Post the best grime instrumentals ever

[padraig (u.s.)]

luka I have a healthy amount of respect for you in a number of areas but this is indisputable

 

[luka]

i reckon theres a seachange with 50 cent. it's when you start hearing all the rhetoric around songwriting and songwriting equalling commerical success.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

the part about American rap is indisputable at least. I think the grime issue with hooks is also true but that's more theorizing.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

that's just not true

what about the whole shiny suits era, Life After Death, Ma$e, etc. The Dungeon Family. G-funk. all that stuff is largely about melody, hooks.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

I'm not saying there weren't plenty of dudes just rapping over minimal boom-bap well into the 90s but definitely it happened before 50 Cent.

anyway, back on topic, grime was always stuck between being rave (faceless, tracks>songs) and pop (artists, hooks, songs). simultaneously a huge strength but also a huge factor in its struggles to break out. I mean virtually all of the successes transitioned into pop to some degree, no?

 

[sadmanbarty]

sorry for being simultaneously pretentious and boring but:

reynolds said that hardcore 'abolishes narrative: instead of tension/climax/release, it offers a thousand plateaux of crescendo, an endless successions of NOWs". i think where even the 'proper-grime' tracks on the albums fail is that they abandon that inherited mentality and try to conform the music to proper musical narratives and structures. this is a great example:



the brutalist sound palette and the mcing is all fine (the claps are a bit week, hence my problem with the mixing), but then you have this very traditional, out of place harmonic development throughout the track (which gangsta toys, boogeyman, etc. don't have interestingly enough) . it's trying to be bebop, when pulse x clearly showed us grime is modal jazz.

 

[thirdform]

modal jazz lmao.

 

[nomos]

Definitely showing my dubstep leanings with my selections, gravitating towards the more bass heavy, 'dark' ones.

Though when he made those ones, Plasticman was pointedly saying he was grime and not dubstep. That changed when dubstep took off.

Pearsall and I did an interview with him in mid-2005...

Pearsall: A lot of people get confused as to where you sit on the dubstep/grime divide, but I know you’ve said before that you make grime, could you maybe elaborate a bit on why what you make is grime, and not dubstep?

Plasticman: Because I’m a grime DJ, always have been – I started making music that would fit into my set – my only influence is from the other grime tracks I’m playing at the time! Dubstep is heavily influenced by 2 step and dub reggae. I have never listened to dub reggae before, I can’t draw influence to it; Besides that dubstep is all about deep basslines and lush melodic lines. My music isn’t melodic at all – I’m not musically trained, I just throw down whatever I think sounds good. I’m not a big fan of sub bass – I much prefer my bass to take up part of the track’s midrange aswell – and that for me is another key factor of grime music, listen to the square wave basses and you will notice that!

 

[CrowleyHead]

Money will do that.

 

[nomos]

This crashing into the mix with phones popping off and feedback ringing

 

[luka]

plasticman never made a tune that sounded grimy anyway.

 

[Pearsall]

man that Plasticman interview feels like a lifetime ago ...

always enjoyed this one, shame there wasn't more 'ardkore sampling going on in grime:

 

[luka]

doesnt sound one bit grimy tho does it

 

[Pearsall]

doesnt sound one bit grimy tho does it

I guess I'm curious here and wondering what exactly constitutes 'griminess' for you?

 

[luka]

impossible to say isnt it? just know it when you hear it. the sounds plasticman uses and the rhythms and the texture all sound wrong. and too adult and expensive.

 

[CrowleyHead]

impossible to say isnt it? just know it when you hear it. the sounds plasticman uses and the rhythms and the texture all sound wrong. and too adult and expensive.

Is it his Northern-ness for you any chance? Would you also cite the disconnect for say, Mark One? (I won't touch the MCs)

 

[Corpsey.]

the true dividing lines with jungle are whether you think it's blade runner or not.

Id like this expanded on

 

[luka]

Id like this expanded on

Bladerunner jungle is an established jungle I invented it to annoy droid

 

[Corpsey]

Odd seeing how I was writing posts on here in 2017. Not that long ago but I don't recognise that man.

 

[luka]

Odd seeing how I was writing posts on here in 2017. Not that long ago but I don't recognise that man.

I didn't like him