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Music

Grime Music Will Never Die, It's Going to Keep Diversifying

"You hear certain bits from certain producers and you think, fuckin' hell mate, how are you making this in Adelaide?" - we talk to Slacck and look at grime's influence across the world.

Grime is like a cyborg cockroach. It survived the nuclear fallouts of UK funky, pirate radio crackdowns, the Met’s war on raves, and Youtube killing the DVD, only to return each time with fresh layers of armour and freakish new weapons. Now, it manifests as a wide-genre influencing scenes far-flung from Roman Road, Bow, E3 - reaching Europe and the States.

Instrumental tracks have been part of grime since it first split from the 2-step atom, but it was So Solid Crew’s "Dilemma (instrumental)" and the later, twisty synths of "Eskimo" by Wiley that wired the motherboard for a much more hard, nasty and simplistic, sound. These programmed beats were touchpapers for MCs to light, and the resulting early benchmarks - Pay As You Go Cartel’s “Know We” or Genius Cru’s “Course Bruv” - put MCs into a blinding limelight, and the producers gradually in the shadow. Don’t get me wrong, the instrumental element continued to be pivotal, but in these last 2 years, through artists like Logos, Murlo and Mssngno, experimentation in grime production has undergone an alarming renaissance that’s making it one of the most exciting underground sounds in the UK right now.

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“There is such a wide body of people actually putting music out at the moment” explains Paul Lynch, a legend of the scene known more commonly as the producer Slackk. “You can see it picking up. It’s been a lot better than it was last year and miles better than the year before that. And the diversity is a strong suit. Different influences and different people calling it different things. Some of it I wouldn’t even say is typically grime, but it’s around the same tempo, from the same people and it’s working in our sets in different ways. In that sense, it’s pretty healthy.”

The sheer amount of variation on show right now pulls at the definition strings of how wide a genre can actually be. Just look at a few tunes of the last few months…

Lewisham repping Lolingo, for instance, comes in with "New Cross Gate": an abstract tune that pins jagged funk samples and classic drum breaks into that demented 140bpm.

That track sits alongside Dullah Beatz’s "Boxed LDN" on the Boxed Vol.2 compilation, yet similarities are minimal. This Dullah track is a spooky boomer with dirty, sustained synth drones and murky bass.

Add in the grandiose violins, old school drums and rising synth stabs of JT The Goon’s "Garden of Eden" or Spooky’s rave-reminiscent grime paintjob of Kanye West’s "New Slaves", for evident contrasts in the creativity knocking around.

Grime is like a cyborg cockroach. It survived the nuclear fallouts of UK funky, pirate radio crackdowns, the Met’s war on raves, and Youtube killing the DVD, only to return each time with fresh layers of armour and freakish new weapons. Now, it manifests as a wide-genre influencing scenes far-flung from Roman Road, Bow, E3 - reaching Europe and the States.

Instrumental tracks have been part of grime since it first split from the 2-step atom, but it was So Solid Crew’s "Dilemma (instrumental)" and the later, twisty synths of "Eskimo" by Wiley that wired the motherboard for a much more hard, nasty and simplistic, sound. These programmed beats were touchpapers for MCs to light, and the resulting early benchmarks - Pay As You Go Cartel’s “Know We” or Genius Cru’s “Course Bruv” - put MCs into a blinding limelight, and the producers gradually in the shadow. Don’t get me wrong, the instrumental element continued to be pivotal, but in these last 2 years, through artists like Logos, Murlo and Mssngno, experimentation in grime production has undergone an alarming renaissance that’s making it one of the most exciting underground sounds in the UK right now.

“There is such a wide body of people actually putting music out at the moment” explains Paul Lynch, a legend of the scene known more commonly as the producer Slackk. “You can see it picking up. It’s been a lot better than it was last year and miles better than the year before that. And the diversity is a strong suit. Different influences and different people calling it different things. Some of it I wouldn’t even say is typically grime, but it’s around the same tempo, from the same people and it’s working in our sets in different ways. In that sense, it’s pretty healthy.”

The sheer amount of variation on show right now pulls at the definition strings of how wide a genre can actually be. Just look at a few tunes of the last few months...

Lewisham repping Lolingo, for instance, comes in with "New Cross Gate": an abstract tune that pins jagged funk samples and classic drum breaks into that demented 140bpm.

That track sits alongside Dullah Beatz’s "Boxed LDN" on the Boxed Vol.2 compilation, yet similarities are minimal. This Dullah track is a spooky boomer with dirty, sustained synth drones and murky bass.

Add in the grandiose violins, old school drums and rising synth stabs of JT The Goon’s "Garden of Eden" or Spooky’s rave-reminiscent grime paintjob of Kanye West’s "New Slaves", for evident contrasts in the creativity knocking around.

And, offset all this with this trans-atlantic dub-tinged, industrial bass behemoth from U.S. producer YNGN and Colchester based Gundam, and you start to see the width of the renaissance.

Slackk himself released his first full length debut album just a few weeks ago, and the record is similarly buzzed on its own propensity to turn every stone. Three tracks in particular - "Palm Tree Fire", "Kit & Holly" and ‘Ancient Dolphin’ - get you careering between old school grime, atmospheric Middle Eastern scales, grooving jazz chords and interstellar dancehall riddims.

Some of it, like the Middle and Far Eastern sounds found in the tunes of producers like Slackk, Glot and many more, are developed forms of what was seeded in the past. Jammer’s "Weedman" was sourcing faux-Oriental sounds as early as 2003, forging what was eventually and briefly named sinogrime. Whether this influence came from movies or video game culture is still undecided, but some of the early Lord of the Mic nights (like 2004’s Wiley vs Kano battle) and their arcade fighter style intro credits, suggest the latter could be credible. However, most of the bewildering new references in 2014’s instrumental grime scene are based on the fact that many of these new producers, unlike their counterparts, aren’t channeling adolescent memories of jungle and garage anymore. They are channeling the new shit.

“I could play eight different types of sets with the stuff I’ve received in the last year alone” says Slackk. “Stuff that I would never have envisioned a few years back. Things are going in such odd, weird and splintered directions, that it’s hard to predict, because sometimes you get ten curveballs in a zip and you realise... it’s switching again.”

I ask him what he makes of how grime has inspired overseas artists like recent Warp signings Future Brown (New York based group featuring Fatima Al Qadiri), or Tri Angle Records’ producer SD Laika (Milwaukee based), and he’s enthused, if not bewildered, by the popularity. “I’ve only heard Fatima’s EP and album, so you don’t know what else they are doing in terms of their scene. SD Laika, there are a few tunes I think that are fucking wicked, but I wouldn’t say everything he is doing is grime. But, there is a lot going on internationally. You hear certain bits from certain producers and you think, fuckin hell mate, how are you making this in Adelaide?”

One of the key things to the renaissance, on a London level, is Boxed - a clubnight ran by Slacck, Mr Mitch, Logos and the label Oil Gang. Every genre needs it’s coliseum; a testing ground where tunes can be celebrated or slewn. “Lots of tunes have come up through Boxed,” he begins, “because we’ve started playing it, then other people have and then all of a sudden they are on vinyl and they are doing quite well. Like that tune "Keep Calling" by Finn. We played that for a good few months, and then it got signed by Local Action. So, it creates a platform to break tunes in and for an audiences to gather.”

And, like Low End Theory did for the L.A. beat scene, or Dalston’s Labrynth did for jungle - Boxed, as well as nights like Bandulu in Bristol, are helping to cultivate this revival. “A lot of the producers, certainly from London, are always at the nights,” explains Slackk. “You get to know them and you get tunes from them. It’s good at bringing through people who aren’t necessarily booked to play anywhere, because we don’t give a shit about whether you have a name or not - if you have good tunes and nobody has heard of you, we are still gonna book you if we can.” That said, the thought of Boxed becoming too big weirds him out: “For me, it’s still early days, and it’s still quite nascent. To us it is just a little thing, and then all of a sudden you are on websites and magazines all over the place. It’s not an issue for me as it has got more people into the door and more people listening. But, it definitely caught us off guard.”

This diversifying, community-spirited and futuristic sound of instrumental grime is placing it as a better reflection of the multiculturalism of Britain than any other genre in music right now. But, variety alone won’t make things pop off, and Slackk knows more needs to change before instrumental grime, at least, can come close to relating to what some call the ‘golden era’. “You can see labels pushing through. Things like Coyote Records haven’t been around for long, but they are building up a good discography. Oil Gang is kicking off, and there are a lot of Local Action releases coming. You can see a lot of releases popping off, I just hope there are more raves to come. I want to see more raves and more labels. The more releases people are able to buy, the more likely they are to play it out and the more likely these nights will pop up all over the country."

Follow Joe on Twitter: @Cide_Benengeli

Slackk's album Palm Tree Fire is out now on Local Action.

And, offset all this with this trans-atlantic dub-tinged, industrial bass behemoth from U.S. producer YNGN and Colchester based Gundam, and you start to see the width of the renaissance.

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Slackk himself released his first full length debut album just a few weeks ago, and the record is similarly buzzed on its own propensity to turn every stone. Three tracks in particular - "Palm Tree Fire", "Kit & Holly" and ‘Ancient Dolphin’ - get you careering between old school grime, atmospheric Middle Eastern scales, grooving jazz chords and interstellar dancehall riddims.

Some of it, like the Middle and Far Eastern sounds found in the tunes of producers like Slackk, Glot and many more, are developed forms of what was seeded in the past. Jammer’s "Weedman" was sourcing faux-Oriental sounds as early as 2003, forging what was eventually and briefly named sinogrime. Whether this influence came from movies or video game culture is still undecided, but some of the early Lord of the Mic nights (like 2004’s Wiley vs Kano battle) and their arcade fighter style intro credits, suggest the latter could be credible. However, most of the bewildering new references in 2014’s instrumental grime scene are based on the fact that many of these new producers, unlike their counterparts, aren’t channeling adolescent memories of jungle and garage anymore. They are channeling the new shit.

“I could play eight different types of sets with the stuff I’ve received in the last year alone” says Slackk. “Stuff that I would never have envisioned a few years back. Things are going in such odd, weird and splintered directions, that it’s hard to predict, because sometimes you get ten curveballs in a zip and you realise… it’s switching again.”

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I ask him what he makes of how grime has inspired overseas artists like recent Warp signings Future Brown (New York based group featuring Fatima Al Qadiri), or Tri Angle Records’ producer SD Laika (Milwaukee based), and he’s enthused, if not bewildered, by the popularity. “I’ve only heard Fatima’s EP and album, so you don’t know what else they are doing in terms of their scene. SD Laika, there are a few tunes I think that are fucking wicked, but I wouldn’t say everything he is doing is grime. But, there is a lot going on internationally. You hear certain bits from certain producers and you think, fuckin hell mate, how are you making this in Adelaide?”

One of the key things to the renaissance, on a London level, is Boxed - a clubnight ran by Slacck, Mr Mitch, Logos and the label Oil Gang. Every genre needs it’s coliseum; a testing ground where tunes can be celebrated or slewn. “Lots of tunes have come up through Boxed,” he begins, “because we’ve started playing it, then other people have and then all of a sudden they are on vinyl and they are doing quite well. Like that tune "Keep Calling" by Finn. We played that for a good few months, and then it got signed by Local Action. So, it creates a platform to break tunes in and for an audiences to gather.”

And, like Low End Theory did for the L.A. beat scene, or Dalston’s Labrynth did for jungle - Boxed, as well as nights like Bandulu in Bristol, are helping to cultivate this revival. “A lot of the producers, certainly from London, are always at the nights,” explains Slackk. “You get to know them and you get tunes from them. It’s good at bringing through people who aren’t necessarily booked to play anywhere, because we don’t give a shit about whether you have a name or not - if you have good tunes and nobody has heard of you, we are still gonna book you if we can.” That said, the thought of Boxed becoming too big weirds him out: “For me, it’s still early days, and it’s still quite nascent. To us it is just a little thing, and then all of a sudden you are on websites and magazines all over the place. It’s not an issue for me as it has got more people into the door and more people listening. But, it definitely caught us off guard.”

This diversifying, community-spirited and futuristic sound of instrumental grime is placing it as a better reflection of the multiculturalism of Britain than any other genre in music right now. But, variety alone won’t make things pop off, and Slackk knows more needs to change before instrumental grime, at least, can come close to relating to what some call the ‘golden era’. “You can see labels pushing through. Things like Coyote Records haven’t been around for long, but they are building up a good discography. Oil Gang is kicking off, and there are a lot of Local Action releases coming. You can see a lot of releases popping off, I just hope there are more raves to come. I want to see more raves and more labels. The more releases people are able to buy, the more likely they are to play it out and the more likely these nights will pop up all over the country."

Follow Joe on Twitter: @Cide_Benengeli

Slackk's album Palm Tree Fire is out now on Local Action.