So yeah, where to start?

I grew up listening to many forms of music a bit deeper than what was being played on the Dutch radio and music channels, I always felt I could be moved by, what was to me, beautiful sound.
And when having to look for gems, you find a lot of different, strange and funky stuff along the way, not always to your liking, but art nevertheless. You’ll notice through my choices, I tend to like the dark and heavy stuff a bit more, so making a top 10 through 23 years of this music.. that’s a hard one.

A tale amidst many from these times, the breakbeat era started with one of my best friends having this ancient relic, a thing called a CD from one of his buddies. This ancient relic contained sounds that changed me from being a gothy metalhead into a propah Skankah embracing music that so far hasn’t let go of me yet. It stood by me in harsh times, it elevated dance parties into temples of rave. And when I understood the dance, initiation was complete. But for real, the tunes that were on that CD ranged from LTJ Bukem, Andy C, DJ Hype, Concord Dawn and Friction to heavier breakcore stuff like Deformer, FFF, Venetian Snares etc, but most important, the very first track that played and punchkissed me in the face was...

The first love: Black Sun Empire – Arrakis
This tune started everything for me, both in a raver’s aspect as well as a DJ and bedroom producer. For me, this is THE Drum & Bass anthem in general, simply because it has everything that I love embedded into a couple of minutes: The intensity, mystery, a dark and gritty bass, the chord progression, helluva lot percussion, the tempo, how all the sounds collide. It represents the era of Drum & Bass in which I started attending the raves and these kind of evenings were like proper audiotherapy to me in a time where I needed it.

On the earcans, at home, while working out, or the very best = any dancefloor, I cannot relisten this absolute gem enough. Having been the very first step into the raver community, it has a special place in my heart....next to Concord Dawn’s “Morning Light”..which we all know...right? RIGHT??

The maturing taste: Source Direct – Exit 9
Now for the second step.

“Back in those early ‘00 days”, sometimes there were these DJ’s amidst all of the DnB parties I’ve frequented, even Youtube still being in it’s infancy, I thought it was pretty hard to find this kind of music, thanks to selectors like Silvahfonk and DJ Trax, (ICHIone 4evah <3), I got hooked on this older brother of DnB and it was called... Jungle. It was quite hard just picking a favourite, but this ranks among the first listened and all time highest for me. Being some of the pioneers in this genre, it still baffles me how they could create such a futuristic track with the gear they had available. Nice for a listen on the couch having conversations, great for breaking those legs expressing yourself dancing.

The shadow side: Bong Ra – Dub Murderer
Auditory meditation, this one. I’m wondering if the short attention spans nowadays are able to cope with the length of this intro, but believe me, if you can, you will be well rewarded. This is Breakcore on the Jungle side of the spectrum, and having first met this tune at a Drop! Party in Utrecht, live by the man himself, I was blown away. Having this affection for the deep dark & heavy tastes of music, the angsty feeling this tune gives off at first hand, you just know something is about to happen when it hits. I don’t want to get too esoterical here, but the surges of energy that I feel coursing through me during this piece... stuff to never forget.