Function Records is one of the most well-respected imprints not just within jungle music, but also across drum & bass., having been spearheaded by Digital, a producer who’s garnered just as much of a reputation for his own cuts and crowd-moving DJ sets. One of the reasons why Digital has stood the test amongst his counterparts is because he’s stayed true to his heritage, something which can be seen throughout the catalogue of Function. For its fiftieth release he’s invited a host of producers to have their take on the label’s sound. To commemorate this compilation, names like Nomine, Calibre & Jet Li, Klute and Drumsound & Bassline Smith feature across its track listing, each delivering an exclusive addition to Function’s renowned history. The album shows the influence which Digital has built throughout his career and it’s one decorated with music, much like the type which is showcased on the ‘Shadows’ LP.
Calibre and Jet Li’s hard-driving sounds are showcased throughout beginning cut ‘Least Loved’, whilst A2 Kiat comes next with his delivery of ‘Stranger Tings’. Digital drops in for his own offering which comes in the rolling form of ‘Dub Conscious’. Nomine drops in alongside his alias Outrage for ‘Born Again’ and newcomer Kiljoy, formally known as part of Concord Dawn, comes with the tear out sonics of ‘Ghosts of Old’. Need for Mirrors then reworks Digital’s ‘Deadline’, followed by the lulling, immersive landscape of Seba and Jr Vallo’s ‘Wasabi’. Total Science and War prove they’re a force to be reckoned with on collaborative record ‘Second Wave’ and the legendary DJ Trace appears with ‘Spirits’. Resound takes Digital, the late Spirit and Flava & Dissect’s ‘Primal’, moulding it through his own lens. For a penultimate addition, Drumsound & Bassline Smith inject their dancefloor flavours on ‘Gods Never Die’. Then the cross-sub genre genius Klute closes the album with ‘Sick of it All’, drawing for his envy-stoking production standard.
Together, each track epitomises why Function have reigned supreme since they first began releasing music. With the host of producers Digital’s been able to pull in for ‘Shadows’, it highlights just how imperative the label has been for the genre’s definitive figures.
Kiljoy grabbed Digital’s dubbed out classic, ‘Waterhouse Dub’, smashed it to pieces and pounded it back together to produce this monstrous and titanic beast. This track has received enthusiastic support from Goldie, Storm, Dj Marky, Ray Keith and more
Where the original Strictly DNB was hectic and dynamic, Sight Unseen’s version has added soul and a new Roots Rub-a-Dub swing.
Abducted - Digital’s Is This A Dream Remix harks back to his strange and experimental phase of the mid ‘90s, a time when he was restricted to a paltry 14 seconds of sample time to make a track. He had a great time stretching his skills to be able to make the utmost use out of any little samples he could fit in the sampler, whatever they were. The revival of this ethos spawned Abducted.
a1. Digital - Waterhouse Dub (Kiljoy Remix)
b1. Digital - Strictly DnB (Sight Unseen Remix)
b2. Digital - Abducted (Digital's 'Is This A Dream' Remix)
The title track sets the pace, leading with hard filtered breaks merged with classic reggae undertones. When you hear the words ‘Strictly Drum and Bass!’ you’re launched in to a wave of hard hitting 808’s and speaker rattling layers of sub bass. Strictly DNB is a relentless example of jungle, and without doubt, a classic Digital anthem. Time Out in contrast rolls at a steadier pace and has all the feeling of a soulful and authentic Dub track. Note... If your bass bins aren't ready for this they're gonna get mash up!
The crucial elements in many Jungle tracks are in this E.P. Atmospherics, breakbeats and basslines that sing to you. Digital & Response start the E.P. with a 160 bpm, breakbeat, dubbed out 4 to the floor track called, ‘Broken Dub’. ‘Tell Me’ has a little bit of Amen choppage about it and rumbling bass topped with sweet and sensual vocals. ‘Hung Up’ is a drifty, spaced-out smooth number with bass that takes you to a place you’ve never heard before. Finally, ‘Plastic Dreams’ reminds you of the kind of track you’d play at Fabio’s night, speed to get everyone up dancing.
Digital teams up with Canadian legend, Gremlinz. American duo, Sight Unseen and German new boy, Keygenlog for the breaks and bass heavy Mental State EP.
Out Of Control features fierce breaks powered by a stabby Phantom Force style riff with an attitude. This is 1994 deep jungle in a 21st century full metal jacket.
Bitter Switch is a deeper, colder version of Digital's, 'Bitter Wind' featured on Rupture Recordings. The haunting pads hover above the high pitched clanging Amen in an exciting counterpoint to the dubbed out bass.
Too Late Again is full on unforgiving dirty Jungle written with one of the scene's favourite breaks: Blowfly - 'Sesame Street' that features on Deep Blue's, 'The Helicopter Tune'
Low Battery. The first collaboration between Digital and the relentless Gremlinz was always going to be an Amen smasher. Nuff said!
Artwork by street artist Asboluv aka Boo Dendy "The art of looking sideways"
New artist Kiljoy hits hard like Spirit and bangs riffs out like Digital! The elusive artist's debut on Function Records brings the best of the oldschool into 2018. Banging amen breaks face off with the riff sound from the 92 classic, Anasthasia, building this Bad Man into a frenzy. On the flip, Air Raid’s haunting hook and direct breaks propel you deep into the war zone. Tight bassline work from Kiljoy, ready to shell down.
Dominick Martin aka Calibre is responsible for some of the most beautiful and sublime tracks in drum & bass. Releasing on the most distinguished labels, including his own ‘Signature Recordings’, Calibre’s distinctive sound has progressed taking on elements of jazz, funk, dub and techno whilst losing none of its soul.
Brian O’Sullivan aka Jet Li first cut his teeth on the decks in the late 80’s mixing Reggae, Hip Hop & Hardcore in his remote island of Valentia, off the West of Ireland. His first introduction into drum and bass and jungle came in the early 90s’s when he moved to Manchester.
Returning to Ireland he began promoting drum & bass nights and by 2002 envisioned the hugely successful drum & bass festival, ‘Jungle Republic’, the first of its kind in Ireland, which he co-promoted with Dj Source & Bassbin Records.
His first production surfaced in 2004 for BBC 1xtra’s, ‘ Xtrabass Compilation’. More followed on Nu Urban and he continued releasing on, ‘phase2recordings’ which featured a track from Calibre.
Jet Li & Calibre come from opposite ends of Ireland. Their love of Drum & Bass would have them meet often and their friendship grew. Having played alongside each other over the years in Ireland & Europe, their mutual appreciation led to them collaborating in 2016, ending in the completion of 6 tunes.
Their first release together will be out on Function Records in July 2018.
Dj support
Fabio, Storm, Jumping Jack Frost, Spirit, Randall, Need For Mirrors, Dj Marky & More
Digital releases his second LP within 2 years entitled "Total Control". It's not a massive collab fest like his 2016 LP ‘Synthesis’ although, there’s a few on there with artists Nomine, John B, Villem and Digital’s Phantom Audio partner, Spirit. A strong Jungle vibe runs right through this LP. The opening track, ‘Motherland’ has crisp breaks, a bassline to die for and a haunting unforgettable vocal. Other highlights are Seba’s lush remix of Digital & Response’s, ‘Silver Lining’. ‘On The Rockz’ sounds like a solid piece of 1998 drum and bass, ‘Total Control’ is superb and certainly one for the hardcore ravers, ‘Dreamer’ takes you on a journey you’ve never been before. Early support includes: Storm, Randall, Goldie, Klute, Jumping Jack Frost, Spirit, Nomine, Double O & Mantra.
Digital releases his second LP within 2 years entitled "Total Control". It's not a massive collab fest like his 2016 LP ‘Synthesis’ although, there’s a few on there with artists Nomine, John B, Villem and Digital’s Phantom Audio partner, Spirit. A strong Jungle vibe runs right through this LP. The opening track, ‘Motherland’ has crisp breaks, a bassline to die for and a haunting unforgettable vocal. Other highlights are Seba’s lush remix of Digital & Response’s, ‘Silver Lining’. ‘On The Rockz’ sounds like a solid piece of 1998 drum and bass, ‘Total Control’ is superb and certainly one for the hardcore ravers, ‘Dreamer’ takes you on a journey you’ve never been before. Early support includes: Storm, Randall, Goldie, Klute, Jumping Jack Frost, Spirit, Nomine, Double O & Mantra.
Digital releases his second LP within 2 years entitled "Total Control". It's not a massive collab fest like his 2016 LP ‘Synthesis’ although, there’s a few on there with artists Nomine, John B, Villem and Digital’s Phantom Audio partner, Spirit. A strong Jungle vibe runs right through this LP. The opening track, ‘Motherland’ has crisp breaks, a bassline to die for and a haunting unforgettable vocal. Other highlights are Seba’s lush remix of Digital & Response’s, ‘Silver Lining’. ‘On The Rockz’ sounds like a solid piece of 1998 drum and bass, ‘Total Control’ is superb and certainly one for the hardcore ravers, ‘Dreamer’ takes you on a journey you’ve never been before. Early support includes: Storm, Randall, Goldie, Klute, Jumping Jack Frost, Spirit, Nomine, Double O & Mantra.
Digital releases his second LP within 2 years entitled "Total Control". It's not a massive collab fest like his 2016 LP ‘Synthesis’ although, there’s a few on there with artists Nomine, John B, Villem and Digital’s Phantom Audio partner, Spirit. A strong Jungle vibe runs right through this LP. The opening track, ‘Motherland’ has crisp breaks, a bassline to die for and a haunting unforgettable vocal. Other highlights are Seba’s lush remix of Digital & Response’s, ‘Silver Lining’. ‘On The Rockz’ sounds like a solid piece of 1998 drum and bass, ‘Total Control’ is superb and certainly one for the hardcore ravers, ‘Dreamer’ takes you on a journey you’ve never been before. Early support includes: Storm, Randall, Goldie, Klute, Jumping Jack Frost, Spirit, Nomine, Double O & Mantra.
1. Digital - Motherland
2. Digital & Response - Silver Lining (Seba Remix)
It’s been a long time coming. After Raygun, Conscious Mind, Void VIP, Stolen Desire and a host of other guest appearances over the years, it was about time Spirit delivered his first full solo release and it has certainly been worth the wait!
‘International’ has already been causing some severe destruction in the hands of those DJ’s fortunate enough to have early access. An unrelenting frenzy of thunderous bass, seesaw amen fills, cavernous reverberating drums and hypnotic pads spiralling towards it’s intense surging apex. Creeping synths, stripped-down militant rhythms and stealth subs provide the perfect vision for the title track, ’Stalker’ before ’Look Out’ completes the journey with a brooding bass overload, surrounded in huge atmospherics and mystical echoing vocals.
Are there any aliens out there? (Probably!) What would they think of the human race?
Do the people in power really care about us?
What would they think of mass corruption from corporate companies and governments?..... But hold on a minute, are we decent to our own partners, families, neighbours, people in need of the essentials and those we work with?
Do the police, authorities, prisons, care homes and detention centres look after the vulnerable in the correct way?
Yo Aliens!!!!!! You're probably more advanced than us as a race so you've probably worked out ways of stopping inequalty, slavery, famine, war and other general shite. If so, GET YOUR SELF DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW AND SHOW US THE WAY!!!!!!
Always existing simultaneously as an insider and outsider in the drum and bass scene, Digital comes through with his fourth album entitled ‘Synthesis’. As the title implies, this album brings together a host of collaborators, each lending their unique styles to the tracks.
Always innovating and evolving his distinct sound, the bassline architect Digital wanted to have a different approach to this album project. “I’ve made a conscious effort to move away from an album that has only one sound which is quite the formula these days with electronic music. With this album, each collaborator contributes their unique styles to a collective synthesised vision.” says Digital.
In the process of making this album, he personally travelled around to collaborate with each producer as opposed to sending files through the internet. Digital explains “I’d much prefer to get a vibe off in the studio personally and the results feel more authentic, more real when you’re in the studio together. And as a result of working on this album, I feel that we’ve formed a collective of sorts that is larger than this project.”
This release has been divided into 4 parts, each standing on it’s own strength in a DJ friendly vinyl format as well as a digital release for each.
Trident code primarily consists of three producers: Digital, Flava & Horrific James; 3 artists drawn together by their love of Jungle/Drum and Bass. Flava and Horrific James say, 'Our focus is to have fun while making music and we want to help and inspire our friends at the same time like Dissect, Jay Bionic, D Menace, Handy, Strobe, Nick E.P. Hainsey and Spectrum'
Flava and Horrific James grew up in the 80's, with Flava hailing from Kettering, the same home town as DJ Storm. Flava's early days were largely influenced by the Hip Hop and Acid house scenes, a little after that nights at the Milton Keynes Sanctuary & Labyrinth solidified her love for Drum and Bass.
Horrific James grew up in Coventry where he became involved in the world of skateboarding and graffiti, this progressed into James moving to Camden in 1997 to study at the RCA. In 1999 he graduates & sets up his art studio in Hackney wick . In 2004 his work was picked up by Charles Saatchi and features in the New Blood exhibition at The Saatchi Gallery London . This led to Jessop shows in New York , Sao Paulo, Copenhagen & Torino . Today in 2015 James runs Horrific Recordings, a vinyl only label and he continues to exhibit art globally. In 2015 he opened Horrific Gallery in East London.
It's the Summer of 2002 where Flava and Dee Jay Jess (aka Horrific James) first met. A very keen Jess turns up for his new show on RudeFM.com while Lady Flava was doing her regular show, a show currently in it's 15th year often featuring guests like Digital and Klute. After Flava & Dee Jay Jess were initially introduced they became inseparable, instantly. The two soon joined forces in the Rude studio and went on to form the Rush hour crew with Dee Jay Jess, Flava and Motive.
In 2014 Digital was introduced to Horrific James through a mutual friend 'Clive Ingredients' which soon lead to Digital's guest appearance on Rude to celebrate his latest release on Horrific Recordings ' Corrupted Soul/Glue Tune'. Flava joined them inside the studio and this is where they all met as a unit. Soon after, they all decided to get together in the studio through their love of music and partying; Trident Code was born.
Digital began his journey helping out with Reggae sound systems around Ipswich under the heavy influence of his father. Seminal tracks like 'Waterhouse Dub', 'Ras 78' and the big bad 'Dubzilla Lp' helped cement his name in DNB history.
a1. Digital + Horrific James - Too Much
a2. Digital + Flava + Horrific James - Friday 13th
b1. Digital + Flava + Horrific James - Lava
b2. Digital + Flava + Horrific James - Voice Of The Jungle
![Various Artists - Shadows LP [3x12"] [Limited Edition of 200] - Unearthed Sounds](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0488/8057/products/func050_{width}x.jpg?v=1607055735)
