I sat at my desk for a bit trying to figure out the best way to talk about
DJ Bailey. Of course I could say that he's been down with
Goldie and the Metalheadz crew for two decades, or how he was the best representation of drum & bass that the BBC had before they replaced him. I could say that he's currently doing great work over on
Mi-Soul representing drum & bass alongside
Jumping Jack Frost, or that he's responsible for one of my favorite mix CDs of all time, 2001's
Heavyload. I could even puff out my chest and rejoice over him being the only drum & bass DJ ANYWHERE to publicly acknowledge my
defunct drum & bass blog dubplatedigest, but that's not necessary. DJ Bailey means more to me than that.
For drum & bass heads like myself, we love the full spectrum of dnb. Liquid, dark, older, new school; it's all important, and while he's been doing this thing since the mid-'90s, he didn't get a proper chance to showcase this until 2002, when he got picked up for BBC 1Xtra. During one of his Intabeats shows, Bailey could lull you into a dream-like state with a serving of chilled liquid tracks, then dive right into the dancefloor. He may present you with the murkiest cuts to ever leave a studio, then bounce back with some of the finest of the heavily-edited breakbeat sound (which he affectionately called "choppage"). He would even dip into the back of his record bin, giving you style-defining "best of" mixes of everything from the massive amount of
Virus Recordings dubplates he has in his bin to mixes
full of reggae and dancehall sample sources (with the tunes these classics ended up being used in). A true drum & bass souljah, Bailey puts on for the scene every time he touches the decks, which is why his name being attached to any kind of mixed CD compilation is newsworthy.
On November 11, a label by the name of Vivid Sound out of Japan released
Resurrection, DJ Bailey's first mixed CD release in 14 years.
The 20-track mix, which features tunes from
Jonny L,
Rufige Kru,
Nucleus &
Paradox,
Danny Breaks, and
Dillinja roughly spans the last 20 years of drum & bass, but instead of anthem-bashing, Bailey dug deep, throwing in some well-known bangers alongside the deep cuts. It's more about the mood, which is as dark as it is deep, with bombastic subs being battered by all kinds of massive drum patterns. It's one for the ages, and a true "journey through yesteryear" as Bailey calls it.
After sinking my teeth into the mix, I had to reach out to Bailey to not only talk about how a project like this gets created, but our conversation also delves into a number of topics: the continued importance of
radio, what he calls the "fast food world" of drum & bass, and his current plans, which include the continued success of his Soul In Motion bi-weekly.
Let's get Intanatty with Bailey.
