One of my all-time favourite drum & bass tracks is Soul Beat Runna by Boymerang. It spent the best part of 1996 on dubplate — played regularly by Fabio and Grooverider on their Friday night Kiss FM show — and finally got released on Regal in April 1997. The track is famous for using a re-engineered version of the original Amen break that was handcrafted by Boymerang himself, and which has since been sampled in countless drum & bass releases. However, I recently discovered that there was also an official music video made for this track (which I assume was also done in 1997).
What’s striking to me about this video is that it plays on a number of cinematographic themes later encountered in The Matrix trilogy, such as dodging bullets in slow motion, long chase scenes involving identikit-looking agents, seemingly supernatural teleportation powers and dreams of falling off a skyscraper that ultimately become reality. I wonder if the Wachowskis saw this video before incorporating many of these elements into their films?
Below is the video, with credit to the original uploader on YouTube:
Later that same year, the track appeared on Boymerang’s full length album “Balance Of The Force“, which I promptly went out and bought upon release.
