Eatbrain Drum & Bass | Jungle 12 Artikel

The Hungarian madman known as Mindscape brings his trademark sound to the masses with "Road Rage EP" - the latest offering on EATBRAIN, the label from the mind of Jade. Under the creative direction of this neurofunk innovator, Eatbrain has presided over countless releases by drum & bass's finest since the label's inception in 2011.

A fresh relic was unearthed in the distant East and the retreating ice sheets of Siberia - the ancient bones of a forgotten race, once again touched by sunlight and air, stirring the caged memories within. Tendrils of this prehistoric demon's soul wrapped themselves around those who made the discovery - entrancing, captivating and compelling them with its dark story from the deep past. It is a tale that runs eternal, an account of the deepest savagery of nature - a conflict that has spilled across every conscious being and drives the endless cycle of life.EATBRAIN channel a tale of a forgotten age through the unique minds of SEGMENT & CONCEPT VISION and their MAMMOTH EP. Featuring 4 precisely engineered cuts of audio that reach into the fraught and fractured core of existence and tear deep grooves into those who listen. VINTAGE opens the EP with luscious dub-driven pads and undulating tones that drop into a shifty and tight neurofunk banger, punctuated by pitched vocal stabs. RADIANT tears up the dance with a strobing and sweeping bassline, backed with a beautiful yearning melody and soft arpeggios. The title track of the EP MAMMOTH takes careful aim before striking a series of brutally syncopated blows, before HEIST takes down the rave in a flood of sirens leading to a stepper with an eminently catchy hook and deep, driving vibe.

The Prolific Eatbrain are back once again, with Italian producer Dabs returning to their embracing fold following his 2014 release with them. Having releasing on labels like Dispatch, Avantgarde, and Horizons, Dabs is no stranger to the hard hitting, ultra-modern machine funk sound peddled by the Eatbrain collective.On his 'Rawbot EP' the Italian producer enlists the help of scene godfather Rymetyme, prodigious talent L 33 and Czech badman A-Cray creating a free flowing EP that smacks like a heavyweight boxer and sings like an opera darling. The drums are hard and bouncy, the basslines deep and vocal, the collaborations spot on, but there is something beautifully unquantifiable about the music Dabs makes, something in the compositional style that just seems so different from everything else being released at the moment.Opening number Grindwerk combines the trademark spoken word type vocals of Rymetyme, with a steampunk gated synth line, a tough dutty bassline, and the future neuro type drums that Eatbrain artists do so well, whilst his collaboration with A-Cray - Hysteria - combines a sinister attitude with darkside sound effects, evil bass tones and horrifically brutal rhythm tracks.The titular Rawbot combines more intricate drum patterns with folding metal robot bass lines and sporadic major scale synth intonations that give the track an odd, retro futurism feel. That Door once more shows off Dabs strange musicality, with an almost ambient, liquid intro that segues - in typical Eatbrain style - into a dancefloor monster with percussive basslines, playing off against, clipped pitched up drums and a weird metal snare sound and other layered sound effects and synth that accents the minimal beat perfectly, before the intro returns, taking the tune off into epic territory before returning the gutter once again.

Hailing from Toulouse, French trio Signs have already carved themselves out an interesting niche within the nu-skool neuro scene, stamping their unique output into the public's consciousness with big releases on Red Light Records, Bad Taste Recordings and C4C Recordings. Their beats are sparse and militant with each drum hit afforded the space to dominate the audio spectrum, with pauses and moments of silence, delicately programmed into the DNA of the drum tracks, playing big part in the groove's forward momentum, propelling the riddims forward and creating a dynamically powerful and compelling backbone for the rugged, tough basslines to shine. The tunes are punctuated with wild Reese fluctuations and sci-fi sound effects reminiscent of the Wormhole-esq techstep from the end of the last century, with dark atmospherics ushering each trackdown the rabbit hole and into the dank, hellishbasements of debauchery that tunes like these call home. Interzone kicks things off with a clipped, jerky drum beat before a transformers bassline slams into focus in a delightfully rigid yet fluidly modulated fashion. Percuss starts of life as a Clive Barker horror film before neurotic neuro synth work and tech sound effects combine with a stripped back drum beat to devastating effect. Back Meat opens with a mournful pad refrain before launching into trademark Signs territory with muted reese bass joining disjointed drum work and high pitched strings. Vermin is a hyperactive drumstep referencing number peppered with jungalist fills, acid squiggles and experimental IDM tinged flavours that recall some of the more recent work of producers such as Amit and others working at the more exploratory ends of the neuro and techno influenced spectrum.To wrap up the release, the label boss - Jade joins in for the ride, with an upbeat speed-roller remix of Vermin.

Wasting no time, Eatbrain - the Budapest based label headed by Jade - is back with another dancefloor annihilating EP. It comes from a name needing little introduction in today's quickly rising movement of high energy neurofunk drum and bass; the badmen from New Zealand, State of Mind. The duo's high-octane style of drum & bass has catapulted them through the ranks over the last few years, forging alliances with some of the genre's foremost innovators. Their latest effort, The Full Force EP, sees State of Mind link with the infamous Budapest sound; collaborating with the likes of Mindscape, Chris.SU, and Jade himself. It's a fearsome meeting of the minds - after all, this is Eatbrain. Premier neurofunk.

The 6th release on Eatbrain stands out as a must-own for any neurofunk head.