Valley of the Shadows

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"Valley of the Shadows" by Origin Unknown is a highly influential drum and bass track from 1993 released on Ram Records. Originally featured as a B-side of the 4th Ram Records release "Valley of the Shadows" proved a lot more popular than the A-side, "The Touch", and the 12" went on to become one of the label's best-selling releases.

It has two famous samples, which are often used by DJs and dance music aficionados to identify the record:

"Felt that I was in this long dark tunnel", sampled from an episode of the BBC documentary series Q.E.D., first shown in 1989, concerning out-of-body experiences.

"31 Seconds" from the Apollo 11 launch countdown in 1969.

Most of the samples that were used to make the tune were taken from the free CD that came with the first issues of the magazine Future Music that came out in the UK in February 1993.

The title is perhaps inspired by Psalm 23 in the Bible, but is probably more likely to be a reference to 'The Valley of the Shadow of Death' in Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress', which was itself inspired by the Psalm.