rolling 2012 UKG interzone bubblers thread

My experience of Disclosure is mixed in with grime and bassline and etc where it comes across as relatively straight (but still bouncy) - though of course there's full on house tunes that DJ Q plays that are straighter.

In this regard it's interesting listening to jackin' house (which DJ Q plays a bit of) which is trying to squeeze the bubbling vibe out of an even straighter post electro-house template.

But this whole vibe - what I mean when I say "UKG interzone bubbler" - is not really about strict stylistic demarcations so much as a kind of sonic-spiritual affiliation, an "if it's bumpin..." imperative which, again, seems intuitively obvious to me but I'd have difficulty articulating exactly what it is so I don't blame people for not seeing it.

I know it seems a bit doctrinaire, but the "would DJ Q play it" rule of thumb is a pretty good one.

Yeah its good rule of thumb, just like I said above some DJs can make tracks I like sound boring by the way they play them and other like DJ Q can play something I'm not that into sound damn good. I guess I'd rather hear Disclosure in a DJ Q mix than in one of their own or alongside some more tasteful house. It does make it sound more exciting or at least beefs it up a little when you mix it energeticly with harder stuff.

One another note this was on the last DJ Q show...

Mella Dee - Fazed

http://soundcloud.com/forefrontrecordings/sets/mella-dee-ruff-cuts-ep-fore005

Feeling this 12", its good to hear something with a bit of rudeness at such a low tempo.

Yeah those Mella Dee tunes are great, though they sit very oddly with this sound (by virtue of their dystopian lethargy) - it'll be interesting to see if that becomes a trend at all.

Incidentally this is the og 2-step that "Closer" makes me think of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-NLm9Awjq4

I was kind of suprised to hear the Mella Dee tracks on there, I've had them for a while and it never crossed my mind that they'd appear on a Q show. Its prob the Mista Men connection. Fits with quite a lot you hear on Hessle and Night Slugs shows at times.

I can hear that connection between closer and that yeah. Bar the drums not being as garage and them addign a little Orbison synth its damn close.

What a fabulous run of tracks this is at the beginning of the current Q show:

Disclosure — Control 

Nastee Boi — Baby

DJ Antoine — Welcome To St. Tropez (Feat. Lethal Bizzle) (TS7 Remix) 

Lenny Fontana — Spirit Of The Sun (Mike Delinquent Project Remix) 

Rack N Ruin — Slow Down

Classified — Call Me Maybe 

Wookie — 2 Us (Exeman Steppers Mix)
Burgaboy — Brian Storm (Remix) 

SBTRKT — Living Like I Do (Feat. Sampha) (Lil Silva Remix)
Dismantle — More Funk
Todd Edwards — Love Inside
Rudimental — Deep In The Valley (Feat. Shanti) (Woz Remix)
Cleo Sol — Never The Right Time (DEVolution Remix)
Billy Kenny & Chris G — Diamond Rings
TS7 — This (Feat. Russo) (DJ Q Special)
Duncan Powell — Brake 2012
Delinquent — Step In The Dance (Feat. Lady Leshurr)

listening to q knowing so many of these tunes wouldnt have and will not rub shoulders elsewhere ever again is too bloodclaat melancholy tbh :(

like even that there is a selection that while it would only scan as general ukg to most outside observers is still an interzone within the interzone really (ie let alone outliers-but-not like maya jane coles or w/e), particularly the last half

how would you divvy up those trracks in the last half?

good show anyway, i love m.i.k (even though the video for 'mor3' genuinely makes embarrassed to say so) and fabian tremorefire is great and seriously deserves a mike delinquenty breakthrough sooner or later

http://soundcloud.com/djfabion/fabian-ride-1

tim did you ever hear this? one of my absolute 10/10 favourite, totally freaky manifestations of the sparrowlike urges of nu-ukg

even down to his "lowkey on the pwofile" speech impediment it's brilliant

SBTRKT — Living Like I Do (Lil Silva Remix) = nu lil silva harsh gloomcore
Dismantle — More Funk = idk this guy but this is fluoro clubby bosh
Todd Edwards — Love Inside = todd is todd, classicist
Rudimental — Deep In The Valley (Feat. Shanti) (Woz Remix) - similar to dismantle bleepy clubby herve / dubble dutch eurowonky
Cleo Sol — Never The Right Time (DEVolution Remix) - protean remixers do a garagey thing
Billy Kenny & Chris G — Diamond Rings - jackin
TS7 — This (Feat. Russo) (DJ Q Special) - 2step revival via bassline/jackin
Duncan Powell — Brake 2012 - plinky mnml weirdness from otherwise ukg classicist
Delinquent — Step In The Dance (Feat. Lady Leshurr) - pop bosh

like haha i do realise none of that means nothing to anyone but just understand that simply no one else draws from these notionally similar micro-ecologies to create a living breathing sociable whole under a garage banner

you could associate 9 different djs to each of those tracks who would then play similar sonically complimentary stuff and never touch the other

took me a while to realise it btw but that 'diamond rings' is the absolute lick

listen to way it only implies the rest of the original sample ("i gave her di-di-diamond rings / i gave her everything") and plays on its past tense by introducing a portentous "I CAN'T QUITE UNDERSTAND" to make it seem like a wronged, vengeful sequel. the definition of ardkore

http://soundcloud.com/dj-chrisg/chris-gresswell-billy-kenny

thanks rob! i am trying to navigate my way through funky w/o stepping in pop

or should i say twostepping in pop

i actually got dismantle all excited based on hardwax reviews but i thought it was moombahton-grade crap

not quite up to timo mass "dooms night" snuff

fellow old men of ilm, nothing is up to the standards set by your youth

that's why being young is what it is

make the realisation and then sink or swim

i am more of a double 99, smokin beats, dem 2, b15 project kind of listener as opposed to, say, sunship, wideboys, monsta boy, artful dodger fan

there must be some stuff on that end of the spectrum out there, right?

that isn't "FACT music"

gloomcore? are elijah & skilliam gloomcore or do you mean more like james blake?

What's the distinction b/w b15 and wideboys/Sunship etc above, v?

Cosign all rtc's comments re the Q show obv.

praise jesus for finners arriving to take over just before my patience was abt to snap

i guess the difference comes down to "girls like us" original mix

i actually like quite a bit of wideboys and sunship but i have a strong preference for the left of these continua

abstract <-> songful

samples, basslines, effects <-> performance, sociology

armand van helden, 187 lockdown <-> todd edwards, timbaland

"girls like us" i realize is rather right wing

but i guess it is so masterful in the effects / samples department that i love it. i'd say the same about dem 2 i guess and probably a fair number of wideboys and sunship, pre-2002 i guess

Yeah I was gonna say, something like the wideboys' "west side (2 da floor mix)" is left wing par excellence.

I don't think what you're looking for exists right now as a sound per se, except (appropriately enough) as implied by the center of the venn diagrams Q likes to draw. It's that gold thread of bubbliness rather than pop per se, a bubbliness that runs through pop and darkness/heaviness both.

honestly i just dug up this frankie foncett cd on pure silk and also dj ez mix on warner strategic marketing and this mikee b / dj target / maxwell d ayia napa thing from 2001 and artful dodger and dj luck and mc neat (both volumes of both!) etc etc last night

it's a lot to take in and rough going, i'm just throwing names out based on some things i remembered and trying to remember the rest

Am I reading you right to the effect that you're just taking that era in now??

http://soundcloud.com/djfabion/fabian-ride-1

tim did you ever hear this? one of my absolute 10/10 favourite, totally freaky manifestations of the sparrowlike urges of nu-ukg

I mostly adore Fabion/Tremorefire (his "Boom Selection" remix is A+) and did rifle through his soundclouds a while back, will have to wait till I get home to check this though.

I think the real demarcation these days is less between abstract vs songful and more along production values lines.

This is where a distinction between say 1999 garage and 2001 garage really makes sense, the earlier stuff still retaining a kind of vinyl warmth and almost-"deepness" and the later stuff sounding like the contrast has been turned up - heavier but more plasticky beats, exaggerated bass but also exaggerated treble... a generalised air of hyperreality.

This (rather than pop vs abstraction or lightness vs heaviness) is probably the key point of distinction between "future garage" and the stuff that Q plays, only it's even more extreme now, future garage being "deep" to the point where it has to shun anything that might interfere with that, and the Q interzone retaining (albeit as a kind of reigning principle rather than a clearly defined sonic property) the sickly harshness of bassline.

hmmm good analysis

no no this is all stuff that i was buying as it came in (new imports, usually 20-30 bucks)

(as a result i emailed b1!$$b10g to thank him for recs and he kindly pointed me to this forum)

i was so excited

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Shake-It-Up-Garage-Sessions/release/132673

and then oh my god it all turned to shite

http://www.discogs.com/Various-The-Artful-Dodger-Presents-Rewind-2001-Lessons-From-The-Underground/release/322730

iirc there was a concomitant rise in # of threads about r&b and microhouse

That Shake It Up comp looks incredibly forward-thinking for 2001! I didn't even know "Oi!" existed that early.

Like, chronologically I would think that the Artful Dodger comp you link precedes it.

Anyways everyone knows that the best 2-step comp in 2001 was the Masterstepz 'Ayia Napa 2001' double-cd on MOS.

well, it did

shake it up was october 5 and artful dodger was jun 21

which means i bought the former full-price in november (iirc my brain went DARQWAAAAAAN) and the latter off the clearance rack probably in early march 02, i clearly remember the artful dodger being the "sunroof open" disc

oh man tim, you always bring the lulz

i was scanning that ayia napa 2001 disc and i was suddenly reminded that these did not discs did not make it out of deep offsite storage last night

http://www.discogs.com/CK-Flash-Presents-Garage-Rap-Volume-1/release/1689521

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Crews-Control-MCs-Inside-The-Ride/release/631600

oh man tim, you always bring the lulz

seriously any mix that includes "Down Down Bizniz" AND "One By One" AND "All I Do (Bump & Flex Dancehall Dub)" AND "Booo!" AND "Bouncing Flow" AND "Do You Really Like It? (Full Length Sovereign Mix Vocal)" AND "Summer Jam" AND "Mic Tribute (United Grooves Collective Remix)" AND "What's This" has to be all time for real.

i remember really liking sticky, genius cru, k2, united grooves, wookie doing his exemen thing, and ... remarc?

most of that set is unknown to me though, thanks for the recommendation

so what would be a set of properly "bubblin" ukg?

i hope not the artful dodger "lessons" from the underground

If I had to select a single comp that I felt summed up ukg in this regard it would be this one:

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Pure-Silk-The-Third-Dimension/release/463634

Really captures the moment of 2-step's transition from underground into overground (but not having quite made it over the border yet - which is how I'd distinguish it from subsequent comps that I like just as much).

With the Dionne Rakeem remix that opens disc 2 being microcosmically indicative.

I really enjoy the MCing on the third disc of that, Tim.
Listening to it now, oddly.

Yoo!! Just to let you guys know, I will be on 1Xtra at the earlier time of 10pm until 1am this week covering for DJ Cameo while he's away.

I hope you can all lock in!

gloomcore? are elijah & skilliam gloomcore or do you mean more like james blake?

― the late great, Thursday, July 5, 2012 10:23 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Was gonna say the other day, the arrangement on the "Living Like I Do" remix has a real doomy but pop 1990 vibe for me - "Killer" / Warp / Bassic.

defo

e&s can be harsh but very rarely austere like silva

viz the way they leaven grime grr with swindle-y video game jazz noodle (often back to back immediately) to create the cartoonish looney tunes vibe

(which i hasten to add is a perhaps underappreciated quality they articulate from grime itself rather than strictly being something of their own invention)

(which i hasten to add is a perhaps underappreciated quality they articulate from grime itself rather than strictly being something of their own invention)

this nascent quality in grime always strikes me as a persistently recurring 4 Hero recessive gene...

E1D - It's A Lot! The UKG Sessions, Vol 5

01. Lenny Fontana Ft. Beverly T - Spirit Of The Sun (Mike Delinquent Project Remix) (E1D Special)
02. SKT Ft. Shanay Holmes - Sky High (Bee Q & Unique Remix)
03. Keith & Supabeatz Ft. An-Na - The Most Beautiful (Todd Edwards Remix)
04. Meleka - Love You Baby (TS7 Remix)
05. Genius Cru - Boom Selection (DJ Fabian Remix)
06. Jammer Ft. Viper, JME, B-Live, Scratchy, Layz, Sox & Flowdan - Big Man (DJ Q 'Tropical' Mix)
07. Lisa Maffia Ft. Tyler Daley & Romeo - Don't Stop The Music (Oxide Dark House Mix)
08. Scott Garcia Ft. MC DT - It's A London Thing 2012 (Scott Garcia's 20:20 Mix)
09. Stooshe - Black Heart (DEVolution Club Mix)
10. Kcat - Broken (Mike Delinquent 'Colosseum' Mix)
11. Todd Edwards - Love Inside (Sunshine Mix)
12. Wideboys - Addicted To The Bass (DJ Q Remix)
13. Rihanna - Where Have You Been (Bee Q & Unique Remix)
14. Afrojack & Shermanology - Can't Stop Me (TS7 Remix)
15. Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe (Classified Dub Mix)
16. Little Mix - Wings (Sunship Extended Mix)
17. Usher - Scream (Exemen Remix)
18. Mike Delinquent Project Ft. Lady Leshurr - Step In The Dance
19. Cleo Sol - Never The Right Time (Who Do You Love) (DEVolution Remix)
20. DJ Antoine vs Timaati Ft. Kalenna & Lethal Bizzle - Welcome To St. Tropez (TS7 Remix)
21. Enigma Dubz Ft. Katie McLeod - Dancefloor (Garage Instrumental Mix)
22. Orange Hill Productions Ft. Vybz Kartel & Sneakbo - Pon Time (DJ Q Remix)
23. Tanya Lacey - Greatness (Exemen Remix)
24. Infinity Ink - Infinity (Todd Edwards Remix)
25. Alyssa Reid Ft. Snoop Dogg - The Game (Sunship Remix)
26. Whojax - London City (Mike Delinquent Project Remix)

Split-track version is available here - https://www.yousendit.com/download/QlVoanZnQ3RPSHgzZU1UQw

This looks like all my favourite tunes in one convenient package.

i know right?

you ever get round that fabian 'ride' btw

Yes! It's excellent. The decision to redo the "No Diggity" vocals seems wrongheaded right up to the amazing overlapping-vocoders-of-ecstasy chorus.

I haven't really been following this thread at all but that mix is fantastic.

if we're going to reminisce on ca-2000 2-step comps, this is the one the i basically wore the grooves out of:

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Matt-Jam-Lamont-Presents-The-Jam-Experience/release/173880

E1D - It's A Lot! The UKG Sessions, Vol 5

and what do you know, it's great