IDM Mailing Archive

If you can get it, DJ mag has an issue current on the stands in the US with a underground garage mix CD. It is really interesting stuff to me, that I'd like to hear more of. Some of the best rhythm programming I've heard in quite a while, very tight production values. I heard a set of this sort of thing last year at the Rex in Paris, but more on the dub/ragga tip, and I loved it. There are some really cool records out there if only I can find them ;-) It's probably something that idm purists wouldn't like (R&B Vocals?) but sometimes i want to stroke my chin, and sometimes i want to throw my hands in the air like I just don't care, and I don't want to choose just one way to be, or one kind of music to listen to. kent williams -- kent@avalon.net --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org

At 06:26 PM 3/25/00 -0600, you wrote:

quoted 27 lines 2-step garage is the most potent form of underground dance music to have

>2-step garage is the most potent form of underground dance music to have >developed in the UK since jungle in 1993-94. Mixing elements of US garage >and R&B with ultra-complex drum programming and foundation-shaking >sub-bass, this is house music made by and for a generation which had its >musical synapses rewired by drum & bass. Despite achieving mainstream >chart success in the UK with records like Artful Dodger's 'Rewind', 2-step >has nonetheless remained a comparatively localised scene, confined to >London and a few other major urban centres. It has not yet achieved the >critical mass which enabled jungle to break out onto the world stage. >While it is debatable whether - in any case - this would be a desirable >outcome (jungle's post-1995 plunge into nihilism and irrelevance being one >of the more depressing cultural events of recent years), we at Qubit >Records are convinced that 2-step deserves more widespread exposure, both >within the UK and internationally, than it at present receives. We also >believe that, in the same way drum & bass forced every forward-thinking >recording artist to rethink the way they made music, the manifold >innovations of 2-step demand a coherent response from the wider electronic >music community. > >*** > >Oh spare me. Could this be perhaps instead because 2-step garage is the >most tedious thing since... 2-step jungle? Because it takes the bad >elements of most techno genres and mixes them together? Because it makes >me actively wish I were listening to generihouse? > >2-step garage is the hip house of the post 90s.

he he. . .andrew, you ever-reliable grump :P the thing about 2-step is that, like everything else, 90% of it is crap. as with any other truly "underground" music (debatable though as that term is) you gotta look past the lame releases to the ones that really push and have some fun with the promising rhythms and such that i've heard exploited well. admittedly i've never found any of the good stuff, but i've heard stuff that i really liked on juno and the odd set in pirate RA style. curly here in austin and one or two other djs have started bringing it a little lately. of course, turning the critical eye inward i must say that i got into 2-step garage about the time i stopped following, erm, 2-step drum and bass. so, yeah, out-of-the-fryingpan, ymmv and all that :) i've always wondered what say, Sutekh, Atom Heart or some of the Cologne guys exploring the 2-tep thing might sound like. . .part of me yearns to see the weirdbeard/idm/whathaveyou guys beat it into the ground like what happened with drum and bass :/ -jeff. . .waiting for the Betty Boo 2-step relicks anytime now ------------ 1642 try 621 ------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org

quoted 13 lines If you can get it, DJ mag has an issue current on the stands in the US

> If you can get it, DJ mag has an issue current on the stands in the US > with a underground garage mix CD. It is really interesting stuff to me, > that I'd like to hear more of. Some of the best rhythm programming > I've heard in quite a while, very tight production values. > > I heard a set of this sort of thing last year at the Rex in Paris, but > more on the dub/ragga tip, and I loved it. There are some really > cool records out there if only I can find them ;-) > > It's probably something that idm purists wouldn't like (R&B Vocals?) but > sometimes i want to stroke my chin, and sometimes i want to throw my > hands in the air like I just don't care, and I don't want to choose > just one way to be, or one kind of music to listen to.

word up, man. andrew can poo-poo all he wants, he'll just be missing the party..:) 2step is very much like oldschool hardcore techno, not in that it's a mishmash of techno, house, jungle, dub and all points inbetween, but in that there's maybe 30 or 40% great supremely funky tunes with tons of originality and soul, and the rest is total pop/novelty hack. which can be a good thing depending on who you are, but that's a different ball of wax. I've been ordering records from juno.co.uk, where you can download 40sec mp3 samples of pretty much every new release and much of their back catalogue, plus the records end up being just about the same as if you'd bought them in a US shop, even delivered 2-day DHL (on request only). Personal favorite producers right now include Wookie (who's done an absolutely blinding slice of new funk called 'down on me' on the Manchu label), the BAD label whose newest release is the 2-step version of jump-up jungle, the KRONIK label for the for the most part, although they do slip in to super cheese mode every once in awhile (see their cover of Bell Biv Devoe's "Poison", which, and i'm grinning ear to ear just thinking about what some of you squares think about this, is actually great on many levels), Some of the Artful Dodger's remixes are good but are very slick most mainstream of 2-step producers, along with MJ Cole, who's excellent in the same places that the Artful Dodger is less so, if that makes any sense. There are lots of 2-step resources online, and the first one i'd direct you to is DJ Casper's Heavyweight Sound page http://www.2step.ffwd.com, from which there are lots of links to other sites. have fun! mikebee --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org