Pearsall presents There & Back 011: November, DJ Zinc Breakbeat Garage 2000-2004
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Recorded in Berlin, December 2024
100% Vinyl
(55:14, 127 MB, 320 KBPS MP3)
Direct link to the mix:
https://sonicrampage.org/mixes/thereandback/Pearsall-ThereAndBack011_November_DJZincBreakbeatGarage2000-2004.mp3
Tracklisting:
- Menta – Sounds of Da Future (DJ Zinc Remix) [Bingo Beats]
- Wookie – Back Up Back Up Back Up (DJ Zinc Remix) [S2S]
- Jammin – Roll With Da Flava [Bingo Beats]
- DJ Zinc – 138 Trek [True Playaz]
- DJ Zinc – 138 Trek (VIP Mix) [White Label]
- Jammin – That’s the Way [Bingo Beats]
- Jammin – Kinda Funky [Bingo Beats]
- Jammin – Go DJ [Bingo Beats]
- Jammin – Point 23 [White Label]
- Jammin – Broken Point [Dump Valve]
- DJ Zinc – People 4 (Bingo Mix) [Polydor]
- Swoopes – Treats [Runnin]
- Shox – Monkey (Mix 1) [Runnin]
- Jammin – Tonka [Bingo Beats]
- Dynamite MC – Topped Up [Strong]
- Jammin – Hello [Bingo Beats]
- Shelltoe – Whoa! [Runnin]
- The Streets – Has it Come to This? (Zinc Distraction Edit) [Locked On]
- DJ Zinc – Sea of Tranquility [True Playaz]
- DJ Zinc – Flim (Zinc Breaks Mix) [Bingo Beats]
After the multi-genre mash-up that was There & Back 010 I decided to get more specific for the 11th edition in 2024’s crate-digging mix series; in this case to really dig into and explore DJ Zinc’s brief but really awesome run of producing breakbeat garage in the early 2000’s.
Those of you who have been following my mixes for a while will know that I’m a huge fan of DJ Zinc – as far as I’m concerned, he’s one of the best electronic music producers of all time, from his many years as a drum n’ bass jungle producer to his newer incarnation as a producer of bass-heavy house music. If anyone embodies all the twists and turns that dance music in London has made since the early 90’s, it’s him.
Indeed, in 2012 I made a full mix of his drum n’ bass / jungle productions called King of the Rollerz, and it’s well worth checking that out if you get the chance. Since it’s been 13 years since I made that mix (wow!) I thought it was worth pulling together another tribute mix, however, as mentioned before, this time I really wanted to zero in on this specific era.
Why?
Well, not a very complicated answer: these tracks are great.
Personally,. I have always been a bit ambiguous about UK Garage, I like some of it, some of it I’m not so sure about, and even the stuff I like, frankly, I can only take so much of in one sitting. A whole night? No thank you. But an hour or so? Sure. A few tracks mixed into some other stuff? Event better.
However, I I really (like, really) loved these tracks by Zinc, because they weren’t typical two-step UK Garage, but were instead a mash-up of jump-up drum n’ bass energy, garage vibes, and hip-hop attitude. Starting with the huge success of his 138 Trek, which appeared on the otherwise drum n’ bass ‘Beats by Design EP‘ on True Playaz, he went on a five year run of dropping insanely energetic breaks tracks before stopping, for reasons I’m not quite sure of.
Anyways, whatever stopped him in around 2005 from making more breakbeat tracks in these vein is immaterial; what he produced in that period has really stood the test of time. I’ve been collecting these tracks for years, I have almost all of them, and I’m super excited to have finally put them all together in a single mix.
Enjoy!
Here’s some more info about five of the key tracks on this mix:
DJ Zinc – 138 Trek / DJ Zinc – 138 Trek (VIP Mix)
This is the one that really kicked things off – an all-time garage anthem, this is basically a shuffling breakbeat and a one note bassline that blips up and down. Like much of the best dance music, this is extremely simple, but super memorable. The Guardian even ranked it as the seventh best UK Garage tune of all time:
DJ Zinc first came to prominence as a drum’n’bass producer – responsible for 1995’s anthemic Super Sharp Shooter – before shifting style. 138 Trek’s sound was dubbed “breakstep”, which effectively meant it was a d’n’b track at UK garage tempo. Propulsive and funky, it still sounds fresh today.
One thing I’ve always enjoyed doing is cutting up original mixes of tracks with their remixes, and here I’ve done that with the original and the VIP; previously I’ve done that with the original and Ram Trilogy remix versions of DJ Krust’s ‘Warhead’ on Actual Pirate Material, as well as the original and remix versions of ‘Shadow Boxing’ by Nasty Habits on Surgical Sounds. Too much fun!
Jammin – Go DJ
Most of Zinc’s breakbeat garage tracks were released under his Jammin alias, and ‘Go DJ’ was perhaps the biggest of them all, appearing on his own Bingo Beats imprint. A dj’s favorite, the intro is a dream to chop up. Once the crowd hears those recognizable ‘go!’ and ‘go dj!’ samples, things really get pushed up to another level. This track was absolutely huge when it was released, in demand on UK Garage and breakbeat dance floors alike, and it still absolutely slays the crowd.
Here’s a review from Discogs:
Up there with ‘138 Trek’ as a top notch Zinc Killer. When that boy got it right, no one was safe. Killed every floor it graced, a lesson of deadly expertise & a testament to a long spanning career in dark urban audio arts. Rude.
Swoopes – Treats
Besides releasing breaks tracks on his own Bingo Beats label, Zinc also had a run of releases on his other label Runnin, which seems to have been a more anonymous affair – no text on the labels, just pictures of sneakers. No credits, no track information, just music. ‘Treats’ is one of the releases from the label, and is very emblematic of his style – hip-hop samples, rough breaks, heavy bassline. It’s very much a jump-up drum n’ bass / UK garage hybrid. Big tune!
The Streets – Has It Come to This? (Zinc Distraction Edit)
This isn’t really a Zinc remix per se, it’s actually a mashup of Zinc’s track ‘Distraction‘ with the a cappella vocal from ‘Has it Come to This?, which originally appeared on the 2001 mix cd ‘The Stanton Session‘ by the Stanton Warriors. Given that we are now absolutely flooded by free mixes (including by, uh, me), it’s hard to believe, but individual mix cd’s back in the day could be both hugely commercially successful as well as influential. and ‘The Stanton Session’ was massive. Tons of people I knew had a copy, and it was very likely to get put on at house parties, afters, and so on. This particular mashup was so popular that an official full-length version was made and released on The Streets’ label.
I was never a big fan of The Streets when he was in his commercial heyday, but listening back on this now it’s really clear why he was such a big success – clever lyrics, real story-telling, and a distinctive voice. So many mc’s exist just to beat their chest, it’s always a pleasure to hear someone being really real.
DJ Zinc – Flim (Zinc Breaks Mix)
To wrap up the mix I dropped this excellent vocal tune from his 2003 album ‘Faster‘; sadly Zinc’s only full-length album, this was a really cool concept where every track was faster than the one before it, which really showed off his versatility and talent as a producer. Here’s a review from Discogs:
Great concept, great execution: an album that becomes faster in each song, that isn’t only drum n bass but future jazz, 2step, dubby bass music and breakbeat too, and which flows so well that I can’t understand how Zinc hasn’t released another proper album. Not so aimed at the dancefloor as the rest of his productions, “Faster” is a great jazzy effort with Angela Hunte as the vocal diva (with no vocoder as in “I need air” this time), variety, 70’s inspiration, some bladerunner-ish works of downtempo (Illa/Departure), big band samples… all very well programmed, played, edited. A perfect album.