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Podcast: Star Eyes "On Smash Mix"
Man I went through some ish to get this one done! One trip to Radio Shack, a last minute Too Short download, running up four flights of stairs three times, and five Tecates later and here we go. A little something for hot, drunk summer afternoons – a nasty selection of my favorite grime and 4x4 garage jams of the last few years mixed up with some crunk business and a few surprises to make you go "Uhhhhhhh." A little crunchy in parts but I was trying to transmit the energy more than anything else - bobbing around like a Muppet while I made this. Maximum respect to Will for coming through serious for this one. REWIND!
Star Eyes, Trouble & Bass

Tracklisting:
01. Kerby "Cold As Ice" (white)
02. Youngstar "Bongo" FX (DDJs Productions)
03. Plastician "Cha!" (Terrorhythm)
04. Plastician "Badboy" (white)
05. Sizzla & Bone Crusher "Never Scared Remix" (white)
06. DaVinChe "Phaze" (Paperchase Recordings)
07. MIMS feat. Junior Reid and Baby Cham "Why I'm Hot Remix" (Capitol)
08. Mathhead "Dreamtigers" (Terminal Dusk)
09. Blackjack feat. No Lay and Hyper "Straight Off the Block" (On A Level)
10. Drop The Lime "E-Lock" (Tigerbeat6)
11. C.L.A.W.S. "C.L.A.W.S. Theme" (Curses Remix)
12. Skream "Who R Those Guys" (Big Apple)
13. Dizzee Rascal "I Love U" (XL Recordings)
14. Skream "Midnight Request Line" (Tempa)
15.Crime Mobb "Stilettos"
16. DaVinChe feat. Roxy "Dis Gal" (white)
17. DJ Dread D "Howlin'" (Black Ops)
18. DJ Mondie feat. Flirta D, Nappa, Shizzle, & Ribz "Pull Up Dat (Dexplicit Remix)" (DXP Recordings)
19. Dexplicit "Change Formation (Hench 2)" (DXP Recordings)
20. Alias "Warriors (4 x 4 Remix)" (Alias Recordings)
21. Too Short "Blow The Whistle" (Jive)
22. Skepta "Duppy" (white)

Soundtracks for
The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)
advertisement Please note that songs listed here (and in the movie credits) cannot always be found on CD soundtracks. Please check CD track details for confirmation.

"A Life of Illusion"
Written by Joe Walsh, Kenny Passarelli
Performed by Joe Walsh
Courtesy of Elektra Entertainment Group
By Arrangement with Warner Strategic Marketing

"Minute by Minute"
Written by Michael McDonald, Lester Abrams
Performed by Michael McDonald

"Undawhere"
Written by DJ Calboz, Jr.
Performed by DJ Calboz
Courtesy of Gyrate Music

"Takin' It to the Streets"
Written by Michael McDonald
Performed by Michael McDonald

"Rump Shaker"
Written by Aqil Davidson, Anton Lamont Hollins, Teddy Riley, Markell Demont Riley,
David J. Wynn, Etterlene Jordan, Eldra DeBarge, William DeBarge, David Porter,
, Pharrell L. Williams
Performed by Wreckx-N-Effect
Courtesy of Geffen Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises
Contains a sample of "Blind Alley"
Performed by The Emotions
Courtesy of Concord Music Group, Inc.

"Train of Disaster"
Written by Brian Tichy
Performed by Brian Tichy
Courtesy of Marc Ferrari / Mastersource

"Sharing the Night Together"
Written by Ava Aldridge, Eddie Struzick
Performed by Dr. Hook
Courtesy of Capitol Records
Under license from EMI Film & Television Music

"Anchors Aweigh"
Written by Alfred H. Miles, Charles A. Zimmerman, George Lottman, Domenico Savino

"Ain't No Mountain High Enough"
Written by Valerie Simpson, Nickolas Ashford
Performed by Michael McDonald featuring Ashford & Simpson

"I Got Ants in My Pants"
Written by James Brown
Performed by James Brown
Courtesy of Universal Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

"J.O.D.D."
Written by Maurice Young, Khia Chambers, Marqinarius Holmes, Antonio Alls
Performed by Trick Daddy (featuring Khia and Tampa Tony)
Courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp.
By Arrangement with Warner Strategic Marketing

"Push It"
Written by Herby Azor, Raymond Davies
Performed by Salt 'N' Pepa
Courtesy of The Island Def Jam Music Group
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

"If I Was Your Girlfriend"
Written by Nicole Wray, Antonio Hooker, Al-Rad Lewis, Willie Beck, James Williams,
Marshall Jones, Leroy Bonner, Marvin Pierce, Ralph Middlebrooks, Clarence Satchell
Performed by Nicole Wray
Courtesy of Roc-A-Fella Records, L.L.C.
Contains a sample of "Fire"
Performed by Ohio Players
Courtesy of The Island Def Jam Music Group
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

"Get Ur Freak On"
Written by Missy 'Misdemeanor' Elliott (as Melissa Elliott), Timothy Mosley
Performed by Missy 'Misdemeanor' Elliott (as Missy Elliott)
Courtesy of Elektra Entertainment Group
By Arrangement with Warner Strategic Marketing

"Stand Up Tall"
Written by Dylan Mills, Darryl Nurse
Performed by Dizzee Rascal
Courtesy of XL Recordings Ltd.

"Just Got Lucky"
Written by Christopher John Bostock, Timothy Wayne Ball
Performed by Jo Boxers
Courtesy of Sony BMG UK & Ireland Ltd.
By Arrangement with Sony BMG Music Entertainment

"Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)"
Written by Edward Holland Jr., Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier (as Lamont Herbert Dozer)
Performed by Michael McDonald

"Midare"
Arranged by Helene Colesse, Paul Amphoux
Performed by Ayako Hotta-Lister
Courtesy of Arc Music Productions International Ltd.

"Hello"
Written by Lionel Richie
Performed by Lionel Richie
Courtesy of Motown Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

"I'm Every Woman"
Written by Valerie Simpson, Nickolas Ashford
Performed by Chaka Khan
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Records Inc.
By Arrangement with Warner Strategic Marketing

"Tammy's Dream"
Written by R. Ellen
Performed by Charlie Ventura
Courtesy of Pure Music Inc

"Sonia"
Written by Sonny Clark and Wardell Wilson
Performed by Sonny Clark Trio
Courtesy of Pure Music Inc

"Sheepskin Tearaway"
Written by Peter Doherty, Dot Allison
Performed by Babyshambles
Courtesy of Rough Trade Records

"Believe It or Not (The Greatest America Hero - Theme)"
Written by Mike Post, Stephen Geyer
Performed by Joey Scarbury
Courtesy of Elektra Entertainment Group
By Arrangement with Warner Strategic Marketing

"After Party"
Written by Rufus Moore, Marques Houston, Jerome Jones, Tony Scott
Performed by Young Rome featuring Omarion
Courtesy of Universal Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises
Omarion appears courtesy of Epic Records/Sony Urban Music
By Arrangement with Sony BMG Music Entertainment

"Hot This Year"
Written and Performed by Transcenders
Mykill Miers appears courtesy of Abnormal Entertainment, LLC

"Red Light Special"
Written by Kenneth Edmonds
Performed by TLC
Courtesy of Arista Records
By Arrangement with Sony BMG Music Entertainment

"Candy"
Written by Pharrell L. Williams, Chad Hugo, Juan Cordova, Inga Marchand
Performed by Foxy Brown featuring Kelis
Courtesy of The Island Def Jam Music Group
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises
Kelis appears courtesy of Virgin Records
Under license from EMI Film & Television Music

"Jesu Joy"
Arranged by Tom Parker, Clive Scott
Performed by Apollo 100
Courtesy of Start Entertainments Limited
Under license from Nola Leone / Ace Music Services

"Heat of the Moment"
Written by John Wrtton, Geoffrey Downes
Performed by Asia
Courtesy of Geffen Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

"Aquarius / Let the Sun Shine in"
Composed by Galt MacDermot
Lyrics by James Rado, Gerome Ragni

If your in or around London, listen to DJ Youngstar live on Lush fm 107.6 every monday 10pm - 12pm

Catch NW London’s Grime producer & DJ Youngstar live on UKFlow.tv Wed at 10pm – Midnight GMT

Best known for working with Dizzee Rascal on “Stand Up Tall” (the first single from the Showtime album), and more recently with Sway on “Baby Father”, Youngstar is appearing on the SickVibez Grime Show on UKFlow.tv Studio 1, Wednesday 21st 10pm – Midnight GMT. Youngstar will be playing the latest cutz from the London Underground Grime scene, and his from own label DDJ’s.
UKFlow.tv is a new online radio / TV station reppin UK Artists all the way and operating from Edmonton, North London.

Sway : Products - Die & Lean Remix / Baby Father
All City Music
Products
Products (Die And Leans Mix Feat Ben Westbeach)
Baby Father

Following a hugely successful solo UK tour and strong sales on his debut album "This Is My Demo", Sway drops his new single. As well as the original mix of "Products" (in vocal and instrumental versions) this twelve includes a dirty hip hop remix from drum and bass legend DJ Die featuring Ben Westbeech, the hotly-tipped first signing to Gilles Peterson's new label. On the flip we also get Sway's first surefire dancefloor smash, "Baby Father", produced by grime wunderkind Youngstar (the man behind Dizzee's "Stand Up Tall").

Hey, I’m Simon from silverdollarcircle blog and below are 10 grime tracks that you should own. They’re not necessarily my favourite grime tracks, but rather a selection that should give those who have heard little or no grime a good idea of where grime’s coming from and where it’s going.

Grime is very much a London sound at the moment, growing out of UK garage, and it can be seen as the result of teenagers trying to create a music that combines the tempo of UKG with other musical obsessions: crunk and dirty south hip-hop, the riddim culture of dancehall and the white-heat insanity of jungle. At its best, grime is the pretty much the most fiercely inventive, raw and exciting music around: a music of careening rhythm and noise with breakneck-speed MCs furiously and joyfully tearing into the tracks.

You’ll note that there’s no Dizzee Rascal in the guide below. His music is easily available and can be uniformly recommended.

PAY AS U GO CARTEL- KNOW WE
There’s some debate as to whether this is actually grime or not. Certainly, the beats owe something to early 21st Century So Solid dark, “tower block” 2-step, but for sheer influence on the grime scene this track has to be included. PAUG are still spoken of in awe as perhaps the greatest MC crew ever to come out of London. The members all went on to great things: Wiley, MC in PAUG, is now the undisputed Godfather of the grime scene, and fellow MCs God’s Gift and Maxwell D are also major players, while DJ Slimzee could, before he moved away from grime in 2003, determine the fate of new grime tracks by deciding whether or not to play them on his weekly show on London pirate Rinse FM. “Know We” was one of the biggest PAUG tunes, and still gets played frequently on cutting edge grime pirates. With this track, a complete and lasting break was made with the glossy sensuality of 2-step, as a crude, punk sound, revelling in harsh noise and killer riffs emerged. It’s an awesome statement of intent, with God’s Gift singing the hook like a battle cry over a mercilessly strident string sample. This is an absolutist sound, a sound of no compromise and total conviction, which seems to burn out of the speakers. It’s vital and lurid, with the MCs spitting lyrics so fast they don’t ever seem to pause for breath. Wiley has never sounded better, and delivers his final line with a never-since-matched level of focus and belief, “My time’s near or a wouldn’t be here, phase one, first stage of my career”.

WILEY- ESKIMO
Wiley’s self-prophesy was proved correct as he went on to produce what is, it’s fairly uncontroversial to say, the definitive grime riddim. “Eskimo” is one of those tunes that has an anthemic, unforgettable quality about it that means that everyone falls in love with it when they hear it, or at least acknowledges that they’re in the presence of Something Special. Eskimo is like the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” of grime. And like, “Teen Spirit” it’s based around one of the greatest riffs ever. I think it’s important to see that grime is, very often, a riff-based music, which sets it apart from hip-hop, jungle and dancehall, and perhaps reflects the influence of early 90’s UK and Belgian hardcore echoing down the London pirate sound. “Eskimo”’s riff is an almighty one-finger, 4 note stomp, that introduced the famous “Wiley bass” to the world. A plastic, hollow, weirdly textureless whump, that’s been likened to the sound of blowing over the top of a bottle, it’s still one of grime producers’ favourite sounds. Wiley pushes and twists the riff into wildly different keys, creating a sense of forward momentum that’s like a ghetto “In the Hall of the Mountain King”. The beats are minimal clinks and clunks that frame the riff rather than lead the track. Perhaps the oddest moment is the breakdown where the beats and the riff drop out as a sliced up Oriental melody comes twanging in, over robotic murmurs and sighs. “Eskimo” blew the rules apart and created an environment where just about anything goes, musically.

MORE FIRE CREW- OI
“Oi” was one of the first grime MC tracks, and also its biggest commercial hit to date. The MCing isn’t the best, with all three of More Fire sounding strangely awkward, and there’s little indication of the great things that Lethal B would go on to in this track (he’s now one of the very best grime MCs). But there’s still something addictive about this track, in its militant synth line that manages to sound somehow gloopy and elastic, yet taut and wiry. And the cold, dislocated sampled “hey’s” achieve the same odd trick of “In Da Club”, by making the groove so irresistible precisely because it sounds so alienated, inhuman and colourless.

KANO AND JAMMER- VICE VERSA aka BOYS LUV GIRLS
“Boys Luv Girls” was the pirate anthem last summer and made Kano one of the biggest MCs in grime. Jammer produces one of his best ever tracks here, a heavenly soft pop-ambient chamber piece of brittle beats and clicks, with a delightful, joyfully cartoonish melody in the chorus. Imagine Warp Record’s Plone trying to write a “bubblecrunk” tune. Everyone fell in love with Kano’s voice when they heard this track. He sounds like he’s rapping through a smirk, but he’s so smoothly charming with it. I don’t think his voice has sounded so light and agile since. The garbled chorus manages to be mind-melting in its verbal dexterity while remaining as catchy as the Venga Boys. And check those lyrics: “OK, it’s a date, I ain’t payin’ though!”, and the pantomime sigh of “It’s a shame I know the game / And every girl’s the same”! As Kanye might say: why’s Kano so cool? Cuz he’s an asshole.

J-SWEET- GUTTER
One of the best ever true 8-bars (in which there are two alternating beats, repeated for 8 bars each). From the opening screech of the alarm siren, you know it’s going to be hardcore. Then that brutalist one-note stutter comes pummelling in, buzzing like a thousand starving locusts, and things kick off properly in gabba-garridge fashion. The other 8-bar sequence is a nicely dark piece of drum n bass-ish gelatinous synth but really, it’s just there to build up anticipation for the other, more mentalist, beat to come in. A slice of the really nasty, adrenalin crazed side of grime. Love it like cooked food.

NASTY CREW FEAT. RIKO AND CRAZY TITCH-COCK BACK
Grime often has a fairly pornographical obsession with firearms, and “Cock Back” is perhaps the ultimate gun-man tune. Terror Danjah of Aftershock Recordings is on the buttons, producing a skeletal beat made from the sound of guns firing and, uh, cocking back. An irregular, bitty synth line sounds like it’s showering down on the track in little droplets of melody that keep suggesting and hinting at a tune which, tantalisingly, always stays just out of reach. Riko takes the hook, and I’ve never heard an MC sound so frighteningly, thrillingly, authoritative as he does when he spits, “In East London we COCK BACK!”. His verse is also perhaps the most perfect bit of Grime MCing you’ll ever hear.

LETHAL B ETC.-FORWARD RIDDIM
After being dropped from their major label deal in 2003, the members of More Fire returned to the underground and started to become a pretty much inescapable presence on London pirate radio. In this period, Lethal B went from being a fairly good MC, the best in More Fire, to being one of the best of any crew. Setting up his own record label, Lethal Bizzle Records, his first release was the “Forward Riddim”, which is probably the biggest grime track since “Eskimo”. Apparently, DJs at this year’s Notting Hill Carnival couldn’t play more than 4 bars of it, as the crowd near-rioted whenever it came on. It’s grime distilled to its purest essence: the 808 handclaps which have been a grime staple since Youngstar’s “Pulse X” are stapled together into a bare-bones beat, with an ultra-minimal melody of string stabs laid over the top. However, “Forward” has a manic, feral energy about it that prevents it from being just a dull, formulaic genre-exercise. The MCs: D Double, Nappa, Flo-dan, Jamakabi and Lethal B himself amongst others, each deliver a few bars of their best known, most crowd-hyping lyrics then pass the mic on quickly. This is perhaps the best-recorded example of what a live grime MC pirate show sounds like: hysterically angry, thick with testosterone, and totally compelling.

D DOUBLE AND SHOLA AMA- SO CONTAGIOUS
Grime isn’t just angry boys shouting over clattering beats, though. There’s a softer, R & B influenced, side to it that’s been called “Grimette” and is spearheaded by Terror Danjah of Aftershock and Davinche of Paperchase Recordings. Here, Terror does his trademark futuristic shiny but grimey production thing, sounding like El-P raised on dub and rave. Synth lines swoop, twist and curl round each other like post-coital cigarette smoke, while the grimey edginess is kept in view by the metallic, clinking delay applied to those crunching beats which always remind me of walking in the snow. Shola Ama is a fantastic on here as always, sticking to the tune and not doing the hateful Mariah-warble like so many R & B singers. And that moment where the music drops out and she sighs, “onhhhh”, like she’s both trying to regain composure and throwing herself straight in to love and passion is probably the sexiest thing you’ll hear all year (on record that is, what you get up to in your private life is your business). And the mighty D Double’s on it as well. What more can you ask for?

RUFF SQWAD- MISTY COLD and MISTY COLD RMX
Really, you should get every Ruff Sqwad release ever, as they’re all amazing. On their latest tunes, producers Rapid and Dirty Danger (who are also pretty tidy MCs) have created hyper-dense electro-grime symphonies of sweeps and swirls of heartbreaking melody. “Misty Cold” is an old Ruff Sqwad track, and quite different than their recent output, but it’s still one of my favourite grime riddims ever. Its genius is in its harmonious simplicity and willingness to use sounds that others would reject: just an insanely danceable accordion (I think) riff, with a few icicles of a descending piano line. There’s something so perfectly formed and graceful about it: this track is haiku-grime. There’s also a remix out, although I’m not sure who’s done it, which transforms “Misty Cold” into a downbeat, crushingly and upliftingly sad piece, with a hazy, sobbing piano melody forming the broken centrepiece.

RIKO and TARGET- CHOSEN ONE
There’s a sub-genre within grime of inspirational, conscious tracks focusing on self-belief and self-reliance. “Chosen One” is probably the best of these, with other examples being Wiley’s “Pick Yrself Up” and Roll Deep’s “I Will Not Lose”. Producer DJ Target, of Roll Deep, performs a strange trick on this track, where it sounds very lush, thick, even orchestral, but if you listen closely there’s actually very little going on: just a few sketches of intersecting samples of synth and string-led melody, which suggest a much fuller sound, leaving your mind to fill in the gaps. The tune also has a wicked shimmery, delicate quality, sounding like it could fall apart at any moment into a million diamonds of sound. Riko hits you deep with the chorus of, “Stay calm, don’t switch your composure blud / Use your head then battle through cuz you know you’re the chosen one”. Total belief and determination. And it also features one of my favourite lyrics ever: “Soon gonna see me on satellite / On Saturday / On Saturnight…wait, Saturnight, that ain’t right / But I told you before I’ll say what I like!”. Kids should study Riko in school.

I first head The Endz “Are You Really From The Endz? (V.I.P. Mix)” on The Nasty Crew’s Nasty Show set in early 2003, and ever since it’s probably been my favourite 8-bar of all time (I even wrote about it on skykicking at about that time, though back then I didn’t know which mix of the original track it was). What a brilliant, perfect, unprecedented and, perhaps most significantly, unrepeated groove it is: the post-“Boo!” rrrushy beat and string riff sections competing with those spare, drum-only piledriving dancehall interjections, like one of those cartoon car races where the two leading cars exchange the lead position repeatedly and instantaneously, back forth, back forth. Was there ever anything more hype-inducing? By today’s standards, this tune is probably a bit too 8-bar-ish, too ruthlessly mechanical in its frenzied, palsied alternations (mind you, with tunes like “Sidewinder”, one wonders…), but I love it enough to quietly mourn its passing.

I finally tracked this down on CD about a year later when I bought the Ministry of Sound Street Beats comp, whose Femme Fatale disc is really quite underrated. It’s pretty much the only official document of the explicit “8-bar” moment in early grime, when Youngstar and Big$hot and Jon E Cash were running tings with their ultra-simple metallic grooves. As a “Greatest Hits” document of this moment in garage’s lifecycle the Femme Fatale set does pretty well: most of the justifiably inescapable stuff like “Bongo”, “War”, “Stomp” and “Target” are present and correct, as well as several of my personal faves like J-Sweet and Cameo’s “Baby”, one of early grime’s most jittery moments, and surely Gemma Fox’s finest hour – her ragga-laced vocals here sound like B15 Project’s “Girls Like This” on bad speed (forgive the “x sounds like y on z” bullshit, it’s true!).

Listening to the disc last week, I was again reminded of how quickly grime has developed its own competing narratives: alongside grime-as-8-bar, there’s grime-as-dubstep (foreshadowed on the Slimzee mix on the same comp), grime-as-UK-hip-hop, grime as nu-rave-R&B (can we think of something other than “R&G”? It’s less unwieldy than “grimette” I’ll admit, but it’s also a bit boring and limiting, emphasising the wrong part of the music I reckon), grime as pop-rap… One of the nice things about The Nasty Show is how it pre-empted so many splintering developments and yet seemed oblivious to the fact of the splintering itself.

And it follows that for me the better grime sets tend to be those which traverse the boundaries of these different incarnations, rather than the ones that draw lines in the sand. There’s another reason for this: the different incarnations all in some way relate to a genre of music external to grime, and in their haste to mark themselves out and declare allegiances they will often all to readily leave grime proper – e.g. on Ruff Sqwad’s Guns & Roses mixtape, the eagerness of the crew to make grime-as-US-street-rap results in a lot of indifferent freestyles over familiar US beats. Pluralist grime mixes are less likely to get pulled into oppositional orbits, more likely to try to capture grime qua grime. The danger of holding out any particular direction as being “the way” forward for grime is that doing so almost inevitably leads away from grime as a distinct approach.

I say all this to temper any extreme conclusions that might be drawn from me saying that Target’s Aim High 2 mixtape is my favourite album of the year. Which it is, but not in the sense of it being the definitive statement of grime’s ideal future.

At their weakest, Target and Danny Weed both tend toward polite, barely distinguishable hip hop grooves – Target’s production for Riko’s “Hands Up” (not on Aim High 2), for example, has very little to recommend it beyond its own professional functionalism; thankfully nothing on Aim High 2 is actually bland, but a few tracks such as Wiley’s “Be Yourself” – with its warm, sentimental piano chords and uplifting male R&B chorus – are perhaps a bit too refined for their own good. Bob Zemko from Spizzazzz has complained that Target is the LTJ Bukem of grime, but moments like these tend to remind me more of MJ Cole - a rather subtle distinction I realise, but one I think is interesting to think about.

Bukem has a nice historical parallel for any damning critique of Target: you merely need to repeat the narrative of stellar, starbound early efforts deteriorating into insipid classy musicality (to come? Already here?). MJ Cole circa his first album provides a better sonic parallel though, for good and for ill. There were, of course, those insipid classy tracks, which didn’t achieve anything beyond proving Cole knew his way around a string section and had listened to a lot of acid jazz. There were the bassline tracks, which rejected class in favour of roughhousing physicality (the cynical among us might say that such efforts were at once very deliberate-sounding and still a bit too polite). And there were also the occasional track like “Crazy Love”, which, while sophisticated and refined, were just too breathlessly joyous to be drab.

But there was also Cole’s finest moment, “Sincere (Y2K Dub)”, which stretched his duelling impulses – pristine, delicate soul ambiance and devastating bass lines – to their mutual extremes, gorgeously echoey piano tinkling ascending from a fog of eerie reversed strings and sighs, before vanishing into a black hole of bass onslaught. What I love most about this tune is its spectral quality: its beauty is so fragile, so fleeting, so imperfect that it seems to be a vision from another world, another order of existence. The successful co-existence of these elements always appears to threaten the symbolic security of the music, to gesture toward emotional states we have no words for. In my wilder flights of fancy I can sense in this balancing act a certain gap or hollowness, a link between worlds which allows its different, opposed elements to contact each other. It is the preservation of this gap, this space allowing for the emergence of spectral apparitions, which entails a certain aesthetic of minimalism, of restraint, a willingness to not fill in the void.

But, of course, an aesthetic of minimalism and restraint can all too easily become its own end, losing sight of its original purpose and prioritising instead an oppressive blankness. This is the quandary of dubstep: almost all the best dubstep has devoted itself to exploring this spectral connection (as early as the flatlining diva seduction of Horsepower Productions’ early classic “One You Need”), but its elevation of minimalism to a foundational a priori can make it easy to lose sight of the original balance, to celebrate the void itself rather than what it gives rise to.

It’s in this sense that Target and Danny Weed’s early work together always resembled dubstep idealised: their classic “Fresh Air” was the grime 8-bar at its most eerie and delicate, populating the valley of the shadow of death with tiny white flowers. Target’s remix of their co-produced “Pick Yourself Up” for Wiley was practically haunted, its lugubrious synth motifs evoking a Bronte-style romantic fatalism which lethally undermined Wiley’s own paean to self-improvement. Target reworked the same vibe on his now signature tune, Riko’s “Chosen One”, whose hazy Oriental mirage of a melody recasts Riko’s spiritual trek into a post-mortem journey toward the light.

By the time of Aim High 2 (released at the beginning of the year – it’s taken me a while to work up to writing about it), it is really Danny Weed who is filling this role. His best, most muscular work retains on the one hand an air of menace and sense of forward propulsion from his early 8-bars, as well as a slightly unreal, supernatural vibe. On Donae’o’s “Bark” the ascending bass in the chorus acts as tension builder, before an agonising (if only momentary) pause announces the release of the verses, constructed out of synths torn between mimicking viola riffs and Arabic accordions, not to mention a panoply of percussive dog yelps.

The same ingredients (using gunshots instead of dogs) form the basis of his Shank Riddim, which provides the rhythmic bed for three freestyles here. Shank Riddim has an almost gypsy vibe about it, conflating near east, middle east and far east (as with some Low Deep riddims, it reminds me a bit of Jammer’s old gypsy tunes like “Mystic”); at once more aggressive but also more mournful than “Bark”, it’s music for spells and incantations, for warding off evil spirits with other evil spirits. Danny has kept the faith with 8-bar’s secret weapon: the frenzied palsy hop between motifs that renders the music so impossibly exciting, ramping up the tension with every switch.

Target has largely abandoned the 8-bar structure; his recent grooves attempt a perfectly sealed singularity, intricately syncopated rhythms dovetailing back into themselves with a quietly shuddering intensity that is at best utterly hypnotic. On his remix of Sadie’s “So Sure” he brings Terra Danjah’s pretty but oddly formless original production into sharp focus: the foreground stuttering rhythm constrains Sadie’s yearningly high vocals, evoking the fragility of her optimism as the anchor that prevents the tune, and Sadie, from floating off in reverie. And yet the tune still strains against its chains: Target introduces woozy piano chords and eerie synth clouds which blur the line between melody and atmospherics – between the here and the elsewhere. If Danny Weed’s productions envisage the outside as something to be feared, warded off, kept shut out, Target is much more ambiguous, mingling uncertainty with a certain sense of desire and yearning – his remix of “So Sure” turns a simple declaration of love into a séance dialogue.

I love this pathetic quality which infuses so much of his work: turgid basslines doing battle with twee trebly synth and string motifs. Even the aforementioned piano chords can work marvellously when they’re held in check by the chilly and mechanical surroundings, the metaphorical flower struggling up through the crack in the street pavement of a dead city. On harder tracks like Roll Deep's "Trouble", the same ingredients (morose string riffs, intricate percussion loops, portentous electro bass riffs) are employed to create impressively austere steel lattice grooves: if Danny's harder tracks retain an edge of raucousness despite their dark mysticism, Target goes for widescreen precision depictions of war and destruction - instead of recreating the sweaty directness of the physical or verbal tussle, the groove plays the role of the sad-eyed chorus, shaking its head in unison at the tragic hubris of the foolish brave challenger who went up against its host MC.

It’s all pretty melodramatic stuff, and the rapping on Aim High 2 is correspondingly almost always very serious, mostly stories of self-improvement through adversity or apocalyptic battle rhymes. The first tack has become a bit of a cliché for Target productions, especially after “Chosen One”, and indeed there is evidence here of what I’ve been calling in my head “the Riko Fallacy”: the idea that there is a direct relationship being the quality of an MC and their focus on soul-bearing – named after Riko because so many people seem to rate said MC based on how many times he talks straightforwardly about being poor or something, when in fact he’s at his best when sliding into near-incomprehensible patois (the oneupmanship ragga chat with God’s Gift on “Dead That” being far superior to his round table with Dogzilla on poverty in “Critical”). The sad fact is that many MCs lose all their wit, their flow, their verbal imagination, when they try to get in touch with their feelings, erroneously assuming that “straight talk” is an ends in itself. Not everyone is a Dizzee, and nor should they feel the need to be.

Case in point here being Dogzilla’s “Never Ending Story”, a somewhat self-absorbed and uneventful story about the myriad of hardships which Dogzie has faced on his way to the… er, middle? Delivered in that “no gimmicks” transparent professional hardman voice of his, the entire track feels like a lecturer leading a class on the topic he wrote his thesis on - noble exception being the inspired bit where he dreamily lists a string of Ayia Napa-related destinations, which comes closest to capturing the captivating stream-of-consciousness torrent of grime’s primary m.o., freestyling.

When it comes to white MCs I far prefer the somewhat ridiculous Discarda of the Wile Out Onez, who’s all gimmick, splicing Crazy Titch’s comically unhinged aggression with a cockney thug accent that I half-suspect was inspired by The Streets’ The Irony of it All. Discarda has nothing to say, really, but he delivers his spittle-flecked battle raps with a wonderfully rhythmic intensity, a rising fury that gives his tenuous jokes an ominous edge – he doesn’t really care if you find him funny or not: “I’m back, back on crack, not in that way in the other way, I’m on cracking your head off road, I’m back on the block, back on rocks, not in that way in the other way, I’m on rocking you up I’m on brocking you up I’m on blocking you in a dead end, I’ll stab the shit outta you in a dead end!” I find it totally arresting, fascinating: it’s not the lyrics themselves, and it’s not anything about Discarda (watching him freestyle the same lines on the accompanying DVD is a curiously deflating experience, he’s such a scrawny type, and the amateurishness delivery makes me wonder just how many takes it took to get the perfect performances on the album), it’s the flow, the way its rough unstoppable torrent mirrors the non-stop thud and judder of Target’s morosely implacable groove.

Even better than Discarda’s flow is the unstoppable machine that is Roll Deep when they’re on form: their harder tracks here are nothing short of astonishing, a composite of different performances whose value far exceeds the sum of its parts. What gets me about Roll Deep is the preponderance of memorable voices: Scratchy D, whose clipped nasal flow makes him out to be the steely-eyed scientist of the group, as cold as ice (far colder, indeed, than the mostly absent Wiley, however much the latter may boast of his low temperatures); Trim Taliban, whose hoarse and slightly off-kilter flow always sounds totally unrehearsed, unreheasable; the underrated Flo Dan, deeply rhythmic and muscular, threats tautly flexing from bar to bar – his basso profundo rumble of a chorus on “Trouble” is perhaps the most chilling moment on the album; and the brilliant and endlessly versatile Breeze, moving easily from witty and acerbic to contemplative to morbid – even when rhyming at a ridiculous tongue-twisting double-time pace he sounds perfectly relaxed.

Unsurprisingly, Breeze’s “Be Like This” is one of the best and most convincing slow tracks I’ve heard from a grime artist: Target providing a slinky, cruelly sexy groove that moves at a hip hop tempo but remains as distinct-sounding as any 8-bar, while Breeze delivers a devastatingly indifferent kiss-off to a failing relationship (“don’t start getting’ on yer high & mighty/you ain’t been dropped, I let you down lightly”). It’s hard to say which is more crucial to the track’s success – Breeze’s magnetism and panache or the perfect balancing act of Target’s groove, which manages to avoid sounding like both “regular” hip hop and grime at half tempo, instead blending both sides’ genes expertly to create a distinct new breed.

And this, on a sonic level at least, is what makes Aim High 2 mostly so impressive: Danny Weed and (especially) Target are fusionists, drawing links between grime and other styles and sounds with a practiced and thoughtful air. Despite this, they are not really eclectic: their distinct sonic signatures are instantly recognisable, and they recycle certain key motifs in a manner that suggests single-minded dedication rather than laziness. Aim High 2 cycles through a range of different approaches to current grime, from the straightforward 8-bar to girly “r&g” to hip hop and dancehall fusions, but it mostly feels like a mono-genre excursion, a devastatingly consistent riff on a single theme. Despite the pair’s interest in gene-splicing, they remain faithful to the core sonic principles which they have pursued since grime’s genesis – grime is the “dominant” gene, if you like.

More fundamentally and viscerally, their grooves get to me, their melodrama and physicality and pathos short-circuiting the wires that run between grime-as-pop and grime-as-underground-music and grime-as-hip-hop – grime can and should be all these things simultaneously, and these guys know it. I don’t really know if they could or should be “the way forward for grime”, but as an example of what I like in music - any music - here and now, they fit the bill admirably.

When the East London MC/Producer Dizzee Rascal won the Mercury Music Prize earlier this year many commentators remarked that one of Dizzee’s greatest artistic strengths was originality, saying that they’d never heard anything like this strange, metallic clanking take on UK Garage. Well, yes and no. Dizzee is indeed putting out music that sounds very unlike anything that came out a few years ago: he’s part of an aggressively avant scene. But the fact that it’s a scene is important. Dizzee and his music do not stand alone, contrary to what some of the gushing praise post-Mercury prize suggests. Dizzee is part of a collective, Roll Deep Crew, who put out music that sounds broadly like Dizzee’s and Roll Deep are just one of countless groups in the current London scene pushing this virulent strain of garage. Dizzee is one the best, yes, but he’s not the only one. His status as the chosen one with the mainstream music press and the broadsheets in particular might owe more to the torn and bruised melancholy which runs through much of his work (which indie journalists always appreciate) rather than him being the artistic zenith of what the scene has to offer. Grime has being getting a great deal of attention from some parts of the blogosphere -- in fact, Dizzee’s initial rise to indie hipster cult figure is probably due in part due to Simon Reynolds’ (Wire, Village Voice, Spin) relentless enthusiasm for him on his blog. So for those of you already well acquainted with the grimy corner of the blogging world, this piece will more likely than not tell you nothing new, but I hope the following will be a useful starting point for newcomers.

Grime emerged in the last two years or so out of UK garage, reflecting the harsh social and economic realities of life in London estates, contrasting with the blinged out glossy façade of garage. Releases by Pay As You Go Cartel and Youngstar are now seen in retrospect as early warnings to the old order that a new, more minimal, darker sound was about to take over. And the takeover was swift and almost total; listen to London pirate radio stations now and the vast majority of new garage played is grime. Grime tracks are generally aggressively pared down, intended in the most part to function as springboards for MCs who have a far more prominent role now than they did in either drum n bass or garage. A lot of early grime, not so much now, was composed in an ‘8bar’ structure, with a bar repeated 8 times followed up by another bar let run 8 times, then back to the original bar and so on, which was perfect for crews of MCs as a different MC could take over every 8 bars, creating a kinetic, quick-fire sound.

So that’s the history dealt with, albeit rather briskly. Now for some fan-dom; I LOVE this music. In its alien, brutalist strangeness it’s some of the only music being produced today that sounds truly 21st century. Grime feeds off the mass of underground dance idioms of the past 20 years- jungle snares, rave synth stabs, ragga rhythms, echoes of light-footed house, hovering techno drones-and reconstructs them into radically new shapes. Common sample sources are ringtones, action movie soundtrack strings, police sirens, computer game sound effects; rarely has the sound of music reflected the environment it was created in so perfectly. But all these elements are used so sparingly and thoughtfully in the best grime tracks that you don’t get an overload of information, more a mysterious and oddly plaintive sound patchwork; a sketchy, spacious Merz-ish collage. Dave Grohl (of all the people to write about in an article on UK garage,,,) once said that his favourite music was perfect for both falling asleep to and cutting a rug to. A lot of grime seems to walk this fine line, dynamic and driving forward constantly, full of rage and ecstasy yet also strangely meditative and calculated: like a Shaolin monk, visceral, unrelentingly dynamic but calm. A lot of the best grime- Sticky’s ‘Golly Gosh’, Roll Deep’s ‘Salt Beef’, some recent stuff by Pied Piper, is beautiful, in a way music rarely is today; all collapsing and ascending strings, one-finger winding synth vamps that go straight for the heart, whirring and bleeping beats put together in an elegant and harmonious structure, as muscular as it is sublime.

The rawness and inventiveness of grime both excites and saddens me. It excites me for obvious reasons, but also its casts a depressing light on so much music around at the moment- even a lot of drum n bass seems formulaic, produced in multi-million pound studios by muso’s who have settled in their groove/rut. Many grime tracks are produced on playstations and cheap and easy downloaded programs and you can hear the excitement the artists had stabbing in their weird sounds and breaking the rules in the music. As a result, grime sounds simultaneously futuristic and retro- slightly clunky and bare, you can hear the restrictions of the hardware and the producers working round them- but this just means it sounds all the more energised and avant: as futuristic as broken, flickering Blade Runner neon. Initially it can be slightly shocking to hear music this stripped down, punkish and to the point. No fat, no wastage, no affect and maximum effect.

But the bass is the main thing, I think. The bass. Grime has a weird, siren-like whalesong bass that functions both as a percussive and melodic device simultaneously, moaning and wailing in away that’s both forlorn and threatening. There’s no organic texture here, nor even the electric gurgle of acid house 303 synths. Rather, the bass is thrillingly, gloriously, pure and unadorned, stripped right down to base elements until only a pitch-black digital hum and thrum is left. Because grime beats are often ultra-sparse, the bass is used to fill in the gaps, undulating around the electric boom and bips with a strange lightness and quickness of touch for such a stark, brutalist instrument. Its like nothing you’ve ever heard before, and quite addictive. The journalist Ian Penman once lambasted a lot of music being produced at the moment for being a ‘sexless moaning sound’. Well, this sums up grime (or at least the bass) pretty well, but its also a large part of what makes it so great. It’s a major break from the sexualised, uplifting sounds of UK garage, and a move into alien and unforgiving terrains.

The style reaches its pinnacle for me with Wileykat’s music. Wiley was a mentor to Dizzee Rascal in the early days, and indeed some of the first words Dizzee says on his album are ‘get me, Wiley’. Wiley is a grime pioneer and his most popular rhythms- Eskimo, Ice Rink, Igloo - check that obsession with cold, sparse and sublime (in the old school Kantian sense) elements- are pirate radio mainstays. He pushes the grime sound right to the limit of it being danceable or catchy or anything else you might expect popular music to be. Every night, London’s teenagers are listening to some of the most avant garde stuff being put out right now, tracks with have almost entirely dispensed with beats in favour of intersecting digital scrapes and squiggles, aquatic blips sampled from computer games, chamber strings and that elastic, hollow grime bass. I must have heard many of his tracks at least 200 time each and yet they still surprise and shock me with their sheer newness and strangeness. Wiley breaks the rules so thoroughly the listener can be left feeling lost- is this dance music? Is it even music? How can I dance to this? How should I respond to this? This is a good thing. This is one of my favourite feelings.

So where to find all this stuff? Unfortunately its not easy at the moment, unless you live in London in which a quick scan through the dial on any evening will bring up some grime shows on pirate radio stations. For those of you not in London, the easiest way to check out this sound is probably to buy Dizzee Rascal’s album, may be the Street Beats compilation CD (although this is patchy), and also get Wiley’s releases for XL records (home of Basement Jaxx, White Stripes and Dizzee) when they finally come out. For the committed, there’s www.uptownrecords.com for vinyl and also tape-packs from grime events. Femme Fatale’s shows on BBC 1extra are also a good way to check out hot off the press dubplates as well as classics, but she plays a fair bit of old school UK garage and sublow (like grime, a darker take on garage, but more drum n bass influenced; a more rigid, less kinetic sound) along with grime. Enjoy your adventure into this explosion of new sound.

Friday ,24th September 2004
A year after his debut album, and the boy has well and truly come out of the corner, scoring a top ten hit with one of his grimiest tracks to date ‘Stand Up Tall’ and already winning praise for the new album ‘Showtime’. In one of his most revealing interviews ever, Dizzee Rascal talks about international success and why he was right to leave the grime scene that he came from behind Words by Matt Mason

So what did you do differently on the new album?
This time round it was more about my progression. I wanted to show all my capabilities, you’ve got all the hard stuff on there, but I wanted to show a little bit of the lighter side, the other side of shit. Lyrically and production wise I’ve progressed, you’ve gotta understand that ‘I Luv U’ was like the third or fourth beat I made. I feel I’ve progressed a lot since then, and I’m happy to have been able to carry on. My work ethic has changed. I watch how Jay Z works. I’ve learnt a lot from Basement Jaxx as well, they were the ones that broke me through to the mainstream. That gave me a shot. I was out in Japan with them the other day.
You’re an international artist now. Do you still feel attached to the grime scene?
I think to an extent, but I’ve been searching for something bigger. That has been part of my path. Pirate radio and raves is the avenue I used to do what I’m doing. That’s why I incorporated people like Youngstar and Wonder into the album; they have had just as big of an effect on that environment as I did. They are more on the production tip, people forget that I only ever put out three, four tunes on the underground.
Do you ever do raves anymore?
The closest I’ve been to a rave recently is when I did a performance at Fabric. I’m not sure if it’s really about raves and that for me no more.
Why?
It’s like going backwards. I won’t knock smaller venues, I like doing smaller capacity crowds and that, but raves… I’m not a rave MC no more. I do concerts and big shows.
Is it cos it got too dangerous?
It’s kinda dangerous if you’re doing it all. If you are on them kinda things like TV and that, you’re rubbing it in people’s faces a bit going to them places. Really, raves are an avenue for people to come up, get big and do what they’re doing. If you’re big and all you do is still go to them, you’re blocking everyone else out. If people from the ravescene are still interested in you then they will come and watch you. I did UMF, I see the same people. And I was happy about that. I was performing on a bigger stage, and hopefully it don’t just feel bigger for me, I hope it felt bigger for them. It’s all relative, you know? I come from that. I’m in the scene in spirit. The music industry is cut throat enough already coming from where I’m coming from, I’m still trying to keep it real, that’s why I put out a single from Youngstar, with a b-side with D Double on it, but now that’s about as far as I can go with it.
Who are you feeling right now who’s coming through?
Fumin. I’ve clocked him for a while now; I chatted to him for a little bit. He’s an artist. Not an MC. I think he’s realising his full potential now. I ain’t spoke to him a lot though, but he is an artist. I don’t if people know how exciting it is for me to see people come up. I ain’t no big boy or nothing, but for me going across the world and everything, it’s good to see other people coming up.
A lot of people think you should be like, some kind of ambassador for the grime scene now?
I ain’t an ambassador, I just understand that I came from that environment. People were expecting my second album to be a straight hip hop album. No one expected me to do what I did with ‘Stand Up Tall’. I will always incorporate where I came from into what I do, but as an artist I will always be searching for other influences as well to push myself further.
How are things with you and Wiley?
I don’t really see him. Whatever. It’s all past politics; I just don’t really see him. We’re all playing the same game, but we’re just doing different things.
What about the rest of Roll Deep?
Not really nah… I speak to Bubbles every now and then. I ain’t seen Karnage in a long time.
Ok. I heard you met Jay-Z though…
Yeah. It was kinda surreal, I’m not always that phased by people, but him… He told me he liked what I was doing, he knew Fix Up…
People keep saying grime is gonna take off in the states. What do you think?
There’s a following. In nearly every little place I’ve been to. You know what, The Streets, people need to give him more props, when he goes out there, before his shows, he’s playin’ all the rawest shit, plugging all the right people, and he’s good, he plays a part in all this.
Do you think the urban scene can be too complacent? People slate Mike Skinner, they also slate you for leaving the scene…
Them people couldn’t make up their minds anyway, from ‘I Luv U’, saying ‘ur, wass dis? Was dat?’ People are scared of adjusting. That’s why I don’t like to attach myself to one see no more, cos people can’t make up their minds.
So what’s next?
After this album? I’m already writing the third. And I wanna do some live shows. I been listening to Marvin Gaye. I never thought about it before but it amazes me how they use live instruments. That’s a whole other next world. I wanna get a drum kit man…

Showtime is out September 20th on XL

Tuesday ,27th July 2004
Dizzee Rascal's new single 'Stand Up Tall' has been added to the Radio One playlist. It’s the first track first to be taken from his forthcoming, 'Showtime'. Using Youngstar's 'Mayhem 2' beat (REVIVAL PT 2 BEAT), the tune is blazing the airways, Channel U and is already number one in the RWD top 40. But getting on the list at Radio One is a big step towards a chart postion, which at this point looks highly likely. Gwan Dizzee!!!

1. EZ
2. SLIMZEE
3. FONTI
4. MARTIN LARNER
5. MASTERSTEPZ
6. KARNAGE
7. STICKY
8. PRINCIPAL
9. DANNY WEED
10. ROSSI B & LUCA
11. FEMME FATALE
12. JASON KAYE

1 EZ
2. KARL TUFF ENUFF BROWN
3. MARTIN LARNER
4. MASTERSTEPZ
5. NORRIS DA BOSS WINDROSS
6. MATT JAM LAMONT
7. JASON KAYE
8. MIKE RUFF CUT LLOYD
9. PIED PIPER
10. PRINCIPAL
11. FUNKY SMITH
12. RAMSEY

1. B-LIVE
2. VIPER
3. CKP
4. BUSHKIN
5. MIGHTY MO
6. DONEO
7. CHAMPAGNE BUBBLEE
8. KOFI B
9. KIE
10. CREED

1. CKP
2. CREED
3. PSG
4. VIPER
5. B-LIVE
6. KIE
7. KOFI B
8. BUSHKIN
9. RANKING
10. NEAT

1. DIZZEE RASCAL
2. WILEY
3. B-LIVE
4. VIPER
5. DUTTI DOOGZ
6. RIKO
7. GODSGIFT
8. FLOWDAN
9. MAXWELL D
10. MAJOR ACE

1. TODD EDWARDS
2. EZ
3. MJ COLE
4. DND
5. JAMESON
6. BIG SHOT
7. QUALIFIDE
8. NARROWS
9. EL TUFF
10. J SWEET

1. WILEY
2. JON E CASH
3. MUSICAL MOB
4. JAMMER
5. YOUNGSTAR
6. MARK ONE
7. NARROWS
8. GEENEUS
9. SLIMZEE
10. DJ WIRE

1. TIM WESTWOOD
2. SEMTEX
3. SWERVE
4. SHORTEE BLITZ
5. TREVOR NELSON
6. STEVE SUTHERLAND
7. ELLIOT NESS
8. DR PSYCHO
9. STICKY
10. MATT WHITE

1. ILL KIDZ
2. FIRIN SQUAD
3. ENTERTAINMENT CREW
4. HEARTLESS CREW
5. GET RICH CREW
6. STARLIGHT CREW
7. DOUBLE D EXPERIENCE
8. RAMPAGE
9. GAL FLEX
10. FREEK SQUAD

1. BOUNCE – DONEO
2. FROM DA ENDS – END PRODUCTIONS
3. I LOVE YOU – DIZZEE RASCAL
4. WHY – HEARTLESS CREW
5. DOLLAR SIGN – STUSH

1. ESKIMO – WILEY
2. I LUV YOU – DIZZEE RASCAL
3. FROM DA ENDS – ENDS PRODUCTIONS
4. CREEPER – DANNY WEED
5. BOUNCE – DONEO
6. IGLOO – WILEY
7. ICE RINK - WILEY
8. WAR – JON E CASH
9. SAVED SOUL – NARROWS
10. U AINT READY – 2 GOOD 2 BE TRUE

1. SOCIAL CIRCLES
2. PUBLIC DEMAND
3. DUMP VALVE
4. LOCKED ON
5. DIRTY SKANK
6. XL
7. DDJ’S
8. BLACK OPS
9. ONE RECORDINGS
10. SOUTHSIDE

1. `FREEZE FM
2. RINSE FM
3. DE JA VU
4. FLASHBACK
5. KISS FM
6. BBC 1XTRA
7. RADIO 1
8. SILK CITY
9. Y2K
10. CHOICE FM

1. STAYLOCKED.COM
2. RWDMAG.COM
3. UPTOWNRECORDS.COM
4. ROLLDEEPCREW.COM
5. NUTHINGSORTED.COM
6. 2SGFORUM.CO.UK
7. UKGARAGEWORLDWIDE.COM
8. CLUBSIDEWINDER.COM
9. FREEZE FM
10. GARAGEFORUMS.COM

1. UPTOWN RECORDS – SOHO
2. D’ VINYL – HARROW / WATFORD
3. RHYTHM DIVISION – BOW
4. BIG APPLE – CROYDON
5. BLACKMARKET – SOHO
6. INDEPENDENCE RECORDS – LEWISHAM
7. CATAPULT - CARDIFF
8. UDM – ENFIELD
9. CITY SOUNDS – WELLING GARDEN CITY
10. EASTERN BLOCK – MANCHESTER

Friday ,4th July 2003
With a fresh approach to production and some new recruits, we tracked down Musical mob Royale to get the exclusive on what's new in their camp...

As I sit down with Musical Mob for the interview, I'm only thinking one thing. Try and keep it nice. Beefs are all good on wax, but the new place everyone seems to be bringing them... is to RWD! Ok, so the interest the Asher vs. Dizzee or the Zena vs. Mis-teeq beefs generated was massive, but I still don't feel we should encourage it. The Musical Mob vs. DDJs beef stems from a copyright issue. The infamous 'bong!' sound in 'A Pulse X' has been sampled a zillion times, but when Musical Mob and Youngstar decided to go their separate ways, arguments started over who actually owned the legendary sound that would spawn a genre... But I'm going to try and avoid talking about that... if I can...

So we haven't spoken to you for nearly a year, what's been going on?
Just producing. Coming up with new flavours, new sounds, getting the label strong and just rolling through. Nuff people are feeling our main producers LMG and Dynamic M, we've done a remix for Bionics from Roll Deep, we did a tune with Bashy from Special Delivery, another with Jon E Cash and we've made a tune called 'Iron' with 8 MCs from all different camps on there. We've got some hip hop and R&B joints coming, we have been doing that for years, before we even made Pulse X, so we ain't jumpin' on no bandwagon. That's it really. Boom. Our tunes are the best right now, all live instruments, no computer modified beats and we are not just staying with 8 bar arrangements.

Do you think 8 bar is done now or is it here to stay?
There is still a big market there for it and we will probably whack out some more seeing as how we originated it. But we've got more styles. But... Ok look let's break it down... (Like I said I was trying to avoid this question, at least for a little bit but, they went there anyway...) On the level yeah, what it comes down to is Youngstar was in the camp, nuff underground crews split up, they don't go to RWD or any magazine and speak about it, you know them ones? That's why the streets are like 'whatever', they know he's not real. We are carrying on doing what we are doing, we are going strong and in our area we are big. Youngstar was not getting no light in our area and that was the problem. He is trying to make a name for himself off us. Bongo and all them tunes there... How many times are you gonna remix the same tune before people realise you've run out of ideas?

But that's kinda what DDJs had to say about you lot...
They might have said that about us, but you can check our tunes, they are totally different. We don't use that same pulse sample, everyone has used it, it's just a distorted drum kick, it's not exactly hard to make. Bodyrock and Formula were made with our influence, but it's cool, we don't need the credit. We've got a whole different bag of tunes now. We are focusing on melodies, riffs and grooves, so producers like MJ Cole or Artful Dodger will be able to appreciate what we are doing. The music, the beats, it's all proper.

Is this a response to being pigeon-holed as 'grime' producers?
We make complex grime. Youngstar and his tunes are all simple. One finger riffs... If you hear what we are doing now it's music, live drums, music that makes you dance, not just anyone can copy it like Pulse X.

So do you think the whole 'minimal' style is on the way out?
It's got too simple. People looked at what we did and copied it, so now we are trying to influence it again by raising the level, setting a higher standard. We are also a performing outfit, names to look out for are J-Wing, Dynamic M, Untouchable, Allstar and DJ Arron Vybes. You can catch us at a lot of events in Aiya Napa and also on Freeze FM.

Tuesday ,10th June 2003
Pulse X was one of the biggest records of last year, but since its
unprecedented success, the people behind it have gone their separate ways. We caught up with Youngstar and the rest of the DDJs stable to talk about the future of UKG and life after Musical Mob...

"Musical Mob are doing their own thing " D-Tone tells me, "but everyone was getting greedy and not working. " "It got silly " adds Youngstar. "If you re just sitting in a studio nodding your head, then you ain t making tunes, and you ain t getting paid! That is what led to the Musical Mob releasing Bring Back The Ladies (the vocal mix of Pulse X feat. Lorraine Cato) without telling me, as well as Bad Bongo Behaviour and Bongo Clash (which also feature the sample from Pulse X allegedly owned by Youngstar). If you are working together as a team, then you shouldn t be doing that, imitating titles and beats " “It s all squashed now” adds Buseye, "we are not here for beef, we make music for love, all this clashing, making 20 minute tunes, it s a waste of time. It s all squashed now but they are still making silly tunes... Bootlegging mans from your own manor when you should all be working together, it s just stupid. "

So with the beef behind them, Youngstar, D-Tone and Buseye along with 116 and Selesha have been back in the lab full time and so far have released no less than seven tunes already, including Warship , Smelly , 'Hypement', Bongo and the most successful release so far, The Formula . Next up is Bodyrock , out this month, already causing a stir and breaking away from the 8 bar blue print...Some R&B and hip hop stuff? "We have always been doing it " says Youngstar, "but now is the right time to release it. If people like the tunes now then it s time to put them out. " "We are trying to show that we are versatile and creative " adds 116, "we don t want to be in the same boat as everyone else. "

So any R&B tunes with the Pulse X sample in then? "That bong is dead now " Buseye tells me. "People can t eat off that no more. It s late now. Everyone has sampled it. If you check the garage scene now, everyone is bootlegging everyone. If people don t stop, it will kill the whole scene...

The style that we are making could become bigger, it needs a different name.” Still to come is Selesha s first tune on promo Leave You , the vocal mix of Pulse 4/4, also getting released this month. Producer, writer, hip hop and R&B aficionado Selesha met DDJs through a friend. "I just felt they were the right people to work with " she says, "and so far it s working out pretty well! "

Spanning genres and bridging gaps is what DDJs are trying to achieve, fresh from remixing Gemma Fox s Messy for Polydor they have a whole heap of tracks ready, but they are quite sceptical about the future... "Sales have slowed down " says 116. "Certain DJs just ain t real. The ones who have made it should support the ones coming up, or it s gonna die out. It was hard coming up cos only certain DJs like CK Flash, Slimzee, DJ S and Cameo were supporting us; we are building up our business each day as the music industry changes. We did 10,000 of Pulse X, now we are doing between 1000 to 4000 of every tune; we just keep thinking, where did the other 6,000 people go?!? "We are sensible though " says Buseye, "We ve got our heads screwed on, not just hungry for the paper, we make music cos we love it. We are like a family, building a business. Before we put tunes out we thought it would be easy, but now we know what we are doing a bit better, we know a lot more than we knew.”

TOP TIPS!
DDJs top tips for getting ahead in the music industry:
1.Make sure you are working with the right people
2.Make sure you have a goal
3.Keep yourself real – (certain boys think they are superstars cos they made a few garage tunes)
4.Be original
5.Never sell your friends out for paper!
6.The key to creativity is diversity, so do everything you can to get yourself out there!

As early as 1999, UK Garage crews like So Solid had formed, dropping full verses that went beyond the crowd hyping that defined the rave/jungle/UK Garage MC. In the summer of 2000, two So Solid affiliated records pretty well tipped the whole scene on its ass, the Crew's "Dilemma" and Oxide & Neutrino's "Bound 4 Da Reload." The three-note bass throb of "Dilemma" was arguably one of the first "dark" UK Garage tracks. I remember it absolutely ripping up that year's Notting Hill Carnival. If UK Garage had been almost obnoxiously busy at times, the bare rimshot claps and ribcage rattling bass of "Dilemma" were a suspect device planted to clear out the dancefloor. Most crucially: It sounded really good being rapped over.
"Bound 4 Da Reload" did one better by going all the way to number one in the pop charts. The class-conscious end of the scene recoiled in horror and the rift had opened. So Solid became pop stars, shifting a now unthinkable 500K of their debut album. They were banned from clubs; ignited a media frenzy over garage violence; got in dust-ups with the law; reputedly stabbed Dizzee Rascal; released a handful of great pop songs like "21 Seconds"; and disappeared as quickly as they appeared, victims of a shrinking UK Garage market and the temerity of their pop crossover.

"Dilemma" was still notionally "funky," in a listless sort of way. "Pulse X"-- a shitty pressed instrumental single-- is the dividing line between grime and not grime. For nearly two years, this record was the scene, as hundreds of teenagers using cracked Fruity Loops tried to copy its boing-clap-clap beat. (For every step forward, there were a dozen "Pulse X" rips.) The style was called 8-bar, because the beat (or bassline) switched up every eight bars. It made for some seriously funny "dance" music but the perfect backing for MCs. Garage raves were now ciphers in all but name. "Pulse X" was never widely anthologised because suddenly the UKGarage market all but vanished. (Besides, you could hear it on the radio six times an hour.) The Mob started talking about making "musical grime" despite destroying garage with their thrilling anti-musicality. Producer Youngstar (Dizzee's "Stand Up Tall") split, taking most of the brains with him. But they'll always have "Pulse X".

Wiley is grime's bedrock, lord of Roll Deep manor, bad bwoy producer extraordinaire, and not a bad MC. He's one of the few people with roots in UKGarage to occupy a key seat in grime. As one of Pay As U Go Cartel, he was instrumental in pushing "garage rap" in a more aggro, less-flossy direction after So Solid. PAUG's "Know We" still stands hair straight up tall, with its body-blow beats and that keening violin hook that winds through to the music Wiley and the PAUG's DJ Target produce today. And it's debatable whether the world would have known about Dylan Mills without Wiley Kat's stewardship.
The key ingredient was the Wiley Bass Sound, which I have described for years as someone blowing over the top of a plastic Pepsi bottle. The beats were chunky and yet thin, a one-fingered child told to replicate dancehall. But all that mattered was that bass, Wiley demolished the tyranny of 8-bar and "Pulse X" but it would still be a while before anyone was brave enough to follow him down this path.

Black Ops are unrepentant misogynists who aren't even clever about it. One of their biggest early hits was "Swolla", an entreaty to the ladies that's about as joyful as you'd imagine. But it's undeniable that Cash has produced some tunes that ooze a greasy menace. "War" is stomping 4X4 garage putting potholes in your yard and making off with your lawn jockey. "Westside" is like swerving across the yellow lines in a tank, manned by a snatch of Donald Sutherland's ultra-gangsta monologue from JFK. But "Sublow Pressure" was their statement of intent.

A bubbling, boiling marsh of bass-- you know Wonder's "What?" best as the backing for Dizzee's "Respect". One of those tunes everyone wanted to bust their biggest bars on. Fucking voodoo magic.

"Ice Rink" is the sound of the Neptunes door-slam beat (Grindin’ - Southern Hospitality) hardened into a thin plastic shell. It doesn't groove at all, just relentlessly pummels you with its hollow BANG at the end of each bar followed by a series of hiccupping bass hits. It's probably the most "avant-garde" grime tune yet, and it forces MCs to attack like it's a 90 ft wall. Guaranteed to stop any DJ set in its tracks.

Jammer and N.A.S.T.Y. (Natural Artistic Sounds Touching You...almost as goofy as Jason Atkins Represents Universal Love Exists) were, along with Roll Deep and Wiley, the biggest thing in grime in 2003. Jammer's productions favoured right-angled dancehall drums, whizz-bang industrial noises, 8-bit bass, and "eastern" sounds like sitars, tablas, and wailing Bollywood broads in flimsy saris. He also had a big thing for glockenspiels. (There can never be enough glockenspiels.) Tracks like "Take Them Out" were chop-sockey epics of doomy mid-range bass riffs and punchy drums, everything a stab-- including the MC'ing. Kano was obviously their breakout star (and has been for an eternity now), but it's weird to think we called this "pop." Aside from a 50p synth-woodwind melody, it's all robo-bass-and-clockwork-drums. The reason it's pop, if it is, is Kano, stealing every line from himself. "Okay, it's a date then! (I ain't payin!)"

A sure shot double A-side, "Hyperdrive" / "Fresh Air" is a spring heeled snapshot of 2003's eastern fetish.
Roll Deep's Danny Weed is one of grime's most disarming rhythm programmers; his beats are as likely to be built from cash register pings or Polaroid flashes as the sounds of a drum kit.

If anyone in N.A.S.T.Y. was going to give Kano a run for his money in the smack-you-upside-the-head star power stakes, it was D Double E.
That prehistoric bird noise he makes (which everyone seems to have agreed is spelled "mui mui" for some reason) is one of grime's great audio tattoos, and he's got this amazing, mulchy, slurred flow that sounds like the words are spilling out a hole in the side of his mouth in great messy glops.
Durrty Doogz: "Hold Me Down (No No No)" (2003)
Produced by Brit-rap interloper Fusion, this sounded slicker than your average, which suits high-stepping fake Yardie chatter Doogz just fine. Originally part of Roll Deep, Doogz went solo fairly quickly and has since renamed himself "Durty Goodz" (woof!).

The original mix of "Destruction" snips the awkward horns Jammer added to the "VIP Mix" on Run the Road. All that's left are the tense strings playing against a bassline that's more of a cyborg belch at the end of each bar. I have no idea if the six-minute MC version I have is available commercially (ah, the joys of random mp3 acquisition), but-- despite containing some of the same MCs busting the exact bars they do on the RTT version-- it needs to be heard. Missing is an absolutely crucial verse from Sharkie Major who stampedes in before Kano even gets his last syllable out, the closest I've heard in grime to a "pirate session on record."

Ruff Sqwad's producers Rapid and Dirty Danger are keeping the loosen-your-belt banquet vibe of hardcore (though they're more like darkcore) alive. Ruff Sqwad's MCs always sound like they're trying to claw their way out of the depths of their own productions. The whole thing seethes weird energy.

The more-than-welcome return of Sticky, who's produced more bumbaclaat tunes than I have fingers to count them. His Social Circles was one of the few proper UK Garage labels to soldier on in the dry spell between "Pulse X" and new school labels like Terror Danjah's Aftershock and Davinchie's Paperchase. Despite his roots with jungle pioneers Top Buzz, his notoriety was cemented with "Booo!", a collaboration with a then unknown Ms. Dynamite, inarguably the tune of 2001. "Shott the Weed", a collaboration with the Surgery over a grinding cut-up of Tone Loc's "Wild Thing", was his last hit until the storming "Hype Hype". Sticky's beats still feel closer to UK Garage than grime, but as more producers start passing mash notes back to dance music, the lines are getting pretty blurry.

Paralleling "bubblecrunk" (Ciara, et al), producers like Terra Danjah have been slowly swirling back in sweet R&B vocals that grime originally chucked in the dustbin for its journey from the light.
In 2003, this mostly took the form of ugly, pop-art cut-ups, femme vox thrown at odd angles against grime's typically stiff, anti-naturalistic drum programming. 2004 was the year the full vocal returned to grime. (Some people, perhaps realizing "grime" might not be the best name for twinkly pretty stuff, have been throwing around the awkward R&G...that's Rhythm & Grime, obviously. Tim Finney's "grimette" is better, but still not right for chicks who want to be Beyonce instead of a smurf.) "So Sure" pulses with heavenly white light, smeared seesawing riffs like headlights speeding by in the night. A hundred thousand fireflies.

http://www.ukpeopleschoiceawards.com/upload/results.html

DJ CATEGORIES

BEST DJ
1. EZ
2. Fonti
3. Rossi B & Luca
4. Cameo
5. Slimzee
6. Martin Larner
7. Masterstepz
8. MAC 10
9. Matt Jam Lamont
10. Sticky

BEST FEMALE DJ
1. Femme Fatale
2. Lady B Line
3. Emma Feline
4. Lady Duracell
5. Anna Kiss
6. Lisa Unique
7. Leona H
8. Jolie
9. Angel T
10. Nandi Lioness

BEST OLD SKOOL DJ
1. EZ
2. Matt Jam Lamont
3. Martin ‘liberty’ Larner
4. Karl Tuff Enuff Brown
5. Norris Da Boss Windross
6. Mike Ruff Cut Lloyd
7. Lady Spirit
8. Marcus Nasty
9. Jason Kaye
10 Pied Piper

BEST GRIMEY / SUBLOW DJ
1. Karnage
2. Slimzee
3. Cameo
4. MAC 10
5. Ross B & Luca
6. Danny Weed
7. Plasticman
8. Martin Larner
9. Jammer
10. Hatcha

BEST HIP HOP DJ
1. Tim Westwood
2. Semtex
3. Shortee Blitz
4. Swerve
5. Samurai
6. 279
7. Elliot Ness
8. Blakey
9. Skully
10. Swing

BEST RNB DJ
1. Trevor Nelson
2. Shortee Blitz
3. Elliot Ness
4. Steve Sutherland
5. Frisky
6. Sticky
7. Swerve
8. G Child
9. Ras Kwame
10. Chucky

BEST RNB / HIP HOP ENTERTAINERS
1. Rampage
2. Da ill Kidz
3. Entertainment Crew
4. Firin Squad
5. Heartless
6. Elliot Ness
7. Renegade Family
8. Double D Experience
9. Get Rich
10. Gal Flex

BEST CREW / COLLECTIVE
1. Heartless
2. Roll Deep
3. N.a.s.t.y
4. East Connection
5. Virus Syndicate
6. SLK
7. Black Ops
8. Macabre Unit
9. Ruff Squad
10. Muckey Wolf Pack

BEST NEWCOMER DJ
1. Cameo
2. Charma
3. D&G
4. Domino
5. Kanga
6. MAC 10
7. Plasticman
8. Steady
9. Wonder
10. Tubby

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MC CATEGORIES

BEST MC ENTERTAINER
1. B Live
2. Bushkin
3. CKP
4. Mighty Mo
5. Viper
6. Kofi B
7. Doneo
8. Simon Sez
9. PSG
10. Kie

BEST MC OLD SKOOL R.I.P MC WHIZZARD
1. CKP
2. PSG
3. Creed
4. B Live
5. Viper
6. Whizzard
7. Ranking
8. Kofi B
9. DT
10. Kie

BEST MC GRIMEY / SUBLOW
1. Wiley
2. Kano
3. D Double E
4. Crazy Titch
5. Dizzee Rascal
6. Flirta D
7. Durrty Doogz
8. Lethal B
9. Riko
10. Demon

BEST NEWCOMER MC
1. Kano
2. D Double E
3. Bruizer
4. Crazy Titch
5. Bashy
6. Flirta D
7. Shystie
8. Demon
9. Fumin
10. Lady Fury

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INDUSTRY CATEGORIES

BEST URBAN MUSIC MAGAZINE
1. RWD
2. Touch
3. Deuce
4. IDJ
5. Invincible
6. Tense

BEST INDEPENDENT RECORD SHOP
1. Uptown Records - Soho
2. Rhythm Division - Bow
3. D’ Vinyl – Harrow / Watford
4. Independence Records – Lewisham
5. UDM – Enfield
6. Big Apple – Croydon
7. City Sounds – Welling Garden City
8. Blackmarket Records – Soho
9. Cage Records – Ealing / Kingston
10. Ukrecordshop.com – online website

BEST EVER RAVE / EVENT
1. Sidewinder
2. Eskimo
3. Z Uncut 4 * 4
4. Smoove
5. Cosa Nostra
6. Liberty
7. Pure Silk
8. Twice As Nice
9. Garage Nation
10. Exposure

BEST ARTIST BOOKING AGENCY
1. Live Agents
2. Xtreme Talent
3. Vital Edge
4. PSG Bookings
5. Avalanche
6. Dilema
7. Mission Control
8. Vocal Fusion

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MUSIC CATEGORIES

BEST 4 * 4 PRODUCER
1. Todd Edwards
2. M J Cole
3. Delinguents
4. EZ
5. Qualified
6. Matt Jam Lamont
7. Duncan Powell
8. Scandalous UnlimitedMask
9. Agent X

BEST GRIMEY / SUBLOW PRODUCER
1. Jon e cash
2. Wiley
3. Da Vinche
4. Skepta
5. Terra Danja
6. Plasticman
7. Mark One
8. Jammer
9. Dr Venom
10. Youngstar

BEST TRACK / ANTHEM
1. Forward Riddim– Lethal B
2. Wonder What – Wonder
3. Wot U Call It – Wiley
4. Gladiator - Alias
5. Igloo – Wiley
6. I Can C U – Crazy Titch
7. Bongo Eyes – Bossman – Essentials
8. Baby Cakes – 3 of a Kind
9. Eskimo - Wiley
10. War – Jon E Cash

BEST LIVE PA
1. Wiley – Wot U Call It
2. Bounce – Doneo
3. Forward Riddim – Lethal B

BEST RECORD LABEL
1. Social Circles
2. Aftershock
3. Prolific
4. XL
5. Black Ops
6. Solo
7. Paperchase
8. Dumpvalve
9. True Tiger Records
10. Relentless

BEST UNDERGROUND MUSIC VIDEO
1. Stand Up Tall – Dizzee Rascal
2. I Can See U, U Can See Me - Crazy Titch
3. Forward Riddem – Lethal B
4. Wat U Call It – Wiley
5. Baby Cakes - 3 of a kind
6. New Era – New Era
7. Who Ate All The Pies – Wiley
8. Ends – End Productions

BEST BREAK THROUGH ARTIST ‘GONE CLEAR AWARD’
Dizzee Rascal

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WEBSITE CATEGORIES

BEST WEBSITE FORUM
1. www.staylocked.com
2. www.rwdmag.com
3. www.uptownrecords.com
4. www.londonbydesign.co.uk
5. www.2sg.co.uk
6. www.nuthingsorted.com
7. www.rolldeepcrew.com
8. www.lushforums.com
9. www.ukmusic.com
10. www.dubplate.net

BEST UNDERGROUND MUSIC WEBSITE
1. www.rwdmag.com
2. www.londonbydesign.co.uk
3. www.uptownrecords.com
4. www.staylocked.com
5. www.2sg.co.uk
6. www.nuthingsorted.com
7. www.darksideriddem.com
8. www.rolldeepcrew.com
9. www.clubsidewinder.com
10. www.lushforums.com

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RADIO CATEGORIES

BEST RADIO STATION
1. Freeze Fm
2. Rinse FM
3. 1XTRA
4. Passion FM
5. Dejavu
6. Shine FM
7. Vybe FM
8. Raw Blaze
9. Kiss FM
10. Choice FM

BEST INTERNET RADIO STATION
1. www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra BBC 1XTRA
2. www.blaze-live.com
3. www.pressureradio.co.uk
4. www.passion918.fm.com
5. www.gridlockfm.co.uk
6. www.2sgfm.co.uk
7. www.majorfm.com
8. www.passion918.fm.com
9. www.9nine3.com
10. www.kiss100.com
11. www.shine879.com

BEST RADIO STATION SHOW
1. EZ Kiss FM
2. Pirate Sessions – BBC 1XTRA – Cameo
3. Heartless Crew – BBC 1XTRA
4. Semtex – BBC 1XTRA
5. Masterstepz – Choice FM
6. Charma – Vybe FM
7. Matt Jam Lamont – Kiss FM
8. Domino – Shine FM
9. Rossi B & Luca – Rinse FM
10. Frisky – Dejavu

Dockali jsme se. Dizzee Rascal má hotové druhé album Showtime a nedockavci už ho klidne mužou najít na netu patnáctitrackové promo, které rozesílá XL. Presne tak, práve prosáklo. Oficiálne to bude venku za mesíc. Prvním singlem je Stand Up Tall (v produkci Youngstar), který si mužete prohlédnout a samozrejme i poslechnout (http://www.smugglersite.com/dizzee/) . Je v nem slyšet, že Dizzee se hodne nechal inspirovat americkým rapem, ale porád je cockney garage jako vyšitá. Track bohužel není tak mindblowing jako I Luv U, ale to mu snad nebudeme vecne vycítat. Další tracky na Showtime jsou vesmes velmi podivné, dominuje jim mohutná dubová basa (Graftin vás primácne ke zdi!) a lo-fi produkce. Trochu je slyšet, že Dizzee nemel ve studiu takový pretlak jako pri BITC a proto jsou tracky promyšlenejší na úkor zurivé syrovnosti jeho debutu.
Nejdivnejší je Dream, Rascalova verze Nasovy I Can s jakýmsi muzikálovým samplem. Možná povinný track pro rádia. Pockejme si na plnou verzi alba a zatím si dejme mix tape Roll Deep Crew

"the scene formerly known as garage"
was reading simon's blog and came across this very good mp3 blog.

i see there is some debate about the difference between dubstep and grime and the definition of grime.

to further confuse matters, i will throw in some random genre names and give my opinion...

Firstly, the 'grime' compilations released by rephlex, confusingly, did not contain any grime tracks. Certainly, 'grime 1' was more "grimey" (hehe) than 'grime 2' but the music on both of these compilations can be more strongly affiliated with the dubstep scene. The tracks on 'grime 2' were 100% dubstep. The tracks on 'grime 1' had similarities to grime, but were too "over-produced" to be grime. The stuff by plasticman and mark one on the compilation were certainly not what I was expecting. In fact, when I first heard 'grime 1', I was extremely unimpressed. Their previous releases sounded to me like electro and techno records done in a 2 step style. 'Grime 1' generally sounded like mark one, plasticman and slaughter mob attempting to make grime records. (edit: I would like to add that i have now grown very fond of the music on this compilation).

Plasticman's early stuff (eg. 'venom' on slimzos or 'the lift' on road) was described by the haywire/biwire crew as tech-step (obviously the name didn't stick due to obvious confusion with tech-step dnb). Mark One's early stuff was similar in style. Tracks such as ‘tribesmen’ (on texture), ‘rain dance’ and ‘bad mood’ (on soulja) were described as “electro-step.”
For convenience, Plasticman and Mark One (as well as all of the other artists on the rephlex compilations) were grouped together in the ’dubstep’ scene.

Both Mark One and Plasticman’s recent releases have had a much greater grime influence. Mark One’s ‘one way’ LP on planet-mu is largely, what could be described as “Industrial Grime” (I’ve stolen that term from another blog, although I can’t remember who’s blog it was). ’Cha’ by Plastic man (on terrorhythm) has a lot more in common with the grime sound than dubstep. In saying this, most people in the grime scene do not see plasticman and mark one as grime producers.

The term Dubstep originated from the sound of DJ Hatcha’s sets a few years back, which comprised of lots of horsepower productions, benny ill, kode 9 etc. The sparse drums, intoxicating sub bass, reggae samples and dubbed out feel of these records resulted in this sound being called dubstep.

Since then, lots of other similar styles of music have been labelled as dubstep. Although the dub influences can be seen in records by loefah, benga, digital mystikz and kode 9, many more artists such as slaughter mob, search and destroy, dj distance, vex’d and toasty are labelled as dubstep even though their records are not at all “dubby“. For this reason, people have also labelled this scene as the FWD sound (named after the club night). Lots of other random terms, such as fuckstep, sub step and…er…ongy bongy (ongy bongy refers to the use of bongos in a track, or indian drum loops) have been used to describe different types of dubstep.

Hotflush and subtext are two new labels affiliated to the dubstep scene. To confuse matters further, neither of these labels have a “dubby” feel at all. Subtext releases extremely harsh 2 step and hot flush are releasing 2 step stuff with, amongst others, breaks influences. Vex'd (on subtext) will be releasing an LP next year on planet-mu, which will be the hardest thing ever.

If you want to keep up to date on dubstep related stuff, check out this blog.

Oris jay (darqwan) is a breaks/dubstep producer. His earlier stuff (eg. 'pipe dreams' on soulja) was a lot more 2 steppy than his last few releases, but recently he has tried to cross over to the breaks scene and has released on passenger (uk breaks label) and has done a new track with breaks producer baobinga. The classic ’said the spider’ (on texture) is an early example of the breaks/dubstep crossover sound.

Sublow is the very minimal, bass heavy Jon E Cash type of grime that is easy to MC over. In this category i would put tracks like: J Sweet - 'gutter' and Alias 'gladiator'. Lots of other stuff get thrown into this category too. Basically anything that is dark and harsh sounding with lots of bass and little melody.

Eski is the term coined by wiley to describe some of his early oriental influenced productions, such as 'eskimo', 'ice rink' etc. Lots of recent grime has definitely been influenced by this sound . Earlier grime records had very little melody and were very harsh sounding, but the eski sound has made grime much more listenable and catchy.

8 bar was a term used to describe earlier grime stuff, which was composed in an “8 bar” structure. Youngsta’s earlier releases were a perfect example of this. The 8 bar structure comprises of one bar of music repeated eight times followed by another bar of music repeated eight times, then followed by the first bar repeated eight times and so on…An example of the 8 bar srtucture can be seen in this quite recent Youngsta track on DDJs productions. Confusingly, this track sounds like a breakbeat garage record done in an 8 bar style, but the 8 bar structure is easy to spot. Obviously, with 8 bar records, it is very easy for a group of MCs to MC over because there is an opportunity to pass the mic every 8 bars when the track changes.

To summarise, I do think that the ‘grime’ compilations on rephlex are to blame for most of the confusion. In saying this, I see why they chose to name the albums in this way.

To avoid confusion, I would encourage everyone to go and scribble out the the word “grime” on any of the rephlex compilations they see and write in the word “dubstep”