An extremely limited-run demo pressing from Grooverider’s Prototype label, supposedly containing Photek’s track, “Feeling Up”

We all want what we can’t have. The less available or more limited something is, the more we want it. Hence, there are many online forums dedicated to old drum & bass tracks that never actually saw the light of day. As the genre developed throughout the 1990s, many producers pressed extremely limited runs on vinyl or acetate, then distributed them to a short list of DJs who tested out the demos on the dancefloor. Many of them never became commercially available, often because they contained uncleared samples or sounded out of step with current trends, adding to the mystique of these recordings as well as their desirability. In recent years, a handful of these super rare cuts have been salvaged from old cassette tapes or from the original limited pressings, gaining a new currency in the digital world. Here are a few that have become objects of obsession for drum & bass nerds looking to round out their complete collections:

Photek – “Feeling Up” Optical – “What’s the Difference” LTJ Bukem, “Atmospheric Jubilency” Dillinja – “Playtime” Bad Company – “Splint” Inside the Machine Nasty Habits – “Drums 2000” Platinum Breakz 3 here

Calibre – “Cream”

Calibre helped to spearhead the liquidfunk movement in the early 2000s, and along the way, he produced hundreds of tracks that never ended up on the retail shelves. He sent many to A-list DJs like Fabio, LTJ Bukem, and Bailey and shopped them around to different labels. Some would end up getting signed, while others, such as “Cream,” only saw sporadic club and BBC Radio 1 airplay. But don’t let the fact it wasn’t signed fool you; this one’s a hearty roller that adds melodic flourishes into the drum & bass formula at a time when the darker sounds of techstep were still in vogue.

Trace – “Definition of Living (Amen Mix)” Yaman Series gave away for free

Amen to that. Here’s more on dem jungle riddims:
dBridge Names His Top 5 New Producers
The Best Drum and Bass Albums You Missed in 2013
Lenzman’s “Anticipate” is Drum and Bass for Grown Ups

Nick Minieri is a drum & bass encyclopedia and the editor of Beantown Boogiedown. Follow him on Twitter. @nickdawg