Featured Mixes: Blu Mar Ten September '09 Mix (drum & bass)

This is a lovely mix I downloaded earlier this week by well known drum and bass producers Blu Mar Ten. I waited a couple days to post it because I wanted to listen to it a few times before properly commenting on it. The guys from Blu Mar Ten are no strangers to the online drum and bass community and have done a great job establishing an online presence on many of the message boards along with Twitter and Facebook. Taking things a step further than just promoting their own work, they actively participate in online discussions, give constructive advice to budding producers, publish online tutorials, and have even helped a few get their foot in the door of an industry that is notoriously difficult to break into.  

6000 people have already downloaded this mix (BMT’s first in several years) over the course of the past week; if you’re into the deep/melodic sounds of dnb then you can join the club of the other 5,999 listeners who have not been disappointed. There has been a nice resurgence of a style of drum and bass, pioneered by the likes of Foul Play and Omni Trio in the mid 1990s, that is minimal on percussion to allow plenty of room for layers upon layers of nicely textured pads and atmospherics. Over the 71 minutes of this mix Blu Mar Ten nicely highlights the current inclination of this “minimal” sound.

It opens with D-Bridge’s “Loves Ugly Child”, released 4 years ago, which was one of the first songs at the time to incorporate today’s re-hash of this specific sound. A nice starting point. From there we get a chance to hear some fresh work from well established producers such as Logistics, ASC, Sunchase, as well as the BMT boys themselves as they unveil some snippets of their forthcoming LP. This is balanced very nicely with a few up and coming producers, such as Mr. Sized, Kharm, and High Speed Dubbing - as mentioned earlier, I like how they give these guys a bit of deserved exposure (they must have a ton of patience separating the wheat from the chaff of garbage they probably get sent to them each day!) 

As per usual, the blends and key mixing here are flawless. Nice work guys.

Blu Mar Ten - Drum & Bass Mix Sep 2009 by blumarten