New breed of classic

Goldie, Grooverider, Klute, Bad Company, Metalheadz, Moving Shadow, RAM Records, Virus; the sorts of names you would associate with consistency and responsible for defining sounds or even eras. "Buy on sight" sort of business.

Who makes it into the new breed of classic producers/labels nowadays? Who do you think has been at the top of their game and is starting to enter this elite status?

Remember, this is not something to throw around lightly.


Personally, I would have to add Break and Commix into that league now. They have proven themselves over a few years to consistently progress and put out quality beats time after time, and both (if you look at their back catalogue) have played a decent role in shaping the sounds we have today.

Special mentions to Noisia and NuTone, for being up there, but not quite. Special mention also to Subfocus who helped bring massive new flavour to the scene, and at the same time put out lots of different beats. Maybe in a few years they will make the list, maybe Subfocus will do a TC. I don't know.


Post your opinions and discuss.

Lifted boys in a few years imo all them guys production is so tight and fuckin insane

dBridge for sure

Paradox.

That is all

*edit* I thought he was referring to peeps deemed classic that weren't on that list. Guess I should have read the first post better

Sabre for me. Myles, How can you call Paradox new school when he has been around for over a decade? Not sure if thats is how i've read what Kurko is trying to get at.

for me over the last year or 2 break is definetly a standout think ive bought everytune on sight whether ive heard it or not others that are reaching a similar level for me are survival,icicle & switch and sabre and in the last 6 months or so zero tolerance is killing it

Calyx & Teebee and Noisia 

Calyx and Teebee together and separately have been pushing sounds that are well unique.. theyve both had a big influence on neuro and tech sounds and have been owning it for as long as ive listened to dnb. calyx especially, 'no turning back' is still easily my fave album ever. the tunes theyve been putting out since they teamed up are soo good. the last album anatomy may have had a similar sound throughout but almost all of my fave dnb albums from the years have had something constant thats made the tunes instantly recognisable.

Noisia aswell for me easily - had tunes out on just about every major label from super smooth to jump up and techy as - theyve done it all and still keep putting out crazy tunes. Alice remixes anyone? and ive never heard sounds like diplodocus before in my life, and there have been so many noisia tunes that have made me think that. Its the variation i hear in their production techniques that puts them at the top of my list...

id love to put concord dawn in there aswell but i havent heard anything new from them of late, also calibre

best labels in my opinion - subtitles, dnaudio, engine music, lifted and quarantine

Agreed, Break and Commix have to be in there. I'd have to agree with Amano on Noisia, too. High Contrast has certainly stayed true to his past and keeps dropping quality.. (I know, a bit of shite too! ) I think D-Bridge falls under Bad Company in the old school, but he's done amazing things for sooo long. Ooh, I'm going to have to think about this one..! Good thread, Kurko.

Quarantine would have to be top of the list in terms of a buy on sight label. There are a lot of labels that are consistantly good but Quarantine may not release heaps of tunes, but when it does it is always of the highest quality. Reminds me a lot of Prototype back in the day.

Survival has cemented himself in well as Perez, Break and Sabre.  Most others formentioned i also agree with although i think Noisia and Teebee went backwards a few years ago.  Noisia however appear to have found their funk again (thank fuck).  I also think if Logistics continue the way they've been going they'll be there soon

Cern, Spectrasoul & Dose have become buy on sight for me, but they havent been around long enough yet to reach elite status IMO.  Zero T too, very good stuff but he's been producing for over 10 years and didnt start making gold until a couple of years ago. 

ps Amano, Calibre hit classic status after his Second Sun lp was released, 3 years ago. 

Definitely Saber, Survival, Spectralsoul, Zero T have certainly pushed boundries lately. But have to agree with rumble that break has seriously been puting out awesome tunes consistantly for the last couple of years.

yeah, but fluke didn't put him in the list of names in the first post. i didnt write anything about him cos i dont really mix that style so much. diont dispute that he is at the top for a second..

and im interested to know why you think noisia went backwards a few years ago?

I dont refute your Noisia claim they are very good producers, what i said about Noisia is purely IMO and probably biased by my dnb preferences. 

Their early tunes like Silicon and Vanishing Point were so against the grain of dnb at the time it was fantastic (like early Pendulum).  Then they started Drifter and were making sweet deep stuff and Hustle Athletics were wicked too (yes even for breaks!)  Sometime in 2006 they just started making hard as fuck and non mixing friendly stuff.  OK the tunes were crazy but diversity went out of the window and I just started saying to myself, yup another noisia tune.  I also saw a bit of Pendulumisation which put me off them, of course there were a few great noisia tunes brought out in this time here and there...  Its only recently that they are interesting me again, and I'm not alone.   

fair enough.. facade, shower for an hour, moon palace, angel eyes, time stops and afternoon delight are noisia (and drifter tunes) that have come out since from 06 that are diverse, arent hard as fuck and ive found relatively easy to mix....
and the really techy tunes that they were bringing out early on that, as you said, were 'against the grain' is what made them big and has since influenced the dnb soundscape, isnt that what fluke asked? consistently putting out tunes in the same sub-genre with 'defining' sounds?

i dont mean to be argumentative but in my opinion noisia fucking own it

clas·sic (klsk)
adj.
1.
a. Belonging to the highest rank or class.
b. Serving as the established model or standard: a classic example of colonial architecture.
c. Having lasting significance or worth; enduring.

Tell me, what in your collections will you be playing in 3 years time? A large percentage of you won't even be DJing anymore.

Classic? Drum and Bass? Pfft, you're having a laugh

...sure

ive got tunes on vinyl that came out when i was six years old and fuckin thrive on them. i could name SO many tunes that came out more than three years ago that i would crank out in a set in a second.

i bet almost every person on this forum listens to music that came out before they were born...

Fanu Buy on sight

All good mate.  The main thing is we will still be playing Noisia in 3 years time coz they truely make some classic tunes