Bomb the Bass
Encyclopedia
Bomb the Bass is the umbrella title for the output of British musician and producer, Tim Simenon
. The band, which has evolved its style over the years, has been classed as electronic
or dance.
As a name, Bomb the Bass came from Simenon's approach to collaging and mixing sounds whilst DJing in the mid to late 1980s; he says "samples were either scratched in live or sampled and looped on top of the rhythm section. So the concept was one of bombing the bass line with different ideas, with a collage of sounds. Bombing was a graffiti term for writing, like people would 'bomb' trains or whatever."
", with composition credited to Emilio Pasquel / Captain Black / DJ Kid 33. Keenly disguised as a U.S. import on the Mister-Ron imprint, in an attempt to conjure the mystique of Bomb the Bass being an underground
New York act, the single
exceeded mere expectations by eventually reaching number two on the UK charts.
Its roaring success put the then still relatively unknown Simenon on the front cover of Britain's most serious, and highly influential music newspaper, the NME
. This event was notable not only for being the moment when the previously pro-rock / anti-disco paper sided with post-disco dance music (at this time indie was the NME's genre du jour), recognising and valuing Simenon for being a DJ first and foremost, rather than a musician; but also for the dawn of the term DJ culture. Used as the cover's sub-heading, the term would henceforth become the accepted term for the incoming trend (of which Simenon was arguably one of the UK's pioneers) of DJs as superstars, and which would dominate popular music at least for the next decade.
The recording of "Beat Dis", which cost a reputed £500 - funded by Simenon himself with money coming from DJ sets at London club, The Wag, and an odd-job stacking shelves in a supermarket - was one of the first hit singles to introduce the mainstream to sampling
culture (along with releases by M/A/R/R/S, S'Express
and the genre-defining Coldcut
remix of Eric B & Rakim's "Paid in Full
").
Whilst the bass line and drum
tracks were written by Simenon, the rest of the track was compiled from samples, presenting an aural mood board
of where his influences were at. Having already taken a part-time sound course at The School Of Audio Engineering in Holloway
, Simenon was in the enviable position of being able to build "Beat Dis" himself - assisted in the process by producer Pascal Gabriel
, who would go on to experience his own success as co producer of S Express and a wide variety of other artists.
According to the BBC
, which featured "Beat Dis" on their clip-based TOTP2
show, the track contains an alleged 72 samples, including lifts from hip hop
like Public Enemy, funk
(including The Jimmy Castor Bunch), and Ennio Morricone
. Also featured were dialogue clips from the television shows Dragnet
, and Thunderbirds
. Talking to Sound On Sound
magazine many years later, Simenon said of the tracks construction, "I suppose I was tuned in to what was current at the time and was able to pick and choose what I wanted with some knowledge of how it should be applied."
Jolted into action by the success of "Beat Dis", Bomb the Bass moved from singles success to album act, with debut LP
, Into the Dragon
- the name of which aligned with hip-hop cultures growing fondness for 70s kung-fu movies. Made up of ten tracks, the collection expanded further the band's fascination with hip-hop breakbeats, rap
, and that musical sub-culture's creative mashing of multi-media pop culture references.
The second single, "Megablast", took its bassline from the theme music to the John Carpenter
film Assault on Precinct 13
, and was also used in the Bitmap Brothers
computer game Xenon 2 Megablast
. Other early hits included "Don't Make Me Wait" (as a double-A side release with Megablast), and a cover of the Burt Bacharach
/Hal David
composition I Say a Little Prayer
.
Proving much in demand, Simenon was drafted in to help produce a radical remake of Buffalo Stance
, the debut hit single by Neneh Cherry
(as featured on the album, Raw Like Sushi
). The released version features Cherry paying homage to Simenon during the song's break ("Bomb the Bass, rock this place"), and reached number three on the UK singles chart and number 1 on the US dance chart. He also produced follow-up single, Manchild
, and undertook 12" remix
duties.
broadcast regulations, as the outbreak of the First Gulf War prompted UK broadcasters, especially the main national music station BBC Radio 1
, to blacklist
a variety of songs and acts deemed potentially controversial due to their content or titles. The band name Bomb the Bass was considered to fall into this category, along with that of Massive Attack
. Copies of the "Love So True" single were re-issued credited to Tim Simenon instead, but the resulting confusion may have impeded the single's chart chances.
With the Bomb the Bass moniker restored, and an album ready to go, band activity once again ground to a halt, when the collection, now titled Unknown Territory
, was delayed when Pink Floyd
refused to allow a section of "Money
" to be sampled on one of the album's tracks.
With the contentious Pink Floyd sample removed, the album campaign revved up once again. Second single "Winter in July" fared much better, subsequently becoming a summer-fuelled UK Top 10 hit. The track, co-written with Guy Sigsworth
and vocalist Loretta Heywood featured several prominent samples from the Japan track "Ghosts" (as featured on the band's final studio album, Tin Drum
). This act of inclusion-by-sampling saw Simenon following the hip hop
ethos of paying homage to heroes on record. By referencing the David Sylvian
-led band's influential textual and ambient
work many years before, Simenon was giving notice of his intention to help push hip hop-oriented dance music
in the direction that would become trip-hop.
Once again pioneering new sounds in the public arena, and following the success of "Winter in July", Unknown Territory
would be the band's most well received release to date. Reviewing the album at the time, music writer and author Simon Reynolds
attempted to outline a new genre in the making, suggesting that, by moving beyond mere dance tracks into fully cohesive albums, the band were venturing into progressive dance. However, the term did not stick.
As usual on the album, a great deal of Simenon's hip hop fascination would shine through (most notably, the production work of The Bomb Squad
with Public Enemy) via the use of multi-media samples, with the album containing dialogue or soundtrack
clips from Rollerball
, Blade Runner
, David Cronenberg
's Videodrome
, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
, Marvel
comics' Fantastic Four
animated cartoon series; and Death Race 2000
.
Having developed dance music's potential via debut single "Beat Dis" in to a more song-based form of what the avant-garde
would term musique concrète
, with its complex use of hybrid hip-hop-inspired sound poaching (in place of actual played sounds) taken to logical extremes, Simenon pre-empted a style that would do well by several major acts in the years to come.
So, whilst the downbeat experimental "Winter in July" and "Love So True" would pave the way for trip-hop, the uptempo breakbeat
-heavy side of Unknown Territory, would be taken into more punk-laced
territory as the riotous sound of The Prodigy
, from their Music for the Jilted Generation
album onwards. Further to which, the style would also be explored further by - and prove infinitely more successful, commercially speaking, for - the likes of Fat Boy Slim as the genre known as bigbeat.
Interviewed for Sound on Sound
magazine in 1995, Simenon agreed with the interviewer when it was suggested that, with this more frenetic side of his work, he was looking to "combine the art of sampling with the energy of rock and roll."
During this period, Simenon also collaborated with former Ultravox
singer John Foxx
on the 12" single "Remember
" as Nation 12 (which enjoyed a measure of success in clubs and raves across the UK).
, on the Stoned Heights imprint of Island Records
; the outer sleeve of which bore striking similarity to the poster advertising the David Cronenberg
movie, Naked Lunch
. Blending dub
aesthetics into the mix, Clear
is a more mature, yet far darker work - both tonally and through its subject matter - than previous offerings. Vocal contributions would come this time, courtesy of Justin Warfield
, Sinéad O'Connor
, Jah Wobble
, Benjamin Zephaniah
- and River (a pseudonym for Minnie Driver
, the actress, who provided vocals on "Tidal Wave"). Instrumentally, the album would also feature contributions from Sugar Hill
drummer, Keith LeBlanc
(also Tackhead
and On-U Sound), Doug Wimbish
(also notable for having playing bass
as part of the Sugar Hill backing band, for acts like Grandmaster Flash
), and guitarist Skip McDonald (also On-U Sound).
Where once Simenon had initially constructed tracks with frenetic layers of colourful samples from films and cartoons, real instrumentation, which had already factored as a large part of the production on Unknown Territory
, was now playing an even greater role - albeit in heavily edited and/or effected forms, that saw them composited with other sounds to disguise or beef up their impact - along with song-orientated vocals. As a result, all but one of the album's tracks would fit into what could be considered a conventional structure. Whilst this would mark Simenon's leaps and bounds in his progression from DJ-based music to actual song-based composition
, this may have also been accelerated by the rise in frequency of music industry legal disputes over sampling. With legal problems becoming an increasingly regular inevitability, the consequential knock-on effect meant the actual cost of including extracts from other people's copyright
ed material rendered the creative payback of sampling-based composition
more trouble than it might be worth to a small, or commercially savvy, act.
In lyrical terms, developing on from his previous reliance on exhilarating film dialogue samples, braggadocio-fuelled raps
, and dance-friendly vocal hooks or ecstatic tomes of love, Clear
saw Simenon developing very specific subject matter for his tracks. New influences, and, therefore, his fascinations, for this collection built up to become very obviously literature
-based. Simenon had taken part in the spoken-word orientated Sahara Blue album project led by Hector Zazou
, which was initially released in 1992 (before being briefly withdrawn for legal reasons). The album was inspired by, and built around, the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud
, setting spoken word performances to all manner of left field musical contributions from the likes of Ryuichi Sakamoto
, David Sylvian
and John Cale
; but as to whether this was an inspiration on the direction of Clear is unknown.
Lead track on Clear, and first single
, "Bug Powder Dust
", was a blatant homage to the life and impact of William Burroughs, specifically his Naked Lunch
novel. In a nod to old ways, Simenon starts the track with a dialogue sample from the hybrid-Burroughs character in the Naked Lunch
film ("I think it's time to discuss your, err... philosophy of drug use as it relates to artistic endeavour.")
On later track, "5ml Barrel", controversial novelist Will Self
contributed a rare vocal performance, providing dark spoken-word lyrics that relayed an opiate
addict
's delusion of his collapsing veins being like motorways, due to the amount of impurities that had invaded his body. While "If You Reach The Border" features beat poet Leslie Winer on the other end of a telephone, drifting in and out of the song, as she vents through a drug-haze on the supposed ups and downs of a toxic relationship.
The album launched various singles after "Bug Powder Dust", including "Sandcastles", "1 To 1 Religion", and "Darkheart", but critical acclaim failed to translate into commercial success. However, despite "Bug Powder Dust" failing to scale the upper heights of the mainstream UK singles chart, the track has since proved enduring, featuring on many lists of key British hip-hop tracks. Remixes of the track by Chemical Brothers, and much slower, trippier versions by Kruder & Dorfmeister
and La Funk Mob would keep Bomb the Bass in the public eye for longer, becoming staples for chill-out and trip hop
compilation albums around the time.
As a headlining act, Bomb the Bass would remain dormant throughout the rest of the 1990s, with Simenon concentrating upon his work as a producer
and remixer for other artists. So, whilst the Bomb the Bass handle would be removed from commercially successful releases, Simenon would appear to be happier leasing the brand
out to others. Of note was his additional production
and remixing duties on the one-off soundtrack single Play Dead
by Björk
and David Arnold
. The latter would prove a massive UK hit in 1994, and go some way towards establishing Björk as a mainstream artist, and an introduction to many of Arnold, the man that would go on to achieve huge acclaim composing new James Bond
scores. Other names included David Bowie
, Gavin Friday
and Depeche Mode
among others; with the latter two projects poised to have a major effect on Simenon.
The Gavin Friday album project,Shag Tobacco
, not only catapulted Friday into the mainstream (spawning the track Angel
which found its way onto the hugely successful soundtrack of the Romeo & Juliet movie), but also caught the attention of a pair of British musicians on the look out for a new producer: Dave Gahan and Martin Gore
of Depeche Mode. Says Gahan, "There was loads of names being thrown at us (to produce Depeche Mode's next album after Songs of Faith and Devotion
), but in the end we picked (Simenon) because Martin (Gore) and I really liked the Gavin Friday album that he did. Shag Tobacco is an absolutely brilliant album, (and) we really loved the sounds he produced."
As a result, Simenon was brought on board to produce what would become Depeche Mode's first album without multi-instrumentalist and production-strong Alan Wilder, Ultra; a project that would demand eighteen months, due to worsening divisions within the band acerbated by Dave Gahan's battle with heroin addiction. Upon release, the album went straight into the UK charts at number one, selling 40,000 copies in its first week of release, and launched a number of singles, including Barrel of a Gun, It's No Good
, and Home
However, despite being a hit and going on to achieve over three million sales worldwide, the project would have another - less positive - effect on Simenon.
Quoted in the biography, Depeche Mode: Black Celebration by Steve Malins, Simenon confessed, "I just felt f*cked by the end of the recording, and I carried on working in January and February 1997, which was the worst thing I could have done. I started to feel really ill. So I took a break and had a few months off. I was just mentally and physically exhausted."
The work in question, which took the form of recording sessions with Jack Dangers
from Meat Beat Manifesto
would not surface for many years, leaving a further single with Depeche Mode, Only When I Lose Myself as the last major Simenon outing for many years. "It'd been non-stop for more than 10 years, and I was just burnt out. It all just caught up, and took its toll; just left me feeling very, very uninspired."
-based record label
, called Electric Tones
.
In 2001 Simenon broke cover, having been nominated for an Ivor Novello Award for the theme tune to the remake of the BBC
television series Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased)
, which he co-wrote with David Arnold
. And the only new material to surface during what would prove to be a fourteen year break from mainstream view would come sporadically, with some even featured under a different name on Electric Tones.
First out would be Fast
, which featured Shawn Lee
, and surfaced as a track on a 4-track compilation 12-inch single
released on the We Love You label. Next would come the Clear Cut EP
, which was released on Morr Music
in 2001. The EP, which consisted of radical remixes of the same one track, presented a Simenon that had ditched his hip-hop and pop
leanings in favour of a radically different style that shimmered somewhere between the heavily edited dance music sub-genre micro house, and avant-garde
electronic
territories.
The material was initiated when Tim Simenon invited Markus Acher and Portuguese vocalist Valerie Trebeljah from German Indietronic act, Lali Puna
, to collaborate on Clear Cut when it was at demo stage. Having then farmed out remix
duties to other friends, Simenon was so happy with the radical directions each mix took he released all five as a manifesto of contemporary electronica
possibilities. A full list of the included remixes reads like a who's who of progressive acts from the period, including versions by Herrmann and Kleine, Opiate
, Arovane
, Christian Kleine
- and Bomb The Bass
.
After which came the Tracks EP
, recorded in collaboration with Jack Dangers
, from Meat Beat Manifesto
, and the first actual Bomb the Bass material to be released via Electric Tones. With all tracks co-credited to Bomb the Bass & Jack Dangers, the recording sessions were listed as having taken place years earlier, in 1998, suggesting the material had been pulled from the vaults. In time, it would transpire that the material with Dangers had originally been intended (as what would later prove to have been a false-start) for the fourth Bomb the Bass album.
Further to this, an additional remix of "Clear Cut" would feature as the fourth track on the Electric Tones compilation, Electric Tones 9101112. And several other cuts ("Robot Finger" and "Ikara
") would even come under the alternative name, Flow Creator (on Electric Tones 1234). All were released as limited, numbered pressings on vinyl (perhaps purposefully) without mainstream fanfare, and received no promotion beyond reviews - albeit favourable ones - in specialist dance music publications.
page that a new album had been recorded, and was about to be mixed. Much later, in January 2008, and again without fanfare through their Myspace
page, it was announced that the Future Chaos album would indeed see the light of day - in May of the same year. Performed, for the best part, with Simenon working on a vintage Minimoog
synth
, the album consists of nine tracks that are markedly more electronic
and stripped down than previous efforts. In doing so, and with the strong use of the analogue Minimoog lending a cohesive feel across the set, Simenon appears to have reset Bomb the Bass back to dance music's sparse, machine-like origins. Out go the soulful aspects of house
, in favour of amplifying the genre's more chilly European aspects of angular rhythms and simplified synth tones.
As with all previous Bomb the Bass albums, Future Chaos looks to be a collaborative outing. Simenon has teamed up with former Screaming Trees
and Queens of the Stone Age
singer, Mark Lanegan
, Fujiya & Miyagi
, and Richard Thair and Jakeone of Toob. Most notable is the appearance of Paul Conboy, who is best known for his partnership with Adrian Corker in A.P.E. and Corker Conboy. Conboy sings on five tracks, has co-written a great deal of the music, and also co-produces alongside Simenon, making this the most collaborative Bomb the Bass album to date. Adam Sky has also become involved with the project, by way of contributing a remix of the track "Butterfingers
".
With Bomb the Bass now up and running as a viable four-piece live band, rather than production orientated studio entity, live concert dates are being slowly added to coincide with the intended autumn 2008 release of Future Chaos. Again, Paul Conboy will feature, adding keyboards
and vocals to the live set-up. Low key warm-up shows were undertaken in February 2008 in Europe - due, no doubt, to Simenon currently residing in Amsterdam
. In keeping with the multi-media ethos of the band, video artists will be on hand to scratch
video
and animation
projections over the stage.
It was originally thought that "Butterfingers" (featuring Fujiya & Miyagi) would be the first single released from Future Chaos, as an animated short film for the track surfaced on Youtube
in March 2008. The clip, which was produced by Perish Factory visualizes the new minimal sound of the band by featuring an animated Minimoog - as used on the track. However, it eventually became apparent that the film was not automatically connected to a single release (as with the two further clips that followed), but were part of a quiet viral
marketing move, which succeeded in generating chatter on online forums and left field online music sites.
Reviewing "Butterfingers", Daily Music Guide described it as showing "the new Bomb the Bass plug straight into a place where scuffed Formica is sexier than leather, and red LED is the font of all knowledge. Having worked through all those zeroes and ones only to come up wanting, Bomb the Bass have seemingly gone back to come forwards once again, with the result being a track that easily lives up to the sum of its parts."
Bomb the Bass confirmed they would perform their first London gig in almost 20 years, at the London Astoria
on 4 June 2008; and are also billed as appearing at the UK dance music festival, The Big Chill
, on 2 August 2008, in Ledbury
, Herefordshire
and the Zürich
festival, Lethargy '08.
In May 2008, the second Future Chaos linked Bomb the Bass film appeared on the internet - this time for So Special. Featuring vocals by Paul Conboy, the promotional short was directed by Nathalie Teirlinck (whose award-winning short film Anemone
was selected for Locarno
and The Times
BFI
film festivals in 2007) and Ben Van Alboom (a member of the European photographers collective, Angels & Ghosts). The film featured hidden-camera footage of trans-sexual prostitutes working in Brussels
.
The same week, a new track, "Fuzzbox
", - apparently the last to be completed for the album - was made available as a free download at the website of the UK radio station, Xfm
. A single sleeve was also made available free as part of the download. This being the first sighting of new Bomb the Bass artwork/branding, the style suggested the look of the campaign will be one of collage
all done by the Brazilian artist Sesper.
At the beginning of July 2008 the band's official MySpace
page posted news that Simenon had finally signed a new recording contract with the Berlin-based international label !K7, and that the Future Chaos album - featuring nine tracks, plus the option of extra tracks on different formats - would be released globally on September 15 of that year (with the U.S. following slightly later on 30 September). The news bulletin also stated that So Special (with Paul Conboy on lead vocals) would be released 25 August as the first official single ahead of the album.
A third online film was released (via Youtube
) during July, again signposted by a news blog on the Bomb the Bass Myspace page. This time, it was the turn of Burn The Bunker featuring Toob.
Future Chaos was finally released through !K7 in all territories (except the US) on September 15, 2008 (with the States to follow on September 30). The album, which contained nine tracks was made available on three main formats: single disc CD, a limited edition double CD (with eight remixes, and a bonus track, "Star", featuring Paul Conboy on vocals), vinyl, and download (again, containing the added tenth track, "Star").
At the beginning of October 2008, and to maintain momentum between the release of singles, Simenon posted a fourth online film via Youtube. Directed by Corin Hardy (The Horrors
, Guillemots, Keane and The Feeling
), Fuzzbox
featured stop-frame animation toys, everyday objects and specially commissioned photographs of Jon Spencer (the track's vocalist) mouthing lines from the song.
"Butterfingers", featuring Fujiya & Miyagi
, was finally released as the second single from the Future Chaos album, (globally) on November 3, 2008 (with the US to follow on 25 November). Made available on 12" vinyl and download, the single included remixes by Adam Sky and Various.
"Black River" was the third single to be released from Future Chaos. Made available 10 February 2009 on download, the track features Mark Lanegan
on vocals. New remixes were made available, so in addition to an earlier recut by Gui Boratto
, further versions were done by Maps
and Patrice Baumel.
, Simenon revealed that work was almost complete on the follow-up to Future Chaos. Around the same time and also via Twitter, Jakeone of Toob announced he had just completed remix duties on a new track called The Infinites.
In November 2009, FM Radio Gods
announced their involvement in the upcoming Bomb the Bass album, having completed remix duties on a track called Boy/Girl. BTB also announced the first single would be The Infinites (with Paul Conboy on vocals), and is due for release 22 December 2009. It is due to be followed by three more singles (one a month for the following months) until the album is released in March 2010.
The next month, Bomb the Bass announced the new album of ten new tracks, produced in conjunction with Brazil's Gui Boratto
(who first worked with BTB on a remix of the Black River single) would be released through !K7 in March 2010. Called Back to Light after a line taken from the first single (The Infinites), the album would be a development on from the analogue electronic direction taken with Future Chaos; yet more uptempo, inspired in part by the bands live shows on 2008. The relative speed in which Back to Light was recorded (twelve months, compared to the fourteen-year gestation of Future Chaos) suggests that Simenon's return to Bomb the Bass duties is a permanent one.
Tim Simenon
Tim Simenon is a musician, composer, record producer, and label boss, most famous for his work as Bomb the Bass.-Debut:Tim Simenon's music career began aproper in the mid 1980s, DJing at London's Wag Club...
. The band, which has evolved its style over the years, has been classed as electronic
Electronic dance music
Electronic dance music is electronic music produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...
or dance.
As a name, Bomb the Bass came from Simenon's approach to collaging and mixing sounds whilst DJing in the mid to late 1980s; he says "samples were either scratched in live or sampled and looped on top of the rhythm section. So the concept was one of bombing the bass line with different ideas, with a collage of sounds. Bombing was a graffiti term for writing, like people would 'bomb' trains or whatever."
Pushing the needle: The accelerated success of Beat Dis
Released in 1987, the band's debut single was "Beat DisBeat Dis
"Beat Dis" is a track by British act Bomb the Bass, a studio production formed by producer Tim Simenon, from the act's album Into the Dragon. It, like other hits of the era such as "Pump Up the Volume" by M|A|R|R|S and "Theme from S'Express" by S'Express, largely consisted of samples.The single was...
", with composition credited to Emilio Pasquel / Captain Black / DJ Kid 33. Keenly disguised as a U.S. import on the Mister-Ron imprint, in an attempt to conjure the mystique of Bomb the Bass being an underground
Underground music
Underground music comprises a range of different musical genres that operate outside of mainstream culture. Such music can typically share common values, such as the valuing of sincerity and intimacy; an emphasis on freedom of creative expression; an appreciation of artistic creativity...
New York act, the single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
exceeded mere expectations by eventually reaching number two on the UK charts.
Its roaring success put the then still relatively unknown Simenon on the front cover of Britain's most serious, and highly influential music newspaper, the NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
. This event was notable not only for being the moment when the previously pro-rock / anti-disco paper sided with post-disco dance music (at this time indie was the NME's genre du jour), recognising and valuing Simenon for being a DJ first and foremost, rather than a musician; but also for the dawn of the term DJ culture. Used as the cover's sub-heading, the term would henceforth become the accepted term for the incoming trend (of which Simenon was arguably one of the UK's pioneers) of DJs as superstars, and which would dominate popular music at least for the next decade.
The recording of "Beat Dis", which cost a reputed £500 - funded by Simenon himself with money coming from DJ sets at London club, The Wag, and an odd-job stacking shelves in a supermarket - was one of the first hit singles to introduce the mainstream to sampling
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
culture (along with releases by M/A/R/R/S, S'Express
S'Express
S'Express were a British dance music act from the late 1980s, who had one of the earliest commercial successes in the acid house genre."Theme from S'Express", based on Rose Royce's "Is It Love You're After", was also one of the earliest recordings to capitalize on a resurgence of sampling culture...
and the genre-defining Coldcut
Coldcut
Coldcut are an English dance music duo, comprising Matt Black and Jonathan More. Their signature style is electronic dance music, featuring cut up samples of hip hop, breaks, jazz, spoken word and various other types of music, as well as video and multimedia.-1980s:In 1986, computer programmer Matt...
remix of Eric B & Rakim's "Paid in Full
Paid in Full (Eric B. & Rakim song)
"Paid in Full" is a song written, produced and recorded by American rap duo Eric B. & Rakim, released as the fifth and final single from their debut album of the same name, Paid in Full....
").
Whilst the bass line and drum
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
tracks were written by Simenon, the rest of the track was compiled from samples, presenting an aural mood board
Mood board
A mood board is a type of poster design that may consist of images, text, and samples of objects in a composition of the choice of the mood board creator...
of where his influences were at. Having already taken a part-time sound course at The School Of Audio Engineering in Holloway
Holloway, London
Holloway is an inner-city district in the London Borough of Islington located north of Charing Cross and follows for the most part, the line of the Holloway Road . At the centre of Holloway is the Nag's Head area...
, Simenon was in the enviable position of being able to build "Beat Dis" himself - assisted in the process by producer Pascal Gabriel
Pascal Gabriel
Pascal Richard Marcel Gabriel is a Belgian-born musician based in London. His musical career began in 1977 in the punk rock band The Razors...
, who would go on to experience his own success as co producer of S Express and a wide variety of other artists.
According to the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, which featured "Beat Dis" on their clip-based TOTP2
TOTP2
Top of the Pops 2 is a British television music show broadcast on BBC Two, showing archive footage from the long-running Top of the Pops show, some dating back to the 1960s when the programme first aired on British television....
show, the track contains an alleged 72 samples, including lifts from hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
like Public Enemy, funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
(including The Jimmy Castor Bunch), and Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI, , is an Italian composer and conductor, who wrote music to more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years. His scores have been included in over 20 award-winning films as well as several symphonic and choral pieces...
. Also featured were dialogue clips from the television shows Dragnet
Dragnet (series)
Dragnet is a radio and television crime drama about the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners...
, and Thunderbirds
Thunderbirds (TV series)
Thunderbirds is a British mid-1960s science fiction television show devised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and made by AP Films using a form of marionette puppetry dubbed "Supermarionation"...
. Talking to Sound On Sound
Sound on Sound
Sound on Sound is an independently-owned monthly music technology magazine published by SOS Publications Group, based in Cambridge, UK. The magazine includes product tests of electronic musical performance and recording devices, and interviews with industry professionals...
magazine many years later, Simenon said of the tracks construction, "I suppose I was tuned in to what was current at the time and was able to pick and choose what I wanted with some knowledge of how it should be applied."
Jolted into action by the success of "Beat Dis", Bomb the Bass moved from singles success to album act, with debut LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
, Into the Dragon
Into the Dragon
Into the Dragon is the 1988 debut album from U.K. dance act Bomb the Bass.The album included the number 2 UK chart hit "Beat Dis" and spawned three additional hits: "Dont Make Me Wait" featuring Lorraine, which made number 6, "I Say a Little Prayer featuring Maureen", which peaked at number 10, and...
- the name of which aligned with hip-hop cultures growing fondness for 70s kung-fu movies. Made up of ten tracks, the collection expanded further the band's fascination with hip-hop breakbeats, rap
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
, and that musical sub-culture's creative mashing of multi-media pop culture references.
The second single, "Megablast", took its bassline from the theme music to the John Carpenter
John Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.- Early life :Carpenter was born...
film Assault on Precinct 13
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976 film)
Assault on Precinct 13 is a 1976 American action-thriller film written and directed by John Carpenter. It stars Austin Stoker as a police officer who defends a defunct precinct against an attack by a relentless criminal gang, along with Darwin Joston as a convicted murderer who helps him. Laurie...
, and was also used in the Bitmap Brothers
Bitmap Brothers
The Bitmap Brothers were a UK based video game developer founded in 1987. The company entered the industry in 1988 with the scrolling shooter Xenon. They quickly followed with the classic Speedball...
computer game Xenon 2 Megablast
Xenon 2 Megablast
Xenon 2 Megablast is a computer game originally produced for the Amiga and Atari ST, and later converted to the PC, Sega Master System, Sega Mega Drive, Acorn Archimedes and Game Boy platforms. The sequel to Xenon, it was designed by the Bitmap Brothers...
. Other early hits included "Don't Make Me Wait" (as a double-A side release with Megablast), and a cover of the Burt Bacharach
Burt Bacharach
Burt F. Bacharach is an American pianist, composer and music producer. He is known for his popular hit songs and compositions from the mid-1950s through the 1980s, with lyrics written by Hal David. Many of their hits were produced specifically for, and performed by, Dionne Warwick...
/Hal David
Hal David
Harold Lane "Hal" David is an American lyricist. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York. David is best known for his collaborations with composer Burt Bacharach.-Career:...
composition I Say a Little Prayer
I Say a Little Prayer
"I Say a Little Prayer" is a song written by songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David for Dionne Warwick, originally peaking at number four on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart in December 1967.-Background:...
.
Proving much in demand, Simenon was drafted in to help produce a radical remake of Buffalo Stance
Buffalo Stance
"Buffalo Stance" is a 1988 song that peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart recorded by Neneh Cherry from her album Raw Like Sushi, produced by Tim Simenon and Mark Saunders.-History:...
, the debut hit single by Neneh Cherry
Neneh Cherry
Neneh Mariann Cherry is a Swedish singer-songwriter, rapper, and occasional DJ and broadcaster...
(as featured on the album, Raw Like Sushi
Raw Like Sushi
Raw Like Sushi is the debut album of rapper Neneh Cherry, released May 2, 1989 on Virgin Records.An early version of "Buffalo Stance" appeared on the B-side of the Morgan McVey single "Looking Good Diving"...
). The released version features Cherry paying homage to Simenon during the song's break ("Bomb the Bass, rock this place"), and reached number three on the UK singles chart and number 1 on the US dance chart. He also produced follow-up single, Manchild
Manchild
Manchild is a British television comedy / drama series that ran for two series on BBC Two between February 2002 and April 2003 with seven episodes in Series 1 and eight episodes in Series 2....
, and undertook 12" remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
duties.
Into Unknown Territory
In 1991 "Love So True" with vocals from Loretta Heywood was the first single of new Bomb the Bass material. It suffered under hastily imposed (and unofficial) censorshipCensorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
broadcast regulations, as the outbreak of the First Gulf War prompted UK broadcasters, especially the main national music station BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
, to blacklist
Blacklist
A blacklist is a list or register of entities who, for one reason or another, are being denied a particular privilege, service, mobility, access or recognition. As a verb, to blacklist can mean to deny someone work in a particular field, or to ostracize a person from a certain social circle...
a variety of songs and acts deemed potentially controversial due to their content or titles. The band name Bomb the Bass was considered to fall into this category, along with that of Massive Attack
Massive Attack
Massive Attack are an English DJ and trip hop duo from Bristol, England consisting of Robert "3D" Del Naja and Grant "Daddy G" Marshall. Working with co-producers, as well as various session musicians and guest vocalists, they make records and tour live. The duo are considered to be of the trip...
. Copies of the "Love So True" single were re-issued credited to Tim Simenon instead, but the resulting confusion may have impeded the single's chart chances.
With the Bomb the Bass moniker restored, and an album ready to go, band activity once again ground to a halt, when the collection, now titled Unknown Territory
Unknown Territory
Unknown Territory is the second studio album from U.K. dance act Bomb the Bass. It was released in 1991 under label Rhythm King Records.-Production:In 1991 "Love So True" with vocals from Loretta Heywood was the first single of new Bomb the Bass material...
, was delayed when Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
refused to allow a section of "Money
Money (Pink Floyd song)
"Money" is the sixth track from English progressive rock band Pink Floyd's 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon. Written by bassist Roger Waters, it opened side two of the original vinyl LP, and is the only song on the album to enter the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100...
" to be sampled on one of the album's tracks.
With the contentious Pink Floyd sample removed, the album campaign revved up once again. Second single "Winter in July" fared much better, subsequently becoming a summer-fuelled UK Top 10 hit. The track, co-written with Guy Sigsworth
Guy Sigsworth
Guy Sigsworth is a U.K. based composer, producer and songwriter. In his career to date he has worked with many famous artists, including Seal, Björk, Goldie, Madonna, Britney Spears, Kate Havnevik, Bebel Gilberto, Mozez, David Sylvian and Alanis Morissette...
and vocalist Loretta Heywood featured several prominent samples from the Japan track "Ghosts" (as featured on the band's final studio album, Tin Drum
Tin Drum
Tin Drum is the fifth and final studio album produced by the British band Japan. Released in the U.K. in November 1981, the album continued their now developed use of electronic elements coupled with traditional instrumentation, but leans far more towards far-eastern influences than any of their...
). This act of inclusion-by-sampling saw Simenon following the hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
ethos of paying homage to heroes on record. By referencing the David Sylvian
David Sylvian
David Sylvian is an English singer-songwriter and musician who came to prominence in the late 1970s as the lead vocalist and main songwriter in the group Japan...
-led band's influential textual and ambient
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
work many years before, Simenon was giving notice of his intention to help push hip hop-oriented dance music
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
in the direction that would become trip-hop.
Once again pioneering new sounds in the public arena, and following the success of "Winter in July", Unknown Territory
Unknown Territory
Unknown Territory is the second studio album from U.K. dance act Bomb the Bass. It was released in 1991 under label Rhythm King Records.-Production:In 1991 "Love So True" with vocals from Loretta Heywood was the first single of new Bomb the Bass material...
would be the band's most well received release to date. Reviewing the album at the time, music writer and author Simon Reynolds
Simon Reynolds
Simon Reynolds is an English music critic who is well-known for his writings on electronic dance music and for coining the term "post-rock". Besides electronic dance music, Reynolds has written about a wide range of artists and musical genres, and has written books on post-punk and rock...
attempted to outline a new genre in the making, suggesting that, by moving beyond mere dance tracks into fully cohesive albums, the band were venturing into progressive dance. However, the term did not stick.
As usual on the album, a great deal of Simenon's hip hop fascination would shine through (most notably, the production work of The Bomb Squad
The Bomb Squad
The Bomb Squad is an American hip hop production team, known for their work with the rap group Public Enemy. The Bomb Squad are noted for their dense, distinct, innovative production style, often utilizing dozens of samples on just one track...
with Public Enemy) via the use of multi-media samples, with the album containing dialogue or soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
clips from Rollerball
Rollerball
Rollerball can refer to:*Rollerball pen, a type of ballpoint pen and ink*another name for a trackball in computing*Rollerball , a science fiction film based on the short story "Rollerball Murder"...
, Blade Runner
Blade Runner
Blade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K...
, David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg
David Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the...
's Videodrome
Videodrome
Videodrome is a 1983 Canadian science fiction body horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg, starring James Woods, Sonja Smits, and singer Deborah Harry. Set in Toronto during the early 1980s, it follows the CEO of a small cable station who stumbles upon a broadcast signal featuring...
, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a 1966 Italian epic spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone, starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach in the title roles. The screenplay was written by Age & Scarpelli, Luciano Vincenzoni and Leone, based on a story by Vincenzoni and Leone...
, Marvel
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
comics' Fantastic Four
Fantastic Four
The Fantastic Four is a fictional superhero team appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The group debuted in The Fantastic Four #1 , which helped to usher in a new level of realism in the medium...
animated cartoon series; and Death Race 2000
Death Race 2000
Death Race 2000 is a 1975 cult action film directed by Paul Bartel, and starring David Carradine, Simone Griffeth and Sylvester Stallone. The film takes place in a dystopian American society in the year 2000, where the murderous Transcontinental Road Race has become a form of national entertainment...
.
Having developed dance music's potential via debut single "Beat Dis" in to a more song-based form of what the avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
would term musique concrète
Musique concrète
Musique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...
, with its complex use of hybrid hip-hop-inspired sound poaching (in place of actual played sounds) taken to logical extremes, Simenon pre-empted a style that would do well by several major acts in the years to come.
So, whilst the downbeat experimental "Winter in July" and "Love So True" would pave the way for trip-hop, the uptempo breakbeat
Breakbeat
In 1992, a new style called "jungalistic hardcore" emerged, and for many ravers it was too funky to dance to. Josh Lawford of Ravescene prophesied that the breakbeat was "the death-knell of rave" because the ever changing drumbeat patterns of breakbeat music didn't allow for the same zoned out,...
-heavy side of Unknown Territory, would be taken into more punk-laced
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
territory as the riotous sound of The Prodigy
The Prodigy
The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music group formed by Liam Howlett in 1990 in Braintree, Essex. Along with Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, and other acts, The Prodigy have been credited as pioneers of the big beat genre, which achieved mainstream popularity in the 1990s and 2000s...
, from their Music for the Jilted Generation
Music for the Jilted Generation
Music for the Jilted Generation is the second album by English electronic dance music band The Prodigy. The album was released through XL Recordings in July 1994...
album onwards. Further to which, the style would also be explored further by - and prove infinitely more successful, commercially speaking, for - the likes of Fat Boy Slim as the genre known as bigbeat.
Interviewed for Sound on Sound
Sound on Sound
Sound on Sound is an independently-owned monthly music technology magazine published by SOS Publications Group, based in Cambridge, UK. The magazine includes product tests of electronic musical performance and recording devices, and interviews with industry professionals...
magazine in 1995, Simenon agreed with the interviewer when it was suggested that, with this more frenetic side of his work, he was looking to "combine the art of sampling with the energy of rock and roll."
During this period, Simenon also collaborated with former Ultravox
Ultravox
Ultravox is a British New Wave rock band. They were one of the primary exponents of the British electronic pop music movement of the late 1970s/early 1980s. The band was particularly associated with the New Romantic and New Wave movements....
singer John Foxx
John Foxx
John Foxx is an English singer, artist, photographer and teacher. He was the original lead singer of the band Ultravox before being replaced by Midge Ure, when he left to embark on a solo career in 1979...
on the 12" single "Remember
Remember
-Music:* "Remember" , a song by Irving Berlin* Remember, a song featured in an episode of Danny Phantom* "Remember ", a 1964 single by the Shangri-Las* "Remember", a song by the Jimi Hendrix Experience...
" as Nation 12 (which enjoyed a measure of success in clubs and raves across the UK).
New direction is Clear
In 1995, Bomb the Bass released their third album, ClearClear (Bomb the Bass album)
Clear was the third album released by Bomb The Bass, the dance/electronic collective formed around British producer and musician, Tim Simenon...
, on the Stoned Heights imprint of Island Records
Island Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
; the outer sleeve of which bore striking similarity to the poster advertising the David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg
David Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the...
movie, Naked Lunch
Naked Lunch (film)
Naked Lunch is the 1991 Canadian/British/Japanese film adaptation, directed by David Cronenberg, of William S. Burroughs' novel of the same name...
. Blending dub
Dub music
Dub is a genre of music which grew out of reggae music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae...
aesthetics into the mix, Clear
Clear (Bomb the Bass album)
Clear was the third album released by Bomb The Bass, the dance/electronic collective formed around British producer and musician, Tim Simenon...
is a more mature, yet far darker work - both tonally and through its subject matter - than previous offerings. Vocal contributions would come this time, courtesy of Justin Warfield
Justin Warfield
Justin Warfield is a musician and hip hop emcee of African American and Jewish Russian-Romanian maternal parentage, who is currently half of the darkwave duo She Wants Revenge...
, Sinéad O'Connor
Sinéad O'Connor
Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor is an Irish singer-songwriter. She rose to fame in the late 1980s with her debut album The Lion and the Cobra and achieved worldwide success in 1990 with a cover of the song "Nothing Compares 2 U"....
, Jah Wobble
Jah Wobble
Jah Wobble is an English bass guitarist, singer, poet and composer. He became known to a wider audience as the original bass player in Public Image Ltd in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but left the band after two albums...
, Benjamin Zephaniah
Benjamin Zephaniah
Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah is an English writer and dub poet. He is a well-known figure in contemporary English literature, and was included in The Times list of Britain's top 50 post-war writers in 2008....
- and River (a pseudonym for Minnie Driver
Minnie Driver
Minnie Driver is an English actress and singer-songwriter. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting, as well as for an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe for her work in the television series The Riches.- Early life...
, the actress, who provided vocals on "Tidal Wave"). Instrumentally, the album would also feature contributions from Sugar Hill
Sugar Hill
Sugar Hill commonly refers to Sugar Hill, Manhattan, a section of Harlem, New York City, New York, US. The term may also refer to:Places:* Sugar Hill in Modoc National Forest, California* Sugar Hill, Georgia* Sugar Hill, New Hampshire...
drummer, Keith LeBlanc
Keith Leblanc
Keith Leblanc is an American drummer and record producer, and is a member of the bands Little Axe and Tackhead.His record, "No Sell Out", was the first sample based record. His career started out on Sugar Hill Records recording with rap pioneers, Grandmaster Flash and Melle Melle...
(also Tackhead
Tackhead
Tackhead are an industrial hip-hop group that were most active during the 1980s and early 1990s, and briefly reformed in 2004 for a tour. Their music occupies the territory where funk, dub, industrial music and electronica intersect...
and On-U Sound), Doug Wimbish
Doug Wimbish
Doug Wimbish is a bass player, primarily known for his studio work for the rap/hip hop label Sugarhill Records and his membership of the funk metal band Living Colour. He has played for a vast range of artists, including Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger, Madonna, George Clinton, Paula Cole, Bomb the Bass,...
(also notable for having playing bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
as part of the Sugar Hill backing band, for acts like Grandmaster Flash
Grandmaster Flash
Joseph Saddler better known as King Grandmaster Flash, is an American hip hop musician and DJ; one of the pioneers of hip-hop DJing, cutting, and mixing....
), and guitarist Skip McDonald (also On-U Sound).
Where once Simenon had initially constructed tracks with frenetic layers of colourful samples from films and cartoons, real instrumentation, which had already factored as a large part of the production on Unknown Territory
Unknown Territory
Unknown Territory is the second studio album from U.K. dance act Bomb the Bass. It was released in 1991 under label Rhythm King Records.-Production:In 1991 "Love So True" with vocals from Loretta Heywood was the first single of new Bomb the Bass material...
, was now playing an even greater role - albeit in heavily edited and/or effected forms, that saw them composited with other sounds to disguise or beef up their impact - along with song-orientated vocals. As a result, all but one of the album's tracks would fit into what could be considered a conventional structure. Whilst this would mark Simenon's leaps and bounds in his progression from DJ-based music to actual song-based composition
Musical composition
Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.- Musical compositions :...
, this may have also been accelerated by the rise in frequency of music industry legal disputes over sampling. With legal problems becoming an increasingly regular inevitability, the consequential knock-on effect meant the actual cost of including extracts from other people's copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
ed material rendered the creative payback of sampling-based composition
Musical composition
Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.- Musical compositions :...
more trouble than it might be worth to a small, or commercially savvy, act.
In lyrical terms, developing on from his previous reliance on exhilarating film dialogue samples, braggadocio-fuelled raps
RAPS
RAPS or Raps may refer to:* Rapping, spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics* Ram Air Progression System, a parachuting training method* Remote-area power supply, an off-the-grid electricity system* "Raps", a nickname for the Toronto Raptors...
, and dance-friendly vocal hooks or ecstatic tomes of love, Clear
Clear (Bomb the Bass album)
Clear was the third album released by Bomb The Bass, the dance/electronic collective formed around British producer and musician, Tim Simenon...
saw Simenon developing very specific subject matter for his tracks. New influences, and, therefore, his fascinations, for this collection built up to become very obviously literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
-based. Simenon had taken part in the spoken-word orientated Sahara Blue album project led by Hector Zazou
Hector Zazou
Hector Zazou was a prolific French composer and record producer who worked with, produced, and collaborated with an international array of recording artists...
, which was initially released in 1992 (before being briefly withdrawn for legal reasons). The album was inspired by, and built around, the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud
Arthur Rimbaud
Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet. Born in Charleville, Ardennes, he produced his best known works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as "an infant Shakespeare"—and he gave up creative writing altogether before the age of 21. As part of the decadent...
, setting spoken word performances to all manner of left field musical contributions from the likes of Ryuichi Sakamoto
Ryuichi Sakamoto
After working as a session musician with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi in 1977, the trio formed the internationally successful electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra in 1978. Known for their seminal influence on electronic music, the group helped pioneer electronic genres such as...
, David Sylvian
David Sylvian
David Sylvian is an English singer-songwriter and musician who came to prominence in the late 1970s as the lead vocalist and main songwriter in the group Japan...
and John Cale
John Cale
John Davies Cale, OBE is a Welsh musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground....
; but as to whether this was an inspiration on the direction of Clear is unknown.
Lead track on Clear, and first single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
, "Bug Powder Dust
Bug Powder Dust
"Bug Powder Dust" is a song by Bomb the Bass, released as the band's eighth single in 1994 as the first single from the Clear album. Featuring Justin Warfield on vocals, the track is primarily Dance music blended with Rap and Breakbeat.-History:...
", was a blatant homage to the life and impact of William Burroughs, specifically his Naked Lunch
Naked Lunch
Naked Lunch is a novel by William S. Burroughs originally published in 1959. The book is structured as a series of loosely-connected vignettes. Burroughs stated that the chapters are intended to be read in any order...
novel. In a nod to old ways, Simenon starts the track with a dialogue sample from the hybrid-Burroughs character in the Naked Lunch
Naked Lunch (film)
Naked Lunch is the 1991 Canadian/British/Japanese film adaptation, directed by David Cronenberg, of William S. Burroughs' novel of the same name...
film ("I think it's time to discuss your, err... philosophy of drug use as it relates to artistic endeavour.")
On later track, "5ml Barrel", controversial novelist Will Self
Will Self
William Woodard "Will" Self is an English novelist and short story writer. His fictional style is known for being satirical, grotesque, and fantastical. He is a prolific commentator on contemporary British life, with regular appearances on Newsnight and Question Time...
contributed a rare vocal performance, providing dark spoken-word lyrics that relayed an opiate
Opiate
In medicine, the term opiate describes any of the narcotic opioid alkaloids found as natural products in the opium poppy plant.-Overview:Opiates are so named because they are constituents or derivatives of constituents found in opium, which is processed from the latex sap of the opium poppy,...
addict
Substance dependence
The section about substance dependence in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders does not use the word addiction at all. It explains:...
's delusion of his collapsing veins being like motorways, due to the amount of impurities that had invaded his body. While "If You Reach The Border" features beat poet Leslie Winer on the other end of a telephone, drifting in and out of the song, as she vents through a drug-haze on the supposed ups and downs of a toxic relationship.
The album launched various singles after "Bug Powder Dust", including "Sandcastles", "1 To 1 Religion", and "Darkheart", but critical acclaim failed to translate into commercial success. However, despite "Bug Powder Dust" failing to scale the upper heights of the mainstream UK singles chart, the track has since proved enduring, featuring on many lists of key British hip-hop tracks. Remixes of the track by Chemical Brothers, and much slower, trippier versions by Kruder & Dorfmeister
Kruder & Dorfmeister
Kruder & Dorfmeister, named after members Peter Kruder and Richard Dorfmeister, is an Austrian duo most known for their downtempo-dub remixes of pop, hip-hop and drum and bass songs.-Style:...
and La Funk Mob would keep Bomb the Bass in the public eye for longer, becoming staples for chill-out and trip hop
Trip hop
Trip hop is a music genre consisting of downtempo electronic music which originated in the early 1990s in England, especially Bristol. Deriving from "post"-acid house, the term was first used by the British music media and press as a way to describe the more experimental variant of breakbeat which...
compilation albums around the time.
Break from the beat: Bomb the Bass as production outfit
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
and remixer for other artists. So, whilst the Bomb the Bass handle would be removed from commercially successful releases, Simenon would appear to be happier leasing the brand
Brand
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
out to others. Of note was his additional production
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
and remixing duties on the one-off soundtrack single Play Dead
Play Dead (song)
"Play Dead" is a song by Icelandic singer Björk, and was released as the third single from her 1993 album Debut.-Background:It is a dark piece underscored by moody strings with lyrics about acting numb to prevent emotional pain....
by Björk
Björk
Björk Guðmundsdóttir , known as Björk , is an Icelandic singer-songwriter. Her eclectic musical style has achieved popular acknowledgement and popularity within many musical genres, such as rock, jazz, electronic dance music, classical and folk...
and David Arnold
David Arnold
David Arnold is an English film composer best known for scoring five James Bond films, the 1994 film Stargate, the 1996 film Independence Day, and the television series Little Britain.-Film and television career:...
. The latter would prove a massive UK hit in 1994, and go some way towards establishing Björk as a mainstream artist, and an introduction to many of Arnold, the man that would go on to achieve huge acclaim composing new James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
scores. Other names included David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
, Gavin Friday
Gavin Friday
Gavin Friday is an Irish singer and songwriter, composer, actor and painter.-Career:Gavin was born in Dublin and grew up in Finglas, a neighbourhood located on Dublin's Northside...
and Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex. The group's original line-up consisted of Dave Gahan , Martin Gore , Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke...
among others; with the latter two projects poised to have a major effect on Simenon.
The Gavin Friday album project,Shag Tobacco
Shag Tobacco
Shag Tobacco is the third solo album from Gavin Friday. Once again, Friday teamed up with musician Maurice "The Man" Seezer. Bono and The Edge contribute backing vocals on "Little Black Dress."This album features a cover of T.Rex's "The Slider"....
, not only catapulted Friday into the mainstream (spawning the track Angel
Angel
Angels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...
which found its way onto the hugely successful soundtrack of the Romeo & Juliet movie), but also caught the attention of a pair of British musicians on the look out for a new producer: Dave Gahan and Martin Gore
Martin Gore
Martin Lee Gore is an English songwriter, lyricist, singer, guitarist, keyboardist, remixer and DJ. He is a founding member of Depeche Mode and has written the vast majority of their songs...
of Depeche Mode. Says Gahan, "There was loads of names being thrown at us (to produce Depeche Mode's next album after Songs of Faith and Devotion
Songs of Faith and Devotion
Songs of Faith and Devotion is the eighth album by the British electronic music group Depeche Mode, released in 1993 on Mute Records. The album incorporated more guitar textures than previous releases. Upon its release, Songs of Faith and Devotion reached number one in both the UK and US album...
), but in the end we picked (Simenon) because Martin (Gore) and I really liked the Gavin Friday album that he did. Shag Tobacco is an absolutely brilliant album, (and) we really loved the sounds he produced."
As a result, Simenon was brought on board to produce what would become Depeche Mode's first album without multi-instrumentalist and production-strong Alan Wilder, Ultra; a project that would demand eighteen months, due to worsening divisions within the band acerbated by Dave Gahan's battle with heroin addiction. Upon release, the album went straight into the UK charts at number one, selling 40,000 copies in its first week of release, and launched a number of singles, including Barrel of a Gun, It's No Good
It's No Good
"It's No Good" is Depeche Mode's thirty-second UK single, released on March 31, 1997 , and the second single for the then upcoming album Ultra...
, and Home
Home (Depeche Mode song)
"Home" is Depeche Mode's thirty-third UK single, released on June 16, 1997, and the third single for the album Ultra. It is also the third UK single with Martin Gore on lead vocals, and the second stand-alone single with him on lead vocals .Though it was...
However, despite being a hit and going on to achieve over three million sales worldwide, the project would have another - less positive - effect on Simenon.
Quoted in the biography, Depeche Mode: Black Celebration by Steve Malins, Simenon confessed, "I just felt f*cked by the end of the recording, and I carried on working in January and February 1997, which was the worst thing I could have done. I started to feel really ill. So I took a break and had a few months off. I was just mentally and physically exhausted."
The work in question, which took the form of recording sessions with Jack Dangers
Jack Dangers
Jack Dangers is an electronic musician, DJ, producer, and remixer best known for his work as the primary member of Meat Beat Manifesto. He lives in San Francisco.-Career:...
from Meat Beat Manifesto
Meat Beat Manifesto
Meat Beat Manifesto, often shortened to Meat Beat or MBM, is an electronic music group originally consisting of Jack Dangers and Jonny Stephens formed in 1987 in Swindon, UK...
would not surface for many years, leaving a further single with Depeche Mode, Only When I Lose Myself as the last major Simenon outing for many years. "It'd been non-stop for more than 10 years, and I was just burnt out. It all just caught up, and took its toll; just left me feeling very, very uninspired."
90s become 00s, become Electric Tones
Continuing into the early part of the 21st century, material from Tim Simenon was rare, and mainstream exposure to the name Bomb the Bass non-existent. Rumours circulated that he had given up music. However, these rumours would be scotched in 2000 when Simenon launched an AmsterdamAmsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
-based record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
, called Electric Tones
Electric Tones
Electric Tones is an independent record label owned and run by British composer and producer Tim Simenon. The label, which is based in Amsterdam, was launched in 2000, and is dedicated to the release of electronic-based compositions, generally fitting into the field known as Electronica.Because of...
.
In 2001 Simenon broke cover, having been nominated for an Ivor Novello Award for the theme tune to the remake of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
television series Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased)
Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased)
Randall & Hopkirk is a British television series, produced by Working Title Films for BBC One. It is a remake of the 1960s television series Randall and Hopkirk and stars Vic Reeves as Hopkirk and Bob Mortimer as Randall, Emilia Fox as Jeannie, and Tom Baker as Wyvern.- Background :Two series...
, which he co-wrote with David Arnold
David Arnold
David Arnold is an English film composer best known for scoring five James Bond films, the 1994 film Stargate, the 1996 film Independence Day, and the television series Little Britain.-Film and television career:...
. And the only new material to surface during what would prove to be a fourteen year break from mainstream view would come sporadically, with some even featured under a different name on Electric Tones.
First out would be Fast
FAST
-Primary meanings:Fast may refer to:* Fast as in high speed or velocity, may be used with anything that has a speed.* Fasting, abstaining from foodSlang:* Fast, a slang term for someone who is sexually promiscuous-Sports:...
, which featured Shawn Lee
Shawn Lee
Shawn Lee , born Lee Chuang Rui, is a Singaporean actor. He first came into prominence for his award-winning performance alongside his friend and co-star Joshua Ang in the box office hit I Not Stupid.-Background and career:...
, and surfaced as a track on a 4-track compilation 12-inch single
12-inch single
The 12-inch single is a type of gramophone record that has wider groove spacing compared to other types of records. This allows for louder levels to be cut on the disc by the cutting engineer, which in turn gives a wider dynamic range, and thus better sound quality...
released on the We Love You label. Next would come the Clear Cut EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
, which was released on Morr Music
Morr Music
Morr Music is an independent record label based in Berlin, Germany, founded in 1999 by Thomas Morr. Most artists on the label fall into the categories of intelligent dance music, electronica and dreampop, but all reflect Thomas Morr's personal taste...
in 2001. The EP, which consisted of radical remixes of the same one track, presented a Simenon that had ditched his hip-hop and pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
leanings in favour of a radically different style that shimmered somewhere between the heavily edited dance music sub-genre micro house, and avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
electronic
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
territories.
The material was initiated when Tim Simenon invited Markus Acher and Portuguese vocalist Valerie Trebeljah from German Indietronic act, Lali Puna
Lali Puna
Lali Puna is an experimental electropop band from Weilheim, Germany . Founded in 1998 by Korea-born Valerie Trebeljahr , other members include Markus Acher , Christoph Brandner and Christian Heiß . The latter joined Lali Puna in 2003, after keyboard player Florian Zimmer had left the band...
, to collaborate on Clear Cut when it was at demo stage. Having then farmed out remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
duties to other friends, Simenon was so happy with the radical directions each mix took he released all five as a manifesto of contemporary electronica
Electronica
Electronica includes a wide range of contemporary electronic music designed for a wide range of uses, including foreground listening, some forms of dancing, and background music for other activities; however, unlike electronic dance music, it is not specifically made for dancing...
possibilities. A full list of the included remixes reads like a who's who of progressive acts from the period, including versions by Herrmann and Kleine, Opiate
Thomas Knak
Thomas Knak is a Danish electronic musician, producer, film composer and DJ. He lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark. Jack of all trades, he makes music for commercial , for various radio and TV programmes, for theatre plays, for choreography and films.He started in 1999 under the name Opiate...
, Arovane
Arovane
- Biography :Zahn was born in Germany in 1965. He first began experimenting with rudimentary audio equipment and keyboards when he was 15. Over the years he continued experimenting and developing his sound, even learning to play the clarinet at one point. In the late 80s he was dealing increasingly...
, Christian Kleine
Christian Kleine
Christian Kleine is a German musician. He was a member of Herrmann & Kleine duo which was disbanded in 2005.He has collaborated with several electronic musicians including Arovane.His signature sound includes warm, ambient guitar riffs.-Albums:...
- and Bomb The Bass
Bomb the Bass
Bomb the Bass is the umbrella title for the output of British musician and producer, Tim Simenon. The band, which has evolved its style over the years, has been classed as electronic or dance....
.
After which came the Tracks EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
, recorded in collaboration with Jack Dangers
Jack Dangers
Jack Dangers is an electronic musician, DJ, producer, and remixer best known for his work as the primary member of Meat Beat Manifesto. He lives in San Francisco.-Career:...
, from Meat Beat Manifesto
Meat Beat Manifesto
Meat Beat Manifesto, often shortened to Meat Beat or MBM, is an electronic music group originally consisting of Jack Dangers and Jonny Stephens formed in 1987 in Swindon, UK...
, and the first actual Bomb the Bass material to be released via Electric Tones. With all tracks co-credited to Bomb the Bass & Jack Dangers, the recording sessions were listed as having taken place years earlier, in 1998, suggesting the material had been pulled from the vaults. In time, it would transpire that the material with Dangers had originally been intended (as what would later prove to have been a false-start) for the fourth Bomb the Bass album.
Further to this, an additional remix of "Clear Cut" would feature as the fourth track on the Electric Tones compilation, Electric Tones 9101112. And several other cuts ("Robot Finger" and "Ikara
Ikara
Ikara is a town in Kaduna State, northern Nigeria, located some 30 kilometres north-east of the city of Zaria....
") would even come under the alternative name, Flow Creator (on Electric Tones 1234). All were released as limited, numbered pressings on vinyl (perhaps purposefully) without mainstream fanfare, and received no promotion beyond reviews - albeit favourable ones - in specialist dance music publications.
Future Chaos: Bomb the Bass in the 21st century
Quietly in November 2006, news was posted by Simenon on the Bomb the Bass MyspaceMyspace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
page that a new album had been recorded, and was about to be mixed. Much later, in January 2008, and again without fanfare through their Myspace
Myspace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
page, it was announced that the Future Chaos album would indeed see the light of day - in May of the same year. Performed, for the best part, with Simenon working on a vintage Minimoog
Minimoog
The Minimoog is a monophonic analog synthesizer, invented by Bill Hemsath and Robert Moog. It was released in 1970 by R.A. Moog Inc. , and production was stopped in 1981. It was re-designed by Robert Moog in 2002 and released as Minimoog Voyager.The Minimoog was designed in response to the use of...
synth
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
, the album consists of nine tracks that are markedly more electronic
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
and stripped down than previous efforts. In doing so, and with the strong use of the analogue Minimoog lending a cohesive feel across the set, Simenon appears to have reset Bomb the Bass back to dance music's sparse, machine-like origins. Out go the soulful aspects of house
House music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...
, in favour of amplifying the genre's more chilly European aspects of angular rhythms and simplified synth tones.
As with all previous Bomb the Bass albums, Future Chaos looks to be a collaborative outing. Simenon has teamed up with former Screaming Trees
Screaming Trees
Screaming Trees was an American rock band formed in Ellensburg, Washington in 1985 by vocalist Mark Lanegan, guitarist Gary Lee Conner, bass player Van Conner and drummer Mark Pickerel. Pickerel had been replaced by Barrett Martin by the time the band reached its most successful period...
and Queens of the Stone Age
Queens of the Stone Age
Queens of the Stone Age is an American rock band from Palm Desert, California, United States, formed in 1997. The band's line-up has always included founding member Josh Homme , with the current line-up including longtime members Troy Van Leeuwen and Joey Castillo , alongside Michael Shuman and...
singer, Mark Lanegan
Mark Lanegan
Mark Lanegan is an American rock musician and songwriter. Lanegan began his music career in the 1980s, forming the grunge group Screaming Trees with Gary Lee Conner, Van Conner and Mark Pickerel. During his time in the band Lanegan would start a low-key solo career...
, Fujiya & Miyagi
Fujiya & Miyagi
Fujiya & Miyagi are an English band formed in Brighton in 2000. They are currently signed to Full Time Hobby Records in the United Kingdom.-Career:...
, and Richard Thair and Jakeone of Toob. Most notable is the appearance of Paul Conboy, who is best known for his partnership with Adrian Corker in A.P.E. and Corker Conboy. Conboy sings on five tracks, has co-written a great deal of the music, and also co-produces alongside Simenon, making this the most collaborative Bomb the Bass album to date. Adam Sky has also become involved with the project, by way of contributing a remix of the track "Butterfingers
Butterfingers
Butterfingers were an Australian hip hop group from Ipswich, Queensland. Most of their releases are on their own label, Valley Trash Records.-History:...
".
With Bomb the Bass now up and running as a viable four-piece live band, rather than production orientated studio entity, live concert dates are being slowly added to coincide with the intended autumn 2008 release of Future Chaos. Again, Paul Conboy will feature, adding keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
and vocals to the live set-up. Low key warm-up shows were undertaken in February 2008 in Europe - due, no doubt, to Simenon currently residing in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
. In keeping with the multi-media ethos of the band, video artists will be on hand to scratch
Scratch
Scratch may refer to:* A mark or indentation on a surface: Abrasion It may also refer to:- Recordings :* Scratch , by Kaela Kimura* Scratch , the soundtrack to the 2001 documentary Scratch...
video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
and animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
projections over the stage.
It was originally thought that "Butterfingers" (featuring Fujiya & Miyagi) would be the first single released from Future Chaos, as an animated short film for the track surfaced on Youtube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
in March 2008. The clip, which was produced by Perish Factory visualizes the new minimal sound of the band by featuring an animated Minimoog - as used on the track. However, it eventually became apparent that the film was not automatically connected to a single release (as with the two further clips that followed), but were part of a quiet viral
Viral marketing
Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses...
marketing move, which succeeded in generating chatter on online forums and left field online music sites.
Reviewing "Butterfingers", Daily Music Guide described it as showing "the new Bomb the Bass plug straight into a place where scuffed Formica is sexier than leather, and red LED is the font of all knowledge. Having worked through all those zeroes and ones only to come up wanting, Bomb the Bass have seemingly gone back to come forwards once again, with the result being a track that easily lives up to the sum of its parts."
Bomb the Bass confirmed they would perform their first London gig in almost 20 years, at the London Astoria
London Astoria
The London Astoria was a music venue, located at 157 Charing Cross Road, in London, England. It had been leased and run by Festival Republic since 2000. It was closed on 15 January 2009 and has since been demolished...
on 4 June 2008; and are also billed as appearing at the UK dance music festival, The Big Chill
The Big Chill (music festival)
The Big Chill is an annual festival of alternative, dance and chill-out music and comedy, held in the grounds of Eastnor Castle during early August...
, on 2 August 2008, in Ledbury
Ledbury
Ledbury is a town in Herefordshire, England, lying east of Hereford, and south of the Malvern Hills.Today, Ledbury is a thriving market town in rural England. The town has a large number of timber framed buildings, in particular along Church Lane and High Street. One of Ledbury's most outstanding...
, Herefordshire
Herefordshire
Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...
and the Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
festival, Lethargy '08.
In May 2008, the second Future Chaos linked Bomb the Bass film appeared on the internet - this time for So Special. Featuring vocals by Paul Conboy, the promotional short was directed by Nathalie Teirlinck (whose award-winning short film Anemone
Anemone
Anemone , is a genus of about 120 species of flowering plants in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae in the north and south temperate zones...
was selected for Locarno
Locarno
Locarno is the capital of the Locarno district, located on the northern tip of Lake Maggiore in the Swiss canton of Ticino, close to Ascona at the foot of the Alps. It has a population of about 15,000...
and The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
BFI
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
film festivals in 2007) and Ben Van Alboom (a member of the European photographers collective, Angels & Ghosts). The film featured hidden-camera footage of trans-sexual prostitutes working in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
.
The Future Is Now: The release of Future Chaos
In an online interview with Tim Simenon in May 2008, it was remarked that Future Chaos would finally be released in August 2008. In the same interview, Simenon commented that the album had taken so long to complete partly because he had wanted to change direction, to take on a more simplistic, less cluttered feel - necessitating a restart and re-record.The same week, a new track, "Fuzzbox
Fuzzbox
A fuzzbox is a device for deliberately introducing distortion in music.Fuzzbox may also refer to:* We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Gonna Use It or Fuzzbox, a 1980s English pop-punk quartet* FuzzBox, a video-game developer that developed Cyber Org...
", - apparently the last to be completed for the album - was made available as a free download at the website of the UK radio station, Xfm
Xfm
Xfm is a brand of two commercial radio stations focused on alternative music, primarily indie pop, and owned by Global Radio.-History:Xfm was created in London in 1992 by Sammy Jacob, who later co-founded NME Radio in 2008. Xfm subsequently expanded to a network of four stations; there are...
. A single sleeve was also made available free as part of the download. This being the first sighting of new Bomb the Bass artwork/branding, the style suggested the look of the campaign will be one of collage
Collage
A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
all done by the Brazilian artist Sesper.
At the beginning of July 2008 the band's official MySpace
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
page posted news that Simenon had finally signed a new recording contract with the Berlin-based international label !K7, and that the Future Chaos album - featuring nine tracks, plus the option of extra tracks on different formats - would be released globally on September 15 of that year (with the U.S. following slightly later on 30 September). The news bulletin also stated that So Special (with Paul Conboy on lead vocals) would be released 25 August as the first official single ahead of the album.
A third online film was released (via Youtube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
) during July, again signposted by a news blog on the Bomb the Bass Myspace page. This time, it was the turn of Burn The Bunker featuring Toob.
Future Chaos was finally released through !K7 in all territories (except the US) on September 15, 2008 (with the States to follow on September 30). The album, which contained nine tracks was made available on three main formats: single disc CD, a limited edition double CD (with eight remixes, and a bonus track, "Star", featuring Paul Conboy on vocals), vinyl, and download (again, containing the added tenth track, "Star").
At the beginning of October 2008, and to maintain momentum between the release of singles, Simenon posted a fourth online film via Youtube. Directed by Corin Hardy (The Horrors
The Horrors
The Horrors are an English band from Southend on Sea, formed in 2005. Their debut Strange House, was released in 2007 and reached number thirty-seven on the UK Albums Chart, their second album Primary Colours was released in 2009 and peaked at number 25 in the UK...
, Guillemots, Keane and The Feeling
The Feeling
The Feeling are a BRIT award-nominated English pop band from West Sussex and London. The band categorise their music as "pop".Following a limited release of their first single "Fill My Little World" in late 2005, the band entered the UK Singles Chart at #7 with their first full release "Sewn" in...
), Fuzzbox
Fuzzbox
A fuzzbox is a device for deliberately introducing distortion in music.Fuzzbox may also refer to:* We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Gonna Use It or Fuzzbox, a 1980s English pop-punk quartet* FuzzBox, a video-game developer that developed Cyber Org...
featured stop-frame animation toys, everyday objects and specially commissioned photographs of Jon Spencer (the track's vocalist) mouthing lines from the song.
"Butterfingers", featuring Fujiya & Miyagi
Fujiya & Miyagi
Fujiya & Miyagi are an English band formed in Brighton in 2000. They are currently signed to Full Time Hobby Records in the United Kingdom.-Career:...
, was finally released as the second single from the Future Chaos album, (globally) on November 3, 2008 (with the US to follow on 25 November). Made available on 12" vinyl and download, the single included remixes by Adam Sky and Various.
"Black River" was the third single to be released from Future Chaos. Made available 10 February 2009 on download, the track features Mark Lanegan
Mark Lanegan
Mark Lanegan is an American rock musician and songwriter. Lanegan began his music career in the 1980s, forming the grunge group Screaming Trees with Gary Lee Conner, Van Conner and Mark Pickerel. During his time in the band Lanegan would start a low-key solo career...
on vocals. New remixes were made available, so in addition to an earlier recut by Gui Boratto
Gui Boratto
Gui Boratto is a Brazilian electronic music producer. In the 1990s he was a member of Sect.His album Chromophobia was awarded the title of Mixmag Album of the Month. Regarding why he chose the name Chromophobia, Boratto said: "The same meaning as monochromatism in architecture, which means...
, further versions were done by Maps
MAPS
Maps is the plural of map, a visual representation of an area.As an acronym, MAPS may refer to:* Mail Abuse Prevention System, an organisation that provides anti-spam support...
and Patrice Baumel.
Back to the racks, Back to Light: BTB in 2009-10
In September 2009, using TwitterTwitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
, Simenon revealed that work was almost complete on the follow-up to Future Chaos. Around the same time and also via Twitter, Jakeone of Toob announced he had just completed remix duties on a new track called The Infinites.
In November 2009, FM Radio Gods
FM Radio Gods
FM Radio Gods is a live electronica act from Montreal, Canada composed of two artists: Andrew Hamilton and Tao-Nhan Nguyen .Winners of the 2008 Roland Synthesizer contest...
announced their involvement in the upcoming Bomb the Bass album, having completed remix duties on a track called Boy/Girl. BTB also announced the first single would be The Infinites (with Paul Conboy on vocals), and is due for release 22 December 2009. It is due to be followed by three more singles (one a month for the following months) until the album is released in March 2010.
The next month, Bomb the Bass announced the new album of ten new tracks, produced in conjunction with Brazil's Gui Boratto
Gui Boratto
Gui Boratto is a Brazilian electronic music producer. In the 1990s he was a member of Sect.His album Chromophobia was awarded the title of Mixmag Album of the Month. Regarding why he chose the name Chromophobia, Boratto said: "The same meaning as monochromatism in architecture, which means...
(who first worked with BTB on a remix of the Black River single) would be released through !K7 in March 2010. Called Back to Light after a line taken from the first single (The Infinites), the album would be a development on from the analogue electronic direction taken with Future Chaos; yet more uptempo, inspired in part by the bands live shows on 2008. The relative speed in which Back to Light was recorded (twelve months, compared to the fourteen-year gestation of Future Chaos) suggests that Simenon's return to Bomb the Bass duties is a permanent one.
Albums & EPs
- Into The DragonInto the DragonInto the Dragon is the 1988 debut album from U.K. dance act Bomb the Bass.The album included the number 2 UK chart hit "Beat Dis" and spawned three additional hits: "Dont Make Me Wait" featuring Lorraine, which made number 6, "I Say a Little Prayer featuring Maureen", which peaked at number 10, and...
(Rhythm King RecordsRhythm King RecordsRhythm King Records Ltd was an independent record label founded in the mid 1980s by Martin Heath, Adele Nozedar, DJ Jay Strongman and James Horrocks.-Beginnings:...
, 1988) - Unknown TerritoryUnknown TerritoryUnknown Territory is the second studio album from U.K. dance act Bomb the Bass. It was released in 1991 under label Rhythm King Records.-Production:In 1991 "Love So True" with vocals from Loretta Heywood was the first single of new Bomb the Bass material...
(Rhythm King RecordsRhythm King RecordsRhythm King Records Ltd was an independent record label founded in the mid 1980s by Martin Heath, Adele Nozedar, DJ Jay Strongman and James Horrocks.-Beginnings:...
, 1991) - ClearClear (Bomb the Bass album)Clear was the third album released by Bomb The Bass, the dance/electronic collective formed around British producer and musician, Tim Simenon...
(Fourth and BroadwayIsland RecordsIsland Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
, 1995) - Beat Dis - The Very Best of Bomb The BassBeat Dis - The Very Best of Bomb the BassBeat Dis - The Very Best of Bomb the Bass is a compilation album released in 1999 by Bomb the Bass on BMG RecordsThe album included singles and album tracks from Into the Dragon, the single 'Winter in July' and the Bomb the Bass megamix which was previously available as a b-side to 'Say a Little...
(Camden, 1999) - Clear Cut (EP) (Morr MusicMorr MusicMorr Music is an independent record label based in Berlin, Germany, founded in 1999 by Thomas Morr. Most artists on the label fall into the categories of intelligent dance music, electronica and dreampop, but all reflect Thomas Morr's personal taste...
, 2001) - Tracks (12-inch EP) (with Jack DangersJack DangersJack Dangers is an electronic musician, DJ, producer, and remixer best known for his work as the primary member of Meat Beat Manifesto. He lives in San Francisco.-Career:...
) (Electric TonesElectric TonesElectric Tones is an independent record label owned and run by British composer and producer Tim Simenon. The label, which is based in Amsterdam, was launched in 2000, and is dedicated to the release of electronic-based compositions, generally fitting into the field known as Electronica.Because of...
, 2001) - Future Chaos (!K7 / Electric TonesElectric TonesElectric Tones is an independent record label owned and run by British composer and producer Tim Simenon. The label, which is based in Amsterdam, was launched in 2000, and is dedicated to the release of electronic-based compositions, generally fitting into the field known as Electronica.Because of...
, 2008) - Back to Light (!K7 / Electric Tones, 2010)
Singles
- Beat DisBeat Dis"Beat Dis" is a track by British act Bomb the Bass, a studio production formed by producer Tim Simenon, from the act's album Into the Dragon. It, like other hits of the era such as "Pump Up the Volume" by M|A|R|R|S and "Theme from S'Express" by S'Express, largely consisted of samples.The single was...
(1987) UK #2 - Megablast/Don't Make Me Wait (1988) UK #6
- Say A Little Prayer (feat. Maureen) (1988) UK #10
- Love So True (1991) (withdrawn, see above)
- Winter In July (1991) UK #7
- The Air You Breathe (1991) UK #52
- Keep Giving Me Love (1992) UK #62 [a re-recording of Love So True]
- Bug Powder DustBug Powder Dust"Bug Powder Dust" is a song by Bomb the Bass, released as the band's eighth single in 1994 as the first single from the Clear album. Featuring Justin Warfield on vocals, the track is primarily Dance music blended with Rap and Breakbeat.-History:...
(feat. Justin WarfieldJustin WarfieldJustin Warfield is a musician and hip hop emcee of African American and Jewish Russian-Romanian maternal parentage, who is currently half of the darkwave duo She Wants Revenge...
) (1994) UK #24 - Darkheart (feat. Spikey Tee) (1994) UK #35
- 1 To 1 Religion (feat. Carlton) (1995) UK #53
- Sandcastles (1995) UK #54
- Empire (1996) promo only
- Clear Cut (feat. Lali PunaLali PunaLali Puna is an experimental electropop band from Weilheim, Germany . Founded in 1998 by Korea-born Valerie Trebeljahr , other members include Markus Acher , Christoph Brandner and Christian Heiß . The latter joined Lali Puna in 2003, after keyboard player Florian Zimmer had left the band...
) (2001) - So Special (feat. Paul Conboy) (August 26, 2008) download-only single
- Butterfingers (feat. Fujiya & MiyagiFujiya & MiyagiFujiya & Miyagi are an English band formed in Brighton in 2000. They are currently signed to Full Time Hobby Records in the United Kingdom.-Career:...
) (Nov 3 / Nov 25 (USA), 2008) 12" & download - Black River (feat. Mark LaneganMark LaneganMark Lanegan is an American rock musician and songwriter. Lanegan began his music career in the 1980s, forming the grunge group Screaming Trees with Gary Lee Conner, Van Conner and Mark Pickerel. During his time in the band Lanegan would start a low-key solo career...
) (Feb 10, 2009) download - The Infinites (feat. Paul Conboy) (December 22, 2009) download
Other contributions
- Sahara Blue - Hector ZazouHector ZazouHector Zazou was a prolific French composer and record producer who worked with, produced, and collaborated with an international array of recording artists...
& The Sahara Blue Orchestra (album) features I'll Strangle You produced, and with programming, by Tim Simenon (Made To MeasureMade to measureMade to measure typically refers to clothing that is sewn from a standard-sized base pattern. A tailored suit is a common example of a made-to-measure garment...
, 1992 - reissued in 1998) - We Love You... So Love Us Too - Various Artists (12-inch EP) features FastFAST-Primary meanings:Fast may refer to:* Fast as in high speed or velocity, may be used with anything that has a speed.* Fasting, abstaining from foodSlang:* Fast, a slang term for someone who is sexually promiscuous-Sports:...
by Bomb the Bass feat. Shawn LeeShawn LeeShawn Lee , born Lee Chuang Rui, is a Singaporean actor. He first came into prominence for his award-winning performance alongside his friend and co-star Joshua Ang in the box office hit I Not Stupid.-Background and career:...
(We Love You, 2001) - Electric Tones 1234 - Various Artists (12-inch EP) features IkaraIkaraIkara is a town in Kaduna State, northern Nigeria, located some 30 kilometres north-east of the city of Zaria....
and Robot Finger (as Flow Creator) (Electric TonesElectric TonesElectric Tones is an independent record label owned and run by British composer and producer Tim Simenon. The label, which is based in Amsterdam, was launched in 2000, and is dedicated to the release of electronic-based compositions, generally fitting into the field known as Electronica.Because of...
, 2001) - Electric Tones 9101112 - Various Artists (12-inch EP) (Electric Tones, 2001)
- Push Me, Pull You - Toob (album) features Pirate Teeth co-written and performed with Bomb the Bass (OutputOutputOutput is the term denoting either an exit or changes which exit a system and which activate/modify a process. It is an abstract concept, used in the modeling, system design and system exploitation.-In control theory:...
, 2008)
See also
- List of Number 1 Dance Hits (United States)
- List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart