Waxonia
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Original NuttahShy FX & UK Apache

Independently chosen for6 of our lists. Here is what each of them said.

Released
1994
Label
SOUR
On
Drum and Bass, 1994, Bass Weight, The Waxonia Desk — 160, The Waxonia Desk — Ghosts, and The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred
Updated
2026-08-29
Search Spotify (platform search — exact link pending) (opens in a new tab)YouTube Music (opens in a new tab)

Analysis

8 sections, the first drop of 5 at 0:32, 13% of the way in.

Dynamic range
8.2 dB
moderate range, typical of a modern master
Length
4:07
measured from the YouTube master

The record, end to end

energy
drums
bass
vocals
other
  1. 0:00Aintro0
  2. 0:11Abuildbar 5
  3. 0:33Bpeakbar 16
  4. 1:13Cpeakbar 34
  5. 2:04Dbreakdownbar 58
  6. 2:38Cpeakbar 74
  7. 3:11Bpeakbar 90
  8. 3:23Aoutrobar 95

Drops at 0:32 (bar 16), 1:18 (bar 37), 2:14 (bar 63), 2:37 (bar 74), 3:33 (bar 100). A drop is a moment, not a stretch — marked on the track above rather than shaded across it.

0:00 · A · intro

opens the record below its own average energy · instrumental · one of 3 stretches of the same music (A)

Lasts
0:11
Energy
0
Brightness
0
Density
0
  • drums
  • bass
  • vocals
  • other

Brightness and density are scored against this record's own sections, not against music in general — they say how its parts differ from each other, and nothing about how it compares to anything else.

Separated into parts by a source-separation model, so each lane is the instrument it names.

drums
the drum kit, separated from the mix
bass
the bass part, separated from the mix
vocals
the voice, separated from the mix
other
everything else — synths, guitars, keys, strings
intro
opens the record below its own average energy
build
energy and brightness climbing without a break
peak
sits at the top of this record's range
breakdown
energy falling away mid-record, percussion thinning
outro
the closing fall
Every moment against every other. Squares on the diagonal are sections; a bright patch off it is the record recognising itself — the second chorus meeting the first.

Against Drum and Bass

Drops where Drum and Bass usually drops — 13% of the way in.

8 sections here; 9 is typical.

Drawn from the 13 records on our Drum and Bass list we have measured. The line over the energy curve above is that median.

Measured from the YouTube master on . Section labels describe how the energy of the recording moves, not its musical form — a machine can see loudness climb and jump, it cannot hear a chorus arrive. Anything we were not confident enough to state is left out rather than shown with a caveat.

  1. Ranked No. 2 in Drum and Bass

    Jungle's national anthem. Ragga vocal, air-horn, and a breakdown that still empties the bar and fills the floor thirty years on. Nothing else sounds this much like a specific place and year.

  2. Picked by 1994

    The other direction jungle took in the same twelve months, and the more influential one on the street. Thirty years later it is still the record a British MC has to know, which is the only test of load-bearing that matters.

  3. Picked by Bass Weight

    The sound system and the sampler stop being separate traditions. A ragga vocal over an Amen break at 170 BPM, and nobody involved thought the combination needed explaining.

  4. Picked by The Waxonia Desk — 160

    The crowd-pleaser, and included as the awkward one. A set built on this is a different set from one built on the other five, and both of them are honest.

  5. Picked by The Waxonia Desk — Ghosts

    Jungle at the exact moment the sound system and the sampler stopped being separate traditions. Everything Kingston built into a rhythm arrives here at twice the speed with none of it lost.

  6. Picked by The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred

    A ragga vocal over an Amen break at 170 BPM, with nobody involved thinking the combination needed explaining. Britain's two inheritances, fused without ceremony.