MEMORY-035_
Matrix - "Double Vision / Sedation" (MTRR-001)
1997 was one of the most exciting years for music discovery for me. Drum & bass had so many new styles and influences permeating through the genre, and I was also in my second year of collecting records. The group of DJ friends I was hanging out with more and more was growing as well. BenKo had started going to Montgomery Community College and met a few other dnb DJs on campus, which meant some more people to go to shows with, and spin records with. I was still at UMD, and had moved out of the dorms and in to a house with four other friends, all from my program at school, and none of them were in to dnb. I had a bedroom in the basement of our house, and there was a little side room that became my DJ studio.
Living in a college town with quick access to the city, in a detached single family home, and having other college students as roommates meant there was a higher tolerance for 1) loud music, and 2) late mix sessions. By this point I often had people over to hang out, mix records, and pre-game before going out if there was an event in town. Ben had joined a crew of DJs, most going to his college, and they started working on mixes and promos to get booked at local shows under the crew name The Step Syndicate. I was not quite up to the standard for mixing, however I was hanging out with everyone and paying attention to how people mixed, and what they were playing.
Jeff / Freefall was an early part of the crew, and his skillset on the decks was amazing. He could mix quick, tight beat matching, and he also drew for interesting records. One session at my house, there were probably six or seven of us crammed in the basement DJ booth, playing b2b2b with everyone drawing two tunes then switching to the next person. I remember Jeff dipping in to his record bag, gives us this grin like “watch this” and pulls out a white label, which meant a promo that the rest of us missed out on. New record day at most of the local shops was usually Wednesday, and you had to show up at just the right time to get a crack at any promos that showed up in the weekly shipment from the shop’s distributor. Jeff knew where to go, when to go, and who to talk to… and landed a copy of MTRR-001.
I had just learned about Matrix from his contribution to The Prototype Years compilation a few months prior, and that he was related to Optical, who we were all fast becoming fans of. None of us knew about Metro Recordings though, and the name was exciting because our subway system in the DC was the Metro. What Jeff expertly blended in to the ongoing mix was amazing music, and immediately Metro and Matrix were on my “must watch” list.
Here we are at the tail end of 2024. Jeff is still playing drum’n’bass sets in the Mid-Atlantic region solo as Freefall, and b2b with Matt Rogers as Catalyst, as well as stacking up the years as a professional brewmaster which he took up 25 years ago. Metro Recordings occasionally has releases, and much of the older catalog is available digitally. Well worth a dig through Matrix’s older releases.
YouTube:
Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/release/1748-Matrix-Double-Vision-Sedation
Instagram: Metro Recordings @metrorecordings | Freefall @jeffcannabrewerdc