Artist: Various
Title: Modernists 2
Year: 2011

Putting the bass in Drum & Bass, Modernists 2 LP, a compilation album featuring various artists published by Modern Urban Jazz, is a dark, oppressive yet deceptively comforting electronic eartickler.

Water drips from slimy rooftiles in a dystopic perversion of the present masquerading as the future by wearing a skinsuit of the past. There is no continuity here. This is not the growth of a healthy old elm but a sick branch that has been grafted onto a dying tree. Stark red lights rave madly in the valleys of the cobblestone street. A neon flood.

You grab onto a steel handrail to stay afloat, the cool wet metal feels refreshing and you get a little excited as you jump over it. No time to glance behind. They could be anywhere. But it doesn’t matter. Five minutes and you can be inside, safe and warm in some backroom ready to jack in to the wire–and then you’ll be everywhere.

The world is a blank. You’re flowing through the wire. Nothing ever goes without a hitch but you barely notice. This is not the time and place: this is a house of prayer where bonds come unloosed.

Ninety minutes and you’re out. Nobody knows who came or who left. All they know is that it was a friend: every free individual is an ally.