012

The day had no edges to it. Quiet sectors, soft movement through a stretch of the route where nothing was fighting me and everything just opened up. I found four bangers. All liquid, all patient, all the kind of thing that carries you instead of chasing you. My shoulders stayed down the whole way.

GLXY — It's Whatever landed in 2015 on Liquid Tones, part of the Pinnacle EP. I found it in one of those quiet pockets of the route, the kind of sector where the air doesn't move and then something just opens up. Liquid drum and bass, built out of patience and atmosphere. My shoulders followed the first bar before I knew I was moving. This tune doesn't ask you to keep up. It just carries you. A roller that knows exactly where it's going, no rush, no flex, just the roll. Hope it does the same for you. Take your time with it, cosmonauts.

Then the day deepened.

Netsky and Bev Lee Harling — Let's Leave Tomorrow is from Netsky's 2010 debut on Hospital Records, one of the more melancholic cuts on that record, and it's been sitting with me since the first listen. I couldn't let it go cleanly. You can feel the early reach in it, something a little raw in the shape of the thing. Bev Lee Harling's voice carried something I couldn't name. Hospital put out a remastered version in 2012 and it's held a place in their catalogue since, and that's right, it earned that. Find somewhere quiet for this one, fam.

I kept moving. The temperature of the day didn't change.

Krakota — See For Miles from 2018 on Hospital Records. I felt the bassline before I heard it. My chest registered it first and then I caught up. Liquid and rolling, dancefloor-grounded but with nocturnal depth underneath, the kind of tune that feels like more than a floor tune. It builds to something and holds it there, no sudden move, no overreach. The title earns itself. I've run the drop back more times than I can honestly account for. Hope it stretches something in you too. Enjoy, cosmonauts.

Last one of the day. I found it and forgot what I was doing before it.

BOP and Unquote — Drifting Away landed on 24 April 2020 via Hospital Records, the independent label Tony Colman put together in 1996. I found it in a warm part of the sector and my sense of time fell off. That particular drift, the kind where time stops being a thing you track and becomes a thing that just passes. They built something that feels longer than it is, in the best way. A slow roll that keeps going and keeps giving. I floated off the coordinate for a full minute. The name does all the work and the tune delivers every word of it. Hope it takes you somewhere you didn't know you needed to go. Enjoy, fam.