|
What is
Garage?
The
sound of UK Garage Music had started to develop in about
1995 and had been given a number of different names that
described the music, for example Speed Garage, London
Garage and the Sunday scene. The term Speed Garage is a
term that was used by people who didn't really know much
or even understand much about the music. There were a
number of club nights in and around the London area that
were promoting the sound of UK Garage Music with the likes
of Release the Pressure, The Loft, and Garage City,
playing out the best in UK Garage in order to build up the
UK Garage vibe. We then began to see a selection of US
producers like Victor Simonelli, Kerri Chandler, Roger
Sanchez, and Todd Edwards, becoming the toast of the
underground scene in London, together with people like
Grant Nelson who began rinsing out the sounds of UK Garage
through the use of the Nice and Ripe record label.
There
were a selection of clubs at the time that liked to play
this kind of sound in order to please the masses for
example the Curtain Road warehouse, The Yacht Club, and
the Arches all began playing these new style beats. It is
said that Armand van helden was probably one the first
artists around at the time to make, as it was called a
"speed garage tune". Armand van helden said that
he had wanted to make some tunes that were a cross between
House and Drum and Bass. We then began to see the emerge
of pirate radio stations in and around London like London
Underground 89.4 and Freak FM who then began/proceeded to
make the UK Garage sound their own.
This lead to
a number of underground DJ's progressing on to the next stage
of the program. For me the turning point was the introduction
of Sun City @ Adrenellin Village. A massive warehouse on the
outskirts of Chelsea, the introduction of this new venture
helped to alert the mainstream clubbers and the masses to this
new music phenomena. Sun City would always have big named Dj's
headlining the bill with the likes of people like Karl
"Tuff Enuff" Brown and Matt "Jam" Lamont
(Tuff Jam Crew), Timmi Magic & Mc PSG (Dreem Teem), Jason
Kaye & Mc Creed, plus employing the cream of DJ's from a
number of pirate radio stations like London Underground 89.4,
Deja VU, and Freak FM, with this Sun City then went on to
become one of the most successful and leading garage promoter
in the scene today. This saw the evolution of UK Garage music
which then became more and more widely accepted by the masses
who started to get aboard the underground garage vibe.
In 1996 is
when we began to see artists like RIP, Tuff Jam, Dreem Teem,
Booker T, 187 Lockdown and MJ Cole emerging into the
underground garage scene, as each artists would bring their
own unique style to the UK garage scene. It had then become
clear that there was two types of Underground garage, bass
line drive tunes by Double 99, RIP, 187 Lockdown. Then you
have the more vocal and melodic tunes by Mj Cole, Tuff Jam and
the Dreem Teem . 1997 was a very big year for the UK Garage
scene with the sound of two step garage emerging.
page
one | page two
|
