「クオリティがイマイチだと思わせるZero-G社のCDは今までほとんどない・・・と言うか、そんな物は全く存在しないのだ！この『トータル・ドラムンベース』は、前回５つ星を当然のごとく獲得した『トータル・ハウス』と肩を並べるサンプリングCD。この値段でこの数とクオリティが手に入るなんて、おいしすぎる。エレガントで、猛烈にインスピレーションを誘発するダンス・フロア素材。イメージしていたフレーズの最高の形がここにはある。．．．『トータル・ドラムンベース』は『トータル・ハウス』もそうであったように、ダンス系サンプリング・ライブラリーがどうあるべきかというお手本のような存在と言えるだろう。細部まで行き届いた気の配り方、一貫したクオリティの高さ、バリエーションを幅広く保つ音楽性、それでいて何かしら新しい・・・どこを取っても完璧だ。これと同じレベルをクリアしているサンプリングCDなんて他に思い当たらない。」 These days, bad Zero-G releases are rarer than one of Delia Smith's smiles: you just don't find them. Total Drum & Bass picks up the Total series where the deservedly five-star-winning Total House left off. Same format, same mark of quality, same semi-naked woman wrapped up in polythene on the front cover.



You get three discs. The first contains all the drum loops, the second features all the other sounds and the third disc contains WAV files for all the sounds found on discs 1 and 2. Starting with the loops, it's obvious that the Zero-G team have been very busy bunnies over the past few months. How does more than 600 breakbeats, lasting an average four bars each, sound to you? To me it sounds like great value for money - and from both a sound quality perspective and a programming point of view I can't think of another product on the market that comes anywhere close. There's no speeded-up James Brown clich・here, just elegant, inspired and furiously sampleable dancefloor material.



The arrangement of the loops is also extremely logical, with all the breakbeats intelligently assigned to tempo groups of either 155, 160, 165 and 170bpm. Soundwise, there is always plenty of 'boom' and 'tick', with crisp hi-hats, lively snares and beefy kick drums; the processing is kept to a tasteful minimum, meaning that all of these loops work fine as is, but there is still room to add more effects if you need to.



Disc 2 features a huge variety of pads, basses, guitars, vocals and effects that stop short of being a true construction kit yet are all nicely categorised into the same tempo groups as the drum loops. The bass riffs are particularly impressive, combining good numbers of analogue lines and a masterfully played acoustic double bass. The synth pads are also worthy of note, featuring sounds from all the coolest analogue synths complete with nicely appointed filter and effect work. Tracks 34 to 44 contain a massive guitar section that offers both conventional rock and jazz playing as well as more effect based performances perfectly suited to the jungle and drum & bass genres.



There then follows a large number of miscellaneous keyboard, piano, string, synth and vocal sounds presented as riffs, effects and high-definition multisamples. Unusually for this type of release the vocal samples aren't bad - plenty of lo-fi grot mixed with short but interesting spoken and sung performances. The whole thing ends with a large collection of single-hit drum samples of all types, and you are generally left with the feeling that a better set of drum & bass sounds would be near-impossible to assemble at anything like this asking price. This release offers some of the finest examples of everything you would expect to find, but one of the great joys of Total Drum & Bass is the wonderful surprises it keeps up its sleeve. Who would have expected to find such impeccably recorded live string section phrases, or solo flute and sax riffs, or sumptuously mellow Rhodes piano lines? Total Drum & Bass, like Total House before it, is a near-perfect example of what dance-oriented sample libraries could and should be, combining thought, attention to detail and consistent levels of quality and musicianship to give the end user tons of options and yet still manage to say something new about the genre.



Roll on Total Orchestra, Total Guitar and Total Voice!