For me, the novelty of live Drum and Bass (DnB) doesn’t really wear off. I’m always interested in seeing and hearing how a live DnB band churns out those super fast breaks. Having caught a local act performing live drum and bass recently (unfortunately, they don’t license their music under Creative Commons), I was looking out for Creative Commons licensed live DnB. I was pleasantly surprised when I found Keiretsu, a 10-man band that does live DnB, through the blog Knobtweakers.

Although strictly speaking, they’re a commercial band, they did have half of a 2002 release under a Creative Commons License. I must say that this half album is pretty enthralling to listen to and is quite long too. In short, the group sounds great and the half-album is definitely worthy of a whole gratisvibes review.

The half-album is an amalgamation of straight up drum and bass and various other musical styles. There’s a healthy amount of genre bending here as drum and bass meets violins, tablas, rap, turntablism, brass and electric guitars. The music is often segmented between sections of drum and bass and sections of more traditional harmony and instrumentation. Sometimes it feels like drum and bass on an orchestral structure - a sound that I’m not familiar with but one that I found I enjoyed. There are just so many layers to the music it is breathtaking and it is amazing how Keiretsu adapted drum and bass to their own artistic visions.

Overall, all the tracks are worth listening to on this half-album especially ultrakinetic, which I felt had the best DnB section.

If you never liked the sound of cold harsh drum and bass, this is one album that may change your mind as edgy electronics meld seamlessly with warm sounding traditional instruments to create an unique listening experience.

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Posted on August 15th, 2007 by adrian · 2 comments