Samurai Music returns to the evocative sound world of Ancestral Voices for an album that splits the difference between cinematic sound design and deadly restraint at 170 BPM. Nemeton continues Liam Blackburn's exploration of ancient Celtic mysticism through snaking rhythms and snarling sound design, conjuring a high-definition sonic image of sacred groves and the druids practicing amongst them.  

Blackburn's Ancestral Voices project tracks back to 2015, when he debuted on Samurai Horo with the Night Of Visions album. In stark contrast to his celebrated 140 work as Indigo, this project leaned on the inspiration of pagan spirituality to charge his vivid, advanced production style with a rich and mysterious atmosphere. While he's channelled this approach into a variety of tempos and styles, on his 2016 EP Old Earth Voodoo on Samurai Music he applied the concept to a drum & bass framework, which he returns to on Nemeton with rigorous focus.

Far from a straightforward collection of breakbeat tracks, Blackburn uses negative space and pointillist production to carve out an immersive, tense sound world around the 170 grid. He takes a widescreen approach to percussion, running from pin-prick synthesised one-shots to tumbling, organic drums you'd more readily associate with a Hans Zimmer score. Scene-building is the foremost mission across Nemeton, casting otherworldly forces in sweeps of low-end friction and dramatic melodic blooms amidst tangible real-world field recordings of flora and fauna.  

Casting the mind back some 2000 years is an exercise in imagination as much as research, and Blackburn ably summons dark fantasy as he delves ever deeper into Welsh mythology with a studious zeal and avid fascination. It's that drive that makes Nemeton burst forth and take shape so powerfully, bristling with kinetic energy and a barely-concealed, strangely seductive menace that leaves a lasting impression long after the last snatch of bass has bared its teeth.


Nemeton - out on 2x12" & Digital


1. Ancestral Voices - Nemeton
2. Ancestral Voices - A Heart Of Oak
3. Ancestral Voices - Annwn
4. Ancestral Voices - Mist Of Avalon
5. Ancestral Voices - Arawn
6. Ancestral Voices - Stanzas Of The Graves
7. Ancestral Voices - Keltia

Nemeton

Ancestral Voices - Mists Of Avalon [SMDELP14]

Painkiller

Painkiller (Previews)

Buy 

Deep Isolation X Empty Rituals - Occult

Redlum & Elizar Mel - Ghost

KeltSka - Under

KeltSka - Cold

KeltSka - Under (Bereneces Remix)

Band of Acceleration (main vers.)

E M P

ASDA Selector - TfL Trespasser

A little part of a jam session I recorded from my Modular Synth today. Very Techno and very atmospheric. Enjoy!

This is (just a) Jam

Zodiac Music

Demo Submission  :

zodiacdnb@gmail.com

Jungle , Deep & Dark Drum and Bass, 170

Artist 
Main :
Bereneces  / Bonin / Akinsa / Aikanã / Acid_Lab - Ahmad / dreadmaul / Fuj / NoRules / Onryō / 
llu - Nam - Ru / YHVHSQUAD / Ikiryō / Shinbu
Darkgray Heart / Empty Rituals / Rarity /Koshi 
Deep Isolation / Nusku / Spiritual Voices /Riddle / raku / Redlum / Shiza / OrueN / BCDJ / Wisbo


Izora
Aksum
Hidden World
Dyrk
Draven
Awá
LoHim
LuK
K-Chaos
Kōjin
Ital
Yanai
Bokor
Bayou
Nabu
Kiri
ESBA
HEFT
Heathen
KeltSka

KeltSka - Under

Zodiac Music

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