The Czech Republic has seriously got itself on the map in the past few years as a destination for drum and bass. Most notably, there’s Let It Roll and LIR Winter, the hugely successful festivals that take place in and near Prague. Let It Roll has recently been clocked at the biggest D&B festival in the world. Czechia is also gaining more and more momentum on the world stage for its artists, most notably Rido and Pseudoscience label head, Hybris (it should be noted, Hybris is originally from the US) as well as its penchant for neurofunk.
One artist in the midst of all this Czech hype who should be getting more attention is Forbidden Society. A home-country hero, this artist who’s now located a bit south of the capital Prague has been releasing absolute fire on his own Forbidden Society Recordings since 2011. He’s also released on Section 8, Algorythm Recodrings, PRSPCT, Union Recs and more and has had his tracks remixed by Current Value and SPL.
From the beginning, Forbidden Society has been trying to break out from the miasma of Czechia’s neuro-mad scene; in fact, some of his early work could be classed as jungle. Despite being quite popular in the CZ, he still felt reticent about exploring new formats, slower beats and more ambient sound design space. Enter: his upcoming LP, Liminal Point. 
Mr. Society has played with other formats recently, as in his Deadbox EP released last year and in his collab EP called Remnant with Donny, Katharsys and 3RDKND, the latter of which has lots of lashings of breakcore, but Liminal Point has been the first release where he really wanted to focus a lot of energy on slower, deeper and more ambient work. It seems to have paid off.
A good half of Liminal Point is still technically drum and bass, with the tempo set at 174 and the drums vacillating between a good echoey kick pattern and more syncopated, snare-driven styles. Even the D&B is quite different, however, and definitely doesn’t follow the neuro-hungry Czech norm. Our Your EDM premiere today follows the more snare-heavy drum pattern but it’s definitely not your average…well…any subgenre, really. “No Boundaries” certainly takes its title literally with its crunchy high hats, ambient sinewaves and an ambient background that makes the track’s dead space sound like outer space.
The other half of Liminal Point is strange, out there bass and sound design work that ranges in tempo from halftime to 130 BPM to 160…the title track even clocks at 204 BPM, though it sounds much slower. To really showcase this other side of Forbidden society, he’s donated an hour-long mega mix where he delves into all those different beat, sounds and sound design. The US audience tends to be the opposite of central Europe, favoring slower beats and heavy, dubsteppy bass so it may be that Forbidden Society has found his niche here on Your EDM. Check out the mix below.
No matter what your bass music preference, Liminal Point is a technical triumph and all its tracks will likely see a lot of action in sets this year. Perhaps not in festivals but in the abundance of livestreams that abound now in their stead. The album really is a cohseive work on its own, however, so whether you fancy listening to it all the way through, track by track for mixes or to this killer mix by Forbidden Society himself, just listen and find your own Liminal Point.
Liminal Point releases tomorrow, April 2 on Forbidden Society Recordings. Click here to stream or purchase on multiple platforms. Also be sure to check out the Forbidden Society Recordings website because he’s got some of the sickest merch in the game.
