Pearsall presents There & Back 005: May, Bass Explorations 1996-2023
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Recorded in Berlin, June 2024
100% Vinyl
(56:45, 134 MB, 320 BPS MP3)
Direct link to the mix:
http://sonicrampage.org/mixes/thereandback/Pearsall-ThereAndBack005_May_BassExplorations1996-2023.mp3
Tracklisting:
- Jedi Knights – Dance of the Naughty Knights [Evolution]
- The Chemical Brothers – Get Up On It Like This [Freestyle Dust]
- Metro – To A Nation Rockin’ (Peter Tall Megatrix Mix) [Bassex]
- Sedona – Coast (Acid Sex Mix) [Rampant]
- Luz1e – Escapism [Mechatronica]
- Nite Fleit – Bad Blood [International Chrome]
- Skuum – Forza [Strictly Strictly]
- Jensen Interceptor – Smoke [Weapons of Desire]
- Sticky – War Rhythm [Social Circles]
- Teebone – Fly Bi ft. Sparks & Kie [White Label]
- So Solid Crew – Haters (Instrumental) [Relentless]
- Entourage Crew – Terrible (Instrumental) [Solid City]
- Yorobi – Motherless Child [Sneaker Social Club]
- Mani Festo – Immersion Tactics [Warehouse Rave]
- Denham Audio & Borai – Pocari Sweat [Sneaker Social Club]
- Dexorcist – Rage Signal [Ecstasy Garage Disco]
- Electronic Experienced – The Breaks [Parallax]
- DJ Mujava – Township Funk (Sinden Remix) [La Musique Fait La Force]
- Skream – Blipstream (Buraka Som Sistema Remix) [Hollertronix]
- Rusko – Hold On (feat. Amber Coffman) [Mad Decent]
In recent years I’ve become very interested in the concept of making mixes that cross normal genre boundaries; after years (decades!) of focusing on single-genre mixes, it’s been a fun change.
One example was Get It 010: Get Everything, where I worked my way through 10 styles / themes in a single 30 track mix. Although it didn’t get tons of listens, it’s always been a mix that I’m very fond of. So when it came to making the fifth of this year’s There & Back mixes it made perfect sense to try to really mix up the genres, to do a genuine exploration on the meeting points between different sounds in the region of 130 to 140 bpm bass-heavy music.
This year’s project is all around doing genuine crate-digging, really diving into my record collection to find interesting and cool records that work well together. I also want to spotlight stuff that I might not normally feature, either because I don’t have that much of it, or because they aren’t part of my ‘main’ genres that I play (jungle / drum n’ bass, old skool, hard trance, acid, and techno). So with this mix I’ve really chopped things up – there’s everything from mid-90’s West Coast acid breaks to UK garage to modern electro to early 2010’s bass music to the big beat sounds of the Chemical Brothers. It’s a potent mix!
I’m really proud of this mix, and I hope you enjoy it too! I actually have the next three already recorded, I just need to get them online.
Since this is quite an interesting combination of tracks (in my opinion!), here’s a little bit of info about each of them:
Jedi Knights – Dance of the Naughty Knights [Evolution]
Jedi Knights were a project by Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton, two extremely prolific producers from the south-west of England. These guys were busy! Although best known as Global Communication, they also released as Secret Ingredients, Reload, and Chameleon, dropping killer tracks across a full range of dance music styles, from ambient to deep house to atmospheric drum n’ bass and beyond.
The Jedi Knights were their alias for 80’s influenced electro and breakbeat tracks, high on silliness and funk, low on po-faced seriousness. This album came out in the mid-90’s, right when the first big electro revival was getting going. It was pretty serious stuff, though! ‘New School Science’, their only album under the Jedi Knights alias, was a breath of fresh air by comparison. Funk is good for you, and this track is a perfect example of their ethos – opening with a (very silly) sample from the comedy classic ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ before a drops into pummeling electro-funk. Unfortunately a cease-and-desist letter from those humorless goons at Lucasfilm meant an end to this project, but the one album is well worth tracking down.
The Chemical Brothers – Get Up On It Like This [Freestyle Dust]
This originally appeared on the Loops of Fury EP, which is for my money one of the best Chemical Brothers releases. As you might know, I’m a huge huge fan of the Chems (check out my 2023 tribute mix!), and this is just a classic example of their early sound. Pummeling breaks, horn stabs, a distorted rap sample, a synth noise that sounds like a morse code machine that’s been infected with a funk virus, and a bassline that sounds like someone plucking a rubber band in an echo chamber … it’s got it all!
Metro – To A Nation Rockin’ (Peter Tall Megatrix Mix) [Bassex]
Sedona – Coast (Acid Sex Mix) [Rampant]
One of the interesting things about the 90’s was how breakbeat music diverged between the UK and the US after starting from a pretty similar place in the late 1980’s. In the UK, of course, breakbeat house evolved into rave music (or what is now known as old skool hardcore) which then split off into jungle and happy hardcore and then into drum n’ bass. A big evolution! In the US, however, the breaks stayed simpler, slower, and, if we’re being honest, funkier, and the 90’s saw an emergence on the West Coast of a special homebrewed breakbeat sound that combined funky breaks, tweaked out acid lines, and spiritual and melodic themes. These two records, both released on LA labels, are great examples of this sound – tripped-out, funky, and acidic. I’m far from an expert on this style, having only become aware of it when I bought the Liquid California compilation years ago, and I don’t have too many records in this style, but it was huge fun to incorporate these two into the mix, and they fit really nicely.
Luz1e – Escapism [Mechatronica]
Mechatronica has long been one of my favorite electro labels, and I really wanted to incorporate a track from the label into this mix, so I chose this banger from Berlin-based Luz1e’s 2023 EP for the label. Dark, pounding and rough, it’s a perfect counterpoint to the acid euphoria of the previous track.
Nite Fleit – Bad Blood [International Chrome]
Australian producer Nite Fleit has been one of my favorite electro producers of recent years; she’s put out tons of cool stuff on a variety of labels like Mall Grab’s Steel City Dance Discs, Planet Euphorique, Looking for Trouble, Acid Avengers, Dance Trax and more. This typically thumping slice of dark electro was released on International Chrome, a record label run by fellow Australians Jensen Interceptor and Assembler Code. Ruthless stuff, and perfect for this little section of dark electro.
Skuum – Forza [Strictly Strictly]
I honestly don’t know much about this release at all. I was buying some electro records on Discogs from a German seller and while I was looking through his selection on his Discogs shop, I saw this, noticed there were some remixes by artists I know/like, had a listen, and fell in love with this monster of a tune. Banger!
Jensen Interceptor – Smoke [Weapons of Desire]
Jensen Interceptor (mentioned above) is a Berlin-based Australian electro dj and producer. A very very prolific guy, he’s released tons and tons of tracks, including this one on Weapons of Desire. In fact I wasn’t even planning on including this, it’s just that when I was in the mix I realized that the track I wanted to use (by Detroit’s Filthiest) was way too fast to fit, even pitched down to minus 8, so in a blind panic I just grabbed this one out of the pile of ‘maybes’ I had sitting to the side and slotted it in. Thankfully it worked!
Sticky – War Rhythm [Social Circles]
After a little electro section, I switched things up to move to UK Garage for a few tracks; although I’ve never been a huge fan of UKG (especially compared to grime), I do like some of it, and thought it would be fun to include it in this mix. First up is this thumping beat from the ultra-prolific Sticky, a man behind many dancefloor anthems. This is more or less the instrumental beat behind one of his first big classics, ‘Boo!’ featuring Miss Dynamite, which you can see in the video above.
Teebone – Fly Bi ft. Sparks & Kie [White Label]
Next up is this certified garage classic, one of the biggest vocal tunes ever from that scene. Teebone started out as a jungle dj/producer, and was one of the people who made the switch to garage in the late 90′ as London’s party people switched from drum n’ bass to garage. This was certainly his biggest garage tune, and it features Sparks and Kie trading the mic to drop party-centric rhymes over a slinky two-step beat. Sadly, Sparks passed away several years back, but you can check out the awesome a capella performance at his funeral from some of the garage scene’s biggest mc’s. Not a dry eye in the house!
So Solid Crew – Haters (Instrumental) [Relentless]
Emerging from the Winstanley Estate in Battersea, South London, the So Solid Crew were absolutely huge in the early 2000’s, shutting down raves and pirate radio alike, and even topping the charts with their single ‘21 Seconds‘ before it all went wrong with a series of prison sentences, internal strife, and changing tastes. Generally I’m not a massive fan of their stuff, but I’ve always loved the instrumental to ‘Haters‘, so, well, here it is.
Entourage Crew – Terrible (Instrumental) [Solid City]
Modern UK music simply would not have been the same without East London’s Pay As You Go Cartel (here releasing on Teebone’s Solid City under a slightly different alias). Their membership list reads like a who’s who of key players: the Rinse FM founders Slimzee and Geeneus, DJ Target (author of Grime Kids and long-running Radio 1xtra host), and mc’s like Maxwell D, God’s Gift, and Grammy Award winner Flow Dan, and, finally, of course, the troubled genius Wiley, perhaps the main figure in grime. This group would go on to become the Roll Deep crew, the crucial group that helped bring grime forth into the world. These young working-class men from Bow have had a profound impact on modern British music. This track is a great example of the dark garage sound that emerged in the early 2000’s as a reaction against the bling image that UK Garage had cultivated for itself. Through relentless experimentation, this sound would shortly evolve into what is now known as grime. There’s still the two-step pattern of garage, but it’s become more clipped, less swingy, and the bassline is very, for lack of a better word, grimy.
Yorobi – Motherless Child [Sneaker Social Club]
After four UK Garage tracks, it was time to switch things up again, and I jumped forward by 22 years to Yorobi’s dark breaks track ‘Motherless Child’. Yorobi is a Dutch dj/producer who works with breakbeats at a range of tempos, from slower stuff like this through to razor-edged drum n’ bass. I’ve met her a few times and she’s a very nice lady and also a killer dj! This track appeared on Berlin’s Sneaker Social Club on a really cool EP that’s well worth tracking down, featuring as it does both breaks and drum n’ bass.
Mani Festo – Immersion Tactics [Warehouse Rave]
I don’t know that much about Mani Festo, besides that he’s an English dj/producer who also works at different tempos, and puts out jungle/drum n’ bass as well as slower breaks stuff. This is a quite minimal breaks track that works very well in the context of the mix. Not everything needs to be anthem, sometimes you just need something to roll through.
Denham Audio & Borai – Pocari Sweat [Sneaker Social Club]
Another Sneaker Social Club release, this is a ravey breaks release by Bristolians Denham Audio and Borai, and is named after a (very strange, in my opinion) Japanese soft drink, Pocari Sweat. This duo has been very active in recent years as part of the British breaks revival, and I’ve featured their tracks on my modern breaks mixes Don’t Give Up and Get It 004: Get Broken.
Dexorcist – Rage Signal [Ecstasy Garage Disco]
Dexorcist is one of those producers who I have managed to accumulate quite a few tracks from without knowing much about. I think he’s from London? Anyways, he’s made quite a few cool tracks in the 130 – 140 bpm realm, often with a strong old skool flavor, cutting across electro and breakbeat. This one is an unapologetic ravey banger, with tough breaks layered over a thumping four-four kick with early 90’s style rave stabs providing the adrenaline over the top. Definitely a producer who I always check for.
Electronic Experienced – The Breaks [Parallax]
My friend Vali NME Click’s label Parallax has been a crucial outlet for great hardcore and jungle, both old and new, and this release from jungle techno hero Jack Smooth is no exception. Tough breaks, techno sounds, uplifting pads – it’s a perfect combination!
DJ Mujava – Township Funk (Sinden Remix) [La Musique Fait La Force]
South Africa has become known in recent years for the global impact of it’s home-grown house music hybrid, amapiano, but black South Africans have for decades been putting their own unique spin on dance music. One of the earlier manifestations of this combination of house and traditional South African music was kwaito, a township-developed sound that combined off-kilter rhythms with simple melodies, and the genre’s biggest worldwide hit was DJ Mujava’s Township Funk. I’ve always really liked its unique melody, and I especially like how London producer Sinden combined it with some tough UK rhythms on this 2009 remix. An excellent track to utilize as we get towards the end of the mix.
Skream – Blipstream (Buraka Som Sistema Remix) [Hollertronix]
Kuduro meets dubstep courtesy of Diplo’s label Hollertronix. Kuduro is an Angolan dance music that combines thumping 4/4 kick drums with African percussion and rapid-fire Portuguese raps. Buraka Som Sistema were a Lisbon group who incorporated kuduro into a more traditional European dance music framework and on this mix they take Skream’s menacing dubstep classic ‘Blipstream’ into a new direction, layering complex polyrhythms over that iconic bassline. Pretty damn cool stuff! If you like this, it’s well worth checking out their amazing track ‘Sound of Kuduro‘ featuring the one and only MIA.
Rusko – Hold On (feat. Amber Coffman) [Mad Decent]
Another Diplo-linked track to round things off, with Rusko’s anthemic ‘Hold On’ on his other label Mad Decent (as far as I know, Hollertronix was Diplo’s label and party when he still lived in Philly, then Mad Decent came about when he moved to LA and started making big money). It’s a vocal track with a big bassline and keys … is it cheesy? I guess yes, but I’ve always loved this one, never really found a good place to slot it into a mix, and it just felt right to use this to close out this mix. It’s a banger!