Brokeman said:
Big up...
haven't put out anything in a while but I'm working on loads of new stuff... just disregarding most d+b c. 2005 and trying to make stuff that reflects all the amazing shit that first influenced me 10 years ago... everything from the more self-consciously 'musical' tunes from Goldie, Foul Play, Omni Trio, Photek etc. through to the rawness of vintage Trace, Hype, Dillinja, etc. There IS a new generation of producers picking up the threads of influences like these in d+b today (labels like Offshore, Bassbin & Inperspective are best known for supporting em), but most are having serious difficulties getting onto wax - or rather, securing distribution deals with the trad d+b distributors for their more 'out-there' tracks i.e. the stuff that doesn't sound like Bad Company/Twisted Individual mid-range 2-step.
What I DO miss however, is the fearsome intelligence of AWOL-style rollers and tear-out tracks - the likes of old DJ SS, L Double, Shy FX, Pascal so on.... BREAKAGE is probably the producer who best reflects that in his music now (EQUINOX too, to a lesser extent) - and I'd hazard a guess that neither of them would still be making drum n bass at all (nor me) if it weren't for the determination of PARADOX in sticking to his guns down through the years..... however, all of the above pretty much pin their colours to the 96 mast in drum n bass - the period that they claim was the music's highest point, and in doing so, IMO, they tend to miss out on some of the colour and exuberance of 93-95.. on the mash-up of dark and light, of humour and gravity, and of willful freakishness with functionality.
Interestingly enough though, Paradox's recent material has seen him re-engage with the dancefloor a little more obviously than he was doing for some time... a move I fully endorse as IMO, he hasn't sacrificed what he does one bit in order to do so. Compare some recent 12"s to his 2 LPs on Reinforced... there's more emotional give in them than I heard from him for a long time... which leads me to suspect that the self-consciously 'experimental' fringe that producers like him are often seen to represent need not necessarily be so - at least it need not necesarily be so self-conscious about it.
More often than not, 'resistance' movements in a music type or scene start out from a position of protest - lamenting the absence of something from the music that they once loved. In the case of Paradox, Breakage, Equinox etc. (and me), it was the drums - the disappearance of cut-up breakbeats from drum n bass. However, give them an opportunity to have their music accepted and used - socially, and I think that the reputation for po-facedness that the d+b resistance is usually labelled with ('trainspotters'/'chinstrokers'/'snobs' etc. - these are the usual critiques levlled by 'the scene' at Djs and producers like us) can melt away. It already has to some extent, and the few-and-far between d+b nights like Bassbin's 'Refuge' and Inperspective's 'Technicality' that showcase these styles have demonstrated that.
People like us are under no illusion - drum n bass gets its power and urgency from its potential deployment in a dancefloor context... hence we want access to that environment.. which is why we don't to settle for backroom lounge status simply because what we make and play is a little more demanding than yer average d+b number. We were around in 94/95 - we saw thousands of people going apeshit to this music. Maybe we won't be able to achieve anything remotely comparable again now that the element of surprise has disappeared, but that hasn't stopped us from trying!
Hmmm... how did I get here?
Ahh yes.... point that would prob interest Blissblogger... none of the above nu-skool producers that I've cited have much time for old jump-up/rollidge - chiefly cos it ain't 'musical' enough.. but also, I suspect, because that music was seen as belonging to a different social group in the UK back in the day - the wannabe gangstas and rudeboys who ended up bringing so much trouble to the scene. A class difference? To some extent, yes - or so I believe anyway. 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. Anyone any thoughts on this? Does my non-aligned freedom-to-choose/lack of cultural specifics liberate my relationship with the music?
Sorry for straying off-topic here..!
