Goldie keeps going through his records. To celebrate 20 years of his career, the founding father of drum’n’bass (and the co-founder of the mythical label Metalheadz) brought out his triple ‘best of’ CD The Alchemist in 2013, followed by his third solo album The Journey Man in 2017. For the quarter of a century celebration, the harvest is a little more modest, with six unreleased or rare tracks (plus five “alternative mixes”) that have been remastered by the British producer who now lives in Thailand. Though what is lacking in quantity is regained in quality; these tracks all come from the golden period of the 90’s.
The compilation begins with I Walk the Dog under his pseudonym Rufige Kru (originally a duo that he formed with DJ Freebase before he took over the name), a cryptic drum’n’bass, with a scratch rewind for the chorus and threatening synths. Besides the original Stormtroopa that was released in VIP (standing for Variation In Production) in 2001, we find Shadow VIP, a remix of The Shadow, a haunting D&B track that Goldie had released in 1997 with Rob Playford, one of the pioneers of the genre. There’s also the previously unreleased track Rider’s Aftermath, which slightly resembles Benga’s Night with its mournful melody yet with the energy that you find in rock music, as well as a groovy remix of Shinin’ Down on Me, the iconoclastic track from 1993 recorded with 4 Hero, by another figure of the movement, J Majik. This ‘best of’ record climaxes with Hornet 127, a rare track that came out in 1996, with a very long intro, a breakbeat that slowly rises and a slight pause that arrives in the middle… Twelve minutes of happiness which contain all the flavour of Goldie’s drum'n'bass from the 90s. And it's delicious. © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz