Introduction

For a good few years of record buying jazz had always seemed a complex and frankly terrifying terrain to navigate. Its complex brows and furrows seemed best navigated by more higher functioning beings than myself; those who wore moleskin loafers and could drink whisky. I must therefore extend a sincere hand of gratitude to those men who helped me overcome my jazz aversion- the ‘fusion’ men……

Discovery

The free period. For many the free period heralded a signal to take some time away from the toil of a-level study. Smoke a jazz fag in the woods, fornicate with your sweetheart or just simply sit staring into space for an hour or two.

To my friend Tristan (aka the Robotic Carrot) and me however the free period provided a space for something far more cerebrate. We would sit in Tristan’s front room watching the tv spectacle that was the performance channel. For those of you unfamiliar with the performance channel it is safe to say that you have missed out on some of the most important television to have come into existence, aside ofcourse from seeing Kinga in Big Brother 2005 stick a wine bottle inside her copious lady crevice. Although quite narrow in its broadcast remit, I.e it only televised jazz performances from the 80’s, it by no means fell short of providing us with a full Reithian televisual experience; educating and enthralling in equal measure.

For hours we would look on at some of the timeless jazz performances that the 80’s played host to. Ten minute drum solos from Ginger Baker, Dizzy Gillespie wandering the stage spraying his bandmates with a plant mister, Chick Corea performing the power noodle- this channel had it all. It introduced us spotty oiks to the supremacy of the 80s as an era for jazz. It was an era where the conceptual apparatus of jazz was welded to the dancefloor mechanics of funk.

It was precisely in these moments that my jazz phobia was quashed. I no longer looked at it with same eyes.

Consolidation

It would be slightly crass ofcourse to not go on without a bit of background information about jazz fusion. I am not any sort of expert so the following is a brief and most probably factually inaccruate overview.

As a genre the seeds of fusion were sewn in the late 60s. Jazz’s impulse to improvise became married with the rhythmic propulsion of funk and r’n'b music. In addition to this the recording techniques and effects of progressive rock began to emerge as muse for many jazz artists seeking to move beyond the fringes of jazz. As the movement began to develop it became more apparent that the sound could not be striclty codified in terms of generic content. Hallmarks of the sound were more general musical traits like shifting time signatures and virtuostic solo passages. By the 1980′s the sound had become diffuse yet ultimately captivating.

This year proved a highly pleasing year for the jazz fusion listener with an equal appreciation of dance music. Amongst the stylistic trends emerging from the amorphous body of dance music was a small yet perfectly formed set of songs that drink heavily from the fusion cup.

Before we look at the particular tracks in question it may be worth me sharing a more general opinion that I hold about the relation between fusion and dance music as a whole. It is my firm, yet probably misguided belief, that the best fusion and the best dance music share such common dna that it is akin to the comparsion between ourselves and chimps. If looking at the amount of cross over in terms of equipment then one only has to look at the number of fusion artists who saw the joy of synthesizers as lead instruments, the Mezzoforte track on the ‘Sound Rainbow’ mix attached bares testimony to this utilising a DX7 to great effect. Not to mention those fusion artists who looked at drum machines as providing some rock rhythmic backing to their efforts.

Beyond these shared features it can be discerned that an awful lot of the best of fusion and dance music share desires. The desire to make a listener loose themselves in, mostly instrumental, sequences and patterns. The desire to create bold and interesting ‘sound scapes’. The desire to sweat.

But enough of this misguided philosophising onto the analysis…

Analysis

Listening to the opening bars of ‘People’s Potential’ by Floating Points you can already here the strains of fusion era Herbie Hancock. The cascading synth layers that interplay over the 7 minutes are directly culled from the fusion handbook of playing like a mo’fucka. The loose limbed beat programming and changing rhythmic emphasis that punctuate the structure of the track do nothing to dissuade from this comparison. As we arrive near the end with the gorgeous electric piano weaving in and out of the track we truly have arrived at fusion dance nirvana.

People’s Potential

Perhaps even more explicit in it’s referencing of fusion is the album provided to us by Cambridge born Oriol Singhji whose offering Night and Day on Planet Mu is positively brimming with its influence. From the tropical shuffling groove of ‘Coconut Coast’ through to chirping and melodious snap of ‘Flux’ them album, as well as being eminently listenable brilliantly demonstrates the dynamism and virtuosity of Singhji to be equal to that of the best fusion players. What is remarkable about the album is just how vital an exercise in nostalgia it becomes on repeat listens; as David Stubb’s review of the album so neatly summarises it this is nostalgia marinated in the present.

Joy FM

Last under scrutiny is a musical output that is not as overt in its fusion referencing as the two analysed so far. It is the output of young Jack Hamill aka Space Dimension Controller. The sumptuous synth lines that pepper his work call to mind the work of Juan Atkins and his disciples more than the work of any fusioneer. To my ears though the exploratory melodies recapitulate the often overlooked connection that Detroit techno has with jazz fusion experimentalism- seek out Galaxy 2 Galaxy for a full treatment. Again this is marinated nostalgia at its best- the connective tissue that holds SDC near to the fusion template not only found in the experimentalism of the synth grooves but also with the balancing of these sensibilities with a concern to make palletable, almost pop like, melodies for the dance floor.

Mercuial Attraction

The Sound Rainbow

And so we now move to the mix….

The brief that I gave myself was to offer a slow to fast blend of fusion taking in the work of long held favourites such as George Duke and Weather Report. Enjoy…..

Tracklisting

Shadowfax- Tsunami (Wrongspeed Mix)
Stanley Clarke- The Dancer
George Duke- Malibu
Seawind- Sound Rainbow
Rodney Franklin- Sonshine
Mezzoforte- Rockall
Weather Report- Teen Town

Download – Sound Rainbow Mix

Epilogue

In this closing sentiment I would like to dedicate this mix to another group of people, the members of the Bristol University ‘Jazz Funk Soul’ society. As a part member of the group for two years it became my intense displeasure, and the displeasure of anyone who was listening, to play records at JFS parties. If University societies can be reduced, and they often can be, to a stereotypical member then the JFS archetype was one of the major motivating factors in heightening my appreciation for ‘fusion’. The ‘jazz cunt’ stereotype that occupied the JFS, who dressed like an Armenian goat herders, were consistently aloof and oddball after watching too much ‘Boosh’ absurdum and noodled and tootled away on their dull jazz instruments gave me all the impetus I needed to look to fusion music for something exotic and interesting. No meandering rim shot and piano boogie woogie wankness to annoy me, and whatsmore the men (and women) of fusion had a great line in dazzling polyester sweaters.

Tickets are £140 including accomodation.

Sonic Router

1. letherette – eye to eye
2. take – neon beams
3. maxmillion dunbar – pretty please
4. oriol – flux
5. tropics – give it up
6. om unit – the corridor
7. american men – tenzin zopa (machinedrum remix)
8. dj rashad – gettin some head
9. kelis & andre 3000 – millionaire
10. pariah – c-beams
11. arpanet – grossvater paradoxon
12. jimmy edgar – one twenty detail
13. space dimension controller – journey to the centre of the unknown sphere
14. 808 state – flow coma (afx remix)
15. kidkut – ilove04
16. karizma – darqness
17. roof light – palm
18. falty dl – odyssey
19. cosmin trg – tower block
20. dva feat fatima – just vybe (soulepower mix)
21. oriol – lw
22. omar s – plesetsk cosmodrome
23. funkineven – heart pound
24. roska & untold – long range
25. aardvarck – cult copy 3 (dub)
26. bok bok & cubic zirconia – reclash (give it to me)
27. green velvet – answering machine
28. lone – once in a while
29. steve poindexter – work that motherfucker (paul johnson remix)
30. ramadanman – mir
31. subeena – wishful talk (ghosts on tape remix)
32. boddika – boddika’s house
33. morgan geist – airpour
34. girl unit – wut
35. ti – yeah ya know (instrumental)
36. mosca – square one (bok bok remix)
37. scratcha dva – 32da4
38. terror danjah – power grid
39. royal-t – hot ones (remix)
40. plasticman – cha
41. lv – boomslang
42. seiji – straylight
43. crst – may not be real
44. wax – 10001 a
45. basic channel – phylyps trak ii
46. george morel – let’s groove
47. hardrive – deep inside
48. jus ed – marco’s love
49. africa hitech – how does it make you feel
50. kingthing – bump
51. boddika – syn chron
52. jameson – urban hero
53. dj funk – booty perk-u-later
54. drexciya – digital tsunami
55. mr de – time space scrilla
56. remote – the swarm
57. redinho – pitter patter
58. dj spinn & dj rashad – daydreamin (juktronik)
59. 2am/fm – landing dock two
60. rustie – dragonfly
61. model 500 – ofi

At the time, the Hive crew nodded politely and said ‘it’s an interesting theory’. They suggested I go away and flesh it out a bit and write an article for the Hivemind blog. In my drunken state, I agreed. I also excitedly promised to lay down a mix to go with the article, joining the dots between 1990 and 2010.

So here we are. Before I get onto the mix, a bit of history. In early 1989, a white label slipped out of Bradford by an unknown act called Unique 3. Entitled ‘The Theme’, it mixed bowel-bothering dub sub-bass with cheap-sounding synth chords and ‘speak and spell’ bleeps. In the clubs of Leeds and Sheffield, it was a huge underground hit. It was snapped up by Ten Records , who commissioned a Sheffield producer called Rob Gordon to rework it. Gordon’s version added hip-house style vocal drops and beefed up the sub-bass to bassbin-shaking levels.

It was a hit, and ‘bleep techno’ was born.

Gordon was to prove the real driving force behind the development of what was dubbed at the time ‘Yorkshire bleeps and bass’. A respected studio engineer at the steel city’s FON Studios, electronics enthusiast and reggae soundsystem builder, Gordon had recently been introduced to Detroit techno by a local DJ by the name of Parrot ‘ resident at legendary Sheffield clubs Occasions and Jive Turkey. Gordon didn’t like house ‘ he recently told journalist Joe Muggs that it sounded ‘too cheap, without any funk’ ‘ but he loved the productions of Derrick May.

Thus inspired, he got together with his friends Winston Hazel ‘ another Sheffield DJ ‘ and Sean Maher and made a techno track that fused his love of big bass with Detroit techo, including simple ‘bleep’ style melodies. The result was ‘The Track With No Name’, credited to Forgemasters (the name of a local steel mill). But Gordon didn’t stop there. Noticing a few other similar-sounding productions coming from other Yorkshire DJs and producers ‘ most notably Leeds duo Nightmares on Wax ‘ he approached the owners of local record shop FON (originally a spin-off from the studio, but now owned by different businessmen) about launching a label to showcase this new sound.

That, as I’m sure you’re aware, was WARP Records. Gordon fell out with WARP’s owners in 1991, but until that point he had a hand in each release, either as engineer, producer or mixer. It was his skills as a producer that gave records like ‘LFO’ and ‘Testone’ their humongous bass and slick, warm sound.

Following the launch of WARP, ‘bleep’ was big in the North of England, but its influence spread much further. Away from the floors of Occasions and Jive Turkey, or the soundsystems of Chapeltown in Leeds, it proved a catalyst. Before ‘bleep’, most British dance records ‘ even the great ones, like ‘Voodoo Ray’ or T-Coy’s ‘Carino’ ‘ had used US or European sounds and styles, both as inspiration and in their execution. ‘Bleep’ was uniquely British, forged by both white and black kids in Yorkshire cities, for mixed audiences. The sound’s influences were obvious: dub and reggae (particularly the 4/4 rockers riddims, which were popular in the 1980s), hip-hop, funk, Detroit techno, early electro and Chicago acid. The sound was industrial and alien on one hand, warm and soulful on the other. Above all, though, it sounded like nothing else around. Arguably, it still doesn’t.

As time moved on, ‘bleep’ evolved. Kids in London, reared on rare groove, added a heavy breakbeat influence and hardcore was forged. Things speeded up, and jungle was born. Later, jungle’s big basslines were added to speeded-up US garage, and ‘speed garage’ was formed. Then there was broken beat, which in its purest form took as much from dub as it did jazz. Over time, British dance music has evolved in a number of different directions, but nearly all contemporary bass music can be traced back to those Yorkshire pioneers of ‘bleep and bass’. Hell, if you listen to some early bleep-influenced records, you can hear the shuffling dub rhythms of dubstep. The current ‘baseline’ garage scene had its roots in Yorkshire, and is still huge in Sheffield. It’s not a coincidence. Incidentally, Rob Gordon has a hand in producing some of those records, and has been helping out Toddla T. 20 years on, he’s still the master of good quality sub-bass.

As promised, to try and illustrate my point I’ve put together a mix that tries to join the dots between original bleep classics, early rave/hardcore and contemporary records. It’s more old than new, with only a couple of recent bits, but hopefully it does the trick. Below, I’ve added notes about each track for those interested.

Bleep: Bassment Jacks – mixed by Sell By Dave

SELL BY DAVE ‘ BASSBIN JACKS INTRO (unreleased)

I felt there was only one way to introduce this mix, and that was with the now infamous words of a young Chris ‘SWAG’ Duckenfield from Altern8′s ‘Infiltrate 202′: ‘Watch yer bassbins I’m tellin’ ya’. Incidentally, Altern8′s early works as Nexus 21 are an excellent example of the point where bleep began to become ‘rave’.

FORGEMASTERS ‘ STRESS (Network Records)

This heavy techno number from the Sheffield trio’s ‘Black Steel EP’ is ‘bleep’ at its purest: bass, space and the faintest hint of Detroit in the melodies. Not anywhere near as influential as ‘The Track With No Name’, but it still sounds great.

XON” MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (Network Records)

That man Rob Gordon again, this time working alongside Cabaret Voltaire man Richard H Kirk. It was released in 1991 on the excellent ‘Mood Set’ EP, and shows the rawness of early bleep replaced by an all-enveloping Detroit-influenced smoothness ‘ albeit with those trademark bleeps and a heavy low-end throb.

THE MOODY BOYS ‘ LION DANCE (XL Recordings)

These days, Moody Boys man Tony Thorpe is best known for his dubstep productions. Back in 1990, he teamed up with the KLF’s Jimmy Cauty for an EP called ‘Journeys In Dubland’, from which this track was taken. Like those in the Yorkshire scene, Thorpe was obsessed with the dancefloor potential of dub, and many of his early remixes for the KLF sound like classic bleep, albeit with a Brixton twist ‘ all alien melodies, heavy bass and dub-influenced percussion. Incidentally, the EP’s most uptempo track ‘Pumpin’ Dumpin’, is very bleep.

THE STEP ‘ YEAH YOU! [OCCASIONS MIX] (Warp Records)

Another great example of the influence of dub on the early bleep sound, ‘Yeah You’ was produced by Mark Brydon (later to become half of Moloko), Parrot and Winston Hazel. This name of this dub version ‘ the Occasions Mix ‘ is a reference to the Sheffield club where Parrot and Winston were residents.

TUFF LITTLE UNIT ‘ JOIN THE FUTURE [AL DARE'S MELLOW MIX] (unreleased)

The track’s infamous vocal hook sums up the time. In 1991, this sounded like the future ‘ and in some ways still does. Another Warp tune from 1991, produced by Sean Maher, here remixed by Bristol-based DJ Al Dare. Incidentally, Tuff Little Unit’s first EP for warp, ‘Inspiration’, really wasn’t very ‘bleep’ at all ‘ rather being strange vocal house/breakbeat.

CABARET VOLTAIRE ‘ EASY LIFE [ROB GORDON 12' MIX] (Virgin/EMI)

The Cabs were a huge influence on dance producers on both sides of the Atlantic. This is one of their later efforts, remixed by Rob Gordon in his role as FON engineer. It’s deeper and more obviously melodic than some of the rawer bleep cuts, but it still includes many of Gordon’s production trademarks.

THE ALL SEEING I ‘ BOOTY IN THE I (FFRR/Earth Records)

Or ‘what Parrot did next’. Some six years after his involvement with Sweet Exorcist and The Step, Parrot returned as part of Sheffield trio The All Seeing I. This, bizarrely, was the B-side to their hit ‘And The Beat Goes On’. Like a lot of stuff that Parrot and co released on their own Earth Records imprint, this is heavy, fuzzy, bassy, loud and in-your-face’ and very Sheffield.

LFO ‘ LOVE IS THE MESSAGE [BEWARE OF BASS MIX] (Tommy Boy)

A US take on the UK sound, with Eric Kupper and Mohammed Moretta remixing the ‘Frequencies’ album track. The bass and bleeps are there, alongside a rave era breakbeat and some choice disco vocal samples. The B-side of this US single also featured an early Moby remix.

ITAL ROCKERS ‘ SCIENCE [FIRST BASS MIX] (Bassic Records)

Bassic Records was Leeds’ answer to Warp. Run by men behind Crash Records, Bassic released a number of ‘Yorkshire bleep and bass’ classics, including ‘Ital’s Anthem’ by Ital Rockers (later to become better known as Ital Steppas). This B-side is bleep in its purest form.

JUNO ‘ SOUL THUNDER [DRILLERS MIX] (Bassic Records)

Another Yorkshire classic from the Bassic staple. A breakthrough early UK techno tune, blessed with one of the heaviest basslines of 1990. Raw and uncompromising.

RHYTHMATIC ‘ TAKE ME BACK [SELL BY DAVE 0117 EDIT ' 'WITH EXTRA CRACKLES'] (Unreleased)

Network was initially set up by Birmingham-based Kool Kat to release British and US techno. On the back of the success of Warp and Bassic, it released records that bridged the gap between purist bleep and the rave records that followed. Unlike Rhythmatic’s later efforts, ‘Take Me Back’ was pretty much bleep ‘ with some Inner City-like stabs ‘ and came backed with a big Rob Gordon edit. The name of my edit pays tribute to that version.

TRICKY DISCO ‘ HOUSEFLY [RADICAL ROCKERS REMIX] (Warp)

Further proof of the links between soundsystem culture, bleep and early rave, in this remix of the forgotten Tricky Disco classic. This version has rewinds, toaster shout-outs and, erm, a very silly bassline.

SuPaFiX ‘ GHETTO NEW YORKSHIRE [Sell By Dave Edit] (unreleased)

A long-forgotten techno/house gem from the early noughties. SuPaFiX was a collaboration between Winston Hazel (Forgemasters, The Step) and Ross Orton, a little-known Sheffield producer and All Seeing I/I Monster collaborator who worked on many of Toddla T’s early records. It sounds like bleep rebooted ‘ all big bass, brain-pulverizing beats and wonky riffs.

SWEET EXORCIST ‘ TESTONE (Warp)

With its simple hook, big bass and stripped-down production, ‘Testone’ is probably the ultimate bleep record. A collab between Richard H Kirk and Parrot (All Seeing I, The Step etc), Sweet Exorcist would later create what they called ‘clonk’ ‘ a kind of house version of bleep. The Warp 10^th anniversary remix comp featured an excellent hip-hop tempo version of this by SuPaFiX-ers Winston and Ross Orton.

UNIQUE 3 ‘ RHYTHM TAKES CONTROL [BASS & BEATS MIX] (Ten Records)

No bleep mix would be complete without a contribution from originators Unique 3. The full 12′ version of this isn’t great ‘ dodgy vocals etc ‘ but this stripped-down ‘Bass and Beats Mix’ is excellent.

FOUR TET – LOVE CRY [ROSKA REMIX] (Domino)

A slamming slice of contemporary broken garage that sounds like a direct descendent of ‘bleep’. Check the minimalist bleep melodies and prominent bassline.

MUJAVA ‘ TOWNSHIP FUNK [SELL BY DAVE EDIT] (unreleased)

Although made by a South African, ‘Township Funk’ sounds like it could have come from Yorkshire. The rhythms are different, but the melodies scream ‘bleep’. It’s the missing link between Warp circa 2010 and Warp circa 1990.

LUKE VIBERT ‘ LFO (Warp)

The Cornishman’s 2009 cover of the Warp bleep era classic is the perfect way finale. A suitably reverential, contemporary sounding version of a brilliant record.

Sell By Dave is resident at Bristol’s UFO, Summer Summons and Bedmo Disco parties. He co-presents the UFO and Bedmo Disco radio shows on Hivemind. Under his real name, Matt Anniss, he is a freelance writer and former editor of IDJ magazine.

Dickwads Chillout!

Yes that�s correct. I hate chilling out. And to an even greater extent I hate chill out music. But hate is an intensely strong word to use and should not applied without a precise aim; so let me show you what is exactly in my sights. Chill out music I regard to be that dull and charmless form of dance music made that can be found in abundance on any dance compilation using chill or relax in the title. Usually made by Europeans or dullard Yanks who have listened to way too much King Tubby and think that the perfect homage to this is to create aural dung at 100 beats a minute. A floaty pad, some rhodes keys and some flimsy bint chiming out a breathy vocal is usually all that we get to chill out to. I like feeling uptight, I like intensity and music should invoke a reaction that binds these into a whole. When I hear a Zero 7 record my only reaction is to shrug.

�Most people use music as a couch; they want to be pillowed on it, relaxed and consoled for the stress of daily living. But serious music was never meant to be soporific�

Aaron Copland (American Film Music Composer)

If we unpack the purpose of this chill out music we find it wanting. Music should not be your couch, it should be more like your own personal ice rink; a cold environment where you have to keep moving, you will occasionally glide gracefully and you will also slip over and be damaged by it. Only the soppy jam rags of the world will be found �chilling out� at the edge of your rink in the couches sipping a slush puppy.

With this thinking in place let�s move to the sub-title

Juno what I mean?

There is black hole on my desktop that I quite happily fall into every evening, it�s called internet explorer. For several hours I will enter a �juno fugue� trying to listen to every track in the house sections on the online �dance music Tesco� superstore that is juno.co.uk. It�s like smack without the need for spoons or needles; incredibly addictive, costly and intrinsically unhealthy. I like countless others will happily fritter away there dosh every month on a big stash of new vinyl. We are all caught up in the blissful state of self imposed ignorance that what tells us what we are doing is staying current, and is therefore an activity that keeps us constantly engaged with dance music. Back in our ice rink we are the Olympic figure skaters.

But sadly I am the Bolivian entry for the figure skating championships- frequent falls and not a great deal of grace. My big pile of records will inevitably contain a 50% quotient of duds. The two minute sample has made them sound like the best thing ever- slap it on the turntable and an entirely different sound rears its head.

Two of my most recent purchases have proved to demonstrate exactly these traits�..

Peter�s House Music- Jump 12� (All Hands Electric)

The juno samples left me hankering for this twelve incher (oooh pardon). Made by synthy wizard chap Peter Schuette of Silk Flowers and Pyschobuildings. I shelled out �13 of hard earned and greedily received the seven track vinyl in hand painted sleeve.

And then the disappointment settled in, and hasn�t left me upon repeated listens. There is so much to like- bold, sweet synth lines that sound like they were culled directly from a vivid quornography flick, chock loads of skittish 808 and some velvet smooth AOR samples. It promises all the stripes of house music. But I can�t escape a feeling of dissatisfaction that is inherent within all of these tracks. Doug Mosurock of Still Single blogspot identifies quite correctly the �disruptive song craft� that plagues the twelve inch in being able to become effective house music. This combined with some frankly dodgy fm bass on �The Mirror Has 2 Faces� and I can�t help but finding myself wishing that I hadn�t paid quite so much if anything to consume Peter�s House Music, or else that he hadn�t been quite so keen to stuff seven seemingly half done yet highly promising inside a screen printed sleeve and sell it to me.

The Samps- The Samps LP (Mexican Summer)

Once again I was in rapturous after hearing what juno had to offer. Just think how people would react when I bust these jaunty electronic jams on the decks. Yet again also these guys were charging big dollar. �19 for this offering. And yet again they all had leftfield pedigree some members hailing from trendy arty pack Ariel�s Pink Haunted Graffiti.

But despondency reigned yet again as I got betwixt the grooves on offer. Experimental song writing once again precluded the possibility of any song really establishing itself. Songs would habitually move to a good place and then became jarring, and slightly unnerving. I don�t doubt this is probably the intention- but is it something that really needs to be continually represented?

What lessons can I learn from this. Maybe I need to � chill out� a bit more. Grab myself a Finley Quaye album and burn one out in the evenings rather than ceaselessly devouring new music that half of the time provides disappointment. Maybe instead of entering a juno fugue it would be good to maybe sit down and be couched for little while.

No thanks- I�m happy tending to my bruises from my slip ups.

More recently, one of Chi-town’s lesser known exports has been making waves on our shores, and it goes by the name ‘Juke’, a genre spawned out of the ghetto house scene of the mid 1990’s. Ghetto or ‘Booty’ house dominated the Chicago underground during this period, with seminal Dj’s such as Funk, Slugo, Deeon and Milton taking the traditional 120bpm blueprint and developing a faster, harder sound defined by raw, pitched up beats and repetitive explicit lyrics. The popularity of the genre at underground night spots and basement parties in the City’s Southside gave rise to a new term to define the sound – ‘Juke’. The word’s etymology can be traced back to various West African languages but its first usage in the USA came from the old Gullah word ‘jook’ or ‘juk’, a term which
was adopted for ‘going out late and drinking a lot and dancing dirty’. This naturally gave rise to the venues where such behaviour occurred being referred to as ‘juke joints’, and the record players which provided the sounds as ‘juke boxes’. Soon it evolved into a verb used in reference to dancing, more specifically dancing like you were having sex, and its context within house music emerged. As early juke dj Puncho explains:

“When we would be at parties, we’d hear girls like, ‘They jukin in there’ or ‘We gonna go get our juke on.”

Stylistically, juke bears many similarities with ghettotech, Detroit’s own offspring of ghetto house. Both generally weigh in around 145-165bpm and feature the aforementioned stripped back beat structure and expletives, but there are notable differences. Juke’s predominant use of the tom-tom drum is a feature absent in ghettotech, as is the use of the bass drum as a melodic element. Ghettotech is generally harder and owes more to techno and electro in its production – invariably 4/4 orientated or following an 808 electro/Miami bass drum pattern – whereas juke adheres to no
particular rules in this area.

As the 90’s progressed a new generation of Chicago producers took the juke sound further away from the ghetto house model, increasing the bpm’s and developing more varied drum patterns. Chicago resident and juke pioneer Chrissy Murderbot explains:

“Over the past decade Juke has developed two pretty distinct halves: the more straightforward four-on-the-floor party bangers by people like Gant-Man, Nephets, and Waxmaster; and the more rhythmically varied, sideways-sounding “footwork tracks” from DJs like Spinn, Rashad, and Nate”.

These “footwork tracks” refer to an integral part of the juke scene, stemming from Chicago’s dance heritage that dates back a long time before juke’s inception. ‘Footwork’ dancing in its modern context is essentially a fast, frenetic and very intricate movement of the legs and feet, perfectly suited to the rapid drum patterns of juke, but its origins can be traced back centuries, with West African tribal and traditional Scottish and Irish folk dances evolving into swing dance styles such as the Black Bottom, the Jitterbug and the Shag, which became very popular amongst African-Americans in the early 20th century. Murderbot continues:

“Modern Chicago footwork and the other dances that go with it (West Side Percolator, South Side Percolator, The 40s, Jacking, Juking, Bobbing, etc) go back at least to the 1980s house music scene. Because Ghetto House & early Juke was faster than other types of house, it was the natural choice for these fast dances.”

Footwork’s popularity in Chicago flourished with the juke scene, with events occurring on a weekly basis in the Southside. This tradition is stronger than ever today with the culture evolving into a much more competitive phenomenon – footwork crews regularly battle it out for supremacy at these dedicated dances throughout Chicago and Detroit. The term is now used to describe the music itself, with the off-kilter, more varied style of juke referred to as ‘Footwork’ or ‘Foot Wurk’.

Ghetto house’s affiliated genres have never been too far from UK dancefloors. Popular international dj’s have often brought these sounds with them, with DJ Craze’s Miami bass influence and DJ Assault and DJ Godfather’s booty bass and ghettotech styles finding favour within certain scenes. These influences most notably spread to the likes of Deekline and Wizard’s booty breaks productions, Cutlass Supreme’s UK electro-bass, and even the more contemporary strains of fidget and bassline house. However juke’s arrival is a much more recent event. In 2008, Bristol based producer Headhunter began incorporating juke tracks into his dj sets. This was a fairly radical departure for a producer best known for his mastery of the dubstep/techno crossover sound. Subsequently Headhunter developed a side-project, going by the moniker Addison Groove, and cross-pollinating his dubstep style with juke’s 808-driven percussion at 140bpm. His flagship release ‘Footcrab’ was dropped on Loefah’s Swamp 81 imprint to a mixture of confusion and acclaim, with many failing to see how the track’s repetitive samples, unusual drum patterns and hi-pitched tom-toms could be placed within the context of the new ‘future bass’ scene. The more forward-thinking members of
this fraternity reacted in quite the opposite way, viewing the fresh influence as the ideal foundation to take the ever-mutating and all-encompassing bass genre in a brand new direction.

Influential UK producers Bok Bok and L-Vis 1990 were amongst those keen to embrace juke in this context, signing London-based producer Girl Unit to their Night Slugs label. As with Headhunter, Girl Unit had been incorporating juke tracks along with a wide spectrum of house styles in his dj sets for some time, but it was his debut e.p ‘I.R.L’ which once again showed the potential for UK producers to use juke’s blueprint, as Bok Bok explains:

“Where Addison Groove perfectly captures the half-time (implied) double-time vibe of 160bpm juke at a London-friendly tempo, Girl Unit’s “IRL” draws inspiration from the downright unstable- sounding Footwork subgenre, with pitched 808 toms, tumbling triplets and percussive irregularities.”

Night Slugs took their journey into juke further in June this year when they booked footwork pioneer DJ Rashad to make his UK debut at their eponymous club night.

Most recently, and perhaps significantly, juke has caught the attention of one of the UK’s most influential purveyors of underground dance music, Planet Mu. An imprint renowned for representing all that is experimental and cutting edge, from Venetian Snares’ drill-and-bass, through Luke Vibert’s acid-flecked electronics, to Vex’d and Boxcutter’s early dubstep manifestations, label boss Mike Paradinas clearly has his finger on the pulse. His decision to release tracks by juke pioneers Dj Nate, Dj Roc and Dj Rashad, as well as a dedicated Foot Wurk compilation in early 2011, would suggest that juke has an important part to play in the foreseeable future of the UK electronic scene.

It is clear that juke has found favour amongst the tastemakers of the scene, but whether it will gain the support of party-goers beyond these niche constraints is uncertain. The genre’s popularity and longevity in Chicago can be attributed to the city’s rich heritage in house music, coupled with the captivating and competitive nature of footwork dancing which has helped to keep it relevant amongst the city’s urban youth. Whilst the UK cannot boast this legacy, the timing of juke’s arrival here is no coincidence, as the burgeoning ‘future bass’ mega-genre defines a unique era in our dance music culture. Genres and sub-genres cross-pollinate and flirt, amalgamating the distinctly British styles of dubstep, garage and funky with more exotic influences, in turn developing a scene
bursting with the desire to create and mutate, and an increasingly open-minded type of club-goer.

This climate of flux and innovation provides the perfect environment for a sound such as juke to flourish, but to what extent remains to be seen. Chrissy Murderbot and DJ Spinn touch down in Europe in October, bringing with them the first Chicago Juke tour, and their string of UK club dates could prove to be the pivotal catalyst in expanding juke’s appeal and making the genre a more regular fixture on our dancefloors. UK – it’s time to get your juke on.