The Vitals:

Label: Subtechnics Records
Genre: Drum and Bass, Breaks, Chill-out
Number of Tracks: 12
How you can obtain a copy: www.subtechnics.net

Factor Scores:

• Production Quality: 7.0
• Programming and Arrangement: 7.3
• Entertainment Quality: 7.2
• Total: 7.2 – Good

Summary:

The Disc is the soundtrack to a low-budget action flick released by Faith Road (www.faithroad.com). You can grab that flick on DVD or QuickTime on the site if you are interested. Fienix recently appeared on Osmotic Wave, the follow up to Osmotic Hype with a fairly standard trance track. This CD however is almost all Drum and Bass ranging from the more atmospheric tracks you would expect from Joey Davis and Ceder to some harder hitting and darker numbers that you might find the Evol Intent boys and others would release.

Factor Scores:

Production Quality: 7.0

Overall, the production is on spot here. It is not without its flaws, but it does the job and moves on. The strongest production can be found in Memories Feat. Regina Lynne. All of the audio is extremely polished and it really does shine as a professional track. The untitled 12 th track also gets a nod for faithfully reproducing the typical vintage 8-bit audio you would here in games like the Legend of Zelda and others.

Programming & Arrangement: 7.3

The CD starts off with a very typical dark D&B track. I say it is typical because it uses one of those now classic D&B/jungle drum loops that you instantly recognize, but don’t know who actually wrote it. The rest of the album is vastly different from that first impression however. As mentioned before, Memories Feat. Regina Lynne stands out as one of the best production examples. It is also one of the best tracks on the album. If you like J. Davis’ or Cedar’s work, you will love this track.

One thing that is nice about this CD is that it does successfully juxtapose several styles against each other and uses sampling in a fairly creative way. The Chase is a good example of this. Initially, you expect to get a some what chilled breaks track, but then it turns into an industrial/D&B hybrid. Samples of motorcycles revving their engines and racing around a track are constantly blending in with various distorted synth guitar lines. Overall, the effect is quite nice. I won’t say that this track has the best programming in it, but it is certainly one that explores programming possibilities more than other tracks on the CD.

Chilled(Extended Mix) is another track in which the production shines. It’s just a simple chill-out track, but it has the feel and groove of PM Dawn’s Set Adrift on a Memory Bliss. It’s relaxed, warming and very romantic. Definitely not a floor-filler, but it would be great for a slow dance.

Production wise, from a DJ’s standpoint, this CD does have one problem. Almost all of the tracks are under four minutes. There are no intro and outro beats, but the tracks do build and progress over time. This will limit its use on the dance floor. This does however open it up for radio airplay. I would hope that at the very least Memories Feat. Regina Lynne could break into some regular rotation on some stations.

Entertainment Quality: 7.2

Over all, this is a very entertaining CD. One of the biggest pleasers however was Slammin (Schooled Mix). This track is a great fusion of modern breaks and old skool hip-hop samples. The baseline in particular reminds me of the one from Hella Good by No Doubt. Take that and add some various old skool hip-hop spoken samples and a good break beat and you have this track.

Total: 7.2 – Good

This is really a decent CD. If you like drum and bass and have been longing for another drum and bass release by a Christian artist, this is it. At least check out the samples on the subtechnics website.

Dave’s Take:

I saved my favorite track for last. It is also the most disappointing one in my opinion. Track 5, Tribes (Interlude) is fifty seconds of unrestrained tribal beats. I just love this one. What disappoints me is that it is only 50 seconds and I could see this one being at least a 6 minute tribal masterpiece. As soon as it really kicks in, it stops. Oh, but it is so beautiful until that point.