![]() ![]() “It created the conditions and ingredients for the UK musical revolution to happen.”īelow, Anniss highlights a few of the compilation’s most notable selections: Unique 3 & The Mad Musician ![]() “Bleep was relatively short-lived but hugely important,” Anniss says. But Bleep remains in UK dance music’s DNA, whether you love dubstep or techno, the Hyperdub label or Hessle Audio. And at the club, jungle and hardcore soon took over. Some of the earliest Bleep singles were released by an upstart label out of Sheffield called Warp Records, which soon gave way to the sound of electro and Intelligent Dance Music (fitting that Warp’s online portal is called Bleep). The sound itself was massively popular at raves, but it soon mutated into something new. “Lots of the best Bleep tracks were one-offs or debut releases where raw enthusiasm and mad ideas were often more important than experience in the studio,” Twitch said. No rules meant no limits as to how the music should sound, or the ways it might mutate next. Listening to seismic tracks from names both familiar (Cabaret Voltaire, Nightmares on Wax) and deeply obscure (Alfanso, Tuff Little Unit), it’s easy to detect a rough, restless spirit at work-a “wild west” aesthetic where chest-quivering deep bass tones, cheeky synth top melodies, reckless snares, and bizarre vocal samples all jostle for space. “They were a product of the multi-racial nature of British cities and specifically the high levels of immigration from the Caribbean, and Jamaica in particular, in the second half of the 20th century.” “Bleep records featured a strong link with reggae sound system culture,” Anniss says. It has such a big influence from heavy dub, but it’s taken to extremes.” Fostered in industrial northern British towns like Bradford and Sheffield, that heavy bass sound didn’t come from aping American techno or hip-hop records, but from the neglected immigrant communities situated within these cities. “I think the thing that really makes Bleep stand out is the low end. “The best of these records often have these off-beat, syncopated, skeletal rhythms, the DNA of which would later turn up in UK Funky and UK Garage and a host of other UK dance variants,” Twitch explains via email. While the earliest UK dance tracks sound like knock-offs of the thrilling sounds of techno, acid, and house emanating from Detroit and Chicago, Bleep carved out its own curious niche. Both the book and comp illuminate-and dash misconceptions about-the true origins of UK dance music. ![]() The end result is Anniss’ deep-dive of a book, Joint the Future: Bleep Techno and the Birth of British Bass Music, and the crucial listening compendium of the form’s biggest tunes, Join The Future – UK Bleep & Bass 1988-91, put together by Anniss and JD Twitch (Keith McIvor), legendary Scottish DJ and one-half of the heralded duo Optimo. Pre-order buy pre-order buy you own this wishlist in wishlist go to album go to track go to album go to track “It seemed so fresh and futuristic still, but also mysterious.” “I found the sound itself alien and otherworldly, but also endlessly fascinating for some reason,” he says. He wrote an in-depth feature on the form for electronic music site Resident Advisor-which caused him to think bigger about this formative, unsung moment in UK dance music history. They didn’t agree with this, so an argument ensued.”Īnniss subsequently went on a local Bristol internet station, penned a blog post, and posted a DJ set of Bleep, as a way to convince those same DJs that his thesis had some merit. “I told them all of the UK bass music records they enjoyed could trace their roots back to Bleep. “I bristled at this for some reason,” Aniss says. While the other DJs spun dubstep, drum & bass, and the like, Anniss’ set was full of the earliest UK techno tracks-a mysterious, short-lived subgenre known as “Bleep.” The other DJs wondered what that style was. “I was a guest DJ at a bass music night in Bristol,” Anniss recalled. It wasn’t the broken bottles-and-fisticuffs kind of fight-it was far nerdier. Twelve years ago, DJ and journalist Matt Anniss got into a bar fight that changed his life. ![]()
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