Danny Byrd - Supersized

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  • Eight years after signing his first EP to Hospital Records, drum n bass producer Danny Byrd is just now putting out his first full-length on the label. It’s hardly a Big Mac® though: there are only seven new tracks on Supersized; elsewhere the 60-minute runtime is filled with hits from earlier this year (‘Shock Out’, ‘Labyrinth’), a new remix of his own ‘Planet Music’ from 2006 and ‘Soul Function’ from the year before. Regardless of the limited output and album padding, new tunes by Byrd are something special indeed: a breath of fresh air for hardcore dnb heads who’ve been wallowing in dark breakbeats too long. Byrd’s style is insanely catchy and uplifting, and bound to grab the attention of those who would never give dnb (or dance music in general) the time of day. It’s cheesy as hell more often than not, but almost impossible not to like, and that’s what makes him such a, er, rare bird in drum n bass nowadays. Of the album’s new tracks, ‘Planet Music VIP’ sounds freshest, which is a big surprise as the original version from Hospital’s Weapons of Mass Creation 2 compilation (Hospital, 2006) made little impression. Byrd has retained most of its key elements—half-baked sci-fi narration by MC Adrok, R&B oohs and ahhs courtesy of MC Foxy—but Byrd has retooled the track to make it more deadly for the dancefloor. I mention it first, because that’s where it should’ve been on Supersized; it’s a much better psych-up than ‘Shock Out’. Byrd, who runs a series of drum n bass production workshops in London, is highly regarded for his technical wizardry, in particular his intricate vocal edits. Three of this album’s chart-toppers (on Beatport’s dnb top ten, anyway)—‘Gold Rush’ (a co-production with Brookes Brothers), ‘Weird Science’ and ‘Feet Won’t Touch the Ground’—are tied around his trademark use of heavily chopped-up female vocals. ‘Weird Science’, with its uncharacteristic badass vibe and electrohouse break, is certainly the most unabashedly wannabe hit of the three. But ‘Feet Won’t Touch the Ground’ is the most deservedly so: the minced-vocal hook is Byrd’s best yet by a long shot, and the anticipation he builds toward hearing it is nothing less than masterful. Real, live vocals are also on the Supersized menu, as R&B songstresses T-Lace and ReDD lend their pipes to ‘From Bath with Love’ and ‘Joy & Pain’, respectively. Both are solid tunes, heavy on orchestral strings, with the former on a jungle tip and the latter sticking to Byrd’s faster-than-average (178 bpm compared to the 174 norm) dnb template. The album’s third vocal track, ‘Red Mist’, doesn’t come out nearly as nice, however. For one, it’s a bit weird that its vocalist, IK, is in reality a British R&B crooner posturing here as a sleazy American rapper. But he’s not the only style biter, as Byrd has jacked the wicked bassline from Nu:Tone’s 2006 dnb smash ‘Missing Link’ nearly as is. Maybe there’s an explanation, though, and hopefully its better than Vanilla Ice’s when confronted about the similarities in ‘Ice Ice Baby’ to Queen’s ‘Under Pressure’: “Theirs goes, 'Ding ding ding dingy ding-ding.' Ours goes, 'Ding ding ding ding dingy ding-ding.'" Supersized is made up of mostly great tracks, there’s just not that many of them in the first place. In contrast, fellow Hospital producer Logistics’ excellent 2006 debut album Now More Than Ever was two discs, as is another recent, highly anticipated dnb artist album, Calibre’s Overflow. If it’s not more burger for your buck, though, at least Byrd’s productions stand up to repeated listens. I, for one, have rinsed ‘Feet Won’t Touch the Ground’ more times in a single day than I’d care to admit. Super sized this album ain’t, but it’s still pretty super.
  • Tracklist
      01 Shock Out 02 Gold Rush (w/Brookes Brothers) 03 Weird Science 04 From Bath With Love 05 Supersized 06 Joy & Pain (feat. ReDD) 07 Red Mist (feat. IK) 08 Feet Won’t Touch The Ground 09 Planet Music VIP 10 Labyrinth 11 Soul Function
RA