Tag: Jungle

The Drum n Bass Huntr/s of Old Devizes Town

In true Royston Vasey style, unfortunately due to time and resources we don’t review international music as we did during lockdown, choosing to focus more on the original concept of local issues and talent, unless of course, we can find any vague link to someone around these parts; there’s a tenacious one with Beskar’s latest album of uplifting drum n bass…..

Proving the irony in Devizes singer Chrissy Chapman’s nom-de-plume, One Trick Pony, her stunning vocals feature on two tracks on the album, Liquid with Friends, released at the beginning of the month, and on a number of previous singles produced by Beskar. One of them is an astounding cover of Ella Fitzgerald’s Fever.

A chance opportunity for Chrissy, working as social media manager for 4NC¥ //DarkMode’s London headquarters during the pandemic, unveiled a hidden talent producing some spoken words for a Dust tune, which in turn led her to be introduced to Beskar, who since has enhanced many of his tracks with her prowess as a singer-songwriter. Now, under the pseudonym Huntr/s, Chrissy has fast climbed to recognition and popularity in drum and bass circles, though this doesn’t mean you’ll no longer see her acoustically perform on our local circuit too, I hope!

See? As the codger who was there for breakbeats slipping into acid house and creating a UK rave scene inspired equally from dub reggae as the less soulful German tekno, who danced through this progression, when hardcore fragmented into happy and dark, and celebrated what blew from it’s exhaust pipe, the “jungle” of drum n bass, and still coming up dancing, I find it slightly confuddling differentiating between the many subgenres drum n bass has separated into more recently. 

Take it as a senior moment, but I’m dubious about breakcore or dubstep, feel they’re heading in a direction I’m not looking to journey down. For me the split came at the end of the rave honeymoon, 1993. Andy C’s Origin Unknown caused heated debate, it was dark, directed away from the cheese on toast, carefree vibe of hi-hats and crashing piano breaks we were accustomed to. In just a few subsequent years I was waving A Guy Called Gerald’s Black Secret Technology CD around, but most of my mates waited for Goldie’s Timeless before accepting this new force, “intelligent” drum n bass.

It peaked at LTJ Bukem’s Logical Progression in 96, drum n bass no longer the jungle tumult you heard at raves, rather as the title suggested, here’s a style for the chill-out, for the after-party. And that’s where I left it, trundling off to the big beat sound of Jon Carter, The Chemical Brothers and Norman largin’ it. While what Beskar is laying down here is fresh and original, it makes no secret in nodding to its influences, to this peak of drum n bass, and for me, that works a treat.

The opening to Liquid with Friends is much like this, there’s the sparse drum n bass riffs of Photek, Hype et al, spacey ambient sounds of the Orb, KLF, and some uplifting vocals and piano breaks. There’s casual rap like Divine Bashim’s for William Orbit, there’s a spanning package offered here, flowing sweetly. The result is euphoric and enchanting throughout, but it’s the Huntr/s featured tracks, Home and Running which are the standouts, and I’m not just saying that, I’m backing it up with reasoning; because from cheesy hardcore to contemporary house, when any dance music genre breaks for some beautiful female vocals the soul is elevated.

Donna Summer proved that for Giorgio Moroder, Caron Wheeler did it for Soul II Soul in the late eighties, Rozalla took it to the rave, Heather Small did it for Mike Pickering, and a lounge style of house brought to the masses; dance music wouldn’t be what it is totally instrumental. Mickey Finn knew this with Urban Shakedown, and we did, we lived as one family, the vocal only enforced it into us! We were like, “damn that’s some powerful shit, we’d better live as one family now, or else!” I never did get any pocket money out of Mickey!

Beskar manages to amalgamate the lot without it becoming overcrowded there. Just as DJ Cam with the trip hop trend, funky jazz loops are allowed in. There’s a lot more going on with this album than breaks and beats, but it does this too with bells on. Silent River is one example to this experimental goodness, Inner City Life, the opening to Timeless meets Massive Attack, soulful vocals with layers of chill, and even subtle wailing guitars, akin Quincy Jones adding Slash to Micheal Jackson tunes, Beskar went there too; you magician! 

I’m taken back and in awe, our own Huntr/s’ contributions here embeds her voice to a history of female vocalists who uplifted the crowd, from Summer to Small, and that’s a high but deserved accolade for our Devizes girl!  

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Falling with Tone and Cutsmith

Since the jazz era, musical genres start covert and underground, and with popularity they’re refined to mainstream acceptability, packaged into a new pop wave, and eventually fall into a retrospective or cult hall of fame. I first stood aghast at the selling-off of our adolescent anthems when I heard Leftfield’s Release the Pressure in an advert for Cheese Strings. When this happens to you, you’re officially past your sell by date!

When my daughter is in the car it’s paramount, she controls the stereo, at least it is to her. I’m indifferent, the bulk of contemporary pop irritates my senior ears, but occasionally there’s a something interesting hidden. There was one, once, don’t expect me to root through her playlist to tell you what one, pop, but with the backbeat undeniably inspired from drum n bass.

My attention was drawn to a tune this week, Falling, from Devizes’ drum n bass outfit SubRat Records via Gail Foster, who shot the video for it. Listening took me to the aforementioned moment; how drum n bass was now part of the “norm” rather than primarily an underground genre. If it has come of age and entered the realm of acceptable pop, though, there’s still room for experimentation and the fusing of styles, which is no bad thing, and precisely what Falling is. Chris, hereafter known as Tone, has set up SubRat, and Pewsey’s Cutsmith is the vocalist on this particular track.

Cutsmith is current, using hip hop to inspire his acoustic compositions, so it melds effectively. In the way David Grey produced Babylon, Suzanne Vega did with Tom’s Diner or the entire catalogue of Portishead, fusing up-to-date dance styles with acoustically driven tunes is a winner, if done correctly. If not, it’s a howler, but I’m glad to say, this one really works wonders. Falling has a sublime ambient texture and glides causally through a mass-acceptable drum n bass riff. Cutsmith’s smooth vocals complements it perfectly, breathes mood into it and gifts it with meaning; the combination, a match made in heaven.

Though this may not be an entirely ground-breaking formula, I’d like to train spotter a nod towards a lesser-known tune on A Guy Called Gerald’s revolutionary album Black Secret Technology, where through splinters of drum n bass, an unknown Finely Quaye covers Marley’s Sun is Shining. But if you’d rather me example recognised tunes of singers who launched a career from featuring on a dance tune, from Seal to Sophie Ellis-Bextor, and renowned artists who regenerated theirs, like the day William Orbit got a call from the queen of pop, here’s two local artists collaborating for each other’s good, rather than one tossed a rope to the other.

I wanted to probe the mind of producer Tone, about this concept, as what he’s got here is something very marketable, as opposed to something which would only appease the drum n bass fans. I asked him if this was the intention with this tune, yet I didn’t want him getting the wrong idea; I meant this in the best possible way. Even if, Bohemian Rhapsody, for example, is timeworn and cliché, it’s popular because it’s a bloody amazing song. Pop doesn’t necessarily have to be a sell-out, cast yourself away from Stock, Aitken Waterman.

“You’re definitely right about this particular track sounding more marketable and commercial than your everyday underground D&B piece,” he expressed. “I had no intention of making it sound acceptable to the masses but I’m glad it is like that. I think more people should be able to enjoy drum and bass for all different backgrounds. I’m not really trying to make what everyone wants; I just make what I like the sound of, and quite often or not it’s easy on the ear for everyone.”

I wanted gage the story behind this belter. “When we worked on this piece,” Tone replied, “I started out making the entire track without having any intention of putting vocals on to it. I sent it over to Josh (Cutsmith) and he said he’d love to do something over it, which is when we started recording. It turned out really well even though throughout the production I didn’t think I’d be making anything that sounds like this. My roots are actually firmly with the rave scene and I absolutely love sub-heavy underground vibes.”

Is this a debut single from Sub Rat, I asked him. “This is the first free release off of our label, SubRat Records, by myself, Tone. In a hope to bring people in and start a fan-base.” So, does Tone consider himself a DJ and producer? “I’m based in Devizes and solely a producer right now. I haven’t DJ’d for a long while. I produce a lot of drum and bass, but often step into other genres like Hip-hop, dubstep, grime, modern rap and more commercial stuff etc.”

If our local music scene is blossoming, it can be limiting regarding genres, so I welcome this with open arms. To assume such genres are generally confined to a municipal environment you’d be mistaken. Prior to our chat delving into rave memories, as the typecast urban raver always excluded the rural counterparts since day dot, I tried to keep current and ask Tone if future releases will follow a similar pattern, and where he saw SubRat heading.

“Aside from my solo journey I take pride being in the background for vocalists/rappers and providing the music/instrumentals for them,” he explained, “I want to see people succeed off of my tunes!” I hope so, this is promising and like to see other local singers benefit from an electronic dance music makeover, and if so, judging by this excellent tune, through SubRat, drum n bass is the key component.

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The Lamb gets Drum n Bass

I reminisced about Devotion at Golddiggers last week on our homage to Keith Flint, don’t intend to go there again. But, (it’s a dirty big fib, you know it is…) I’ve been contemplating once, in the early nineties, inactive in my car in the carpark, when, what can only be described as “a cheesy raver,” completely unbeknown to us, steadied himself on the rolled-down driver’s window and allowed their jaw to run a marathon. He jabberingly informed he had no intentions of going back into the club, in his own words, “it’s all that jungle music, know what I mean?”

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Pop Quiz: Who can tell me what this was, and what it was for? Showing your age now whistle posseeee!

To be honest, I didn’t, it was the first time I’d heard it called by this name. Although, breakbeat had taken over acid house and techno “bleep,” the “hardcore” label was preliminarily splitting. X-L Recordings, albums like The Rebel MC’s Black Meaning Good and Ragga Twins, Reggae Owes me Money, were providing the hardcore scene with reggae-inspired beats which would assist the divide. Generally, many white youths headed for crashing pianos, hi-hat loops and sped up eighties pop samples, defined as “happy hardcore,” while the urban minority bought us a shadier, serious arrangement of sparse beats and deeper basslines, we now know as drum n bass.

 

 
At the time we considered ourselves maturing ravers, (oh, the irony!) The upcoming generation separated the two, we buried into a new wave of plodding house. Yet with one eye on the divide I appreciated the lunacy of happy hardcore, enjoyed its merry ambience, but couldn’t help feeling drum n bass held the future. It was the more creative and experimental; proved right in the space of only a few years; A Guy Called Gerald, Goldie, and LTJ Bukem were pushing its boundaries into concept albums like it was 1975 space-rock. They prepared the stage for Roni Size, and mainstream acceptance of the genre.

 
So, I had to chuckle at the premise of the blurb on the Facebook event page, where Vinyl Realm stages a drum n bass night at The Lamb, Devizes on the 23rd March with DJ’s Retrospekt, Rappo and Harry B. “We at Vinyl Realm feel there is nothing in town for young adults to do. So, to fix that we have a night dedicated to the local producers creating heavy DnB, deep House and banging Jungle music.”

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Hey, what about us middle-aged old skool ravers? I can still shake a leg yer know, still got it mate! And when I say old skool, I don’t mean like on Kiss FM when they blast a club anthem from 2006 and think they’re retrospective; we were there, at the beginning pal, stomping in the mud! We fought an oppressive government so you kids can rave!!

 
But yeah, you’re probably right, I’d only be panting disproportionately and holding onto the wall for dear life, or else chewing some kid’s ear off about how we used to do it, like Uncle Albert on a love dove. Best leave it to the younger crew. All jokes aside, I know Devizes D&B DJ Harry B has posted to Facebook in the past, attempting to gage interest into such a night.

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I fully support the notion, good on the organisers of this, they’ve hit the hammer on the head; there’s nothing of this genre in Devizes, and not a lot for young adults; fair play, I hope it goes well and spurs others to provide entertainment for this age group. Seems like it will, limited to fifty tickets, with forty showing interest on the Facebook event page, this will be an exclusive return of D&B in Devizes which you better get in quick on, if you’re a playa. A snip at a fiver, tickets are on sale now at Vinyl Realm.

 
I just hope the old pub can hold up under the pressure of devastating basslines! I put my concern to Harry. “I’m going to have a test run up there this week with the speakers,” he confirmed; storming!

 

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