36 Great American Drum & Bass Tracks

I've been putting a lot of thought into the strides that the drum & bass scene has been making, but that's probably because I remember a time when drum & bass was not only relegated to the backrooms of raves here in the States, but the growing American drum & bass scene was slept-on by the UK. It made sense, as the producers from the birthplace of this wondrous scene seemed to be light years ahead of what was going on in America, but it still sucked to be an American junglist in the late-'90s and see the lack of representation in mixes you'd hear from across the pond, especially when we knew there was a growing pool of talent on our side of the Atlantic. We had our hits, and as time went on, the playing field ended up leveling out, and America has quite a few producers who started getting the respect they truly deserved.

Going through this list is, you're seeing 20 almost 20 years of drum & bass history that's emerged from the United States. You have a number of homegrown stateside imprints (including the legendary Liquid Sky/Jungle Sky labels, Breakbeat Science, Shadow Law Recordings, Gasm, Project 51, and Violence), as well as a number of the big dogs (Metalheadz, Hospital, Moving Shadow, and Renegade Hardware), among various other labels. Great representation of how these producers went from having to do it on their own to gaining that worldwide acceptance. I also tried to mix it up a bit—you have everything from classic jungle riddims to neurofunk to liquid on through.

Keep in mind, this is in no way trying to be the end-all, be-all representation of the American drum & bass scene. This is a snapshot of tracks from some of the finest American producers, from the mid-'90s through today. Many are obvious classics, while some might be a bit deeper for you junglists out there. Also note that this is in chronological order, not order of importance. Let's celebrate the tremendous contributions that America has made to the drum & bass scene.

Label: Jungle Sky
Year: 1995

Label: Jungle Sky
Year: 1997

Label: Liquid Sky
Year: 1997

Label: Jungle Sky
Year: 1997

Label: Sound Sphere Recordings
Year: 1997

Label: Thermal
Year: 1999

Label: Moonshine Music
Year: 2000

Label: Palm Pictures
Year: 2000

Label: Higher Education
Year: 2000

Label: Orgone
Year: 2000

Label: Rawkuts
Year: 2001

Label: Hospital
Year: 2002

Label: Breakbeat Science
Year: 2002

Label: Human Imprint
Year: 2003

Label: Moving Shadow
Year: 2003

Label: Violence Recordings
Year: 2004

Label: Freak
Year: 2004

Label: Shadow Law Recordings

Year: 2004

Label: Intasound
Year: 2004

Label: Renegade Hardware
Year: 2005

Label: Metalheadz
Year: 2005

Label: Metalheadz
Year: 2006

Label: Lifted Music
Year: 2006

Label: TEKDBZ
Year: 2006

Label: Colours Audio
Year: 2006

Label: Renegade Hardware
Year: 2006

Label: Infiltrata Recordings
Year: 2007

Label: Progress
Year: 2007

Label: Lost Soul Recordings
Year: 2007

Label: Cymbalism
Year: 2007

Label: Human Imprint
Year: 2008

Label: Project 51
Year: 2008

Label: Influence
Year: 2008

Label: Human Imprint
Year: 2009

Label: Co-Lab Recordings
Year: 2012

Label: Project 51
Year: 2013