Bristol’s Orchestral Drum & Bass architect Keeno delivers his most ambitious double album to date on Keeno Music. ‘LIGHT / DARK’ comes in swinging from fragile, cinematic beauty all the way to the darkest, heaviest corners of his catalogue.
Will Keen has never been content sitting still. From signing to Hospital Records at nineteen, racking up over 125 million streams and landing four consecutive albums in the Official Dance Albums Charts top 25, to walking away from all of it in 2022 to build Keeno Music from the ground up on his own terms, this is a producer who makes moves on instinct. ‘LIGHT / DARK’, out 26th June on Keeno Music, is the next one. And it’s a big one.
A double album built entirely on contrast, ‘LIGHT / DARK’ does exactly what it promises. Side one moves through delicate orchestral interludes, swirling string arrangements and the kind of warm, rolling Drum & Bass that turns a festival crowd into one organism. Think shimmering harmonics layered over precision-engineered breaks, sub bass that fills the chest cavity properly. Side two takes a left turn into darkness. Deeper. Heavier. The kind of cuts that belong in a warehouse at 3am with the lights down, the bass up, and absolutely nowhere else to be.
Keeno has been refining his live show too, combining a live piano and string quartet with Drum & Bass in a format that’s been packing out rooms across the UK. Fifteen sold-out events in a row for Keeno Music. The demand is real, the scene is paying attention, and ‘LIGHT / DARK’ is the record that arrives at the peak of all that momentum.
Highlights already surfacing from the album include ‘The Simple Life’ featuring Sam Welch and Noppo, ‘Lift Me Up’ featuring Kate McGill, and ‘Juliet’ featuring Vibre Strings, which carries that cinematic weight Keeno has made his signature. Each track earns its space. Nothing is filler. The sequencing moves you through emotional peaks and valleys the way a proper set should, rooftop euphoria one moment, deep basement soul the next.
In Keeno’s own words, “I wrote this to find life beyond Liquid Drum & Bass norms: to push myself into a sonic world unbound by convention.” That’s not PR-speak. You can hear it in every bar. The brave detours, the moments where the orchestral palette completely takes over, the beats that hit harder than anything in his back catalogue because the quiet that came before earns them. He asked himself, “Why not?” a hundred times, and this album is the answer to every single one.
This is an independent label statement too. Keeno Music built this without the machinery of a major behind it, which makes it sharper, more personal and considerably more interesting. ‘LIGHT / DARK’ cross-pollinates audiences because it genuinely crosses genres, sitting as comfortably in an orchestral playlist as it does on any Liquid Funk or Drum & Bass dancefloor.
One of the most complete Drum & Bass albums you’ll hear this year. Stream it, buy it, and catch him live if you can!
Check out our premiere of ‘Charge’ below. ‘LIGHT / DARK’ is out 26th June on Keeno Music. Stream and grab it here!