You know that Andy C is the drum n' bass massive's favourite DJ. You know because he was voted as such two years in a row by Knowledge magazine and now he's been bestowed the same accolade by the excellent Drum&Bass Arena (www.breakbeat.co.uk) website.
So what better way to celebrate than by getting Andy to mix together a CD of his own choice - you already know it'll reflect exactly what d&b arena peeps are listening to anyway given that a massive 91,000 of them voted him for the job.
It's everything that you'd hope for from the Ram boss: by turns frighteningly intense, ravey and lush. The hypnotic dancefloor tribalism of Digital's 'Gateman' segues into the rich instrumentation of Calibre's 'Mystic' with the finesse of a C.J. Macintosh or a Louie Vega. The mangled excess of J Majik's remix of 'Spaced Invader' just evaporates leaving the old-school bottom-end funk of Andy C collaborator Shimon's 'Hush Hush' to fight it out with Ant Miles' 'Essence'.
What defines this mix, and the Andy C / drum&bass arena approach in general, is it's refusal to over-acknowledge the d&b trends that periodically relaunch the beleaguered genre's appeal outside of its devoted core. Yeah, Digital, J Majik and Marcus Intallex all make an appearance but within the context of the ongoing d&b continuum.
Drum n' bass tourists, you sense, aren't welcome to Andy C's party. Which makes this either one for the devotees or a crafty peephole into an increasingly isolated scene for those that fancy some excitement in their musical lives.
