Features

There are a surprising amount of drum & bass albums coming in 2010.

It's a tough task arranging and grading the best into a list. After all, some release dates are set in stone, while others are hazy at best. Some labels and PRs are very responsive to our questions, others don't even email back.

As is the nature of the drum & bass beast, nothing is ever certain about if and when a creative idea emerges into a semblance of industry, so a priority on this list has been given to labels that provided us with solid information.

That said, we haven't discounted albums with a bit of mystique, because these have the power to fire up the imagination.

Here are our Top 10 Most Anticipated Drum & Bass Albums of 2010.

10. A-Sides - Worldwide - Eastside

Release date: April 2010

Featuring collaborations with Break, Deeizm, KemoMC and MC Fats, Worldwide represents the culmination of two decades in the game by veteran producer A-Sides. The album emerges in April 2010 as a CD and digital download. Respected by many as the creator of some of the heaviest amen tracks, A-Sides, via his Facebook, on 24 January, 2010, said:

I'm hitting 40 this week! I'm Still reppin hard and nowhere near ready to hang up my gloves! 

Worldwide has the power to make oldskool drum & bass fans come over all misty eyed. Its feel is firmly rooted in the late '90s halcyon days. Vinyl plates will be in circulation before the album is released, the first being Rebel Rouser (feat. MC Fats) / Definite (feat. Break), followed by Travellin' Man / Scorpion and finally Argot / Change. Knowledge's pick of the album is Milk & Honey, which we've bounced into a low-fi audio clip after the artwork and track listing:

9. From Deep Space - Phace & Misanthrop - Neosignal 

Release date: February 2010

In the wake of England and Ibiza's clubbing legacies, Germany has become the hedonistic capital of dance music. Famed for minimal techno more than anything else, drum & bass is now emerging as a credible genre within its borders thanks to a new wave of respected producers lead by the bizarrely titled Phace & Misanthrop. Last year, the duo took the drum & bass scene by storm with the best-selling Champagne single, garnering DJ support from Andy C, Noisia, Friction, Ed Rush & Optical, Alix Perez and D-Bridge, and in 2010 they look to solidify their position on the international stage by dropping the highly anticipated From Deep Space.

Here is the artwork, track listing and an audio clip of the lead single:

01. Phace – Channel Feel
02. Phace & Misanthrop – From Deep Space *
03. Phace – Simplicity *
04. Misanthrop – Orbit *
05. Phace – Generation For Sale
06. Phace – Expectation Hurts *
07. Misanthrop – Going Down Slow *
08. Phace – You Keep On Talking *
09. Misanthrop – Shadow
10. Phace & Misanthrop – Non Human *
11. Phace – Interplay *
12. Phace & Misanthrop – My Arae *
13. Phace – Regenerate The Blues *
14. Misanthrop – Last Transmission

* – Also featured on the 5×12″ vinyl version

And just in case you couldn't get your head around the origins of the artwork, we've edited it:

8. A Wandering Journal - Sabre - Critical 

Release date: March 29, 2010

We love the way that in 2010, minimal is the buzz word in the drum & bass scene. What exactly is this minimal style that suddenly everyone has on their lips? Did minimal drum & bass always exist, or was it created recently by a new wave of producers? In case you ever pondered the answers to these questions, then buy A Wandering Journal by Sabre. It's brilliantly original. And the artwork is clever, looking inspired by ZX Spectrum graphics and Frank Herbert's Dune. A Wandering Journal comes in 2 x CD and 3LP formats. A 12" sampler containing Marvel and Barefoot, the latter co-produced by Ulterior Motive, is released on February 15.

The domain www.awanderingjournal.com has been registered, but is not yet live.

CD 1

01.   Day One

02.   The Intrepid

03.   Quarters - featuring. Noisia & Icicle

04.   Day Four

05.   A Wandering Journal

06.   Escapade

07.   Follow Polaris

08.   Day Eight

09.   Peril

10.  Ash

11.  Marvel

12.  Levelling Out Pt.1 (featuring Maxwell Golden)

13.  Have it Your Way (featuring Alix Perez)

14.  Day Fourteen

15.  Havens Verge

CD 2

01.   Peril [Club Mix]

02.   Marvel [Club Mix]

03.   Quarters - featuring. Noisia & Icicle [Club Mix]

04.   The Intrepid [Club Mix]

05.   Javelin (featuring Alix Perez)

06.   A Wandering Journal [Rockwell's Club Mix]

07.   Curious

08.   Levelling Out Pt.2

09.   Follow Polaris [Club Mix]

10.   Have it Your Way [Club Mix]

Sabre - "Marvel" - [A Wandering Journal LP preview / CRIT04] by sabre

7. Foundation - Breakage - Digital Soundboy

Release date: March 2010

Breakage has worked his ass off from his humble beginnings using monitor speakers held together with sticky tape, into one of the most respected producers on the underground circuit. A diverse creative capable of alternating between drum & bass, dubstep and grime with consummate ease, Breakage is renowned for his ability to generate low and powerful sub bass.

UK hip-hop figurehead Roots Manuva said of Breakage: Breakage is a man with an ear for deep, deep, sub-sonic frequencies. He goes in low. I thinking he’s talking to sea-life. He’s talking to the squid.

Breakage's debut album Foundation, out on Shy FX's Digital Soundboy record label in February, boasts collaborations with dubstep God Burial, as well as Roots Manuva. The first single, featuring Newham Generals, is a powerful indicator of this album's potential:

The track listing for Foundation is scheduled to be revealed in the first week of February 2010.

6. Stratosphere - Audio - Virus

Release date: May 2010

If someone impresses Ed Rush & Optical enough to get a record deal, they must be a cut above the rest. Audio's first release for Virus was the diseased-sounding Planet Fall and heavyweight Pandorum. Adding continuity to the Virus sound, but distinguishing himself with his profuse use of trademark buzz-saw synths, Audio has tentatively titled his first Virus album Stratosphere. Audio himself had this to say: 

The confirmed tracks so far are: 

• Collision
• The Journey
• Fourth Kind
• Moon Dock
• Stratosphere
• Genesis Device
• Detected

The album will be spread over three vinyl plates, the CD will contain 13 tunes including some dubstep and other styles. I was only asked to do the LP three months ago!

Ed Rush shedded some light on the album: It's going to be heavyweight Virus tech. They're already the heaviest tunes I have heard in a long while and it's not even mastered yet.

Having heard Ed Rush preview Stratosphere at a recent Virus night in Tokyo, Knowledge was impressed by how well it was engineered for the dance floor. There, Ed Rush emphatically rewound this highlight from the album called Collision:

5. TBC - Ed Rush & Optical - Virus

Release date: October 2010

No sooner had Ed Rush & Optical plagued the scene with their sickening Travel The Galaxy album in 2009, had they started work on their next project, due in 2010. Details are sketchy at best, we got in contact with Optical for an update:

We are about three tracks in... Optical confirmed. It's going to be a classic Virus album this time, I think. We have seven things started, but I guess it will take until the end of summer to be finished. It's really kind of following on from Travel The Galaxy, but there is quite a minimal techno feel with house, reggae and jazz vibes. We are doing some experiments with rhythms and feels right now, but early signs are very good ... smashed the festival we played at this weekend with the new things.

Knowledge has heard parts of the album: the as of yet untitled LP sounds like an aggressive crossbreed of Wormhole and The Creeps, constructed of huge, rolling bass lines and foul inharmonic patterns. Ed Rush & Optical were kind enough to provide us with two almost-complete clips from it, called Time War and Book Of Sight:

4. Artificial Intelligence - Stand Alone - V Recordings

Release date: Late spring 2010

If the lead single from Artificial Intelligence's debut LP is anything to go by, then Stand Alone is going to be a classic. Three Is A Crowd, co-produced by dBridge (and featuring his excellent vocals), is tipped by Knowledge to become an anthem of epic proportions, similar to True Romance. It's just that good. With DJ support from Grooverider, Fabio, Goldie, Randall, DJ Marky, Andy C, Fresh, Bailey, Friction, Marcus Intalex, Hype, Spectrasoul and Zero T, the Three Is A Crowd sampler kicks off Stand Alone in impossible style in April. Guest appearances include Krust, Jakes, DRS, Steo, DJ Marky and electro legend Roy Davis Jr.

3. Kryptonite - Fresh - Breakbeat Kaos

Release date: April 2010

The genius behind The Nine, Nitrous, Atlantis remix, Planet Dust, Hornet, Snowcat, Dogs On The Moon, Space Hopper, The Pulse, Tomb Raider, Temple Of Doom, Signal and All That Jazz to name but a few timeless anthems, had this to say on his imminent masterpiece:

My album is titled Kryptonite and will feature Heavyweight, Hypercaine and my first ever dubstep track 'Fight' which is getting a caning from Scream, Hatcha and Chase and Status ... Hatcha said, 'it's fucking sick'. There are new songs like Talkbox, Acid Rain, Starfall, Kryptonite, and Cylon and Lassitude co-produced by Sigma. The other new material I'm keeping under wraps, but everything is scheduled for April. There will be singles of 'Golddust' featuring vocals from a Jamaican singer called Ce'cile who's worked with Justin Timberlake, Sean Paul and Jay Sean, and Lassitude/Cylon, as well as some 12s containing tracks previously available only as download or on CD.

One of the dreadnoughts of the drum & bass scene, DJ Fresh is poised to continue his enviable track record with Kryptonite in 2010:

2. TBC - Instra:mental - TBC

Release date: Fall 2010

With word of an Instra:mental album dropping in May 2010, Knowledge has been hounding the NonPlus+ PRs for information. With Instra:mental threatening a complete revolution in the drum & bass sound, if there were more details on this project it could well have made number one in our list. 

We emailed the agency taking care of Instra:mental's alleged 2010 album, and received this response:

• Unfortunately, the LP is not even finished at this stage and a track listing, artwork and release date has not been decided.  It's not that Instra:mental want to withhold info - there just simply isn't any right now.

• I spoke to Al [Bleek] to ask if there was any info we could give you. He said they had an album ready to go but then decided to scrap it and would rather spend time creating something special as opposed to rushing it out. He also said that they've since got some 'new toys' in the studio and that's another reason for them deciding to go back in. As far as a timescale goes, they're giving themselves until the end of the year and I think this is realistic considering the amount of touring they've got lined up with the Fabric CD, ASC album plus other projects.

And to think, we came within three months of an album potentially stocked with masterpieces like this:

For those that can't wait and need to quench their minimal drum & bass thirst sooner, there is the not-so-small matter of the upcoming ASC album on NonPlus+ in April called Nothing Is Certain. It will contain 14 tracks, mostly Autonomic style plus a few downbeat and ambient bits, with collaborations from Vaccine and Consequence, preceded by a 12" sampler in March.

1. Split The Atom - Noisia - Vision

Release date: April 5, 2010

Fuelled by the hurricane of hype swirling around their forthcoming debut album, the word Noisia is generating more Google hits than any other drum & bass artist right now. Fans of electronic music will probably look back on this time as the golden age of Noisia, in the same way people did with Bad Company and Inside The Machine.  There isn't much more to be said about Split The Atom on top of our news story confirming its track listing, other than to announce its official vinyl track listing, which will be split across two EPs on Noisia's Vision/Division imprints:

Tracklist VSN008:

A. Shellshock ft. Foreign Beggars
B. Sunhammer ft. Amon Tobin
C. Thursday
D. Hand Gestures ft. Joe Seven

Tracklist DVSN004

A. Split the Atom
B. Alpha Centauri
C. Machine Gun
D. Red Heat

The vinyl packages will be released simultaneously with CD/digital.

Other Albums To Watch Out For In 2010

• Camo & Krooked [Above & Beyond, Mainframe Recordings, February 15, 2010]
• Brookes Brothers [Breakbeat Kaos, May/June]
  
• Craggz & Parallel Forces [May]
• Klute [+ possible collaboration with Dom & Roland]
• MC DRS [+ guests A.I., Logistics, Alley Cat and Soul:r artists]
• Kabuki [Warrior Soul, featuring a collaboration with Jeru the Damaja, Summer, 2010]
• Black Sun Empire 
  
• John B
• Scuba
• Invaderz
• Raiden
• S.P.Y
  
• Teebee & Calyx

What albums are you looking forward to in 2010?

Related Links:

• Interview: Phace & Misanthrop
• Virus Release Schedule
• Phace & Misanthrop Release Joint Album
• Looking Back Looking Forward: Optical
• Noisia: Split The Atom Vinyl Track Listing