to intelligent drum and bass was a conscious and concerted reaction by top DJs and producers against a culture that was becoming tinged with «gangsta» and violent elements, and stereotyped with the recognizable production techniques of the ragga-influenced producers. Intelligent drum and bass maintained the uptempo breakbeat percussion, but focused on more atmospheric sounds and warm, deep basslines over vocals or samples which often originated from Soul or Jazz music. From this period on, drum and bass would maintain the unity of a relatively-small musical culture, but one characterised by a competing group of stylistic influences. Although many DJs have specialised in distinctive sub-genres within jungle and drum and bass, the majority of artists within the genre remain connected via record labels, events and radio shows.
Jungle being a specific musical culture, has also resulted in the appearance of junglist subculture, which, while not nearly as distinctive, alienated, ideological or obvious as other youth subcultures, and having many similarities with hip hop styles and behaviour, does function distinctively within the drum & bass listening community.
