My nightlife drug of choice has always been House music.  For many years I smoked the synthesized sounds, injected the electronic precision, and drank the danceable drums.  Recently, though, someone slipped me something different that took me on an unforgettable ride. Searching only for warmth and friends one windy and cold winter evening, I did not expect to find a new addiction: Drum and Bass music.

Don’t let the unadorned name fool you, however.  DnB is neither simple nor just a drum and a bass.  Influences of the broken beats of Acid House and penetrating bass lines of Dance Hall Reggae have evolved to form DnB, a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) defined by its emphasis on intricate, often syncopated, fast beat and deep powerful bass elements. Think of the rhythms exploited by The Prodigy.  A club sporting big nasty subwoofers, therefore, makes for the most excellent freak out DnB experience.

What concerns scared me from experimenting with DnB earlier?  I thought the pace would be too fast to dance to and it would lack complexity (and thus interest) in the high notes.  But it turns out that the beat actually elevates your heart rate, the bass tingles your toes, the surprisingly intricate highs expand your mind, and the throbbing crowd elevates your emotions.

Yeah, I said crowd.  That’s the other cool thing.  In Cleveland, DnB has hooked a serious and growing group of users.  The recently resuscitated Euclid Tavern supports two mobbed events: the weekly Study Sessions and the monthly Oscillate, which also include House and Dubstep styles.  Even on a Monday night, Study Sessions packs a charged crowd well into the hours normally reserved for drug deals. Additionally, Touch Supper Club, Anatomy, The Matinee, and The Closing Room have all latched onto the DnB high-energy mainline to the brain.

Largely responsible for this growing addiction is a newly formed group of pushers named the Cleveland Drum and Bass Coalition (CDNBC). This group of local DJs includes Secret Sauce, Zeno, Brian Hyatt, DSurr, Mike B, Omnivibe, Robtronix, SuRoRa, Homework Guy, Still Life, Grand Gruv, StyluSoul, Atypical, Component, Emplate, Liquid Genius, Renaldi, HaVok, DaReal, and Sheepdog, making it one of the largest EDM gangs in the Midwest that I know of.  You’ll find them on the dance floor sporting their colors with CDNBC sweatshirts.  Go and say hi.  Their goal is to further enrich the drum and bass community in Cleveland, and Ohio.

So if you are looking for a new nightlife trip, something unique that  will make you feel just right, DnB will transport you there. No one describes it better than the CDNBC itself: DnB is liquid, funky, soulful, deep, neuro, hard, dark, techy, turntablism.  But don’t believe everything you read, pop some DnB yourself.

by Nick Kaye