Artists to Listen to If You Like Chase & Status

Part of Chase & Status' beauty isn't that they make all kinds of genres; it's the blueprint they laid. Coming from a drum & bass background, they mast

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Complex Original

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Part of Chase & Status' beauty isn't that they make all kinds of genres; it's the blueprint they laid. Coming from a drum & bass background, they mastered what makes dnb great, from the pristine sound design to the punishing basslines that make this one of the premier exercises in dance music that the community has ever seen. What they took from the dnb scene and applied to the sounds of dubstep and early hardcore-influenced rave sounds is key, and cannot be overlooked. We've spoken on this a number of times recently, so we imagine some of you newcomers would like to check out artists of a similar stature, who have excelled in the drum & bass field and are starting to reach outside of the scene into other dance music genres and styles. Here is a look at progressive producers that you should give a once over.

Sub Focus

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Perhaps one of the only drum & bass producers who can put Chase & Status to the test. Like the UK duo, Sub Focus has also since expanded from his drum & bass days all the while keeping that same burning bright intensity that personified Sub Focus tracks. His sophomore album Torus dropped a week before Chase & Status' Brand New Machine, and both are in the running for best album of the year. It is an album that gracefully balances an unflinching artistic integrity and mainstream, pop and radio-ready hit-making sensibility.

DJ Fresh

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If you know drum & bass, you know DJ Fresh. Whether it was his brief output at Absolute Zero on Renegade Hardware, his scene-changing work as one-fourth of Bad Company, or his work as a solo artist (and label head). He's been one of the drum & bass scene's proper success stories, and through his three solo albums (with a forth scheduled to be released in 2014), he's shown how far drum & bass can go. On the low he's collaborated with a number of talented acts, from DJ Shadow to Diplo, and has not only helped innovate the drum & bass scene of today, but helped push it to the next level.

Netsky

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Like Chase & Status, this Belgian producer originated as an exclusively drum & bass producer, but has since moved on to slaying a bevy of different styles. Netsky's 2010 self-titled artist album debut and his 2012 follow-up 2 have been met with acclaim from drum & bass heavies and has propelled the Hospital Records mainstay into being one of the few regularly booked foreign drum & bass DJs to perform live on the North American festival circuit. No, he's not alone, but he is up there as one of the brightest.

Nero

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Some might see Nero as understudies of Chase & Status, being that they are MTA artists, but it runs deeper than that. It's funny to see how far Nero has come; many remember them running around with DJ SS on his Formation stable of drum & bass labels before DJ Fresh and Adam F released "Act Like You Know" on Breakbeat Kaos in 2009, and we got introduced to their dubstep side. About a year later they were MTA darlings, crafting some of the biggest anthems in the dnb and dubstep lanes. Four years later, they're getting asked by Hollywood to create original music for The Great Gatsby, and are set to take the world by storm by the time their next project rolls around.

High Contrast

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Lincoln Barrett is one guy who should truly need no introduction. We know him for his musical pursuits as High Contrast, but the Welsh artist's endeavors extend into the cinematic and olympic realms. Directing music videos on the one hand and producing music for the 2012 London Olympic games, the Hospital Records star still releases some of the best soul and funk-sampling drum & bass. His latest album, The Agony & The Ecstasy, has seen Barrett take a distinctively more electronic sound with the infusion of 8-bit sounds, but it's still a great record all the same. His previous albums (Tough Guys Don't Dance and Confidential) stand as some of his best work to date and might be more in line for C&S fans, but his whole discography is worth a few looks. You won't regret it.

Loadstar

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When Xample and Lomax first signed to Ram Records as a duo, the idea was that they'd be taking the drum & bass world by storm. In a similar fashion to Chase & Status, they not only morphed into Loadstar, but started dabbling in bass music, with the huge "Black & White" as the beginning of their trek into the non-dnb world. Once their Future Perfect album hit, we imainge many people were astonished at the (awesome) turn their music took, blending in the sounds of house and other genres into this cornucopia of dance music delight. All under the swift, open-minded eye of the Ram camp.

Camo & Krooked

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Camo & Krooked has been known for their drum & bass output for years, they decided to introduce the world to "Camo & Krooked 2.0," which found them experimenting in a number of different sounds. While many of their counterparts might go the dubstep route or dip into trap, they took a really great dip in the house pool. For an imprint like Hospital, which has always represented the "fast soul music" side of drum & bass, this is an awesome departure, kind of the influenced playing their influences or what have you. Whatever the case may be, this could be an awesome spark for the future of their imprint.

Wilkinson

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Wilkinson is part of the class underneath graduates like Chase & Status and Sub Focus; he's on the cusp of releasing his debut Lazers Not Included album, and as tracks like "Heartbeat" highlight, he's not solely about huge drum & bass anthems. He can churn out a tune or two. It's too early to see if this will be a part of his next wave or is just one of the few non-dnb bits on his project, but it'll be great to see how he develops.

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