State Of Bass – Velocity Press

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 25^th 1999 as I would learn from friends who attended the gig )

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/apr/04/kemistry-storm-the-tragic-story-of-the-drumnbass-originals

 

Enforcers: Above The law

 

https://youtu.be/tv1L0aDSsus

 

 

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

Fevered Fiction – Inside the PARADOX Southampton / October 1998

Inside the Paradox

 

I’m a big fan of rave recollections and short stories, I’m currently reading and will be reviewing State Of Bass by Martin James

https://velocitypress.uk/product/state-of-bass/. buy direct from the publisher

Its an excellent tome on the developement of Hardcore To Jungle and Drum and Bass and all of the nodes and stems that shoot off from the greatest british export

 

Ive also been inspired by Joe Europe whos writing some feverish tales here

 

 

so heres some fever dream stream of conciousness fluff from the back of my mind and an attempt at thinking in the flow of Det, Skibba, Stevie Hyper D or IC3  ( def not moose or shabba , lol bone man ) If those names mean nothing to you,  you’re dead , fam, you probably wore Dunlops, d e a d .

In 2 deep, the speckled dove is not having the effect I want , feeling wavy but my breath is escaping me, not fusing with me, Brockie is spinning ,Ic3 is chatting , his bark louder hey Hey Hey, hur, hur,hur Muhahahaha ,

I’m feeling not so steady, steady are you ready, what’s going on , that’s the PARa para , para paradox , something is changing in me my stomach flips I want to puke but it fades … then …feeling good, feeling great but soon you know that its going to fade , but then it starts to all fit , the waves calm a little, I’m over the hill and far away, the feet feel lighter and now im stepping, steppin, DJ Die Autumn cuts in ,98 2 99  and we feel FINE ,

 

 

 

yeah yeah what’s this new old sound, hey you coming thru with the new sound , it’s a stepper, it’s a roller it’s a Bristol rockers 2 rockers , sound of the Autumn streets , light dappling thru trees, still a warm breeze , and I’m turning through the pages of my life , I’m after new Kreps, addict for sneakers used to have a beeper ,   not a care about a council tax bill, steady on this grade pill , mersh nah … we will see , never put pen to paper on the dotted line , pay in cash or get on tick , flip a brick a week , the plug come deliver, up southern corridor and m4 / m25 , one above, lieutenant before county lines burners were not even a thing then , nokia Erickson, don’t be bait , don’t talk bait on the phone , you got that ting yeah…… , more dub rush come save me , just 4 u ,   soon about to come crushing down like it always does someone chat bare rubbish , 1 year later the prick in a lowered escort he’ll turn witness, informer, end up in fuengirola cleaning swimming pools ,greased down curtains and Lizzie Duke sovvies n chain , (bonkerz not ruffneck n chain) but he’s alright jack , he wont catch more than 2 years inside whilst trouble trouble trouble you bring , TROUBLE ON VINYL

 

 

 

cos away goes trouble…..Scorpio……. rising ….. ….. DOWN THE DRAIN …..

 

 

 

Im doing rates, ticks , half an oz vaccum pack for 100 , 10 for £50, g of peng rerock for 50 , they say its look like fishscale , but its repress , but not as stepped on as u might find , the scouse plug is legit , people lap it up , half the bar snorting my Charlie …unggggg , covered like a portion of chips , ungggh ,

 

…. now they say bits , doing bits, of this and that bits of what ? fucking fart gak selling off fucking snap chat , but back to my chat , don’t watch that , mates are on my watch, we control camellia , yeah yeah camellia house ground floor you know you get more for your score we do the henry at 4s not 3.5 , we are generous to a fault , we are independent , but back to the front to the front to the back wall to wall all the creatures great and small yeah Sharkey BONKERSZZZ was he a bone man ? The SPLIT BETWEEN HaRDCORE and Jungle that old chesnut   THOSE THAT Wanted to feel like they were in a fucking toytown and with one colour rocking to the bass , get pasty faced and sucking on a fucking dummy …that lyric though sharkey .. gold, wall to wll all the creatures great and small , we’re martians from Mars comin g to kick your arse ………So whats coming through now as we get thru til 2 …its another war head about to blow up

 

 

 

fuck 2…. these raves close so early.  2 am …. its a joke ,  Soton is missing the whole UKAY is missing on those relaxed laws .. whats that sonar beam calling thru yeah it’s the Ed Rush and Optical those crazy bald heads its Funktion the remix , is it gonna get pulled up , yep yep dj brooooocccckieeeeee inside , so we get to hear that intro again I look around me as we are sent onto the cold face of uncharted planets and its just us all the stepper in the place no one fighting noone bogging each other out , but that feeling grows and grows the 2 , the number, the regulation , I’m a stepper not a sleeper, I don’t want to stop stepping, change up rearrange my brain , don’t think i’ll feel the same , every weekend do the same , fuck a narrow lane , this feelin cant contain or complain, for that matter , deal with the matter , deal with it proper !   Skibba and IC3 ,HEY HEY , hosting and sending , sending us through , I see Anil the promoter screwing at the venue manager , who’s trying to shut SHIT DOWN, fuck your license, there’s still 600 people here no officers can take us but Anil aint no pussy claart , he’s  waving his hand across the night , across the floor the rAvers are still gagging for more ,he wants his customers going home happy talking about this ONE for years …. AND they will , we do , we cant forget it or get close to all those dreams

 

and we will we do we keep harking back to those days , those tape packs now fly through the air , youtube comments, fat bad cunts on fart gak in basements, medium size halls trying to relive the dream , sad ? No , AWOL  A way of life  that lives on , I was there , I bought the tape pack,and the panels rattled  , planet v becomes the sound of the new era , we get lighter , the pads soothe as the tents get bigger the lazers strafe the air the smoke gets thicker and bam those stabs get through and that riff hits you every time HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY , WHA U GONNA DO, , WHA U GONNA DO, , WHA U GONNA DO are you down with Lemon D , have you heard the champion sound and have you still got nasty habits ? did you party at the Startford rex , bone men , maybe you made a helter skelter of your life maybe serotonin got all burnt out , you didn’t know about 5htp , running down the corridors of your life , every Tuesday Wednesday feeling like hollow hollow man , chasing some fucking SKET who ordered vodka lemon but only liked garage … and didn’t like to ping …different tastes were coming … things never stay the same … it gets moodier … you don’t feel like a junglist soldier , junglists are you reeeeeeeaaddyyy ? Yes certainly they are… here to report to the floor for duty we are now ready for take off…

 

 

 

, but you are apart , girl gets to you says why you always with your crew they don’t support you , smoking too much , sniffin Charlie , all the people in the party getting edgy , someone wants to cook up , in your kitchen things are getting too sketchy too bait ,  and u get para ,think you want to change it up , breakbeats still come and things turn to the Marine Parade , that’s ll good but something is missing … you fall in and out with Bad Company …..

 

 

 

 

Bad Company, the crazy bald head scene, less girls, more man dem but skinnier and more prone to start,  you start to feel itchy, Plaistow 1999 … the rain hits hard on the ‘crete , you walk through Saturday hammers crowds and make trips to paddington via Hayes TOX is everywhere hes out to B O M B,  now is the time of drawing back , now is the time of Iceberg and Mosch, Wookie and Sundayz, cartoon characters on shady lanes, phone keeps ringing,  things aint been the same since …..has it come 2 this,  Original Pirate Materials kool Fm  and  something else turns your head… the twisiting and turning through the canals and the serotonin levels are burnt out….battle over