REVIEW - BIZZY B: RETROSPECTIVE

Format: CD /3xLP / Digital
Label: Planet Mu
Released: July 13

Before I tell you what a fine collection of jungle tunes from Bizzy B 'Retrospective' is, ponder this thought. If you were born in the year these records first came out thne you'll be able to buy fags legally by now.

What's happened since 1992/3 you might well ask? Well, not a lot, according to the 14 tracks here. Productions have got slicker, producers have found other beats apart from the raging Amen break, but basically this is the same music we drum & bass fans have been listening to ever since, and here it is in its glorious original form.


Tracks like 'Slow Jam', with its mindboggling, record-yanked-back rewind worked into the intro groove and the spiralling sonic swirtls of 'Twisted Mentazm', an early outing for the heavily used Joey Beltram synth sample of almost the same name,

are everything that's great about jungle - rough but complex, unrestrained and lunatic and invariably made from multiple musical genres all mixed up into one.

There's also a collaboration with Peshay, bringing his trademark spacey ambience to the otherwise vicious hardcore rave flailing of 'Merderstyle', and people with names like Pugwash, Equinox, Technochild (see clip above) and D Lux all join him at other points. But the tone is consistent throughout - a violent flurry of foghorns, spinbacks, double speed breakbeat madness, reggae basslines remade at sub-human depths and piercing electronics. Bring it on.
5/5