State Of Bass – Martin James, Published by Velocity Press
Velocity Press is a new publisher started by the same people behind Knowledge magazine
Of great interest are the recent Join The Future by Matt Annis writer for Juno , dj and many publications and DJ under the guise Sell By Dave, a stalwart dj and promoter based in Bristol, personally I remember and respect to him as both a writer and DJ as he was very active with his Bedmo Disco series ( bedminster the area of Bristol)
Matt’s book charts the development of British dance music and its first truly original sound of Bleep Techno from the warehouses of the north spearheaded by the legendary Sheffield power house that is Warp Records, Ill be looking to read this as soon as I have finished State of Bass, with recent events it has thrown a focus on the legacy of the raves and music that sprang up from this strange island.
Back to the future.. State Of Bass The reason for this updated reprint are manifold, the two main reasons are scarcity. The original was selling for crazy money up to £200 on Ebay and for the second reason to include events that happened after its first initial press such as Roni Size winning the Mercury prize for his Reprazent project. A lot has changed since the 90s and Drum and Bass is a global culture not just a music ‘scene’ its become a movement, music scenes come and go ( dubstep and Grime case in point two scenes that didn’t translate globally or last )
but Drum and Bass is definitely permanent and has refused to water down, there are many new forms ( excuse the Reprazent pun ) new expressions and art works related and involved in the scene, it remains multicultural and independent weathering the ( music ) industries use and abuse.
The book delves deep into its stories, its infighting, its scenes stalwarts and the development into this huge ever-evolving culture.
To use a quote from Roni and Krust on Mask – released on dope dragon Bristol Sound
It’s a dictation and it’s a definition on how we livin’
What this book illustrates with numerous interviews and analysis is that this musical movement bears multiple facets more than other music and youth culture from the last 40 years , Punk begat independent music and a means to self record and release, hardcore and jungle did this with no use of the mainstream media or very little and it must be mentioned John Peel was up to his death still playing Jump Up, Tech Step and even Gabba representing the offshoots and DNA splices and Mutations that sprang from Rave … He never lost his hardcore…. and with his son Thomas Ravenscroft that lineage and important representation has not been forgotten.
I digress, the UK Hardcore sound grew to be what drum and bass is today as one of the most far reaching musical exports, with so many scenes heard across the globe, from Poland to Vietnam from Southampton to Graz, Chicago to San Francisco where there is a an urban environment and sometimes even a rural setting there is a crew making beats and creating parties, releasing records both physically and digitally on labels big and small.
Living an independent existence based around celebration and coming together regardless of ethnicity bear that in mind that it is the culture that sprang out of the raves and parties it is this fusion of cultures that developed here, in the UK under the hot house conditions of a country in recession and a society that was opening up. If you’re from Britain you can say this is the thing we should be most proud of, a whole culture and means of production AND industry owned independently see Jeremy Deller’s excellent film Everybody In The Place for more on the theme of owning the means of production.
Drum and Bass / bass culture/ rave culture offers an identity, career possibilities and a focal point for communities, it is the whole and referencing the legendary Hardcore party documented in the book it is AWOL A Way Of Life
a whole chapter could be written on Desert Storm sound systems & DIY , Circus Irritant , WDA, Spiral Tribe and other free party systems and this is a theme I want to return to as a fall out and departure from society. I must mention the excellent Photo Book No System here by Vinca Petersen https://vincapetersen.com/no-system-product/
But lets focus on the book and Drum and Bass
It’s a standard device now but the suggested listening section at the end of each chapter throws up some classics and lesser known examples for instance In the chapter Valley Of The Shadows where we learn of the development and evolution of the hardcore / dark sound and time stretching techniques and the economic situation that developed in 92
a fine example is DJ Crystyl Warpdrive , a still futuristic blast of chopped and stretched breaks and floating ambience and the sound of the warp drive – RUSH 4 U
Compare with the 2004 remix, it keeps to the same theme of total drum chaos evolving flexing, going backwards, chopping multiple breaks
And it came out on Photek Productions label an artist covered in the book and figure head the somewhat tricky / divisive genre label of Intelligent
https://www.discogs.com/artist/417-Photek
For a great example of the development and experimentation and ever darkening skies around hardcore there is the classic compilation/ mix by Kemistry and Storm ( Kemistry who tragically died in a car crash coming back to London from a gig in Southampton April 25th 1999 as I would learn from friends who attended the gig )
Enforcers: Above The law
Featuring Refige Kru (Goldie and Rob Playford – Metalheadz and Moving shadow respectively two of the biggest labels) https://youtu.be/-DblfFRL4ek it set the standard of the fall out from the day glo rave scene as the ecstacy became weak and the europhia was replaced by a creeping paranoid atmosphere assisted by Sci Fi and horror samples to match the worsening mood as recession bit hard in 92
(side note …where were you in 92 an honorary mention must go to Zomby for this album Where were you in 92 that uses Bizarre Incs Playing with Knives piano riff over a whole album )
Bizarre Inc Playing with Knives https://youtu.be/TLlvYaCZ8Vc
Zomby – Float https://youtu.be/9FriS8EVVJg
And of course Special Request for bringing the hardcore back,
Darkcore was a reaction to the helium vocals and over use of pianos the division of hardcore into the white toy town infantilism and the more roughneck darker sound which would eventually evolve into manifold styles … to read more about the DNA and theories, splits, alliances and allegiances you really should buy this book along with Energy Flash by Simon Reynolds https://g.co/kgs/BK5WLT
and Altered States by Mathew Collin https://g.co/kgs/798hQE
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