Saturday, May 19, 2012

Tom Middleton : Bassmusic Roots + Inspirations

To mark the release of Tom Middleton's debut sample loop pack for Loopmaster Artist Series AS101 which was released yesterday (18th May) @  www.loopmasters.com

Bass House, Liquatech, Post-Dubstep, Future Jungle..Complextro..seems there's a new dance music genre every season.

So where does modern Bass Music come from?

You could rewind back to late 60's-70's Jamaica, Sound System and Dancehall culture,18" Sub Woofers, King Tubby's pioneering Dub experiments etc, but I'm picking up the story just after the mid 80s' in both Miami and Chicago.

This is the story of Bass, Bleeps and Breaks between 1986 and 1992.
The evolution of a post Disco-Electro-HipHop-Industrial home produced sound that fused analogue drum machines, synthesisers, sampling, sped up funk breakbeats, MC's toasting on the mic and snippets of Reggae and Dancehall anthems.
And in particular Tom wanted to find the first record that used a Roland TR808 Kick drum melodically to play full Bass parts
The rest of the music selection should speak for itself.
Space and Bass dot joinery!

It's mostly chronological with two exceptions.
Future Sound Of London sampled the Sub Bass part in Meat Beat Manifesto's 'Radio Babylon' in their own anthem 'Papua New Guinea' - just made sense to have them in that order.
Similarly, LTJ Bukem's 'Demon's Theme' uses the snare from A Guy Called Geralds '28 Gun Badboy' (amongst other absolute classic samples…)

These are all stone cold Bass Anthems by true Electronic Music Pioneers.
I salute and thank all of the Artists for such inspirational music.

1) Dynamix II - Just Give The DJ A Break (Bass Station Records 1987)
2) Mr Fingers - Can You Feel It (Trax Records1986)
3) Rhythim is Rhythim - The Dance (Transmat 1987)
4) Rhythim is Rhythim - It Is What It Is (Transmat 1988)
5) Reese - Just Another Chance (Incognito 1988)
6) Inner City - Good Life (KMS/Ten1988)
7) Black Riot - A Day In The Life (Fourth Floor Records 1988)
8) 808 State - Pacific State (ZTT 1989)
9) Unique Three - The Theme (Ten Records 1989)
10) Nightmares On Wax - Dextrous (Warp Records 1989)
11 LFO - LFO (Warp Records 1990)
12) Joey Beltram - Energy Flash (R&S 1990)
13) Orbital - Chime (FFRR 1990)
14) Ability II - Pressure Dub (Bassic 1990)
15) Meat Beat Manifesto - Radio Babylon (Mute 1990)
16) Future Sound Of London - Papua New Guinea (Jumpin' and Pumpin' 1991)
17) 4 Hero - Mr Kirks Nightmare (Reinforced 1990)
18) 4 Hero - The Scorcher (Reinforced 1990)
19) Lennie De Ice - We Are i.e. (ie records 1991)
20) Aphex Twin - Analogue Bubblebath (Mighty Force 1991)
21) Bug Kann & The Plastic Jamm - Made In Two Minutes (DTYD Records 1991)
22) Ragga Twins - 18" Speaker (Shut Up And Dance 1991)
23) Smith & Mighty - Killa (3 Stripe 1992)
24) Dee Patten - Who's The Badman (1992)
25) Innerzone Orchestra - Bug In The Bass Bin (1992)
26) A Guy Called Gerald - 28 Gun Badboy (Juicebox 1991)
27) LTJ Bukem - Demons Theme (Good Looking 1991)


Trevor Fung Live @ Society

Great mix this Trevor Fung at Dalston Superstore on April 26th