Fab & Groove @ Rage

I don't think Bug In The Bassbin was out until '92.

Lots of Belgian stuff I think. Just read the other day that "Pump Up The Jam" was played by them quite a bit when it just came out. They kept on playing quite a bit of that stuff - it was just about the hardest/darkest stuff available for a little while.

manlikemalcolm said:

can anyone tell me some of the big tunes that were played around this time? Kenny Dope hip-hop cuts on 45, bug in the bassbin, Radio Babylon?

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from everything I've ever seen (yunno, on the Internet) all of these. @Kenny Dope, or rather MAW - "Justa Lil Dope". Success-n-Effect - "Roll It Up" is another one, at least according to Frankie Bones. plus of course pioneers like SUAD & everyone they produced, early 4 Hero, etc. which were both around the same time as the things you mentioned. as well all the Belgium/Beltram stuff as dude mentioned.

there's a bit of a debate about "Bug In the Bassbin" - I remember SR particular going off in some article from like '96 or so about how it was an after the fact bit of bollocks historiography by certain producers who wanted a more upscale history, e.g. Carl Craig rather than "Dominator".

also if you root around old threads I'm sure there's like a million discussions about or relating to this.

A selection from the "Rage 50" chart compiled by Fabio from the appendix in the book 'Last Night A DJ Saved My Life' by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton:

Adamski - Killer
Joey Beltram - Energy Flash
Joey Beltram - Mentasm
LTJ Bukem - Horizons
LTJ Bukem - Music
Innerzone Orchstra - Bug In The Bassbin
Lennie De Ice - We Are I.E.
Deep Blue - The Helicopter Track
Euphony - Just For You London (Bodysnatch remix)
Fingers Inc - I'm Strong
Fingers Inc - Mr Fingers
Goldie - Terminator
Leftfield - Not Forgotten
LFO - LFO
Moby - Go
Rhythim Is Rhythim - It Is What It Is
Rhythim Is Rhythim - Strings Of Life
Sueno Latino - Sueno Latino
Zero B - Lock Up

padraig (u.s.) said:

there's a bit of a debate about "Bug In the Bassbin" - I remember SR particular going off in some article from like '96 or so about how it was an after the fact bit of bollocks historiography by certain producers who wanted a more upscale history, e.g. Carl Craig rather than "Dominator".

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I always thought that was a weird thing for Reynolds to say, and a bit curmudgeonly. I mean, if Fabio + Grooverider say they played something, why doubt them?

It's only fair that memories should be a bit scattered but Horizon really? Must have been on dub for years if that's right.

I went in 91 and they played "get ready for this" by 2 unlimited...

It's from the "centenary edition" published in 2006.

I've got the original edition also but it doesn't have a Rage chart in the back.

I thought it was strange Horizons appearing their and some of the other Jungle tracks like Helicopter. Probably Fabio/Bill Brewster/Frank Broughton printing the legend rather than the facts!

listen everyone played subbase, production house, noise factory, reinforced and belgian stuff standard.

The revisionism re: Bug In The Bass Bin I put down a little bit to Mo' Wax. I mean it's a great track which no doubt was quite important, but all of a sudden in around 1996 Mo Wax released that deluxe edition with about five remixes. It wasn't exactly a staple record I don't think.

It's like when people claim Black Dog's Virtual started jungle.... (was that another Reynolds target? He was right if so)

Fabio was definitely playing it regularly well before that though.

Heard Darren Emerson play it as well, at the right speed. fwiw

It probably wasn't more staple because it wasn't very easy to get hold of!

hucks said:

I always thought that was a weird thing for Reynolds to say, and a bit curmudgeonly. I mean, if Fabio + Grooverider say they played something, why doubt them?

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I dunno if he was even talking about Fabio & Grooverider, or at least them specifically, whether or not they in fact did play "Bug in the Bassbin" at 45. More that it was symbolic of a certain segment of junglists reaching for legitimacy ca. '96. as I recall the same article goes in on Photek (unsurprisingly Alex Reece gets some rough handling as well) for claiming that he'd always been into the more cerebral side of Detroit techno & disdaining all the ruff, rude bwoy, etc. which is a bit bollocks given that Photek is behind a classic ardkore tune from '92, chipmunk vox & all.

@Derek - what's ironic is that most of the Mo Wax remixes are quite good. particularly Peshay's, if I remember.

mms said:

listen everyone played subbase, production house, reinforced and belgian stuff standard.

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yeah Production House is well underrated. well I guess people rate Acen as one of the few ardkore auteur types. probably doesn't help that a lot of Production House's output is utter crap, split up by a handful of great, classic tunes. Ibiza Records is another one.

bugbin

here's what i wrote (in my Over-Rated of 1996)
(which is findable here
http://simonreynoldsfavesunfaves.blogspot.com/2008/12/faves-and-over-rated-of-1996-from.html )

THE "BUG IN THE BASSBIN" REMIXES (MO WAX)

Carl Craig's original 1992 versions--mystified out of all proportion, largely
because they've been for so long impossible to hear--revealed themselves, on
their re-release late last year, to be engagingly peculiar and damn fine pieces
of music. But for the life of me I can't hear them as drum & bass prototypes:
the breakbeat is looped, sure, but not fucked with or chopped up, and the
jungalistic feel just isn't there. Maybe Fabio and Grooverider did drop "Bug"
down at Rage, legendarily pitched up to 45 rpm--but the idea that the track was
a seminal and formative influence on the nascent jungle sound is preposterous.
It's one of those myths cultivated by A/ drum and bass producers grasping for a
supposedly more elevated ancestry for what they do, and B/ johnny-come-lately
technoheads and breakbeat-niks like James Lavelle (i.e. people who would never
have gone within sneering distance of Rage), for whom the idea that Carl Craig
and Black Dog devised the blueprint for drum and bass is reassuring. It allows
them to avoid the truth: the real inventors of jungle were oufits like 2 Bad
Mice/Kaotic Chemistry ("Waremouse", "Bombscare", "Drum Trip II"), Noise Factory
and the rest of the Ibiza/Third Party crew, Urban Shakedown, the Suburban Bass
acts (Krome & Time/Q-Bass/Hype/Sonz of A Loop Da Loop Era,etc), DJ SS and the
Formation crews, Shut Up and Dance, hell, even The Prodigy. These people,
utterly ignored and marginalised, invented the future. Rave producers, in other
words; 'ardkore, in all its pilled-up, made-in-two-minutes, spotty teenager,
Amiga-in-the-bedroom glory. Belgium had more to do with jungle than Detroit,
ferchrissakes."

Fab and Groove used to talk in their Mixmag and Muzik interviews circa 95-96 about how they played a real mix of stuff at Rage, tracks on Nu Groove and so forth, but i have to say, on the mixtapes from the early 90s i've found on the web, their sets don't appear to be radically different from what e.g. Top Buzz was playing at that time

Its a bit like the story that a lot of the top boy dubstep djs all have a history playing jungle......

people just wanted to get fucked up on E. Producers at the time made tracks while they were on E. Fabio and Grooverider played those tracks.

fabio and grooverider didn't really become important until rage and jungle, they were djs playing on the hardcore scene like everyone else.
They're both from Croydon incidentally.

You sure? I thought Groove was from round near Camberwell and Fabio from Brixon.