Drill & Bass
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Drill & Bass is hyper-detailed breakbeat electronic music where drum-and-bass speed is chopped into impossible edits, abrupt fills, jazz-fusion turns, acid squiggles, and cartoon violence. It keeps jungle's velocity but treats the breakbeat like a programmable object. The style can be funny, virtuosic, abrasive, and dazzlingly fast.
History
Drill & Bass formed in the mid-1990s as IDM producers absorbed jungle and pushed break editing past functional club music. Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, µ-Ziq, Plug, Luke Vibert, Bogdan Raczynski, Venetian Snares, Jega, Ceephax Acid Crew, and early Planet Mu/Rephlex artists shaped the vocabulary. It influenced breakcore, glitchy drum programming, experimental game music, and later producers who treat drums as microscopic sculpture.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- IDM and drill-and-bass histories
- Rephlex/Planet Mu retrospectives
- Perfect Circuit IDM history
- Discogs release listings