I came storming home from work one day in a terrible mood and was even grumpier to find my housemate’s annoying girlfriend lounging around the place. I locked myself in my room, chucked this CD on and sent the volume skywards. Within minutes, I knew my angry soul had found its spiritual home, as “Dillinja’s sound” started ricocheting off the walls. I quickly forgot about my ire and danced around the room like a loon, letting the beats pound the stresses away.

This is an impressive retrospective of Dillinja’s featuring handpicked tunes ranging from the dark old smoke machine and puffa jacket days 1993 to 2004. While some have argued that the album’s “sameness” shows little progression or development from this drum n bass daddy, I felt it was more that Dillinja (a.k.a. Trinity, Capone, D-type, Cybertrone) was weaving a continuous, signature sound through his work. It’s true that it is difficult to judge the year of release for most of the tunes, but that is half the fun.

Slightly bodgy lyrics on track two, Forsaken Dreams, sound like a mean old d n’ b head trying to get tender and not quite succeeding, as subterranean bass pounds merrily away above the oddly la-la-ing lyrics. Friday, track three, is great – snivelly, snarly laughing and chat from what sounds like a evil, cartoon doberman pokes its way into old-school wobbly bass lines overlaid with steady, finger snapping rhythm. Some more strange, squealy male vocals make their testicle-squeezing way through All the Things, sweetly yodelling over ear-splitting sure-shot beats.

The piano-driven, gentle interludes that pop up now and again stir up desire for a trip back to the old days, when Bukem held sway and d n’ b was still largely populated by noodling jazz-heads and spliffers. Sovereign Melody is one such ditty, smoothly undulating and with deep, resonant, bass backdrop. Acid Track is one uncomplicated classic that many fans will recognise, along with the Bladerunner-sampling, ethereal and lovely Angels Fell.

But listening to In the Grind sent me spiralling from my peaceful state straight back into the sweaty memories of my last “big night out”, when the wah-wah-wah-wah had forced me back to the dance floor. From here, I certainly noticed a change of sorts – the bass got even heavier and more distorted, tunes got a bit more complex and were granted titles like Hard Noise, Mutha Fucka and the hard, fast Thugged Out Bitch. Maybe the man got angry? In comparison, the tune Tudor Rose is enduringly cute, with faux-medieval lyrics and lyre laid over grinding, distorted bass. Things finished in gentle fashion with the lovely, wavering Threshold, the name and placement of which perhaps signalling that Dillinja is poised in the doorway, ready to take the next step into new territory…