“For us, drum & bass has never just been about individual tunes. Every record is attached to a place, a night, a person or a particular period in our lives.
We come from Puerto Rico, where the drum & bass community has always been relatively small compared with places like the UK, but the passion for this music has been enormous for more than two decades. We grew up experiencing drum & bass thousands of miles away from where much of the music originated. Back then, international DJs coming to Puerto Rico was a major event. You heard dubplates in places like the caves, the tunnel of guajataca, the boat, the airport and sometimes spent months trying to figure out what the tune actually was.
Those experiences shaped us. Now, more than twenty years later, we find ourselves on the other side of that story: producing music, releasing on UK labels, collaborating with artists we grew up listening to and helping introduce a new generation of Puerto Rican drum & bass artists to the rest of the world.
These ten tracks connect those two worlds.
They tell the story of the records that influenced us, unforgettable nights in Puerto Rico, our own evolution as NRV and where we believe Puerto Rican drum & bass is heading next.” – NRV
CyclopsDNB & NRV – Bass In Your Face
This track represents a newer chapter for NRV and one of the things we enjoy most about making drum & bass: collaboration. “Bass In Your Face” was made with CyclopsDNB and released through Dirtbox Recordings. It’s unapologetically heavy and takes us back to the energy that originally made us fall in love with drum & bass.
NRV isn’t supposed to exist inside one particular corner of D&B. We love soulful and melodic records, but we also grew up on music that was designed to completely destroy a dancefloor. Big drums, big bass and something that hits properly on a system.
Our relationship with Dirtbox has also developed into something much larger, because in January we will be involved with one of the most ambitious projects we’ve seen built around Puerto Rican drum & bass: the Puerto Rico edition of Dirtbox 100.
Paranoid User – Pitch Black
This is Trixx’s favourite drum & bass record of all time. “Pitch Black” immediately takes us back to seeing Ed Rush & Optical at La Cueva in Puerto Rico.
That whole era of dark, futuristic drum & bass had a massive effect on us. Virus, Ed Rush & Optical, Kemal & Rob Data, Stakka & Skynet and that technical sound showed us how far you could push drum & bass production while still making something absolutely devastating on a dancefloor.
There are certain records where you hear the first few seconds and suddenly you’re standing inside that club again. For Trixx, “Pitch Black” is that record. It isn’t just one of his favorite tunes. It’s connected to a specific period of Puerto Rican drum & bass history.
NRV – Mystic Sun
“Mystic Sun” represents another side of NRV.
People who know us through some of the heavier records might not immediately expect this sound, but liquid, soulful and emotional drum & bass has always been a huge part of what we love. We are heavily influenced by producers who can create genuine emotion while still making something that works within a D&B set.
With “Mystic Sun,” we wanted warmth, atmosphere and melody while still keeping enough weight underneath it to work in a club. The release with Vibe City allowed us to show people that NRV isn’t defined by one sound.
Dillinja – Twist Em Out
When “Twist Em Out” appeared, it almost became mythical in Puerto Rico. This was long before Shazam and before every dubplate appeared online five minutes after a DJ played it.
We kept hearing this absolutely ridiculous tune in sets without really knowing what it was. Everybody in the Puerto Rico D&B scene wanted the international DJs coming to the island to play that tune. Part of the excitement of certain events became:
“Maybe tonight we’re finally going to hear it.” That’s difficult to explain to someone who discovered electronic music in the streaming era.
A record could remain a mystery.
You might hear it once in a club and then spend weeks talking about it with your friends. When we eventually knew it was Dillinja’s “Twist Em Out,” the tune was already permanently attached to that period of our lives.
That mystery made records feel bigger.
Cell & Atom – Pressure (Noisia Remix)
This one is incredibly important to us because it represents a piece of Puerto Rican drum & bass history that a lot of people outside the island probably don’t know about.
Cell and Atom were both Puerto Rican DJs and producers who were heavily involved in the scene. Cell was an incredible DJ and producer who sadly passed away. Atom was also a great DJ and producer, particularly known for his techstep and neurofunk influences, before eventually stepping away from music and continuing with another chapter of his life.
Around sixteen years ago, these two Puerto Rican producers had something that was massive for us: a remix from Noisia.
You have to put that into perspective. Today we’re talking about flying the Puerto Rican flag internationally and showing the world that drum & bass exists on this island, but this wasn’t something that suddenly started with this current generation.
At a time when Puerto Rico felt even further removed from the international drum & bass industry than it does today, Cell and Atom had one of the most respected production groups in the history of neurofunk remixing their music. For us, “Pressure” is proof that Puerto Rican drum & bass has roots.
It’s also why it’s important that when we talk about what is happening here now, we don’t forget the people who helped build the scene before us. Cell deserves to be remembered as part of that history, and Atom deserves recognition for the music and influence he brought to the scene.
Sixteen years later, we’re still trying to push that same idea forward: Puerto Rico belongs on the drum & bass map.
Bad Company – Torpedoes
This one comes with one of our favourite Puerto Rican drum & bass memories. All four members of Bad Company came to Puerto Rico and played at Hacienda Caracolillo. You have to understand what Bad Company represented at that moment.
“The Nine,” “Planet Dust,” “Ladies in Spain” and that entire sound were completely changing drum & bass. At the time, “Shot Down on Safari” was not yet circulating as a dubplate,but there was already this feeling throughout the night that you were hearing music before the rest of the world had proper access to it.
Then they played “Torpedoes.” Chaos. It rewound something like six times back to back. Every time it dropped, the reaction got bigger. That night is permanently burned into our memory.
When we talk about Puerto Rican drum & bass culture, these are the moments we’re talking about. We weren’t watching videos of this era twenty years later. We were there.
Fission – Oracle
If we’re telling the story of drum & bass in Puerto Rico, Fission absolutely has to be part of it.
Around 2002, when the scene on the island was booming getting reviews in Knowledge magazine about being the Ibiza of Drum and Bass, Fission was leading the pack. They became the first drum & bass producer from Puerto Rico to be signed to an international label and the first to have his music pressed on vinyl. That was a huge moment for the scene.
You have to remember what 2002 was like. There was no SoundCloud, no Spotify and none of the direct access producers have today. For somebody making drum & bass in Puerto Rico to get their music heard internationally, signed to a label and physically pressed onto vinyl was a completely different challenge. “Oracle” represents that moment for us.
Seeing a Puerto Rican producer make that jump showed everyone else that there was actually a path beyond the island. It opened a door to international recognition and proved that someone from Puerto Rico could make drum & bass that belonged alongside records coming from the established scenes in the UK, Europe and the US.
Fission was ahead of us and ahead of a lot of the producers who came afterward. He helped create the first blueprint.
When we talk today about NRV releasing internationally, Cell & Atom getting a Noisia remix, or the new generation of Puerto Rican producers getting their music heard outside the island, it’s important to remember that somebody had to open that door first.
For Puerto Rican drum & bass, Fission was one of the people who opened it.
CPTL PNSHMNT feat. Forever Heaven – Coqui
We had to include “Coqui” because it represents Puerto Rico. The coquí is one of the most recognisable sounds and symbols of the island. If you’re Puerto Rican, you don’t really need an explanation for what that sound means.
It’s home. So hearing that identity carried directly into a drum & bass record is special.
CPTL PNSHMNT represents the next wave of Puerto Rican D&B, the took the lead pushing Puerto Rican sound internationally, getting signed by labels like Formation Records, VTO Records, Eatbrain, etc. and have pushed other PR artist to keep going forward to release more music.
Puerto Rican producers don’t need to remove their identity to participate in an international scene. Quite the opposite.
Puerto Rico has an incredible rhythmic and musical history. The goal should be to bring some of that identity into drum & bass. And that’s becoming increasingly important because the next stage isn’t just about individual Puerto Rican artists releasing records. We’re starting to tell the story of the scene itself.
NRV & DJ SS – Repeat
If you had told us years ago that eventually we’d make a record together with DJ SS, it probably would have sounded ridiculous.
SS and Formation are part of the foundations of this music.
We came into drum & bass listening to artists from that generation, buying the records, playing the tunes and going to see these DJs whenever we had the opportunity. Eventually you go from being the person standing in the crowd listening to the records to sitting in the studio making one together.
“Repeat” represents that full-circle moment for NRV. It also reminds us why longevity matters.
We’ve been connected with drum & bass for more than two decades. Some opportunities only become possible because you stay committed to something long enough for those different worlds eventually to meet.
NRV – Dealing Cards
We wanted to finish with “Dealing Cards” because it probably says the most about where NRV is right now. It’s soulful, melodic and emotional while still being unmistakably drum & bass.
After more than twenty years around this music, we’re not interested in simply chasing whatever version of D&B happens to be fashionable at that moment. We want our records to contain some of our experiences.
“Dealing Cards” and “Mystic Sun” are our debut with Vibe City and show a side of NRV that we’re extremely excited to develop. We started as two guys in Puerto Rico obsessed with drum & bass records coming from the other side of the Atlantic.
Now we’re releasing our own music through some of those same circles, collaborating with artists we once listened to as fans and helping create opportunities for the next Puerto Rican producers coming behind us.
That’s probably the part of the story we’re proudest of.
