Much of the newer DNB (2006 and newer) does have that elusive ‘soul’ you speak of, you must be listening to crap by Clipz and the much of the Bristol crew (who seem to have one foot in 1999, and the other firmly in a circus!). IMO!

Drum n bass use to have soul basically… each track had its own identity.. now its a repetitive load of shite that rolls from one track to another listened to by students, rat boys and rat girls.. oh and not forgetting the donuts who go wild for it at the end of Norman Jays Big Chill set ( its a depressing sight seeing 30,000 people flapping about to it I can tell ya)

Apart from a select few artists, music in general is in a right ol mess at the mo!!!!!

Partially, I believe, it went ‘wrong’ due to the over commercialisation of DNB by brands such as Drum & Bass Arena.

While being able to make money though the music you love is an admirable achievement, I don’t feel that it has helped the industry in a positive way overall.

Yes, it has increased DNB’s popularity to have bands like Pendulum reaching number 1 in the charts, and yes it’s fantastic that they’ve been signed to a major label, but what it seems to serve as a purpose for, is bringing the music to the masses and making it overly accessible, thus losing the “cool”. DNB previously tended to attract the trend setters, rather than followers.

Because the music isn’t underground anymore, and it’s less niche, it’s become almost uncool to the trend setters. Throughout the last 10 years, there’s been a few periods where DNB became uncool while it became too commercial. I believe we’ve come full circle again and this is the case now.

Artists like Noisia and Subfocus although diverse and niche to a degree, have become more accessible and nowl appeal more to the masses than to their initial target, the underground trainspotter DNB aficionado.

I could rant about this for ages, but I’ll stop now.