Some of UK garage’s pop crossover hits had a tang of the novelty record about them, but Flowers was utterly charming. Propulsive and funky, it still sounds fresh today. 138 Trek’s sound was dubbed “breakstep”, which effectively meant it was a d’n’b track at UK garage tempo. DJ ZincĭJ Zinc first came to prominence as a drum’n’bass producer – responsible for 1995’s anthemic Super Sharp Shooter – before shifting style. The potent Ennio Morricone-sampling Gunman captures the transition – the time-stretched vocals, rattling snares and bassline are pure d’n’b, the tempo and beat garage. UK garage began as an adjunct to drum’n’bass – the stuff DJs in room two played while Ray Keith or Jumping Jack Frost did their thing next door. Technically speed garage, RIP Groove was essentially a mash-up of other garage tunes – by Tina Moore, Armand Van Helden and Barbara Tucker – given a distinctive UK slant via its samples from DJ Gunshot’s jump-up drum’n’bass track Wheel ’N’ Deal and its irresistible, immense bassline. This remix (by producer Wookie under a pseudonym), keeps the song intact, but transforms the dreary trip-hop pop original into a party-starting riot of bass, beats and eerie keyboard riffs. Sia Little Man (Extremen Works) (2000)Ĭurious to think that Sia – she of the lung-busting self-help pop anthems – was once a UK garage vocalist, albeit by default not design. This B-side remix – by Kelly G, an acolyte of Chicago house legend Steve “Silk” Hurley – became an A-side two years on. Never Gonna Let You Go (Kelly G Bump-N-Go Dub Mix) (1995)Īn early sign of UK garage’s chart appeal, this track by a minor US R&B singer was transformed into a club smash and a mainstream hit by the application of a monster bassline and the kind of skipping beat that would come to be known as two-step. His switch to garage began with Endorphins, a track that perfectly demonstrates how quickly UK producers transcended their US influences to create something entirely their own: a sparse, strange, compelling and faintly discordant collage of samples. Destiny might be their greatest moment: a patchwork of cut-up vocals and staccato instrumentation weaving effortlessly around the beat.Īn underrated underground producer, Sky Joose had been making music in the hardcore era. Production duo Dem 2 were early stars of two-step UK garage, issuing a plethora of tracks and remixes in the late 90s. CleptomaniacsĪll I Do (Bump N Flex Dancehall Dub) (2000)Īt the other extreme from UK garage’s commercial hits were tracks that pushed the genre forward artistically: here, producer Grant Nelson strips virtually everything away from a house version of Stevie Wonder’s old hit, leaving only snatches of vocals and a stammering beat rooted in dancehall, to startling effect. On the extraordinary Stone Cold, languid, sensual jazz enters the mix, alongside samples of Aaliyah and a monumental bassline derived from Kevin Saunderson’s Detroit techno project Reese. UK garage was a remarkably omnivorous genre, drawing in everything from R&B to the German breakbeat trance of Azzido da Bass’s Dooms Night. Of all the US producers who inspired UK garage, none was revered like Todd Edwards: his technique of cutting up vocals into what writer Simon Reynolds called “blissful hiccups” – as heard on this dub of a track by French producer Ludovic Navarre – meant his tracks could be sped up to 130bpm without sounding cartoonish. St GermainĪlabama Blues (Todd Edwards Dub Mix) (1995) Nicky Prince’s chorus is pure house anthem the menacing two-note bassline at odds with the track’s carefree breeziness. Neighbourhood underlined the shared heritage of UK garage and drum’n’bass in reggae soundsystem culture thanks to MC Rumpus’s dancehall vocal. He has a point – it certainly helped usher in a new era of UK rap – although it might be more accurate to say that it is poised between the sound of UK garage and a future in which the MC, rather than the producer, would be the star. Wiley has claimed that So Solid Crew’s debut single “started grime”. Photograph: Richard Young/Rex Features 18.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |