Bumping (and flexing, ha) an old thread but it has the most appropriate title. Just seen this whilst looking online for something else:
http://www.ministryofsound.com/shop/product/music/34154/the-sound-of-uk-garage/
Inexplicably, a brand new Ministry-branded UKG compilation. So is the sound (and the term) gaining traction again? Looking at the tracklisting (see link above) reveals that a big chunk of this is new, recently-made garage. (There are some classics, too, but that's pretty standard for Ministry comps.) It certainly isn't 'future garage' - I hesitate to call it 'past garage' (though I seem to have done so anyway, curses) but it is pretty much a 'reboot' (ugh, sorry) of the original 2-step and 4/4 sound of the late 90s.
This pleases me greatly, and having listened to most of it (there's a listening widget on the Ministry site), I'm quite excited. I'd heard a few of Mike Delinquent's mixes in this style but there are plenty of others on here that are good - and most of them from returning originators. There's an excellent Wideboys remix, a really pretty Wookie one, and of course Dem 2 are back and, it seems, just as good as before.
(Although it's just Dem 1 now, according to this blurb:
http://www.fabriclondon.com/blog/view/audio-dem-2-fabriclive-x-urban-nerds-mix The mix in that link is ace, too, the jittery Dem 2 style is still abundant and he even manages to make the new Sugababes single sound great (by mangling their vocals as per the Dem 2 usual).)
Also (
also), there's a 'best of Locked On' night at my local boozer tonight with Ramsey & Fen. (Shacklewell Arms in Dalston if you fancy it, free admission too.) So as I said earlier, is garage back? If Ministry deem it viable to release and licence a comp like this then the signs are encouraging. I'd really like to think it was - much as I love funky, and some future garage, neither quite has the allure of 'proper' garage. I dunno, though, perhaps this just another facet of retromania (cf. Simon Reynolds) and I should be getting excited about something else? Either way, the sun's out, I've got the Club Asylum mix of K-Ci and Jojo on, and I'm off to see Ramsey and Fen later. Life is grand.