When did liquid drum and bass get this good at heartbreak? “Daydreaming” reunites Fred V with Ayah Marar, whose voice basically defined a certain era of vocal DnB, and the pairing sounds effortless in a way that usually takes years to earn. The beat is classic rolling liquid — 174 bpm, warm sub, a break that skips instead of stomps — but it’s the space Fred leaves around Marar’s vocal that makes it land. She’s singing about wanting to stay asleep to keep someone alive in a dream, and the drop at 1:40 doesn’t fight her, it lifts underneath and carries. There’s a moment near the second chorus where the bassline drops out entirely for a bar and it feels like the floor disappearing. Marar’s voice has a slight rasp on the high notes that no amount of production polish can fake, and Fred V is smart enough to leave it alone. This is the kind of DnB you can play for someone who claims they don’t like DnB and watch them quietly change their mind. Gorgeous and melancholic, and built to sound enormous at 2am with the lights off.
We've posted Fred V & Ayah Marar before — check out Fred V & Grafix - Rain Is Falling