DNB
It starts with a six-second drum break from a 1969 B-side. Sped up and chopped over sound-system bass at the hardcore raves of the early nineties, it became jungle — a music built in London bedrooms, cut to dubplate, and broadcast from tower-block pirate stations before any label would touch it. By 1995 it had a canon of its own: Goldie, LTJ Bukem, Photek, Roni Size. Then it split and kept splitting — the dark precision of techstep and neurofunk, the melodic warmth of liquid, the rolling weight of jump-up — and turned into an unusually label-shaped music, where Metalheadz, Hospital, RAM and V Recordings each stood for a sound. This is that whole arc: the raves, the records, the MCs and pirate radio, and the festivals from Rampage in Antwerp to Let It Roll.
A chronological documentary of 585 moments on Loreline.
last updated 2026-08-06
Eras
- Hardcore & Jungle — The breakbeat hardcore raves of the early nineties and the jungle that grew out of them — sped-up breaks, sound-system bass, ragga vocals, and the pirate radio that carried all of it before the industry noticed.
- Jungle — The 1993-97 canon. Goldie and Metalheadz, LTJ Bukem’s Good Looking, Photek’s programming, Roni Size winning the Mercury — the records that turned a rave subgenre into its own music.
- Techstep & Neurofunk — The dark turn. No U Turn’s distorted basslines, Ed Rush & Optical’s Wormhole, and the precision-engineered neurofunk that followed from Virus, Noisia and Black Sun Empire.
- Liquid — The melodic, soulful end of the spectrum — Good Looking and Hospital, Calibre and High Contrast, and the producers who put songs and singers back into 174 bpm.
- Jump-Up — Loud, funny and built for the room: big basslines, ragga vocals and the rolling sound that fills a dancefloor, from Aphrodite and DJ Hype through to Hazard, Bou and A.M.C.
- The Labels — Drum & bass is an unusually label-shaped music. Metalheadz, Hospital, RAM, V Recordings, Full Cycle, Critical and Shogun each stood for a sound, and signing to one told you what you were about to hear.
- The Festivals — Where the scene gathers now — Rampage in Antwerp, Let It Roll in Czechia, Hospitality, Sun and Bass, Liquicity and Outlook.
- The Culture — The MCs and the pirate stations, the dubplate, the Amen break itself, and the documentaries that recorded a scene the mainstream ignored for a decade.
…and 585 more moments. Full text archive: /loreline-text/dnb.md
