El-B

Keith P

draw for the drumstick
What ever happened to this dude?

I've been running through alot of my older bass driven garage tunes and realized how fucking sick this guy was. One of my favourite records from him was this dubby little opus 3 rmx.
 

Dubquixote

Submariner
Ahh I have that Opus 3 rmx as well. El B was just sick. The man who turned me on to garage. I believe he's still producing 4x4 garage and house. Nothing even remotely dubsteppy anymore unfortunately. It's a damn shame really because back when he said he wanted Ghost Trax to be the Metalheadz of garage I really believed he could. Now that the Mystikz went ahead and did that it's a shame that El-B isn't around to participate in it.
 

echevarian

babylon sister
The stuff he did with Jay Da as Ghost is prime.


Particularly like The Spooks.


That is like the cornerstone of the dubstep sound right there.
 

MATT MAson

BROADSIDE
The early Groove Chronicles stuff he did with Noodles has to get a mention. They were making music light years ahead that would lay the foundations for dubstep from as early as 1996.
 

Logan Sama

BestThereIsAtWhatIDo
I never hear those guys mentioned in articles or interviews with Dubstep/FWD people.

I don't really see much of the roots of Dubstep mentioned in many pieces in the media in general.
 

Tim F

Well-known member
isn't it a bit revisionist to only talk about El-B in terms of "roots of dubstep"? He did some awesome poppy tracks and remixes too.

I hope I'm mistaken when I get the impression that most people here are only interested in 2-step garage as a historical footnote preceding dubstep..
 

Logos

Ghosts of my life
Logan Sama said:
I never hear those guys mentioned in articles or interviews with Dubstep/FWD people.

I don't really see much of the roots of Dubstep mentioned in many pieces in the media in general.

I think thats generally because people don't think to ask...and also, at the moment, dubstep is a very imminent/future orientated sound, in a few years when the sound comes to be historicised people will talk about El-B and others more.

Also @ Tim F from what I've seen on Dissensus I doubt that very much - in fact I get the impression a lot of people here are huge 2-step fans (or were fans of the potential 2-step offered which didn't really materialise) and actually have a slightly suspicious initial reaction to dubstep. Not sure why that is, maybe because you have to experience it on a loud system for it to make much sense, where as 2-step and grime discloses a lot of meaning in the download/home listening context too?

As for being revisionist about El-B...maybe. But the truth is a a certain element of his sound suggested a very influential trajectory for post-2000 garage experimenters. That's his legacy I think. Whereas the more poppy stuff, interesting and good as it was, doesn't hold that influence.
 
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Tim F

Well-known member
No you're right Logos. I guess it's just that, contra Logan, it seems like I'm<i>always</i> seeing people talking about El-B/Gurley etc. as progenitors of dubstep, and they alongside Dem 2 are put out there as the true soldiers of 2-step or something. It makes sense from a dubstep perspective but just misses so much of what I consider urgent and key about 2-step generally and those artists specifically (like, the fact that all three did <i>amazing</i> things with house & r&b-derived female vox).
 

Grievous Angel

Beast of Burden
2step was the best music dance music ever :) .

El B was a vital late period darkside innovator alongside ppl mentioned. Kind of an ineluctable progression from El B and GC and Dem 2 and various others to dubstep. I mean, just look at Kode 9's trajectory (me and Eden were listening to a load of his early stuff last Wednsday night). It just took a while. And it's all mixed up anyway.
 

Blackdown

nexKeysound
Tim F said:
isn't it a bit revisionist to only talk about El-B in terms of "roots of dubstep"? He did some awesome poppy tracks and remixes too.

I hope I'm mistaken when I get the impression that most people here are only interested in 2-step garage as a historical footnote preceding dubstep..

El-B's essential idea was to marry Metalheadz dark jungle bass with Twice as Nice r&b swing. Surely that's the roots of dubstep there? Why is it revisionist to mention it?

In general his remixes tended to be less impressive than his original productions. off the top of my head there's the Pink and Angie Stone ones which work, but I could name 10 great GC/Ghost trax.

But perhaps Tim and El-B have common ground, because El-B became frustrated with both the lack of female influence in the sound and the lesser role of r&b & house in dubstep. He then went off to do first El-Tuff and then straight US-influence nu-soul/r&b to remedy this.

interesting Logan says he perceives dubsteppers dont mention El-B. it depends which ones you mean. i think a lot of the *very* recent interest in dubstep, post-Dubstep Warz, means new fans only really know the post-DMZ legacy. This is different for dubstep, where people tend to know their history a little bit more, unlike grime where last week is old school, the youngers rule and the sound evolves at hyperspeed.
 

Keith P

draw for the drumstick
Tim F said:
No you're right Logos. I guess it's just that, contra Logan, it seems like I'm<i>always</i> seeing people talking about El-B/Gurley etc. as progenitors of dubstep, and they alongside Dem 2 are put out there as the true soldiers of 2-step or something. It makes sense from a dubstep perspective but just misses so much of what I consider urgent and key about 2-step generally and those artists specifically (like, the fact that all three did <i>amazing</i> things with house & r&b-derived female vox).

Ok so should I be talking about sunship? I don't have much interest in newschool UKG so I haven't felt a need to talk about say... the progression of 4X4 tunes like alabama blues to qualifide's latest release. Up until about '04 4x4 was really happening for me then all the top 40 Dn'D style mixes started getting on my nerves.

Start an oldschool topic and I'll gladly partake in it.

*sidenote* I should also mention tunes like sounds of the future, little man, the buddha finger etc.

These arguably would've had a profound impact on bass driven garage no? I mean for awhile people like wookie were the purveyors of "dark garage".
 
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Logan Sama

BestThereIsAtWhatIDo
I mention El B because his woodblock snare and wobbley bass style was basically how I heard all Dubstep tunes sounding in like 2004.

To my uneducated ears pretty much everything played at FWD or from the Croydon lot around that time sounded like it could have been on Ghost from 2001.
 

Tim F

Well-known member
"El-B's essential idea was to marry Metalheadz dark jungle bass with Twice as Nice r&b swing. Surely that's the roots of dubstep there? Why is it revisionist to mention it?

In general his remixes tended to be less impressive than his original productions. off the top of my head there's the Pink and Angie Stone ones which work, but I could name 10 great GC/Ghost trax."

It's not revisionist to mention it, but I think it is to talk about it to the exclusion of everything else - let us not forget the peerless "Stone Cold"! Or "Holiday (Da Vibe)"! And his remixes of Dane Bowers and Shanks & Bigfoot... But maybe if people vibe more off the dark noir elements of the Ghost releases they aren't gonna appreciate those so much...
 

BrokenFist

Crackin Skulls
Wasn't El-B on a Tempa Allstars compilation? I know next to nothing about garage and always assumed he was a dubstep artist.
 
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