News & Reviews

BASS: Drum & Bass DJ/producer Decoder is back as Tech Itch

Back in the late 1990s you’d be hard pressed to find a Drum & Bass DJ who didn’t have at least one Decoder record on their decks. The Bristol, England, production team helped push the genre darker and harder, as D&B sought to define and separate itself from other fast dance music such as Trance.

Decoder, whose birth names are Darren Beale and Mark Caro, produced music that was a counterpoint to the atmospheric D&B moods of producers like LTJ Bukem and Big Bud. The beats often grind with bass lines rumbling about as low as you could bear. The faster, harder trend arguably pushed D&B away from the mainstream electronic music scene, as many fans were overwhelmed by the testosterone-driven beats.

We still have some of those 1999-2000 Decoder vinyl productions in our record case, and they often find their way into sets that want a bit of nostalgia. But nostalgia is a misnomer now that the production duo are back churning out new tracks and touring worldwide.

Under the new production name Tech Itch, Beale and Caro are currently touring North America and spreading the Bristol sound to American audiences once again. From November 4 to 11, Tech Itch performs daily shows at several cities in the U.S. and Canada.

Tour dates include Nov. 4 at Toronto, Canada, Nov. 5 at Ann Arbour, Mich., Nov. 7 in Seattle, Wash., Nov. 8 in Los Angeles where they’ll once again play the Funktion party, Nov. 10 in Portland, Ore., and on Nov. 11 they’ll close out the tour in Victoria, B.C., before heading back to the UK.

Hopefully they’ll include D&B hotbeds like San Francisco and New York City in future tours, but in the meantime listeners can hear several new Tech Itch tracks like Death Jazz, One Of Us and Distort at their MySpace.

Tech Itch also has started their own production label Tech Itch Recordings with other prominent D&B artists like Substance, Biostacis, American producer/DJ Dieselboy and Ice Minus. They will soon have updates on upcoming tracks and albums at their website.
 

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