Why no easy to find "grime" comps?

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I think Sasha asks a good question here:

"(Not thanks, but a subtheme that someone can weigh in on: I've gotten three distinct and totally hot grime compilations in the mail from hardcore fans. How come some young millionaire funding a mindie hasn't put out one of these things? God bless Rephlex for adopting early, but that instrumental thing wouldn't convince anyone to stay past the first commercial. When d&b hit, we got a blazing and timely comp from Polygram/London/ffrr, for Hype's sake. Is this failure just evidence of the economy tanking? Is this the electronica dollar gone south? Couldn't DFA or somebody do this? Call Ingram, Jess and Luka, let them each curate a hot biscuit? Come on, trustafarians! Your destiny is waiting!)"

Dizzee albums, but no comps? Why?

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 20 August 2004 15:24 (twenty-one years ago)

i've wondered the same thing. its weird.

― dickvandyke (dickvandyke), Friday, 20 August 2004 15:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I make them. They're awesome.

― adam. (nordicskilla), Friday, 20 August 2004 15:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Simple: there's no real evidence it sells in any real quantity. Most individual 12"s are still only doing a couple of thousand copies at tops, and the majors want to see proper crossover hits before they'll put money into compilations.

I reckon you'll see much more grime action from the IDM labels first. I think Rephlex are planning another Grime comp which might well feature MCing. And I got a Mark One full-length on promo the other day. Guess who's putting it out? Planet Mu. Yup.

― Jason J, Friday, 20 August 2004 15:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes the SFJ post made me drool. Sharing is caring, people.

However you can get some grime comps here

http://www.independance-records.co.uk/ugat.htm

― Lukas (lukas), Friday, 20 August 2004 15:37 (twenty-one years ago)

hold on, how well were drum n bass comps selling? cant have been that well. if the labels dont try, then how are we gonna know if they do sell. most kids and average punters alike cant be bothered to go to all the elitist underground shops for the latest release, they stick to trusty HMV.

― dickvandyke (dickvandyke), Friday, 20 August 2004 15:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I went into Amoeba Hollywood the other day and asked if there was a separate grime section apart from UK Garage and the guy looked at me like I was insane.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:24 (twenty-one years ago)

They can be kinda snotty there anyway.

I know one guy there that is pretty into though, but he works in the hip hop section. I think they tend to view it as a British dervitive of hip hop.

― hector (hector), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:26 (twenty-one years ago)

i think lord of the decks 2 is fairly easy to find, right? at least via mailorder? i kinda underrated it at first, but it's tops!

― jess (dubplatestyle), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:55 (twenty-one years ago)

i dont think the jungle comps were selling ALL that well, but you could roll into a tower or hmv over here as late as 2000 and still find a king of the jungle or speed limit comp.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:58 (twenty-one years ago)

LOTD2 is still easy to come by, but LOTD1 is gone. :(

LORD OF THE MIC is really quite good.

― adam. (nordicskilla), Friday, 20 August 2004 18:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Thanks for doing that, Spencer.

― adam. (nordicskilla), Friday, 20 August 2004 18:02 (twenty-one years ago)

the dj target mix is good too, but i wish they hadn't bothered with the US tracks

― jess (dubplatestyle), Friday, 20 August 2004 18:06 (twenty-one years ago)

ATTN BRITISH PEOPLE: YOU DONT SOUND GOOD RAPPING OVER AMERICAN HIPHOP, GRIME DOES SOME WEIRD THING I CANT EXPLAIN WHERE IT MAKES YOU SOUND GOOD, STICK TO THAT, K THNX

― benito mussolinington (dubplatestyle), Friday, 20 August 2004 18:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Whether Jungle comps were selling all that well is sort of beside the point as THERE were at least 3 labels (Moonshine, Sm:)e and Instinct) releasing/distributing domestic jungle comps as early as '94 (there were also at least a few major label one offs as early as '95.)
There are no grime comps getting any sort of domestic distribution, despite the fact that there is obviously at least enough of a market to justify distributing Dizzee propah albums.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 20 August 2004 20:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think a market for Dizzee means a market for grime comps. A one-off genius MC from London is an easier sell than a whole scene full of people you've never heard of.

― Lukas (lukas), Friday, 20 August 2004 20:17 (twenty-one years ago)

IT is easier to market comps when you already have a "name" artist! Shit jungle didn't have no relatively high profile artists (initially) to cross market their comps with. You just put big stickers advertising a new Dizzee single on it and think of the crassist possible title and the thing sells itself!

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 20 August 2004 20:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Crassest Possible Title = "Grime Spree"

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Friday, 20 August 2004 21:32 (twenty-one years ago)

TAKE A BITE OUT OF GRIME

― jess (dubplatestyle), Friday, 20 August 2004 21:48 (twenty-one years ago)

MC GRUFF

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 20 August 2004 21:53 (twenty-one years ago)

HOW SUBLOW CAN U GO

― adam. (nordicskilla), Friday, 20 August 2004 21:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Thanks for doing that, Spencer.

Asking after grime at Amoeba?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 20 August 2004 22:01 (twenty-one years ago)

THE GRIME DAWG

(do all these caps make me "noizy"?)

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 20 August 2004 22:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Hahaha all these titles are great!

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 20 August 2004 22:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes.

― adam. (nordicskilla), Friday, 20 August 2004 22:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I went round all the shops and nicked them, and buried them, in a big pit.

― the grimefox, Friday, 20 August 2004 22:46 (twenty-one years ago)

DA BROVAZ GRIME

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 20 August 2004 22:58 (twenty-one years ago)

GRIME AND PUNISHMENT

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 20 August 2004 23:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Grime grime grime, see what's become of me

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 20 August 2004 23:05 (twenty-one years ago)

DO THE GRIME, DO THE TIME

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 20 August 2004 23:05 (twenty-one years ago)

"Seriously,...Grime"

― adam. (nordicskilla), Friday, 20 August 2004 23:07 (twenty-one years ago)

IT is easier to market comps when you already have a "name" artist!

Well, easier, yeah, but I bet even most Dizzee buyers don't know what 'grime' is. I don't think Dizzee is opening as many doors for the rest as we'd like to think.

I could be talking out of my ass. Did Wiley's disc sell ok?

― Lukas (lukas), Friday, 20 August 2004 23:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Not really.

― adam. (nordicskilla), Friday, 20 August 2004 23:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I think the reason that you are not seeing comps is that labels, especially electroic labels, are so on the ropes that they cannot afford to stick their necks out. Smile, Instinct, and Moonshine were selling enough techno/ambient/hardcore back in the day to be able to ride out the risk of a series of dud comps. These days between the lesser interest in electronic music, a non-existant national/regional promotional network(RAVE IS DEAD, and the ambient/jungle 2nd room along with it) and filesharing; jumping on non-proven bandwagons is bad business. If EFA cannot keep it's doors open something is seriously wrong.

I think this is the 80's all over again because you have all these small marginal dance records coming out and no greater social context to utilize them. All these ideas are gathering in the deadlands of pop-culture and they are just waiting to explode once enough creative pressure builds up again. Grime wont make it, but it will recombine with a bunch of other threads in the next five year to make something potent.

maybe I am full of shit.

― Disco Nihilist (mjt), Friday, 20 August 2004 23:14 (twenty-one years ago)

No I think you're right DN.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 20 August 2004 23:16 (twenty-one years ago)

i think DN is right on, too, but i think the MC'ing will be the X factor, taking it somewhere other than the dancefloor, at least in its native land.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 21 August 2004 01:29 (twenty-one years ago)

(in other words: whatever form grime mutates into two summers from now, i think a. the tempo will stay around rap/R&B/dancehall tempo rather than 130+, and b. full vocals and/or rapping will be included. too far gone, no way back, etc etc.)

― jess (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 21 August 2004 01:31 (twenty-one years ago)

The first time I glanced at that Jess I momentarily thought you meant the rapping would become like Adonis - a nice corollary to yours and Ronan's Lil Jon covering Bam Bam idea?

I agree about tempo; if the nuum were to speed up again I imagine it would require some external impetus, some development in another genre which made speeding up desirable. As it is the most logical source of inspiration for post-grime is crunk, so if anything it might get even slower.

Partially agree re MCing - I think the popularity of Terra Danjah right now is kind of a counterbalancing effect following grime's originally radical rejection of R&B influences. The 2-step-to-grime progression always seemed to imply an R&B/rap split which was stronger than that actually enforced in US club-based urban music. I wouldn't be surprised that, partly following Terra Danjah's lead, a lot of grime or post-grime producers look to "bubblecrunk" (the Usher/Ciara/Petey Pablo intersection) as their model - heavy dance grooves with rapping *and* melodic pop nous. Although maybe the best model is that crunked up remix of Janet's "All Nite (Don't Stop)" with Elephant Man - threeway collision!

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 21 August 2004 01:49 (twenty-one years ago)

(haha i think the other "external impetus" could be TEH DRUGZ. do people even really do coke on the scene anymore? i'd guess it's mostly booze and weed.)

― jess (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 21 August 2004 01:53 (twenty-one years ago)

grhyme?

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Saturday, 21 August 2004 02:00 (twenty-one years ago)

the welsh version

― jess (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 21 August 2004 02:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah you're right. The main problem with ardkore/jungle generally is that it's too fast to dance to in a courtship manner, which is generally the way you're gonna wanna dance unless you're on pills. Of course I can't imagine grime being particularly pro-courtship either but if the scene drifts back towards femme friendly dancefloor populism it's already at about the right tempo.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 21 August 2004 02:01 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah, i still feel like most of it is pretty a-sexual (vis a vis matt woebot's "way funkier than grime should be in '04" when he was dissing that sunship [?] track.)

― jess (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 21 August 2004 02:02 (twenty-one years ago)

"nothing wrong with a lil bump and grind" *big scary moose death rattle synth noise*

― jess (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 21 August 2004 02:04 (twenty-one years ago)

that sounds great!

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 21 August 2004 02:21 (twenty-one years ago)

it is interesting that this thread has already shifted towards post-grime. I pretty much bypassed this micro genre, but I am very interested to see where it will go.

I guess my question for this thread is will there be another decentralized, non-vocal, asexual macro dance in the next five years? Is everything going to be micro-regional(600 in a city with a particular local color sonic vernacular) and/or grass roots disapora(12 hardcore diciples communicating with other microsects and not interacting with pop culture in a larger context a la MP3 label IDM Dweebs in 2004)? Was Rave just an ahistorical hiccup or will another variation of that ever come back? Has music technology (production/distribution/promotion/consumption) moved to a point where we no longer interface with audio in the same way, have the old 20th century patterns broken down?

I guess where I am coming from is that it is obvious that 2004 can sustain broad pan-regional listening communities when the music revolves around the lowest common denominator(crunk is based on trad black stereotypes, reinfoces the binary audience/artist relationship, relies on a trad musical idiom). Crunk and Urban music being the dominant club music in North America at the moment. But did 90's rave/club culture exist because it hit a weird moment of synergy where music tech(prod/dist/promo/con) were all balanced with a strong economy and a high demand(it was harder and more expensive to make music, all music was transmitted through saleable hardware, there were less promo channels, less artists and bigger, more interconnected markets, as well as the push of cultural velocity). Was it a precarious balance between the different elements, and is that moment gone, or is it just a dormant seed waiting for the right conditions?

― Disco Nihilist (mjt), Saturday, 21 August 2004 02:48 (twenty-one years ago)

"I guess my question for this thread is will there be another decentralized, non-vocal, asexual macro dance in the next five years?"

I'd be surprised if any development in the next five years passes on all of those criteria. I really do think it would require an accompanying "lifestyle" revolution (in the way we "go out" and the drugs people take - would house or techno ever have become decentralized without these?).

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 21 August 2004 02:53 (twenty-one years ago)

that is an easy trap to fall into. I don't want to chalk up the 90's to E and a good economy, but it does make a lot of sense. I am still not sure that I want to buy into Reynold's Drug-Tech interface theory.

― Disco Nihilist (mjt), Saturday, 21 August 2004 03:00 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't even think Reynolds himself would argue that drugs are a necessity for every participant in the rave scene, or even for entire groups, but I do think that rave would never have blown up like it did without them.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 21 August 2004 03:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I read somewhere that American law enforcement had a nationwide comapign to bust rave clubs and other gathering places, and that a lot of DJs didn't know how to compensate for lack of live gogs (by really pursuing and promoting a recording career). So became a vicious circle, as records-as-promotional-devices-for-more-lucrative-but-now-vanishing gigs vanished, unpromoted (except in print and as "shareware"). Don't know how this might effect grime, but if the latter is more downlow drugwise, might eventually help.(Still, that may keep out the craziest people but might keep out most people too, as far as trendsurfing goes.) Past the first couple of tracks, which are just bad cliche jungle, GRIME (whether really grime or not) is good, and the instruments are articulate enough that I don't miss MCs (anybody wants to find this, I got mine from forcedexposure.com)

― Don Allred, Saturday, 21 August 2004 03:28 (twenty-one years ago)

isn't grime a beer and weed scene?

― Disco Nihilist (mjt), Saturday, 21 August 2004 03:30 (twenty-one years ago)

GRIME AND REASON

― Gear! (Gear!), Saturday, 21 August 2004 03:32 (twenty-one years ago)

GRIME AND THE GRITTY SOLUTION

― Gear! (Gear!), Saturday, 21 August 2004 03:32 (twenty-one years ago)

For a US comp: GRIME AGAINST THE STATES

But I guess any major label comp would actually have to be called GRIME PAYS

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 21 August 2004 04:08 (twenty-one years ago)

who would be the best DJ to hit the American market full on?

― cs appleby (cs appleby), Saturday, 21 August 2004 05:50 (twenty-one years ago)

since we are moving top to down.

― cs appleby (cs appleby), Saturday, 21 August 2004 05:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Obviously ,Rephlexing my head is to blame for all those typos: Live *gigs*, the gogs is dead. Should we send Madonna some grime, or is grime as desperate as she should be at this point? Justin Timberlake for Manchuvian Candidate!(probably it will at least/most be like Rap &B remixes, like with jungle)

― Don Allred, Saturday, 21 August 2004 13:50 (twenty-one years ago)

GRIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

no?

― Paul (scifisoul), Saturday, 21 August 2004 15:32 (twenty-one years ago)

bjork and radiohead are knocking.

― cs appleby (cs appleby), Saturday, 21 August 2004 16:47 (twenty-one years ago)

hi Paul!!!

― cs appleby (cs appleby), Saturday, 21 August 2004 22:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Right - I live 5mins walk away from Independance in Lewisham. If I have to buy *one* grime comp on CD, what should it be?

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Saturday, 21 August 2004 22:11 (twenty-one years ago)

see adam's post matt.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 21 August 2004 22:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Related to the club-as-promotion thing: I've read several recent account of Dizzee's US appearences. Apparently, live audiences tend to find his beats hard to adjust to. These are more for-listening-only type presentations, concerts, la-dee-dah, not clubs, so far. I think in most places he's just been read about first, no prior exposure via airplay, just straight to Music Appreciation. And the techno-is-gonna-be-the-next-rock thing wasn't helped by concerts-not-club attempts at "legitimacy" either (that and taking forever to put albums-not-mixes out, as "rockers" are supposed to).

― Don, Sunday, 22 August 2004 16:10 (twenty-one years ago)

AS GRIME GOES BY

― m. (mitchlnw), Sunday, 22 August 2004 16:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe it (at least Dizzee's) will get featured on a soundtrack. Those are popular as hell--almost saved my record store!

― Don, Sunday, 22 August 2004 17:10 (twenty-one years ago)

GRIME AND GRIME AGAIN

― thoed in da game, Sunday, 22 August 2004 18:25 (twenty-one years ago)

one comp: no one will agree, but i say lord of the mic. theres crap on there, but all of the comps/tapes have that, and theres some wicked tunes too.

― ambrose (ambrose), Monday, 23 August 2004 12:02 (twenty-one years ago)

BROTHERS IN ARMS, PARTNERS IN GRIME

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 02:57 (twenty-one years ago)

FORWARD THROUGH GRIME

― cs appleby (cs appleby), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 03:29 (twenty-one years ago)

an octagon shaped title.

― cs appleby (cs appleby), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 04:48 (twenty-one years ago)

nine months pass...

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― DAEREST V1CE MAGAZINE!!!!! (ex machina), Friday, 17 June 2005 20:41 (twenty-one years ago)

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