The track featured a sample of Kirsty Hawkshaw from "It's a Fine Day" (a chart hit for Opus III earlier that year). In late 1992, the Radiccio EP barely reached the UK top 40, although it included one of their most popular songs, " Halcyon". Several singles and EPs followed, and their first self-titled album, a collection of tracks recorded at various times, was released in late 1991. Next was a gig at the Town and Country 2 in Islington, performing for the first time under the name Orbital. The track received its first live airing at a club night hosted by the promoter Que Pasa (Mark, Andrew and Nick Maddox) in a local Sevenoaks venue called the Grasshopper on Boxing Day. According to Paul Hartnoll, the track was recorded "under the stairs" of their parents' house in "a knocked-through stair cupboard that my dad set up as a home office". The track became a rave anthem, reaching number 17 in the UK charts and earning them an appearance on Top of the Pops, during which they wore anti- Poll Tax T-shirts. Halftime isn’t just reinvigorating the genre, it’s one of the most full-flavored dishes on drum & bass’s dizzying subgenre menu.īoasting artists and labels from the Czech Republic to New Zealand, as well as the bass universe (from house to garage to trap to hip-hop), these new releases on Bandcamp are a succinct snapshot of halftime, right now.In 1989 Orbital recorded " Chime" on their father's 4 track tape deck, which they released on Oh Zone Records in December 1989 and re-released on FFRR Records a few months later. There are vast caverns of space that provide room for new polyrhythms and percussion dynamics-a growing community of high-level and technically-astute exponents such as Noisia, Ivy Lab, dBridge, Alix Perez, Mefjus, Fracture, and Kasra are all pushing the sound into bold new directions.
Rhythmically, productions have become more varied and unpredictable, as more artists are looking beyond drum & bass’s typical two-step or “amen” drum arrangements. Drum & bass DJ sets are much wider and more dynamic in tempo and energy thanks to halftime tracks. This, in turn, has accelerated creativity and opened up new possibilities. This has created a lot more interchange and dialogue between drum & bass and the wider musical world. Halving the tempo of drum & bass means it’s only 10 BPM away from these kindred styles, rather than the double-time, uniquely fast-tempo it’s largely been all these years. beats scene, London’s instrumental grime sound, Chicago’s juke and footwork movement. The sounds, dynamics, references, and spacious aesthetics of this new breakbeat melting pot resonate with what’s happening under the wider bass umbrella in other genres that cherish the halftime break: the L.A. While the genre’s original pioneers were using the soul, reggae, hip-hop, dub, and rare groove records they’d grown up with as keystones, newer producers are reflecting their own inspirations such as techno, trap, grime, dubstep, and hip-hop. Much of this is in keeping with drum & bass’s oldest tradition: the breakbeat melting pot where the 170 BPM breaks framework is used as a blank canvas to portray the artist’s own culture and roots.
In the last few years, halftime has become even more prominent, not just as a subgenre itself, but as a style and rhythm arrangement across all drum & bass subgenres. Halftime tracks flex around the 80-85 BPM region (a tempo most commonly associated with hip-hop) rather than drum & bass’s traditional double-time, white knuckle 160/170 BPM framework.Įarly sightings of half-tempo drum & bass can be traced back as early as 1992, with tracks such as DJ Phantasy & DJ Gemini’s “Switch To 33.” Pioneering producers Digital and Amit have been experimenting with sparse kick drum arrangements since 1999 and the sound, as it exists today, has been developing momentum in earnest since dBridge & Instra:Mental launched their game-changing duo project, Autonomic, in 2009. The recipe is simple: Halve the tempo, double the fun. But few of those are as exciting or reinvigorating as the increasingly popular style that’s become known as “halftime.”
From jungle to jump-up-by way of neuro, liquid, deep, pop, ambient, intelligent, soulful, drumstep, skullstep, and techstep- drum & bass has morphed and mutated into more sub-styles and categories than any other genre of electronic music.
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