Hey everyone, welcome back to Sunday Skool. Whew! what a long saturday night. First a Halloween Costume Party and then Tiesto until 3am. As I’m sure you have gathered from many of my posts… Trance is not my favorite genre (I know, I know.. it’s the #1 selling EDM worldwide, etc, etc). It’s just that I didn’t hear much progression over about a 10yr period… so I stopped listening.
Needless to say, when my wife wanted tickets to see the Jesus poser guy for her birthday, I wasn’t too excited about the somewhat expensive ordeal ($46/ea. gen admission). But guess what? I didn’t hate the show very much at all. I was actually quite surprised in fact. Tiesto has diversified his show quite a bit since earlier this decade. At least one of his tracks was an amazing mixture of a sort of 80′s/90′s Electroclash Vocal and some heavy beats. Of course, I’m talking about ‘Feel It In My Bones (ft. Tegan & Sara)’ from the new album Kaliedoscope released just this month. I found this video from 25 SEP 09 at the Hammerstein Ballroom and it seems his road show is identical everywhere because it looked exactly like this.
Tiesto – Feel It In My Bones video
Now, I didn’t keep my eyes on him the whole night… but I didn’t even see a single Jesus pose…. and that’s a very good thing because I think we can all agree on one thing — The almighty posing business is absolutely annoying rubbish.
Editor’s Note: St. Louis, Missouri readers can catch Tiesto live in the burbs on Wednesday, October 28, 2009 at Home Nightclub (St. Charles, MO).
UK Garage / Speed Garage
Last week we continued our tour of sub-genres and discussed BASSLINE HOUSE. Well, this week we are going a little further back to look at a genre that was huge in the England during the mid to late 1990′s — UK GARAGE. Believe it or not, Wikipedia actually has a somewhat detailed and accurate description:
UK garage (also known as UKG or simply garage) is an umbrella term that refers to several different varieties of modern electronic dance music generally connected to the evolution of house in the United Kingdom from early/mid-1990s. The evolution of house music in the UK in the mid 1990s led to the term, as previously coined by the Paradise Garage DJs, being applied to a new form of music also known as speed garage. In the late nineties the term UK garage was settled upon by the scene. The pronunciation of UK garage is (girrahge) versus the typical US pronunciation (guhrauhge), as this is the most common pronunciation of the word in the British Isles.
Not too bad for Wikipedia huh? Here’s a good little blurb from a book I’m sure you’ve noticed I often quote a lot (Last Night A DJ Saved My Life):
Garage’ is one of the most mangled terms in dance music. The term derives from the Paradise Garage itself, but it has meant so many different things to so many different people that unless you’re talking about a specific time and place, it is virtually meaningless. Part of the reason for this confusion (aside from various journalistic misunderstandings and industry misappropriations) is that the range of music played at the garage was so broad. The music we now call ‘garage’ has evolved from only a small part of the club’s wildly eclectic soundtrack.
To understand UK Garage, you have to take a little trip back to the states to review US Garage first: The main key DJ involved with the evolution of this style of music was Larry Levan, the resident DJ at the Paradise Garage, who defined a unique style of mixing between dubs of disco records. Over time, the term “garage” in the US came to mainly describe the more soulful, gospel-inspired styles of disco and house music first made popular by Tony Humphries at club Zanzibar in Newark, NJ. In the 1990s, the New Jersey sound became distinctly different from the sound in New York. Although the Paradise Garage was a New York club, the label “Garage” came to be associated with the New Jersey sound over time as the bond between the Paradise Garage and club Zanzibar was strong. A rawer, “blacker” sound, as described above, became the signature style in North Jersey.
Meanwhile in 90s New York, a more Latin, tribal sound took over thanks to Junior Vasquez and his disciples at the Sound Factory. However, the garage tradition returned in force with Body & Soul, a collective formed by Francois K., Danny Krivit and Joaquin Joe Claussell, and its immensely popular Sunday sessions (now defunct). Louie Vega has continued to perform regularly on Wednesdays, although without the popularity he has in Europe or Japan. Timmy Regisford was another stalwart of the NYC house community with his Saturday night parties at legendary Club Shelter.
In the UK, where jungle was very popular at the time, garage was played in a second room at jungle events. DJs started to speed up garage tracks to make them more suitable for the jungle audience in the UK. The media started to call this tempo-altered type of garage music “speed garage.” DJs would usually play dub versions (arrangements without vocals) of garage tracks, because pitch-shifting vocals could sometimes render the music unrecognizable.
The absence of vocals left space in the music for MC’s who started rhyming to the records. Since then MCs have become one of the vital aspects of Speed and UK garage parties and records. During its initial phase, the speed garage scene was also known as “the Sunday scene,” as initially speed garage promoters could only hire venues on Sunday evenings (venue owners preferred to save Friday and Saturday nights for more popular musical styles).
– Frank Broughton/Bill Brewster in Last Night A DJ Saved My Life
Debate continues to rage over the first true UK Garage / Speed Garage record. Contenders include:
Definitely one of my favorites…
Professional Widow (Armand Van Helden’s Star Trunk Funkin Mix) video
Tori Amos “Professional Widow (Armand Van Helden’s Star Trunk Funkin Mix) (1996) // Atlantic
Double 99 – RIP Groove video
Double 99 “Ripgroove” (1997) // Satellite Records (UK)
MP3: Double 99 – RIP Groove
SoMore – I Refuse What You Want video
SoMore “I Refuse (Original Mix)” (1997) // XL Recordings
Ramsey and Fen – Love Bug video
Ramsey and Fen “Love Bug” (1997) // Bug Records
One thing to remember is that although most of the aforementioned tracks have different ‘official’ release dates, they were all out on promo vinyl at about the same time. Among those credited with honing the speed garage sound, Todd Edwards is often cited as a seminal influence on the UK garage sound. The producer from New Jersey introduced a new way of working with vocals. Instead of having full verses and choruses, he picked out vocal phrases and played them like an instrument, using sampling technology. Often, individual syllables were reversed or pitch-shifted. This type of vocal treatment is still a key characteristic of the UK garage style.
Classic Track(s) of The Week
MP3: Sneaker Pimps – Spin Spin Sugar (Armand’s Dark Garage Mix)
Sneaker Pimps – Spin Spin Sugar (Armands Dark Garage Mix) video
C.J. Bolland – Sugar Is Sweeter (Armand’s Drum and Bass Mix) video
AND NOW, YOU CAN CONSIDER YOURSELF SCHOOLED!
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