More UK Garridge Gold

G.O.D. - Watch Ya Bass Bins (1997)
Another tuuuuune from 97 I didn't know until this week! I'm a sucker for time-stretching and reggae/ragga samples. Oh and then there's that fucking bass. Watch Ya Bass Bins!



Box Clever - Treat Me Right (1998)
This one might not seem immediate but just hang on, it's insidious and by the end of the track it will be under your skin. This is meticulous, mesmerizing and magnificent. Love that organ sample.



Zak Toms - Bring Me Down (1998)
Another state of the art speed garage nugget that I don't recall. Worth it for the bass drop at 1 minute 29 alone. Bring Me Down is another lovely, slinky and hypnotic production.

On the UK Garridge Tip

& A Bit Of Ye Olde Jungle

Found this choice UK garage mix today. It treads that fine line between classy, trashy, rootsy and poppy. The rhythms and sonic innovations are undeniable though. It's got classic faves Find The Path, It's a London Thing, RIP Groove etc. Maybe I haven't heard or don't remember half of these tunes which is refreshing. There are some revelations here like Don't Stop (Deeper Mix) from Ruff Driverz, Spend The Night (H-Mans Groove Dub) by Danny J Lewis and Jhelisa's very commercial Friendly Pressure (Midnight Mix), which I can only assume was a big hit in the UK. I think this gear stays really fresh because I wasn't into the scene at the time and only came to appreciate the music much later. It's not like 'ardcore/darkside/jungle where I've heard, you know, Mr Kirk's Nightmare, Bombscare, Finest Illusion, Terminator, Here Come The Drumz, Renegade Snares et al. 1000 times. Anyway this was a really spot on mix until the final three tunes which didn't seem to fit, starting with that Tori Amos track which was more like funky house. So I'd fade out the mix at around the 1 hour 12 minute mark.

Double 99's speed garridge gem RIP Groove from 1997 led me to the above mix. I'm pretty sure this is the original 6 min track.

DJ Gunshot's 1994 jungle tune Wheel 'N' Deal was sampled on RIP Groove was it not?

Wheel 'N' Deal put me in mind of this all time classic jungle Amen smasher Drum N' Bass Wise from Remarc. Wow this still sounds fucking remarkable (pun intended) and current and future... It's from bloody 1994. That's ages ago! I don't even wanna say the amount of years that is. Is 94 when the future died?

This whole sonic journey started here with Grant Nelson's classic Step 2 Me because this tune was posted at Energy Flash several hours ago.

*Some previous posts on UK Garridge:
Proto Dubstep, Speed Garage & Recreations.
UK Garridge With Simon Reynolds.
UK Garridge 101 Part 1.
UK Garridge 101 Part 2.
Uk Garridge 101 Part 3.

UK Garridge 101

Another tune I only just discovered from 1998, well identified, as I'm pretty sure I've heard it before and maybe it's in a mix I've got. The vocal version is good too. So Grant Nelson is apparently like the godfather of UK Garridge and was doing it long before everyone else. I read somewhere that Nelson is still doing his thing in House related zones. He was also Bump & Flex so this is him remixing himself.

Turns out Steve Gurley did a remix of Things Are Never by Operator & Baffled. I can't work out if it was his dub version in that previous post or not. Anyway this is a tune from 2000 he did and it's a cracker. One wonders if there is an actual vocal version of Hotboys though, because I've not been able to find one. Bloody hell! Steve Gurley was in 4 Horseman Of The Apocalypse and Foul Play. Then he became a leading producer of UK Garridge and a remix extraordinaire. Legendary enough for ya? I'm expecting him to show up at some point in the Deep-Tech milieu, if he hasn't already that is.

Simon Reynolds adds the Gurley remix of 'things are never' is so much better than the original - which is good - but it's incredibly baleful and rolling. but it's not on YouTube, which is odd, i remember it getting played a lot on the pirates, so obviously well loved. i might try to dig it out and digitize it and put it up myself.

Speed Garridge to Deep Tech (?)

Came across this tune last night, fuck it's good. This is a UK Garage tune from 1997 but it's the dub version. After listening to a lot of current 'Deep-Tech' music from labels Audio-Rehab, Definition Audio, House Ent., Mokujin etc., Things Are Never (dub) by Operator & Baffled kinda seems appropriate. I hear a lot of Garridge in the music from the artists on those aforementioned labels. Obviously house is a big influence on 'Deep-Tech' but it's all definitely coming from the UK with the bass and rhythm. Even the house inspiration in this 'Deep-Tech' genre (not lovin that name) seems to be predominately of the late 80s British Acid House variety though, doesn't it? But perhaps it's Bleep with it's lavishly clean production sounds, along with it's bass weight and depth, that informs this music most. Then there's, you know, bits of the the other stuff that Speed Garage stemmed from Jungle, Drum'n'Bass, NY Garage, R&B, Reggae and of course good ole Disco. Deep-Tech's even got a bit of old school Electro and Techstep in there at times, I reckon. It's good stuff. Probably the best thing since UK Garage really. Is it something new? (Is the Hardcore Continuum back on track?) Even if it's not, Deep-Tech has somehow captured my mind and body like Grime and Dubstep never did. This stuff for some reason* seems so much better than that of the acts producing genuine fakes of jungle, drum & bass, grime etc. I love this track Insomnia from Camo Crooks (below). They also had the outstanding tune Maestro on The Various Audio Volume 1 compilation on the Definition Audio label.

Bloody hell make up your minds already! Some are calling it deep house, others tech house, minimal, even jackin electro or just plain old house but it's 'Deep-Tech' that's really stuck. These genre names have been around the block several times already though and sometimes in a derogatory way. I mean I used to want throw up at the mention of deep house. The music of Theo Nasa, Nightshift, Hugo Massien, RS4, Camo Crooks, Ghost House Banton, DJ SKT et al. deserves better than that. Come on all you micro genre geeks here's your chance to give this stuff a new and better name! At the same time making a name for yourself. Will that then signal the genre's demise though? You get the feeling that something is going to happen very soon like a break off genre from Deep-Tech before a rebranding even happens. For more music from this London scene (I believe it's spreading. I mean "hi I'm in Australia") check out these two highly recommended (by me at least) compilations that were in my Best of 2014 list.

The Audio Rehab compilation has tracks from Hugo Massien, Nightshift, RS4, Mark Radford, Shay & Sinista, Carnao Beats, DJ SKT and so on.

*I wanted to post my fave Hugo Massien tune Mitte but it's not on the youtubes. These Deep-Tech guys seem really protective of their music. A lot of it can only be found in annoying snippet form online. I mean I payed for both of those compilations but maybe they want their scene slightly insular and only for the truly dedicated ie. patrons willing to pay for the music (those who care). The dilettantes and dabblers can fuck off which is kinda cool I suppose.

UK Garage With Simon Reynolds

*
"Double 99 and Gant are just pure classic speed garridge. Deekline is sort of 2step turning into breakstep (breakstep really not a good development in my opinion, with a few exceptions - although he liked to call it Nu Rave, Deekline - sort of starts to merge into the nu skool breaks scene which you may nor may not recall - Rennie Pilgrem and others that my memory fails to dredge up. Stanton Warriors were the big breakstep act as I recall. But all of it -- speed garage, 2step, breakstep, proto-dubstep like Horsepower Productions, proto-grime like Pay As U Go Kartel, Oxide & Neutrino, and So Solid Crew - could be subsumed under the rubric "UK garage". Which runs from about 1996 in its earliest stirrings through to 2003-4 when grime and dubstep broke off as separate entities - so that's like an eight year period of great music and ferment in the UK dance underground, but also spilling into the charts. "I Don't Smoke" was a hit single."

*This was left by Simon Reynolds in the comments box of the previous post. Seeing as nobody clicks on the comments box I've put it here, hope you don't mind Simon.

As I've said, this is around the time I got off the Hardcore Continuum. I Don't Smoke went to number 11 in the UK chart for DJ Dee Kline in 2000, the year after it's original release. Horsepower Productions feature prominently in that J Rolla Proto Dubstep Mix with 3 tunes. Nu Rave & Nu Skool Breaks are familiar terms as I would have tuned into radio shows playing this music at the time but obviously got turned off by it. This is also around the time (99) I stopped going to clubs. I gave 2step a go but I just couldn't get into it. As far as Grime went I didn't hate it but I didn't love it (like I loved jungle) either, I guess that's indifference or at least tolerance, if it was within earshot. Having said all that it seems I'm open to reappraisals as some Speed Garage, 2step & Breakstep are now seeping into my consciousness in a very good way.

Oh Boy - Fabulous Baker Boys
This is a beauty from 97.

Destiny - Dem 2
Also from 97 and heading into 2step
.

187 Lockdown - Gunman (Original Mix)
This is a "Tune" from 97 as well.

Breakstep Questions Answered

Is this strictly speed garage though or more like something on the peripheries of speed garage?

This is a question I asked on the weekend, on this here blog, in regards to these tunes- DJ Dee Kline's I Don't Smoke, Double 99's RIP Groove and Gant's Sound Bwoy Burial. As if in answer to this Reynolds posts a bunch of I Don't Smoke remixes and calls it a breakstep classic. I wonder if this is a sub genre named in hindsight? Was breakstep a micro-genre post 2-step pre Grime? Perhaps it ran parallel to 2-step in the nuum.  Anyway there you go.

What about this one Soundscape's Dubplate Culture? It's got a bit of everything hasn't it? The micro-genre geeks must have had a hard time with this one. Whatever it may be, it's a classic.

Proto-Dubstep, Speed Garage & Recreations

Funny how much I'm loving this Proto-Dubstep Mix 99-03 from J Rolla considering I was off the hardcore continuum come Speed Garage, 2 step & Grime. I didn't really make it back until the rowdier/wobblier side of dubstep showed up in trax from Skream, Rusko et al. Even then I was only into a handful of tracks compared to the hundreds of hardcore/jungle tunes that I loved (they would be into the thousands now since my rediscovery/reappraisal of rave a couple of years back). I mean I liked Burial's 2 records and Kode9 & Spaceape's Memories Of The Future but was that dubstep? I had Burial more aligned in my brain with Hauntological/90s Berlin zones and and the later with trip-hop territory.  Maybe I'm loving this mix because the material is so unfamiliar and perhaps I didn't need to get off the nuum around the tech-step to speed garage time. Especially because I've been diggin this tune (below) I Don't Smoke, which is soo good. It starts off like something from those nutty scallywags Position Normal doncha think?

Oh and this from 97. 

er...and this from 97 and I could go on..... Is this strictly speed garage though or more like something on the peripheries of speed garage? I don't know but I like it. There's even reenactments of this style today, check below Hodgson's One Spliff which is hard to resist as it's so damn addictive (No pun intended. Or would it be better to intend that pun?). This one via Energy Flash.

Anyway back to J Rolla from London, not to be confused with J-Rolla from NZ, who has a hyphen. Rolla's got a great bunch of mixes over at Mixcrate of 90s hardcore and jungle which are worth checkin out and er... some boring dubstep ones but you don't have to listen to those if you don't want to.