UKG revival (again)

El-b was calling our that dr banana guy on IG and twitter for not crediting or paying out on releases or something. Not sure about the detail (so maybe i should shut up now) but i remember the suggestion that he was a rich kid with no investment or history in the scene taking liberties
 

Pandiculate

Well-known member
One DJ said that threatening voice notes and phone calls from a garage-turned-dubstep pioneer "are a rite of passage if you're coming up" but asked to have their name withheld, lest they have to "sleep with one eye open."

I wonder who this is
 
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RWY

Well-known member
i remember the suggestion that he was a rich kid with no investment or history in the scene taking liberties

My initial hunch when I first started seeing this stuff appearing on the online stores was that it had to be a scene funded and populated by trust fund kids. "Forgeries" is definitely the correct way of framing what's going on here.
 

RWY

Well-known member
Also, it's very on-brand of Szatan to shoehorn identity politics into his piece yet completely fail to engage seriously with the class element which seems to be the real root of some of the frictions he describes between the different camps.
 
It runs parallel to the boiler room (and to an extent RA) argument, which is probably why. it's a more difficult and less marketable analysis isn't it, collossal and complex and nebulous
 

Leo

Well-known member
reminds me of the fetishizing of modern day garage rock bands, largely in the US, who do everything in their power to recreate the primitive recording sound and elementary songwriting of their obscure 1950s-60s brethren, to the extent of even dressing in the same throwback style on album covers (and even real life). some of them sound "good", the facsimile can be entertaining. but if they don't harness that influence and take it someplace new, they're really just tribute bands.
 

blissblogger

Well-known member
as a general principle sort of thing -

even the most bandwagon-jumping, mercenary-minded, shamelessly derivative track from 97/98/99/2000 has more spiritual-philosophical-ontological integrity (for want of a better word)
than
even the most scholarly, meticulous, well-informed and well-intended reproduction-antique effort from now

because the former are participating (even if exploitatively) in a real-time wave of innovation as it happens, rather than going back and trying to freezeframe that moment

you can get a buzz off a shoddy third-division tune from then, that you can't get from the most immaculate recreation

this principle applies to everything
the other garage revival (punk)
but also digi-dub, Detroit-venerators, you name it
 

gremino

Moster Sirphine
Some of the new garage tunes are pretty damn good. I don't care if they aren't innovating.

Dissensus is playing the same broken record again, like since early '10s :D Though I have to say I haven't been obsessed with innovation for a while now. Oldskool is the best and I'm cool if it's being recreated.
 

gremino

Moster Sirphine
One interesting and nice thing is to hear early dubstep/dark garage tunes being made. They can be used to bring versatility to otherwise uplifting garage sets.
 

gremino

Moster Sirphine
Alot of Dissensias seems to be Gen Xs however, so I understand the critique towards retro after having seen constant innovation for decades. I have to defend retro in continuum genres though, as they were so short-lived. So good music, but for so short time, so why not make more of that stuff? Would suck to leave, like jungle, forever in 93-96.
 

boxedjoy

Well-known member
Garage isn't a particularly well curated genre either. A lot of the remixes of pop stuff are on the CD singles rather than comps - cheap to pick up but not easy to find in one place. And obv the bootlegs are even harder to source. Then you've got some big tunes that did make it to CD but only in mixes - the unmixed versions only live on vinyl and overpriced Discogs results. So for the new younger audience/producers, its probably easier to make a facsimile of something and put it on Bandcamp than source the original sound you've heard on Vision FM.
 

boxedjoy

Well-known member
Ive been buying loads of CD singles and comps over lockdown cos UK garage is simply the best music ever made. They're cheap on eBay - find a user with lots of stuff at 50p and you can save on postage and get some real gems in the forgotten and overlooked pile. But it's also hard - you can order something and have it arrive only to discover the right mix never made it on to any format except vinyl (which I'm barely competent playing never mind mixing with)
 

version

Well-known member
Me too, I was firmly on the "what's the point" side until I found that 2 Bad Mice remix on Spotify: not only did I not know or couldn't tell it wasn't new, when I found that it was I couldn't have cared less. But maybe that was an exception, because it was such a beautiful piece of music.
"As long as the music's good."
-- Corpsey.
 

version

Well-known member
I quite like both this and the jungle stuff Luka and Craner are on about, but my engagement's very passive. I'll just stick it on, think "yeah, that's pretty sick" and that's about it. I don't have much desire to dig into what's happening or keep up to date and it doesn't feel as though who produced what really matters as the tunes seem more or less interchangeable. It's almost as if a bunch of classics have been fed into an AI which now spits out endless variations with up-to-date production.

That being said, It's cool people are still making this stuff, better that than everyone making house and techno and only ever playing stuff from decades ago when it comes to jungle and garage. Also if it was decided it wasn't worth bothering anymore then you definitely wouldn't get anything new. This way there's at least a chance of happy accidents.
 
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