Grooverider - The Prototype Years

This is a superb album, we know about "silver blade" but my personal highlight is the John B. track "secrets." I believe this to be his debut on 12" and what a start to a career which has spanned almost all corners and sub genre's of the drum and bass spectrum.

An essential album for the drum and bass faithful.

Silver Blade -

Huddling beneath a baron rocky outcrop, the last swathes of daylight feebly drown amidst the swelling oil slick slithering its way eastward into the starless cerulean sky.
Forked lightening momentarily illuminates the bleak rock-strewn landscapes, an infinite expanse stretched out like the blackened frothing waves of a rabid ocean.
This track summons such vivid imagery with every listen.

Back in ‘96-’97 amongst a barrage of ‘tech-step’, this tune sounded so fresh it was hard to comprehend. Whilst remaining as dark as anything around, if not darker, it sliced the blueprint two-step sound to shreds. The beats pounce unexpectedly after the relatively subdued intro, actually sounding metallic - like swords clashing. Midway, an inexplicably malevolent intensity descends upon the track, a pervading sense of foreboding, much like the eerie calm before the storm; eight bars later the whole track is plunged into an apocalyptic, distorted reece-bass crescendo. It was this kind of experimentation and intensity in his tracks that made Dillinja so prolific an artist and ensured he remained alongside only a handful of others at the cutting edge of the Drum & Bass sound. Many people credit Boymerang with being the first to use this break, but as far as I am aware it was Dillinja who first used it – and on this track.