Article Response: Down Down Bizznizz

Utterly fascinating, really good, non-pedantic educational piece.

I have a question for Tim - how hard is keeping up with UK garage being situated on the other side of the world!? Also, I remember reading an article in Salon anout UK garage in which the author envisaged London as some sort of dance music paradise - have you ever been to the UK?

1st question: it's pretty difficult, particularly because I know no- one with whom I can share the enthusiasm (hence visiting clubs by myself). The really hard part is convincing myself to part with the money for import compilations.

2nd question: that was Andy Battaglia's article and twas a very good point he made too (guilty as charged, I guess). If I'm interested in the "it's a london thing" aesthetic of garage, it's probably in the way that london acts as a conduit that filters a lot of different international sounds that I tend to go bonkers for. It's the culture clash I like, where elements of American, European, Jamaican and Indian music may all end up on the one record. I think the inter-related "pirate" scenes (hardcore, jungle, garage) have always been very big on this sort of creative cultural stripmining, which is something that's only now becoming really big in pop again with records like "Get Ur Freak On" and "Hey Baby".

But no, I haven't been to London.

Tim what do you make of Jon Carter?

I mean, I realise he hasn't released alot of stuff of his own. (although his new single is out now and is quite good).

But have you heard his 7 magazine mix CD? Or his live at the social?

I mention him because I think you can see the world influence on the house music he plays (dancehall lyrics, tribal drums etc), and just funky house music. Of course you may know all this anyway in which case I am being silly. I also bring him up because he's not often discussed here.

I bought a second hand copy of the Mis-Teeq album yesterday because they've been all over the radio at the weekend (and in the erm, Guardian glossy style supplement (or was it some other paper?)) and because I felt a bit of a twat buying yet a Lambchop album which I knew would sound exactly like _Nixon_ despite not being able to remember whether or not I particularly like _Nixon_. It sounds to me (at first hearing) like a fairly dull R&B album with some quite pretty garagey moments. My question is, Dr Finney, garage clinician, should I persevere with it?

(Looking forward to parts 2 & 3!!! Given I live in Scotland and have *no* idea what's going on in London -- apart from listening to the Dreem Team on a Sunday a.m. -- I'm staggered how well you can keep up with this stuff!)

I disagree a bit, so far. Tho I can't say much absent the rest of the article, I think that my outlook on the past year is that the difference between moving forward and stagnation is between Ministry Of Sound 2001 and Pure Garage IV, and it's all in the mix -- the Ministry of Sound Comp has an astounding transition from 21 seconds to 321 fire to some tune bigging up the "golden" garage djs to summer jam, and it feels just euphoric. If anything, there seems to be a sense of history and broadening with the latest breakbeat garage, as it becomes reconciled back and mixed back into the whole flow of the music. Last year's Ministry of Sound (complete with "dark" side) reflected the split, but this year's steps right over that pirate/pop divide again.

Also, the "year of the garage MC" should rilly be given bigger play, and the evolution of garage MCing, the distance it has to travel (The Streets contributions therof) is a who nother tack.

Sterling there is a sequel article in the works on that very issue. What's slowly going up over this week was originally just "part one", but it became too long. It's worked well though because I want to take a different tack with the MC article, which is by using the MC as the focus and then exploring its relationship to garage

I think my basic issue with breakbeat garage is that even when you're listening to a pretty good track, what an equivalent "2-step" producer can do by incorporating breakbeats is about ten times more exciting (see particularly Zed Bias on "Ring The Alarm" and his remix of El-B's "Serious"). If the proper breakbeat garage producers were half as inventive I'd love it to death. Of course it wasn't always this way; the use of breakbeats before and after the success of "138 Trek" was markedly different, with a stultifying creative streamlining of possibilities in the latter stage.

zed bias could be my favorite "rave continuum" producer ever. no shit. he needs to be talked about more.

also, i have to agree with tim on the breakbeat vs. 2step thing. i have a mix i made somewhere of 2000 garage tracks, and the wideboyz remix of "black coffee" segues into a stanton warriors remix of some craig david track. now while the stanton track is functionally fine and sort of interesting for the way it strips the gloss away from the original production and replaces it with this almost martial riddim, it just can't compare to the rhythmic exuberance of the all saint's mix. also, the best "brutalist" garage to my ears has the brutality in the bass. "neighborhood" for instance is pretty punishing with the bass cranked, but still slinky and insinuating. i need to write about "neighborhood" and "the burial" soon anyway.

also tim (or whoever) how important is it for you for the tracks to work as "tunes" outside of the mix. i can't keep up with garage as closely as i did with jungle for various reasons, but i wonder if there are as many functionalist garage tracks as not. for some reason i assume less. i've been making mixes of old breakbeat hardcore choons over the last few weeks before i move and it's funny how so few of them work for me as tunes, unmixed.

1) Ronan: I have very little experience of Jon Cutler. I understand he = purveyor of dirty house. Which could be promising. Meanwhile the music you're talking about sounds like MAW's "Work", which = ace. There's an article though in the differences between the way in which house incorporates outside/global influences and, say, uk garage does. Maybe I'll write about this for blog at some stage.

2) Alex - the Misteeq album is good! If you think of it as a really ace R&B album it's more likeable, I reckon. Secret weapon = the ragga toasting. I wish there was more of it on the album. Listen to "Stamp Reject", "They'll Never Know" and "You're Gonna Stay" which are all goodly.

3) Jess - since the majority of garage tracks I've heard are "in the mix", judging them as standalone track is a bit difficult anyway. I think though that garage probably works better than hardcore does though in this sense, if only because of the predominance of song-structure. What's interesting is how garage mixes and "urban" mixes work in a fairly similar manner; both urban and garage sound better in da mix, but the tracks generally aren't solely designed for DJs.

Ah but Tim! I said Jon Carter.

Jon Cutler though also has a great single doing the rounds at various clubs. So it may be worth checking him out.

Sorry Ronan, I did mean Jon Carter actually. Jon Cutler though has been on my mind due to the excellentness of the Ras Kwame mix of "It's Yours", which makes it a great breakbeaty 2- step track.

Alex - meant to say "really ace anonymous R&B album"

i would have guessed the same. since most of my garage listening lately (since s. reynolds stopped listing his fave tracks of a given year) has been mp3s downloaded based on the skykicking sidebar or things mentioned on ilm, i'm pretty much -only- able to find single tunes. i've been desperately trying to track down that aya napa comp, but all i've found is 2000: any good? also, that f-ing (har har) so solid mix comp is 30 friggin bucks. i am filled with the feer of dropping that much cash.

The only Ayia Napa I rilly didn't like as much was the 2001 one with the "light" and "dark" disks -- tho there were many fine tracks on there too. I think that one of the problems/issues with breakbeat toons is that they ARE more tracky, and less songful, and hence work in the hands of a proper mixer or DJ, but not alone.

The other problem that we get is some TRULY uninspired remixes -- like the one of "Oh No" on Pure Garage IV which lifts only the barest vocal sample and simply loops the fucker. MC garage also has its own structure to it, or rather numerous ones -- one of the things I like about So Solid is the sharp, weird justapositions you sometimes get on their tracks sortof like Timbaland's last-minute hook switches, except then they have the same themes on every track, so the structure extends beyond the track to the album, to the crew, to their identities -- there's a mechanical interchangability about it.

Jess - the Ayia Napa 2000 comp (mixed by Shanks & Bigfoot, of all people!) was my favourite compilation from that year as well, if it helps any. It's not so old now that the brilliance of so many of its tracks wouldn't be a thrill.

Part 2 now up!

You know what really drives me nuts? I love the fragments of Horsepower I hear, but I can never find any of their stuff to download anywhere. Aside from Get Dirty.

Still am not really feeling So Solid (notice how Ms. Dynamite blows them away on that remix). More interested in hearing the Pay As U Go mix. (SoP II was the last mix I really liked, what with all the MC extras, acappelas and so forth--one track into the next just doesn't do it for me anymore. Where have Locked On gone?) Heard Zed Bias spin last year, really disappointing. All hard breakbeat tedium.

Totally agree about Mash Up Da Venue. Still the greatest beats.

PS I think hardcore/jungle worked better as standalone tunes cos those tracks were composed much more as epics with different segments... of course that led to the downfall...

Thanks for the downloads!