Slept-On Review :: High Contrast - Notes From The Underground

From time to time I let really great music slip through the cracks, like a lot of us do. So every now and then I plan to do shortened reviews for albums I've let slip, in the hopes that others like myself might find these otherwise forgotten treasures. In this instance it's an album from last year, courtesy of one Lincoln Barrett, aka High Contrast. One of the most talented producers in the modern Drum 'n' Bass scene. The album is titled "Notes From The Underground", but honestly it should be called "Love Notes To The Underground", as it's just that, a concept album which is a love letter to the days of classic jungle and DnB.

This album is a total throwback, and not in a cheesy, nostalgia cash-in sort of way. NFTU attempts to recapture what was so great and what all of us ravers loved about that sound back in the early-to-mid 90s (there's even a great little cameo from jungle godfather UK Apache on "Met Her At A Dance In Leicester"), all while updating it ever so slightly. It does take a hard left turn back into Lincoln's more traditionally modern, laid-back drum 'n' bass sound at the mid-album mark, just after the decidedly early, "Accelerator"-era Future Sound of London-esque "Disk 2", but only for a single track, then it's back to pure jungle nostalgia. Absolute must listen, regardless of whether you grew up in that era or not.

RATING: 9/10
STANDOUT TRACKS: "Windows 95", "Time is Hardcore", "Met Her At a Dance in Leicester", "Hold on Me"