I don't wanna be a total shill, but because a few people here might be into it: my new record as the Nerve Institute is coming out May 20 on Altrock in Milan (altrock.it). You can hear a few bits at myspace.com/thenerveinstitute, and here's a Kate Bush thing I did during the sessions but didn't put on the LP:
Because the ability to mix coherently between the best of UK funky, house, grime, juke, kwaito, jungle, and electro while still nominally looking like bass-led rude pirate house is a wonderfully rare moment of creativity and freedom-- the kind of freedom people find in the most fruitful-but-fleeting moments of great genres. Put in simple, indivisible terms: this stuff is really, really fun right now.
Various hyperlinks on og page.
I think that I agree with Kode-9's assesment that the music is in a holding pattern right now, and frankly I don't think 2011 is as big a year as 2009, just that more people are discovering these sounds.
Thanks for posting the article. Nice read,
Despite all the genre postulating, I think the part that I bolded is most important.
For serato I have a folder called "Bassline", and that contains half of the artists mentioned here. The other folder is called "future beat" and it contains some of the other half and some overlap between artists. Its easier just to lump it all together and get down to it!
The best thing about this aggregate of new music all the artists are feeding off each other and the DJs mixing and matching between them all to make some really nice sounding mixes and sets. The whole point is that its new and exciting imo.
I think martin summarised quite well what's going on over here, and maybe a bit in some other places around the world. it's definitely a brilliant time, and yes the word "dubstep" has really become synonymous with something tragic that no one in their right mind would want to play at a rave. what we have now is similar to what was going on in 1988, a huge number of influences being thrown in the pot. That scene has never been as good or as varied to my ear. The advent of Nightslugs a couple of years ago, the birth of UK Funky and the dissolution of FWD as a purely "dubstep" party was the beginning of this process. Obviously it's harder to be outstanding or catch hype in a scene thats more diverse and less "the next big thing", but that has done a lot for the music, and for the music makers, and opening the ears of the audience.
I guess this was out for about a year but just officially released in late April so its new to me.
This song is so cotdam good to me right now, cant wait to hear more
Jamie Woon may have the worst album that any knowledgeable person has recommended this year.
Other good new stuff this year includes DJ Shadow - I Gotta Rokk , Dark Sky - Ghost Notes, Orchestre Poly-Rhythmo - Cotonou Club, Danger Mouse and Danial Luppi - Rome.....
I picked this up, and actually like it more than most tunes by Burial. On the one hand, it could easily be dismissed as muzaky trip-hop (inoffensive to the ear and soothing tones), but on the other if you pump it up loud enough there's enough going on to hold your attention (it has that skippy quality to it that I like about some post-dubstep-future-bass-blah-music).
I picked this up, and actually like it more than most tunes by Burial. On the one hand, it could easily be dismissed as muzaky trip-hop (inoffensive to the ear and soothing tones), but on the other if you pump it up loud enough there's enough going on to hold your attention (it has that skippy quality to it that I like about some post-dubstep-future-bass-blah-music).
Plus... the packaging and etched b-side is great!
Yeah I thought it was interesting that, according to the gospel that is the comments on that YouTube post, Zomby originally did the track for Burial hence the stylistic choices made. To me, while it definitely has a Burial 'feel', it has an urgency to it that is very un-Burial, plus agree that it sounds great blasted out.
Nick, only listened to the full thing a couple of times and am enjoying its bits and pieces approach. Seems like a slightly strange release to put out on a major label as much of it seems like unfinished experiments than full tracks but am still appreciating it. Also like the way that every new release by him sounds pretty different from the one before.
its well worth reading the self-titled interview, he comes across as pretty genial for a bloke that lives at home with his mum with nowt but a parrot and a bag of weed for company. dedication turns out to be about the passing of his father. http://www.self-titledmag.com/home/2011/06/29/the-self-titled-interview-zomby/
If someone had asked me to imagine what a band would sound like if they comprised the lead singer from Hot Chip, a former Derek Bailey sideman, a member of Spiritualized and the drummer from This Heat (the latter three all with backgrounds in free improv), the last thing on earth I'd have said would have been The Band.
hey, thanks for the heads up, i??ve just unpacked the LP and its sounding really great! actually just listening to it.... thx
I love the theo parrish remix of about group, worth a check.
Will check the Zomby interview when I get the chance, and I was unsure if the b-side of that About Group remix single was the better!
Also recently went out and put some money into a Strutter's pocket:
Contructive crit time: Have only listened to it once so far, and the first three or so tracks blend into each other beautifully, [strike]but then there's a track so non-descript that it had me wondering what it was doing on there... will need to listen again and ID which one it was.[/strike] Proper speakers sorted this out!
Overall though, very nice, but knowing that you (INVRS) came on here a while back asking about alternative tracks for the stuff you couldn't licence, I wondered which tracks were shoe-horned in as replacements, and where...
its well worth reading the self-titled interview, he comes across as pretty genial for a bloke that lives at home with his mum with nowt but a parrot and a bag of weed for company. dedication turns out to be about the passing of his father. http://www.self-titledmag.com/home/2011/06/29/the-self-titled-interview-zomby/
Really great interview and, I have to say, not what I expected. Surprising list of artists he mentions in there as well, seems that his general tastes are more in tune with mine than I would expect listening to Dedication.
B/w After hearing his hardcore tribute , would love to hear his unreleased jungle album.
it's fascinating stuff isn't it, he's gonna be debated for years to come. all of that arsehole behaviour, which is totally well documented - in case you didn't know, ripping kids off by telling them to send him cash and he'd send them wavs (lol) that he never delivered, never turning up to shows, turning up to shows then getting drunk taking the money and then running off into the sunset, leaving a trail of pissed off promoters in his wake, sending death threats to labels he's worked for, journalists that have written for him.. and yet some dude talks to him on ichat and the dude is mellow as fukc. the way he has built a mythology around himself that simultaneously pisses people off and draws them is unique.
Good interview with Zomby. Strange (or he's in fact being a little coy about his motives) that he made Natalia's Song just to give to Burial on some sort of check this shit out tip.
Junior said:
would love to hear his unreleased jungle album.
Yes!
I went to a festival this weekend in Oxfordshire called 'Truck'. Spent most of it feeling old as there were loads of just-finished A-levels kids about, and also feeling like people are so straight now. Only ever caught the whiff of a jazz cigarette once, rarely saw people smoking, no gurners, nobody was in a real mess, or just lying on the floor drunk, people looked far too clean-cut, and like some kind of uniform, most of the girls were wearing cut-off denim short hotpants* with wellies. Maybe it was the crowd. I didn't know any of the musicians apart form Gruff Rhys from Super Furry Animals, and I don't even know any of his music. It seemed to be an indie/singer song-writer festival.
BUT, they did have a dance music tent, and on Saturday night it was rammed to the sounds of oldskool jungle in the muthafucking house! Was weird brokking out with kids who would've been 1-5 yrs old when the music came out, and turned out that the DJ was an old friend I used to spin hip-hop with BITD. He was playing tunes like the Burial by Leviticus, but as soon as he dropped Vice by Foul Play** I actually thought it had to be him playing.
Despite being pissed as a rat, I was self aware enough to feel somehow vindicated that I was listening to Jungle and having the most fun over the entire festival, and that the younger generation were enjoying it too... it was like an old friend had come in from the cold, bad memories of sh*t two step and wobble forgiven and forgotten.
* not necessarily a bad thing!
** one of Playford's more obscure cuts, and hardly known as a dancefloor wrecker, it samples the same jazz-horn line as Jamoze "The Rythmologist" with slick drum cuts and pounding subbass.
Ha! Man, I haven't been to anything that played old jungle/drum and bass in so long. I think the last time it happened I was at some sort of post work drinks event and we wandered into a bar in London that had a dnb night in the back. I didn't know whether to laugh, dance, or cry but was probably most aware that, standing in my suit while fighting the urge to at the very least nod my head in appreciation while cradling an over priced pint, I was, officially, too old.
B/w Vice is a great track. No youtube to help me but I also seem to recall either Karma Pt 1 or 2 off the b-side to be even better. Almost makes me want to go dig that and Suspected out of what ever dusty pile they're currently residing in.
I didn't know whether to laugh, dance, or cry but was probably most aware that, standing in my suit while fighting the urge to at the very least nod my head in appreciation while cradling an over priced pint, I was, officially, too old.
Fuck that. I would've done the running man while Ali-G finger-whipping to the beat with my spare hand, yelled "Reeeewind" right in my colleague's faces, thrown my beer in the air and joined the mosh.
And the next day at work claim to have no memory of the whole episode, and let them know that I'd asked the Police if I could be tested for Rohypnol.
B/w Vice is a great track. No youtube to help me but I also seem to recall either Karma Pt 1 or 2 off the b-side to be even better. Almost makes me want to go dig that and Suspected out of what ever dusty pile they're currently residing in.
The thing I like about Vice (assuming it's that one and not Karma that I'm thinking of) is the way that the beats change up throughout the song and progressively get harder, until the last round are pounding Amens.
It was surreal as it's been a while since I heard jungle played out, and you kind of fear that it will have lost all relevance. Not at all, was brilliant vibes!
In defence of the country/folk music on the actual stages at Truck Festival, my friend summed up it's merits best when he said that for all of the so-called nihilistic themes prevelant in rap (he's a big Geto Boys fan), the majority of country that he hears and likes is far, far darker than most rap tunes, with songs about alcoholic mothers murdering their own newborn children and such being just the start of a long, plaintive dirge into the agonies of life at the shitty end of the stick. We heard a bloke called Nathaniel Rateliff who served up just this kind of wounded animal howl with aplomb.
Dunno what the song in this vid is, but you get the idea.
I didn't know whether to laugh, dance, or cry but was probably most aware that, standing in my suit while fighting the urge to at the very least nod my head in appreciation while cradling an over priced pint, I was, officially, too old.
Fuck that. I would've done the running man while Ali-G finger-whipping to the beat with my spare hand, yelled "Reeeewind" right in my colleague's faces, thrown my beer in the air and joined the mosh.
And the next day at work claim to have no memory of the whole episode, and let them know that I'd asked the Police if I could be tested for Rohypnol.
Ha ha but that, my friend, is why you are the very definition of Banglash and I am but a spectator looking in from the outside.
B/w Vice is a great track. No youtube to help me but I also seem to recall either Karma Pt 1 or 2 off the b-side to be even better. Almost makes me want to go dig that and Suspected out of what ever dusty pile they're currently residing in.
The thing I like about Vice (assuming it's that one and not Karma that I'm thinking of) is the way that the beats change up throughout the song and progressively get harder, until the last round are pounding Amens.
It was surreal as it's been a while since I heard jungle played out, and you kind of fear that it will have lost all relevance. Not at all, was brilliant vibes!
Yeah I think I'll have to dig them out (how the hell is that 12" not on Youtube?) but do remember Vice having that slow momentum build while I think Karma pt 1 and 2 were variations on a bassline, one slow, one harder. I miss the days of tracks that would tease with the Amen, I'm thinking SS Black, Flash Pulp Fact, Gachet Remember The Rollers etc etc. In fact, I think I just miss the Amen.
I do believe that, out of most producers out there, Zomby would be just the man to capture the essence of true Jungle as Where Were You In 92 was a frighteningly accurate trip back to the brief but glorious days of hardcore.
not adding too much to the dialogue - but re: junglism i found the blame 2 x 12" Feel The Energy on Moving Shadow from 93 this weekend and boyyyy did that make me feel.. the.. energy.. hardcore you know the score! its all coming back i think. that new machine drum LP is very hardcore in places.
I do believe that, out of most producers out there, Zomby would be just the man to capture the essence of true Jungle as Where Were You In 92 was a frighteningly accurate trip back to the brief but glorious days of hardcore.
I do wonder about the guy. Aphex Twin did an interview where he said he has 6 finished albums sitting around waiting to be released. Really? I want a Jungle tribute LP to be true, but...
If I wasn't a lazy bastard, I'd put on a night, call it Echo Chamber, and regularly rinse out jungle, dub, dancehall, DnB, dubstep etc.
Pioneer mixer with the BPM assignable echo effect would get battered.
So would I.
But I'm a lazy bastard.
Will check that Machinedrum thing. Beatnik, if you have any way of getting word to the man like Zomby, tell him to put that Jungle out there! I want to hear it before RSI cuts-short my pogoing days.
Also, on the new music tip, has anybody bought http://www.soundsoftheuniverse.com/releases/?id=24349
Side A on my copy is f*cked. It starts fine, but then plays as if it's really warped. But it isn't. Is it meant to sound warped?
All that early moving shadow stuff is fantastic, I love how most of that hardcore era music has a bedroom studio rawness to it that understandably got lost over the subsequent years. Listen to something like an early 2 Bad Mice track and it's all muffled drums and distortion and sounds all the better for it. Would love to hear some of that kind of sound coming through again.
Just out of interest, what's the pricing on that sort of 91-93 era hardcore like? I'm guessing the demand for Jungle/early DnB isn't really going crazy yet but was thinking that earlier time period might demand a bit more attention and wondering how much it would cost to fill the holes in my collection.
Comments
New project by Adrian Quesada ft great singers from Brazil & Argentina, goes down really really nice as well.
I highly recommend it. It's a return to Azymuth's root Jazz Funk sound, not in an overproduced or cheesy way either. Check it:
Just downloaded it. The fact that this group is making the same music after all this time and hasn't fallen off at all is nuts. Just so amazing.
Thanks for posting the article. Nice read,
Despite all the genre postulating, I think the part that I bolded is most important.
For serato I have a folder called "Bassline", and that contains half of the artists mentioned here. The other folder is called "future beat" and it contains some of the other half and some overlap between artists. Its easier just to lump it all together and get down to it!
The best thing about this aggregate of new music all the artists are feeding off each other and the DJs mixing and matching between them all to make some really nice sounding mixes and sets. The whole point is that its new and exciting imo.
This song is so cotdam good to me right now, cant wait to hear more
Other good new stuff this year includes DJ Shadow - I Gotta Rokk , Dark Sky - Ghost Notes, Orchestre Poly-Rhythmo - Cotonou Club, Danger Mouse and Danial Luppi - Rome.....
I picked this up, and actually like it more than most tunes by Burial. On the one hand, it could easily be dismissed as muzaky trip-hop (inoffensive to the ear and soothing tones), but on the other if you pump it up loud enough there's enough going on to hold your attention (it has that skippy quality to it that I like about some post-dubstep-future-bass-blah-music).
Plus... the packaging and etched b-side is great!
Yeah I thought it was interesting that, according to the gospel that is the comments on that YouTube post, Zomby originally did the track for Burial hence the stylistic choices made. To me, while it definitely has a Burial 'feel', it has an urgency to it that is very un-Burial, plus agree that it sounds great blasted out.
Nick, only listened to the full thing a couple of times and am enjoying its bits and pieces approach. Seems like a slightly strange release to put out on a major label as much of it seems like unfinished experiments than full tracks but am still appreciating it. Also like the way that every new release by him sounds pretty different from the one before.
I love the theo parrish remix of about group, worth a check.
http://www.soundsoftheuniverse.com/releases/?id=23913
Also recently went out and put some money into a Strutter's pocket:
Contructive crit time: Have only listened to it once so far, and the first three or so tracks blend into each other beautifully, [strike]but then there's a track so non-descript that it had me wondering what it was doing on there... will need to listen again and ID which one it was.[/strike] Proper speakers sorted this out!
Overall though, very nice, but knowing that you (INVRS) came on here a while back asking about alternative tracks for the stuff you couldn't licence, I wondered which tracks were shoe-horned in as replacements, and where...
Really great interview and, I have to say, not what I expected. Surprising list of artists he mentions in there as well, seems that his general tastes are more in tune with mine than I would expect listening to Dedication.
B/w After hearing his hardcore tribute , would love to hear his unreleased jungle album.
Yes!
I went to a festival this weekend in Oxfordshire called 'Truck'. Spent most of it feeling old as there were loads of just-finished A-levels kids about, and also feeling like people are so straight now. Only ever caught the whiff of a jazz cigarette once, rarely saw people smoking, no gurners, nobody was in a real mess, or just lying on the floor drunk, people looked far too clean-cut, and like some kind of uniform, most of the girls were wearing cut-off denim short hotpants* with wellies. Maybe it was the crowd. I didn't know any of the musicians apart form Gruff Rhys from Super Furry Animals, and I don't even know any of his music. It seemed to be an indie/singer song-writer festival.
BUT, they did have a dance music tent, and on Saturday night it was rammed to the sounds of oldskool jungle in the muthafucking house! Was weird brokking out with kids who would've been 1-5 yrs old when the music came out, and turned out that the DJ was an old friend I used to spin hip-hop with BITD. He was playing tunes like the Burial by Leviticus, but as soon as he dropped Vice by Foul Play** I actually thought it had to be him playing.
Despite being pissed as a rat, I was self aware enough to feel somehow vindicated that I was listening to Jungle and having the most fun over the entire festival, and that the younger generation were enjoying it too... it was like an old friend had come in from the cold, bad memories of sh*t two step and wobble forgiven and forgotten.
* not necessarily a bad thing!
** one of Playford's more obscure cuts, and hardly known as a dancefloor wrecker, it samples the same jazz-horn line as Jamoze "The Rythmologist" with slick drum cuts and pounding subbass.
B/w Vice is a great track. No youtube to help me but I also seem to recall either Karma Pt 1 or 2 off the b-side to be even better. Almost makes me want to go dig that and Suspected out of what ever dusty pile they're currently residing in.
Fuck that. I would've done the running man while Ali-G finger-whipping to the beat with my spare hand, yelled "Reeeewind" right in my colleague's faces, thrown my beer in the air and joined the mosh.
And the next day at work claim to have no memory of the whole episode, and let them know that I'd asked the Police if I could be tested for Rohypnol.
The thing I like about Vice (assuming it's that one and not Karma that I'm thinking of) is the way that the beats change up throughout the song and progressively get harder, until the last round are pounding Amens.
It was surreal as it's been a while since I heard jungle played out, and you kind of fear that it will have lost all relevance. Not at all, was brilliant vibes!
In defence of the country/folk music on the actual stages at Truck Festival, my friend summed up it's merits best when he said that for all of the so-called nihilistic themes prevelant in rap (he's a big Geto Boys fan), the majority of country that he hears and likes is far, far darker than most rap tunes, with songs about alcoholic mothers murdering their own newborn children and such being just the start of a long, plaintive dirge into the agonies of life at the shitty end of the stick. We heard a bloke called Nathaniel Rateliff who served up just this kind of wounded animal howl with aplomb.
Dunno what the song in this vid is, but you get the idea.
Ha ha but that, my friend, is why you are the very definition of Banglash and I am but a spectator looking in from the outside.
Yeah I think I'll have to dig them out (how the hell is that 12" not on Youtube?) but do remember Vice having that slow momentum build while I think Karma pt 1 and 2 were variations on a bassline, one slow, one harder. I miss the days of tracks that would tease with the Amen, I'm thinking SS Black, Flash Pulp Fact, Gachet Remember The Rollers etc etc. In fact, I think I just miss the Amen.
I do believe that, out of most producers out there, Zomby would be just the man to capture the essence of true Jungle as Where Were You In 92 was a frighteningly accurate trip back to the brief but glorious days of hardcore.
Nonsense - you just forgot the tequila chasers.
I do wonder about the guy. Aphex Twin did an interview where he said he has 6 finished albums sitting around waiting to be released. Really? I want a Jungle tribute LP to be true, but...
If I wasn't a lazy bastard, I'd put on a night, call it Echo Chamber, and regularly rinse out jungle, dub, dancehall, DnB, dubstep etc.
Pioneer mixer with the BPM assignable echo effect would get battered.
So would I.
But I'm a lazy bastard.
Will check that Machinedrum thing. Beatnik, if you have any way of getting word to the man like Zomby, tell him to put that Jungle out there! I want to hear it before RSI cuts-short my pogoing days.
Also, on the new music tip, has anybody bought http://www.soundsoftheuniverse.com/releases/?id=24349
Side A on my copy is f*cked. It starts fine, but then plays as if it's really warped. But it isn't. Is it meant to sound warped?
Just out of interest, what's the pricing on that sort of 91-93 era hardcore like? I'm guessing the demand for Jungle/early DnB isn't really going crazy yet but was thinking that earlier time period might demand a bit more attention and wondering how much it would cost to fill the holes in my collection.