Drum and Bass Arena

Monday October 08

Drum&Bass Arena presents DJ Hype

Following the recent release of the Andy C/Grooverider mixes to celebrate our 10 years of existence, we’ve enrolled the legendary DJ Hype to concoct the essential selection of the tunes that rocked the D&B dancefloor in 2007.

Drum&Bass Arena Presents DJ Hype

CD 01

1. TC Feat. Jakes ‘Raising The Roof’ (DJ Hype Special Mix)

G Dub ‘Tink Ya Bad’

2. DJ Hazard & D Minds ‘Mr Happy’

3. Dillinja ‘So Special’

4. Peshay ‘Don’t Think About Me’

5. Lynx ‘Disco Dodo’

6. Drumsound & Bassline Smith ‘Cold Turkey’

G Dub ‘Beast City’ V.I.P

7. J. Majik, Wickaman & DJ Hype Feat. Daddy Earl ‘Rollin It’

8. Original Sin ‘Don’t Be Silly’

9. Chase & Status ‘Hurt You’

G Dub ‘Finding The Three’

10. Doc Scott ‘9507’

11. Noisia & Mayhem Feat. KRS One ‘Exodus’

12. High Contrast ‘If We Ever’

13. Dillinja ‘Tunnel Grinder’

14. Clipz & Die Feat. Ben Westbeech ‘Number 1’ (Milkin It Mix)

15. Culture Shock ‘Vice Chase’

16. Shimon & Sparfunk ‘Snake Charmer’

Clipz ‘Rubbish’ V.I.P

17. Shut Up & Dance Feat. MC Singing Fats ‘Outta National’ (Taxman Mix)

18. Commix ‘Be True’

19. Benny Page & MC Spyda ‘Battlefield’ (DJ Hype Special Mix)

20. Clipz & Die Feat. Ben Westbeech ‘Number 2’ (Back Inside)

21. TC ‘Get That Girl’

22. Friction & Nu Balance ‘Robocop’ (Taxman Remix)

23. Breakage ‘Clarendon’

24. D-Bridge ‘Freedom Club’

25. Lynx Feat. Kemo ‘Carnivale’

CD 02

1. Demo & Cease ‘Ladies Night’ (V.I.P.)

*Break ‘Let It Happen’

2. Taxman ‘Scan Darker’

3. TC Feat. The Scratch Perverts / Jakes ‘Fuck What You Heard’

4. Original Sin ‘Cheater Cheater’

5. High Contrast ‘Eternal Optimist’

6. Friction ‘3rd Degree Gurns’

7. Noisia & Phace ‘Cannonball’

8. Strider ‘Feel No Way’

9. Digital ‘Deadline’ (Drumsound & Bassline Smith Remix)

10. Dizzee Rascal ‘Sirens’ (Chase & Status Remix)

11. Dillinja ‘Life’

12. TC ‘Pornstar’

13. Sub Focus ‘Swampthing’

14. DJ Hazard ‘Busted’ (DJ Hype Special Mix)

15. Alix Perez ‘The Resolution’

16. Calibre ‘Trip It’

17. DJ Marky & Artificial Intelligence Feat. Ben Westbeech ‘Shame’

18. Bungle ‘Where I Am’

19. Xample ‘Lowdown’

20. TC ‘Gameover’ (V.I.P)

21. Commix Feat. Steve Specek ‘How You Gonna Feel’

22. TeeBee & Calyx ‘The Quest’ (Break Remix)

23. Drumsound & Simon Bassline Smith Feat. Youngman MC ‘Everybody Pump’

24. Monoman ‘Dirty Games’ (G Dub – Too Damn Dirty Remix)

25. Jonny L ‘Harry’

OUT ON MONDAY 22ND OCTOBER

Monday August 20

Drum&BassArena's 11th Birthday Party

Ez,

In 1996 I started Drum&BassArena to spread the Drum&Bass vibes across the world, 11yrs later and…....you know the script!

So, after our hugely successful 10th Birthday Party last year, it’s time to party Arena style once again at the world famous Ministry of Sound.

DRUM&BASSARENA’S 11TH BIRTHDAY PARTY
@ MINISTRY OF SOUND, LONDON
FRIDAY 5th OCTOBER / 10PM-6AM

ROOM 1: It’s All Good…

ANDY C (2hr Set)
TC EVOLUTION LIVE (Album Launch)
DJ STORM B2B DOC SCOTT (Old Skool Set)
GROOVERIDER
MAMPI SWIFT
CLIPZ

MCS: NU BREED FAMILY – EKSMAN, FOXY, EVIL B, HERBZIE, FATMAN D & SHORTSTON.
PLUS MCS GQ, FATS & BASSMAN

ROOM 2: Nice, Real Nice!
FABIO (Classic Liquid Set)
ALIX PEREZ
CYANTIFIC
COMMIX
NOOKIE (‘92 Old Skool Set)
NU:TONE
AGGERS B2B SUBTERRA
HOSTED BY LOWQUI & STAMINA

ROOM 3: Big, Bad & Heavy
EASY D & MC TRIGGA (Hysteria Set)
PROFILE B2B FUNKY FLIRT
MAJISTRATE B2B NICOL
NETWORK
+ FORUM DJ & MC COMPETITION WINNERS
HOSTED BY MC RHYMES

Tickets: Earlybird £10 / Advance £15+BF / More on the door

EARLYBIRD TICKETS>> £10 TICKETS TXT ‘ELEVEN’ to 81330 [ONLY AVAILABLE FOR A LIMITED PERIOD]

ADVANCE TICKETS>> CLICK HERE TO BOOK ONLINE THROUGH TICKETWEB

ADVANCE TICKETS>> CLICK HERE TO BOOK ONLINE THROUGH DRUM&BASSARENA

It’s All Good…

Saturday July 07

"Busy... Busy... Busy. No rest for the wicked...."

It’s manic in the office. There’s so much going on that sometimes it feels overwhelming, well for me at least. So apart from not updating this blog for a couple of weeks, what are we currently working on?

Drum & Bass Arena Upload – “like download, except the logo has an arrow going up.”

Universal Profile – a single unified log-in to all areas of the site.

New Forum – out with the old, and in with the new. We’ve chosen Community Server as our the new platform for our next generation D&BA community.

Basscamp – top secret, well actually no. But probably not interesting to anyone other than record labels and distributors.

D&BTV – a new visual identity, new streaming technology, and a slicker more accessible web interface.

Design facelift – oh so subtle, but we think you’ll like it.

Events section – a reasonably radical rebuild, not quite complete or bug free, yet but some of you may have noticed some changes already.

Download Widget – flash-based thing for previewing and downloading tracks from myspace, facebook, blogs or other sites.

That’s it for now…

Wednesday June 13

Forever & Ever...Amen!

Welcome to the Drum & Bass Arena blog. Over the coming months we’ll be giving you a peek into what goes on at D&BA HQ: our ideas, projects in progress, the people, and maybe even some of our favourite recipes.

The last couple of years have been pretty hectic to say the least. In 2005 we made a significant business decision to relocate our entire operation from the pleasant greenery of Sheffield, to the media mayhem of London. As well as wanting to be closer to the rest of the music and media industry, Risky and I also wanted a bit of alifestyle change after years of mischief up north. After nearly 18 months of “transition” (read chaos) things have now stabilised and we finally feel pretty settled in our new offices in East London. Normal operations have resumed and we’re rolling again.

We totally underestimated the disruption that shifting locations would cause. It’s been a painful learning experience in a lot of ways – we basically had to rebuild the entire team and office infrastructure from scratch. Having spent 7 years or so building the company up to quite a decent size, it felt like we were starting all over again. In some ways, we are starting again, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

So who am I?

I’m the CEO and co-founder of Drum & Bass Arena’s parent company. Although I didn’t create the site (this honour belongs entirely to Risky), I’ve been largely responsbile for managing Drum & Bass Arena’s commercial development and extending the brand into other platforms over the past 9 years. I’ve been involved in the music industry since 1992, both as a musician and promoter of live gigs and clubs. I got into graphic and web design in 1994.

My first exposure to the drum & bass industry was in 1997 when started desgined the web site, 3D animations and record sleeves for Formation records. Then I met Risky in a pub in Sheffield and the rest, as they say, is history. I only really got into drum & bass whilst at university – I feel it’s one of the only music genres that transcends race, class and geographic boundaries, and that’s what appeals to me about it. I’m 33, and live in North London with my wife and daughter. I am pretty good at cooking, I can do amazing things with beetroot.

Our plans moving forward…

Now that we’re rolling again, we feel that the market conditions are right to take Drum & Bass Arena and the drum & bass scene as a whole to the next level. ‘Fighting talk’ you may say, but think about it, who else has dedicated the past 11 years of their lives to this? Much as hate the concept, our ‘manifesto’ moving forward is to:

- Promote D&B music to a global audience, help grow the scene, and ensure its continued development.

- Provide drum & bass fans with the richest online experience and widest range of content (we’ve got a lot to do here before I’m truly satisfied.)

- Unite the drum & bass scene and represent D&B to the wider music, media and technology industries.

- Play a major role in getting drum & bass music available through new merging digital media channels (We’ve already made great progress on this by doing deals with iTunes, Joost, O2, Three and Orange)

We believe have some exciting ideas, a great team and the energy and determination to continue to play a signifcant role in the progression of drum & bass as a musical movement. Part of our new manifesto will be to share the experience with you as much transparency as is possible, and allow you to participate in the development of your community.

I hope you enjoy reading this blog, and look forward to your comments and questions. We are listening.

Long live drum & bass. Forever & Ever… Amen.

Monday June 11

Introducing... Toby Howieson (DJ Snige) - Web Architect

The story in short: ”...September 2006 – toby (aka dj snige) has recently graduated in Digital Media Production and is sat at his desk in his old job doing temp work as a data administrator in South London. Bored as hell, he runs his daily check of the D&BA forum. ‘Work Experience/Internship at D&BA’ he reads. Apply! ... September 2006 – 2 weeks have passed. Back at his desk Toby checks his email to see he’s been invited for an interview. ‘Rinse-Out’ he thought… October 2006 – interviewed by two scary girls in a basement room. He can only hope it went well!... one week later and the carrier pigeon has brought me good news, an offer of 3 months assisting the video production team and helping on new web projects… January 2007 – Permanently moves into the tecnical/development team as he’s taken on full time as web architect / digital producer. Snige was only too happy to oblige…”

My biggest project to date has to beDrum & Bass Arena Download, live now for just over 2 months and growing in users every week. Regular meeting reviews ensure we get the biggest tracks and contantly improve usability of the site. Back in the day (erm, November 2006) planning got underway. It all started with research… and lots of it! I’ve interrogated more download sites than the amount of times Mampi Swift has double dropped “The One”. But hey, this is a massive part of my job in any new project we take on, which then leads to the interactive design (what happens when a link is clicked) and information architecture (how everything is organised). All the info is then passed on to our designers and developers who go on to bulid the site. I love the finished product. There were positive implications from the start of course – only one genre of music meaning very simple top level navigation. And of course D&BA’s vibrant community. Big up yourselves!

Next up for me: Functionlaity spec for Drum & Bass Arena Upload. Host your mixes and sell your own tracks from your very own Drum & Bass Arena artist page. It’s gonna be big, believe! DnB Networking with a central profile to host all your media. Even if you don’t make tunes, this is where you’ll be able to upload your sets and have them streamed and/or downloaded from your profile. How many of you upload your mixes to a generic hosting site and then paste the link in to the forum? Well we wanna change all that and give you the complete media hosting package. Are you producing tracks? Upload your music, set the price and track order numbers from one platform. Furthermore, a great way for all D&B heads to listen to an array of unsigned tracks and mixes from one place.

Anything else? Well yeh,like many of you guys I am a dj myself. Moving to London has really been good for the opportunities in the last 3 years. You can catch me B2B with Aggers & the drum & bass showcase in D&BTV now!

And so the Drum & Bass Arena Blog is born.

I didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how this is going to begin.