What is atmospheric drum & bass?

Atmospheric drum & bass is the lush, jazz-leaning side of the music. Think string arrangements, warm keys, live vocals, and slow-motion breaks with room to breathe. When it first arrived it got tagged “intelligent drum & bass”.

It traces back to LTJ Bukem in the early 1990s and the label he founded in 1991, Good Looking Records. Bukem and Fabio held the DJ residency at Speed, the London night they started with promoter Leo Roche and Sarah Sandy of Groove Connection. MC Conrad was the resident MC, working over their sets. Logical Progression, mixed by Bukem and released on Good Looking Records in April 1996, mapped the sound out. It is the first of four volumes. Artists like Blame, Seba, Peshay, and Photek built it up from there.

Atmospheric is where liquid came from, the melodic thread Proper has always followed.