Blackdown said:
I have virtually all the key EPs from that era. both Hangable Autobulb EPs, all the Plug EPs, five or six Squarepusher EPs on Spymania and the Ambient Soho sublabel plus the DJ Food remix. I was at the Blue Note when Vibert as Plug debuted his album alongside AFX and Boymerang in '96 (as well as attending Metalheadz and Stealth et al) <B>so what's your point droid?</B>.
Fair dues. My point is that your comment seemed to me to reflect the kind of criticsm generally levelled at drill+bass/breakcore, not necessarily commenting on the music itself, but criticism of the (real or imagined) 'stance' taken by it's creators.
Since that time, by immersing myself in London's multicultural meltingpot, I've come to see that IDM headz, of which followers of Squarepusher are prime examples, completely fail to see the difference between music and culture.
Goddamn those nerdy IDM kids and their lack of culturo-social contexts! If only they could all move to London and learn what music is 'really' all about - culture!
I cant speak for the 'headz' out there, but my own blindness to the signifigance of the cultural differences between HC/Jungle/Drill+ Bass have nothing to do with my love of IDM or Electronica.
Naphta put it very well in the recent 'speed of jungle' thread:
Naphta said:
Speaking for myself (i.e. based outside the UK) I heard it all - ambient artcore, ruffneck tear-outs, moody minimalism - as different strands of the same music - and accepted it on that level - without any particular pre-conceptions about the make-up of its UK audience... hence my fondness for late Sub Base like Ill Skillz, for early Joker records for instance, or for Bristol rollers, Dope Dragon and the like.
In a similar vein, I made little or no distinction between the different variants of jungle, even if they were at completely different poles culturally. It was the sonics that mattered to me. Id happily flit from ambient + artcore d+b like LGR, and early Springheel Jack to some Ragga vocalled Marvellous Cain or Shy FX to a Bristol Roller on V and then back to some Shadow or Metalheadz via a bit of SS jump up on Formation.
To me, the drill + bass which emerged in the mid-90's was just another mutated strain of Jungle, which I saw as something to embrace, especially since at the time, the rest of the scene already seemed to be consolidating itself by narrowing its musical boundaries and eliminating rogue sonic elements.
IMO a
lack of cultural specifics or context is not necessarily a bad thing... It liberates your relationship with the music and allows an appraisal of it based on the sounds it makes rather then who made it, what they said about it, or how it fits into someones subjective
cultural experience of the music.
It could also be argued that it was the willingness of HC/Jungle headz to completely ignore the 'culture' of the music that they were sampling and dancing to that led to the 'beautiful divergence' of rave music in the first place. To me there seemed to be no rules. Techno/Hip-hop/Acid house/Jazz/Reggae - it was all up for grabs, as long as it could be manipulated to provide the 'rush'. Again, if we're speaking of the sonics (and they're what really matter - right?) I believe that, at the time, drill + bass in some ways reflected this original ethos, and had the potential to provide a badly needed re-injection of the 'anything goes' spirit into D+B.
you say " The continuity from hardcore/jungle is self evident IMO." Sure Squarepusher's track used rave musical influences in them, but they contain no rave culture.
But music in itself doesn't 'contain' culture. People make cultural associations about music based on what they learn about it, and how they themselves experience it: When it was made, and who made it/in what context they first heard it/how it relates to other music/and what impact it had socially - these are all elements of the cultural context in which we place music... Germaican dancehall/Reggaeton/UK hip hop are all examples of scenes which are (in different ways) culturally divorced from the original source, whilst retaining strong musical connections... and IMO, if we are to judge a piece (or genre) of music. we should focus primarily on its
musical attributes rather than looking at secondary or academic factors such as its cultural
place.
his tracks are interesting sonically but totally monocultural. "anything goes" in those raves ... as long as you're white, male and middle class.
I dont quite get this. Are you implying that the the music itself is inherently conservative? That Squarepusher/AFX/Vibert et all could only create 'white, male and middle class' music because of their backgrounds? That their audience was exclusively MOR white boys?
IMO this is all wide of the mark. I see the experimental element of drill+bass not as a 'white, middle class' pretension (though this may be an factor with some artists), but as a continuation/mutation of the later work of the likes of D'Cruze,T-power and Arcon 2, whilst also referencing both the dirty unpredictable choppage of stuff like 'The trooper' by Hype and 'Ruffige' by SS, and the rolling symphonies of Omni Trio and Crystl... but then again I guess I dont have the 'cultural' knowledge to make a true appraisal, and have nothing
other that the music itself to base my opinion on...
I also know from my own experience of playing Plug/AFX/SP records at both Electronica,
and Jungle nights (such as Bassbin), that
anyone (girls/boys/blacks/whites) can get off on this music on the dancefloor, and that when its placed in the musical context of jungle/D+B it
functions just as well as any other variant of the strain. In fact the reactions Ive gotten when playing out drill + bass at jungle nights down through the years has generally been positive, and has (on more than one occasion) involved a 'wow! - what the fuck is that!' rush to the DJ box by at least a few punters...
Rave was a unique and beautiful divergence in british class and race groups, as was jungle that followed it.
Im not denying that this is a vaild point of view. But perceptions differ. I bought some HC records off a guy a few years back who'd moved here from the UK. We got to talking about the early 90's, and whilst he had fond reminicies of the Rave era, he never got into Jungle because 'all the gangsters and coke' and the 'ragga' thing put him off. For him HC/Rave was just as culturally different from Jungle, as you seem to view Drill + bass is from jungle, despite the obvious sonic connections.
Drill n bass removed itself from that unique cultural continuum - yet claimed to embody it. i'd call that a "valid criticism."
How did it do that exactly? Did AFX/SP et al go round to jungle nights and demand that DJ's
not play their records? And who made the claim that they 'embodied' it? (and when was he elected head of the drill + bass commitee?)
I dont believe its a simple as that. If Drill + Bass excluded itself from the 'cultural continuim' of jungle, the fact that the continuim excluded them is also a major factor... By 95 the Jungle scene had dwindled to a relative handful of labels, sounds and major players, and it was very difficult to break into the scene without the approval of at least one of a small number of DJs and producers. New artists like J Majik/Boymerang/Optical etc.. tended to be introduced to the scene through a kind of protoge system, with people like Goldie/Grooverider/Hype/Nico pushing them via their own labels, radio shows and club nights.
Whilst I think your point has some merit (definitely more than your previous one anyway)
. I dont really agree with the conclusions you've drawn, nor do I accept that consideration of the cultural factors of music should supercede the actual experience of listening to it...
Sorry for hijacking this thread btw.
