UK drum & bass legend High Contrast shares some of his favorite liquid funk tracks for Beatport’s Playlist of the Week.
As it’s the 20th anniversary year of the release of my first album True Colours, I thought I would make a list of my top ten Liquid Funk DnB tunes that came out around the same time as that album. Looking back it was a golden era for the very musical and funky side of DnB.
Some of the artists on this list are ones I asked to do remixes of tracks from True Colours for the remix album I’m releasing this year. If you are new to the sub-genre this list should provide a great starting point for finding out about this beautiful sound and hopefully inspire new artists to find some influences for today.
High Contrast – Music Is Everything (Highly Contrasting)
Excuse me including one of my own tunes but this was the track that really established me in the DnB world when Fabio played this on his Radio 1 show in 2001 in a bit about the new Liquid sound. That had been a major goal of mine and it blew my mind to be played by him and being included alongside my musical heroes.
Shy FX, T Power feat. Di – Shake Ur Body (London Music Stream)
One of the biggest vocal DnB tracks ever from one of the most legendary producers. This tune really showed DnB was still able to produce chart contenders, after many had written off the scene due to the rise of UK Garage.
Influx Datum – Back For More (Drum&Bass Arena)
Influx is one of my favourite producers for this era and it’s sad that he doesn’t produce any more, his sound was so amazing. This was a firm favourite at Fabio’s legendary Liquid Funk night Swerve.
Carlito & Addiction – Supergrass (Defunked)
An all time favourite of mine, I remember playing this at Fabric in early 2000s and it being such a crowd pleaser. An atmospheric yet funky track, it’s got a real ‘journey’ to its structure, an overused term but this tune really IS a journey!
DJ Marky & XRS – LK (V Recordings)
Possibly the biggest Liquid track of all time and the one that firmly showed that DnB was no longer just a London or even UK thing by introducing the world to DJ Marky and his Brazilian crew.
Calibre – Run Again (Creative Source)
I could fill this list just with Calibre tracks from the early 00s. His output was just insanely prolific back then, coupled with his continuing top quality. I always loved the extremely funky wah-wah live bass on this one.
J Majik feat. Kathy Brown – Love Is Not A Game (Defected)
A tune that really showed how Housey DnB could get. The filtered melodics on this are just delicious and the vocal is a powerhouse diva performance.
Artificial Intelligence – Desperado (V Recordings)
One of the most iconic basslines of the Liquid Funk era made for a tune that crossed over and got played by djs from every side of the DnB scene. Still sounds fantastic when played out in a club today.
Danny Byrd – Dub It Again (Hospital Records)
The tune that introduced me to Hospital Records and the supremely funky sound of Danny Byrd. This tune had a huge influence on me as it was channeling the sounds of House and Garage by people like Todd Edwards into a DnB tune, which was something I myself had just started to try and do at the time.
Marcus Intalex & ST Files – Universe (Metalheadz)
The whole Liquid Funk sound was really galvanised by this duo’s earlier track “How You Make Me Feel,” another classic. But it’s “Universe” that is my personal favourite of theirs. A hauntingly atmospheric and deep track but with smooth Liquid melodics underpinning it. RIP Marcus.
High Contrast’s ‘True Colours 20th Anniversary Remix Edition’ is out now on Highly Contrasting. Buy it here.
