Bassline/Bassline House etc

BBC local report on Bassline club nights getting shut down: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1Rw9CWw19Q

Would anyone mind posting that Agent X mix cd?

anyone else worried it could get overhyped and get too much press and go mainstream too quickly

well, it's not like it's in its infancy stage: like dubstep before it, it's been brewing for a long time under the mainstream media's radar, and comes to its attention fully-formed. and while the grimier side of bassline may get overhyped, the original northern organ-house thing will surely remain unfashionable as ever.

Would anyone mind posting that Agent X mix cd?

i don't have it, but you can try out this wicked Nev Wright mix.

been playing this stuff out around london for a couple of years..always kills.

there's a good introductory minimix on uk-flava.co.uk...will dig out the link inabit

just had a butchers at that uk flava site (or the myspace anyway) - isn't that just all the southern ukg refugees riding the wave? if any of these mixes are the ones you mean, that is.

http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/3290/flava2na5.jpg

don't get me wrong tho, i'll take ^^ this fiyah ^^ over the northern monkey bosh any day of the week. no media hype love-in for that though :(

nev wright mix is not doing all that much for me today, altho 'heartbroken' is still top 10 07 material.

ooh a dexplicit mix of 'sambucca'! gimme.

was thinking of their 'mashup' minimix more but fair point:) as far as london goes i umbrella 4x4/bassline/niche/speed garage together..bass against all the midrange-migraine electro doing the rounds

this is the same or different from "urban house"?

yeah no i suppose everyone wins at the end of the day eh. some of the more genteel mj/todd disciples certainly needed the mild poke in the ribs.

find us that mashup mix tho, can't see it anywhere.

this is the same or different from "urban house"?

urban house: funky house with a light, soca-ish feel. check out Footloose's "Just Leave".

bassline: started off as the northern speed garage revival + sped-up "Show Me Love"-type organ house, nowadays it's mostly associated with a grimier sound: big wobbling basslines are still there, but they're less housey and are often accompanied by grime's tacky martial synth strings, sometimes MC's. (ie, the Nev Wright mix i linked above)

4x4: old school UKG, basically a bunch of Todd Edwards/MJ Cole/Tuff Jam fetishists. as far as i'm concerned, this stuff peaked in the '03-'05 period, with lots of ace dubby stuff exploring the trackier house end of speed garage (Tuff Jam, New Horizons) - check out this Duncan Powell mix.

there's also some talk of "jackin' house": not UKG really, but big with old school UKG headz: for example, the Digital Villains remix of The Midnight Circus (Pete Devereux, ex Artful Dodger), who've also been remixed by Joey Youngman (scroll down on TMC's myspace player).

some of the more genteel mj/todd disciples certainly needed the mild poke in the ribs.

...but to what effect? i lurk a bit on the uptown records forum, and just about every time i check there's a "bassline is soulless chav crap"-type thread on the frontpage. and the scene itself feels knackered rather than combat-ready... i mean, when i check out ukg radio show playlists, it's always the same tunes, there's next to no variety week in week out - but when i check out bassline mixes, there's always tons of tracks i haven't heard before, there's so much of it out there that it's bewildering. (okay, a lot of it is just big dumb bassline + not much else, but still...)

that "UK Flava Volume 2" mix is alright, even though it cuts off Will Philips' gorgeous "Over with You" remix way too early... but this is the og-ukg mix that i've played the most this year:

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/301/nuskoolvol22hz9.jpg

here's the link, if you can be bothered registering on the mixheaven forums.

thanks, mind taker!

ah, you know i keep meaning to check out footloose's show. (and dj q's for that matter. sigh, where's paul scifi these days.) based on that tune i didn't realise the scene was quite so... fruity. sounds like the sort of thing sticky and cameo think they've invented. (i ain't calling it 'dirty pop', i know that much.)

you're right though, the true skool lot haven't been shaken up a great deal. big moany moaners aside i'd say there's been a small shift, at least on the dj's side, of encouraging some of the fatter ruffer stuff, but then again only if it's made by people they know like the wideboys or agent x or whoever. like you say however, the "soulful" bomb is never very far away.

bit harsh to say the scene's knackered though. maybe that's what i like about it, to be fair; but i guess i'd better go and get myself a better awareness of bassline's ways before i say something overly honest like "i'd rather hear a thousand more hilariously predictable 3 minute long piano intros where mj thinks he's thomas newman than bother parroting on about how the kids on the bus go round and round etc" OOPSY LOOKS LIKE I JUST DID!! nah but seriously, there's a lot of good stuff still coming out of there.

haha this is pretty sick tho http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKRHJ_-mRo4

ISYOUUUUUISYOUUUUUISYOUUUUUISYOUUUUU

you're right, that "Is You" tune is great!

"dirty pop", haha yes! still, i love Sticky's Fantasia remix to death, it's real sexy.

while we're talking urban house: have you heard Wookie's Omarion remix? i think it's just... oooh, super funky!

also worth checking out: Jelly Beats' "City Girls".

wookie was the first person i thought of when you mentioned 'jacking house'! tbf 'entourage' was a open goal waiting to be tapped in for a house guy.

likewise there is no way someone called jelly beats could make a song called city girls and it not be great. it is some kind of law.

hmm what can i give you in return.

sunship remix of my destiny?

deesha falling in love delinquent mix is an old chestnut by now but fuck it, AHHH SO GOOD

wookie was the first person i thought of when you mentioned 'jacking house'!

tbh i don't really have a handle on the term, i've seen it applied to stuff i don't consider even remotely "jacking" - like say Will Phillips' recent proper tasteful house attempts. (i've just gone to his myspace, now he has some zzzz deep house up track there)

that Sunship remix of "My Destiny" is nice, but i'm not feeling the official '07 bassline rerub (the one that's supposed to break it into mainstream, right?)... actually, i think Delinquent's bassline stuff in general is awful! they were much better at 2step/steppers 4x4.

oh, and i see that there's also a Delio D'Cruz electrohouse remix of "My Destiny" - sounding good on first listen. loved that guy's remix of Kelly R's "Like This", even tho it was a totally shameless Bodyrox ripoff.

actually, i think Delinquent's bassline stuff in general is awful

scratch that, i was thinking of Dexplicit instead of Delinquent there... meaning it's about time i finally go to sleep, i think. ;)

(but it's not like i'm a big fan of the "What's Your Fantasy" rerub or "Colours" anyway)

strangely enough, i somehow missed/overlooked that Deesha rmx! i like it. ukgmp3 has it too.

oh balls yeah i heard 'my destiny' got signed but i didn't know that was the mix they were running with :(

am also disappointed with dexplicit's new stuff, although it's doing ok for him by the looks of it. his rng stuff made me think he was on the verge of cracking something mildly interesting, but i guess he'll always be a thwarted ragga producer trapped on an island of mugs.

oh wait he did do that rubbish mavado rmx didn't he. forget i said anything.

"4x4: old school UKG, basically a bunch of Todd Edwards/MJ Cole/Tuff Jam fetishists. as far as i'm concerned, this stuff peaked in the '03-'05 period, with lots of ace dubby stuff exploring the trackier house end of speed garage (Tuff Jam, New Horizons) - check out this Duncan Powell mix."

I don't remember or somehow missed New Horizons sounds being revived :-(

On the other hand I found their amazing (and raved about by no-one else in the world ever except me it seems) remix of Dem 2's "Destiny" on vinyl the other day. Now I know that New Horizons remixing Dem 2 sounds horribly worthy and canonical but it really is the biggest tune ever.

RTC or anyone else can you explain whethere there's a link between any of this stuff and the Boy Better Know Tropical mix??

RTC or anyone else can you explain whethere there's a link between any of this stuff and the Boy Better Know Tropical mix??

as far as i've noticed, it's a grime-contained anomaly that hasn't crossed over to other UKG strands.

btw, i've read a rumour that Delinquent will do an official remix of J Holiday's "Bed", which T2 already did but - as soon as he finished it, he gave a copy to Cameo, without giving it to the record company first. and the record company wasn't pleased with this gesture, so he got booted off the project. true or not, T2's "Bed" is still on Cameo's myspace. and it's still quite good.

in other news, "Heartbroken" haters have a lot of free time on their hands.

yeah, i believe tropical's only impact on this rotten world was kiss fm's jez welham using 'holiday' behind the traffic reports for a bit. when you consider the kind of useless toss grime watchers usually pick over ad nauseum it is quite frankly as if i dreamt the whole thing up one day.

a monstrous injustice.

great thread!

listening to it again, and you know in terms of a practical link though i might argue tropical could have represented a sort of lost southern coeval to bassline bosh; what began as a jokey todd homage for the summer emerged as something totally personal and of its time, something pounding with a nameless pell-mell rage (the smart challenge of “come ring my bell” and how it swirls into a mania of mocking voices, a hall of mirrors; then waking up into the absent-minded smile of 'mash', sat flat on its arse modelling a looney tunes tweetybird wreath; and THEN faster and faster and happeningalloveragain) but also in places with this strange sorrowing placidity, the ambivalence of an observer, and maybe a glazed syrupy tiredness too. ('flow' plainly into 'melody & voice' - because why bother naming them otherwise? "now it's machines, ines" rolling on matter of factly, the longing of 'holiday', bumping and rising away like airplanes from heathrow but really just waiting, waiting like the sun in the smog - WELHAM YOU'RE A GENIUS.) so yeah, maybe think of the album as burial for those who aren't glibly superficial spastics, i dunno; maybe even think of the denial of this album, and its descent into anonymity, as a fitting epilogue to a glimpse of grime's knotted subconscious.

btw is it really true that t2's working with madonna on her new album? she's a bit fresh, if so.

he said in a rwd mag interview that he's "been asked to collaborate with people like Madonna". i'll remain suspicious til further notice.

listening to it again, and you know in terms of a practical link though i might argue tropical could have represented a sort of lost southern coeval to bassline bosh; what began as a jokey todd homage for the summer emerged as something totally personal and of its time, something pounding with a nameless pell-mell rage (the smart challenge of “come ring my bell” and how it swirls into a mania of mocking voices, a hall of mirrors; then waking up into the absent-minded smile of 'mash', sat flat on its arse modelling a looney tunes tweetybird wreath; and THEN faster and faster and happeningalloveragain) but also in places with this strange sorrowing placidity, the ambivalence of an observer, and maybe a glazed syrupy tiredness too. ('flow' plainly into 'melody & voice' - because why bother naming them otherwise? "now it's machines, ines" rolling on matter of factly, the longing of 'holiday', bumping and rising away like airplanes from heathrow but really just waiting, waiting like the sun in the smog - WELHAM YOU'RE A GENIUS.) so yeah, maybe think of the album as burial for those who aren't glibly superficial spastics, i dunno; maybe even think of the denial of this album, and its descent into anonymity, as a fitting epilogue to a glimpse of grime's knotted subconscious.

GREAT thread!

in all seriousness, I woke up this morning with basslines in my head. Listening to this music is a bit like eating ten bags of Skittles.

Not that I've ever done that.

"so yeah, maybe think of the album as burial for those who aren't glibly superficial spastics"

RTC for prez.

prez of petty digs and vague tautologies yall.

prancehall, asking the questions that had to be asked.

If you're a teenager living in a council estate anywhere north of Grimsby, you won't be spending your weekends at home practicing WCW wrestling moves on your terrified cat, smoking weed, and listening to Ghetto's new mixtape. No, instead the chances are you'll be riding in your 1992 Ford Fiesta down to your local nightclub with your Rockport loafers, fake D&G shirt and enough diamante encrusted jewellery to choke a murder of crows to listen to some banging bassline house.

haha. i was thinking about geezers in lurid birdsnbassmobiles as well - these guys have never ever ever let speed garage go, and maybe it was a matter of time before a bigger culture sprang up around them. will dissensus kru be rolling out a 50,000 page ballardian sexghost in the machine disquisition, do you think, or is that just too easy now?

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b128/drdragon666/IMG_3248.jpg

WAMP WAMP, WHAT IT DO

cor, even the old boy reynolds has woken the fuck up. when was the last time he did something as simple as sticking the radio on? good piece.

like the little point about northern soul too.

it's kind of hard for simon to turn on the radio and hear any bassline. he lives in new york.

given that his piece is about him listening to 1xtra internet radio, i don't see how that's relevant. but thank you for your kneejerk apologism all the same.

man who knew that to be an apologist is as you'd expect but that apologism generally refers to some completely different metaphilosophical thing! not me!

how unfun.

what are you talking about? sorry i misunderstood you.

(am expressing surprise that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apologism is not the state of being an apologist like i thought it was, is all. can take it to the copyedit/grammar fiends thread, if it surprises you too.)

ok my point wasn't literally about the radio, just that new yorkers are not exactly down with what's happening in sheffield, no matter how actively they're seeking out new sounds. one friend of mine who lives in new york and used to be the biggest craig david fan ever, and before that the biggest dj ss fan ever, has never even heard of bassline house!

i dunno if this has been answered already but is this really offering much new from old uk garage? the tracks ive heard that do seem to be 'real bassline' have this brilliant hyper happy energy to them but ive only heard them in mixes so dont know which are just older bassline (when it still pretty much resembled UKG) or actual UKG (which seems to have been quietly ticking along all this time) and new proper bassline which seems to adopt grimey synths as well as the hyper happy vibe. just wanna make sure this isnt the emperors new clothes.

MOAR BASSLINE

less forelock-tugging + cunty refusal to read what ppl already wrote

if nothing else won't someone else weigh in on tropical?

rtc, you might be interested to know that MJ Cole has now jumped on the bassline bandwagon too, under his old Matlock alias! a clip of "Watford Gap" can be heard here, and... it's rather awful. i mean, if he's gonna do bassline he could at least stick to xeroxes of his Lamb remix from way back, nu-gen bassfarts don't suit him really.

on the other hand, "Love on the Rocks" still sounds wonderful as ever, and Midnight Circus' "MILF" is good for a chuckle or two.

lol i started listening thinking "i will forgive him this if he gets on the paino for the intro" and THERE IT IS! also that is the intro to BoC geogaddi and i claim my 5 pounds.

truce 'treat u right' sunship dub is my stuff.

I'm a total novice here--have a few mix-CDs I've bought and d/l'ed over the past couple months--so can I please ask what you mean by that mouthwatering phrase, "tropical"?

seriously mj i love u but why you're pissing around making ukg and not doing megabucks film soundtracks i'll never know.

matos, tropical was 2006 mix cd side project of, i guess, modern uk garage made apparently on a whim by jme, skepta and plastician. here's the myspace.

boy betta know! i've got tropical and maybe it's more exciting if you've been following all the internecine conflicts, victories, negotiations and defeats in and amongst various speed garage progeny.. i think it's nice, but i have to say it sounds like a less snappily delicious, sparser, more straight-ahead version of 2-step - also the mixing is somewhat shit

yes... those craving for the snappily delicious may well be disappointed.

does seem a little churlish to highlight the mixing of an album of tunes they've specially made themselves (ie not a best of, or retrospective, or anything), particularly when a good few of those tunes suggest that a straight-up partymixx was not quite the intended alpha and omega of the thing. take it on its own mysterious terms, at least.

i mean i'm really not trying to say everyone should subscribe to my take on it (god forbid), but peering through a predictable 2step pince-nez at it and ignoring what it does manage to achieve in being sparser and more driving seems unfair either way.

that counts as a pretty basic selection of 2-step tunes with a bit of an emphasis on tracks with particularly heavy basslines

bassline is 4x4 music

that said, if i saw that in a charity shop for a coin i would snap it up.

yeah it's not a bad selection

https://djmag.com/features/history-bassline

Matt Anniss does a history of bassline house, nothing new in there for anyone interested in this stuff but it's nice to see it being talked about seriously.