UK garage
Encyclopedia
UK garage is a genre of electronic dance music
originating from the United Kingdom
in the early-1990s. UK garage is a descendant of house music
which originated in Chicago
and New York
, United States
. UK garage usually features a distinctive syncopated 4/4 percussive rhythm with 'shuffling' hi-hats and beat-skipping kick drums. Garage tracks also commonly feature 'chopped up' and time-shifted or pitch-shifted vocal samples complementing the underlying rhythmic structure. UK garage was largely subsumed into other styles of music and production in the mid-2000s, notably within hip-hop and urban music. It also spawned multiple off-shoots including Grime
, UK Funky, Dubstep
, and Bassline.
DJs, being applied to a new form of music also known as speed garage. In the late nineties the term 'UK garage' was settled upon by the scene. This style is now frequently combined with other forms of music like hip hop
, rap
and R&B
, all broadly filed under the description urban
music. The pronunciation of UK garage uses British English
ˈɡærɨdʒ , rather than American English
/ɡəˈrɑːʒ/ gə-.
Artists such as Grant Nelson
, M.J. Cole, The Artful Dodger
, Jaimeson
, So Solid Crew
, Heartless Crew
, The Streets
, Shanks & Bigfoot
, DJ Luck and MC Neat
, Sunship (Ceri Evans), Oxide and Neutrino
and numerous others have made garage music mainstream in the UK, whilst Dizzee Rascal
, Kano
and Wiley's
arrival raised the profile of grime
, an offshoot of garage.
Cole once stated, "London is a multicultural city... it's like a melting pot of young people, and that's reflected in the music of UK garage".
Female garage artists include Lisa Maffia
, Ms. Dynamite
, Gemma Fox
, Kele Le Roc
, Shola Ama
, Sweet Female Attitude
, Mis-Teeq
and Ladies First.
was very popular at the time, garage was played in a second room at jungle events. DJs started to speed up garage tracks to make them more suitable for the jungle audience in the UK. The media started to call this tempo-altered type of garage music "speed garage
", 4x4
and 2-step's
predecessor. DJs would usually play dub versions (arrangements without vocals) of garage tracks, because pitch-shifting vocals could sometimes render the music unrecognizable (although sped up and time stretched
vocals were an important part of the early jungle sound, and later played a key role in speed garage). The absence of vocals left space in the music for MCs
, who started rhyming to the records. Since then MCs have become one of the vital aspects of Speed and UK garage parties and records. Early promoters of speed garage included the Dreem Team and Tuff Jam and pirate radio
stations like London Underground, Ice FM, Magic Fm, Mac Fm, Upfront Fm, and Freek Fm. During its initial phase, the speed garage scene was also known as "the Sunday scene", as initially speed garage promoters could only hire venues on Sunday evenings (venue owners preferred to save Friday and Saturday nights for more popular musical styles). Labels whose outputs would become synonymous with the emerging speed garage sound included Confetti, Public Demand, 500 Rekords, Spread Love and VIP. Debate continues to rage over the first true speed garage record; contenders include "So More (I Refuse)" by Industry Standard, "Love Bug" by Ramsey and Fen, 'RIP Groove' by Double-99, and Armand van Helden
's remix of Tori Amos's "Professional Widow" . Speed garage tracks were characterised by a sped-up house-style beat, complemented by the rolling snares and reverse-warped basslines that were popular with the drum & bass producers of the time.
Speed garage already incorporated many aspects of today's UK garage sound like sub-bass lines, ragga
vocals, spin backs and reversed drums. What changed over time, until the so called 2-step
sound emerged, was the addition of further funk
y elements like R&B
vocals, more shuffled beats and a different drum pattern. The most radical change from speed garage to 2-step was the removal of the 2nd and 4th bass kick from each bar (see "Characteristics" for more details). Although tracks with only two kick drum beats to a bar are perceived as being slower than the traditional four-to-the-floor beat, the listener's interest is maintained by the introduction of syncopating bass lines and the percussive use of other instruments such as pads and strings.
Among those credited with honing the speed garage sound, Todd Edwards
is often cited as a seminal influence on the UK garage sound. The producer from New Jersey introduced a new way of working with vocals. Instead of having full verses and choruses, he picked out vocal phrases and played them like an instrument, using sampling technology . Often, individual syllables were reversed or pitch-shifted. This type of vocal treatment is still a key characteristic of the UK garage style.
The UK's counterpart to Todd Edwards was MJ Cole, a classically trained oboe and piano player, who had a string of chart and underground hits in the late 1990s and early 2000s, most notably with "Sincere" and "Crazy Love". MJ Cole won a BBC Young Musician of the year.
Arguably one of the earliest examples of a 2-step
track is 'Never Gonna Let You Go' by Tina Moore. Jess Jackson was responsible for many garage records but one which stood out was "Hobsons Choice". The B Side of this record changed the UK garage scene from funky and soulful to dark and bassy.
Another example of the evolution in 2 step was the release of "Troublesome" by Shy Cookie and DJ Luck, in which non sampled 2 step beats were merged with a full ragga vocal (performed by ragga artist Troublesome).
The producer duos Shanks & Bigfoot
with Sweet Like Chocolate
and The Artful Dodger, aka Pete Devereux and Mark Hill
, who (together with Craig David
) were very successful with the track "Re-rewind", which became an anthem for the 2-step scene, and got onto BBC Top Of The Pops. After the platinum-selling success of Shanks & Bigfoot's Sweet Like Chocolate
released the year before, the floodgates had been opened. Although Re-rewind was denied a #1 position by Cliff Richard
, it was also a platinum seller, one of the garage scene's first and last.
(now a genre in its own right - generally no longer considered or classified as UK garage but retaining BPMs which usually range from 138-143 beats per minute, a common element in modern garage). During this period traditional UK garage was pushed back underground amongst the bad publicity emanating from the tougher side of the genre, and publicised violence surrounding members of the So Solid Crew
.
Notable early grime artists around 2001-2003 include So Solid Crew
, More Fire Crew
, Dizzee Rascal
's debut album Boy in da Corner
, Roll Deep
's mixtapes Volume 1 and 2 which were never released commercially and Wiley
.
So called "old skool" UK garage producers MJ Cole, Sunship, Wideboys- to name a few, have produced new UK garage to give the scene a huge push, which also provides a nostalgic link to the "old skool" UK garage scene.
The end of 2007 saw "new skool" UK garage push to the mainstream again with notable tracks like Delinquent's "My Destiny", T2's "Heartbroken" (which some class as Bassline rather than UK garage) and Wideboys' "Snowflake", reaching the mainstream charts. This was topped by DJ EZ
releasing "Pure Garage Rewind Back to the Old Skool
", which contained three CD's of "old skool" UK garage and a fourth CD with fresh "new skool" UK garage.
The end of 2007 and beginning of 2008 has seen the rising popularity of an off-shoot of UK garage, called bassline
. Artists like DJ Q, Riplash and Sus, DJ BDM & Ender MC, MC Bones, Northern Line Records, Brett Maverick, T2, Delinquent have been producing fresh new bassline, and currently the UK garage scene contains a significant number of bassline producers, who are strongly promoting and pushing this sub genre of UK garage.
For more information on bassline, which started out in Niche Nightclub, access the bassline house
article.
One popular mutation of UK Garage is Dubstep
, originally a dark take on the 2step Garage sound, according to Kode9, the bass used takes influence from Jamaican music such as reggae music. It is now the sound of underground bass music in many UK towns and cities. Dubstep was originated by Garage producers such as Wookie, Zed Bias, Shy Cookie, El-b and Artwork (Arthur Smith of DND), who inspired a new generation of producers such as Skream, Benga, Kode9 and Digital Mystikz to create what is now known as Dubstep.
A current scene of people offshooting from Dubstep, taking it back to its UK Garage roots and fusing it with futuristic and often very off kilter modern production styles and more is often called Future Garage. The term was coined by Sub.FM boss Whistla, and proves to be very controversial with a lot of producers given the tag. Some notable innovators include Whistla, Submerse, Sully, Littlefoot, Erra, Kingthing as well established artists from other areas such as Duncan Powell, Falty DL, Monz etc.
Some UK Garage/Grime/Bassline/Dubstep producers are leaning towards a newer evolution called UK Funky, often misnamed Funky House, a term for commercial House music. UK Funky takes production values from many different shades of UK Garage music and blends them, at a standard House Music
tempo, with tribal style percussion. There are many different takes on Funky, including producers such as Apple, Champion, Lil Silva, Roska and Scratcha DVA, who have a harder, more syncopated sound, and other producers aiming for a more commercial, RNB friendly audience, such as Crazy Cousinz.
Early 2011 saw the start of a gradual resurgence of 2 step Garage; producer, Mike Delinquent (previously part of the Bassline
/UKG group, Delinquent) has been seen as a driving force behind the revival, with DJ's such as MistaJam
, Annie Nightingale
but more specifically Annie Mac
has been quoted on her Radio 1
show stating that he's "single handedly bringing Garage back
." A song called 'Out Of Control' featuring KCAT and Donae'o has received airplay on KISS Radio and BBC Radio 1Xtra. There has been an gradual increase in demand for UK Garage remixes of chart songs. And producers (i.e. Wookie, MJ Cole, Zed Bias
and Artful
(Mark Hill, formerly one half of Artful Dodger)) from when UK Garage was at its peak have made a return to the scene, by producing tracks more with a 2step feel.
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...
originating from the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in the early-1990s. UK garage is a descendant of house music
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...
which originated in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. UK garage usually features a distinctive syncopated 4/4 percussive rhythm with 'shuffling' hi-hats and beat-skipping kick drums. Garage tracks also commonly feature 'chopped up' and time-shifted or pitch-shifted vocal samples complementing the underlying rhythmic structure. UK garage was largely subsumed into other styles of music and production in the mid-2000s, notably within hip-hop and urban music. It also spawned multiple off-shoots including Grime
Grime (music)
Grime is a style of music that emerged from Bow, East London, England in the early 2000s, primarily as a development of UK garage, dancehall, and hip hop...
, UK Funky, Dubstep
Dubstep
Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in south London, England. Its overall sound has been described as "tightly coiled productions with overwhelming bass lines and reverberant drum patterns, clipped samples, and occasional vocals"....
, and Bassline.
Origins
The evolution of house music in the UK in the mid 1990s led to the term, as previously coined by the Paradise GarageParadise Garage
The Paradise Garage was a discotheque notable in the history of modern gay and nightclub cultures and in dance and pop music. It was founded by Michael Brody, its sole proprietor, and was located at 84 King Street, in the Hudson Square neighborhood of New York City. It operated from 1976 to 1987...
DJs, being applied to a new form of music also known as speed garage. In the late nineties the term 'UK garage' was settled upon by the scene. This style is now frequently combined with other forms of music like 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...
, 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 R&B
Contemporary R&B
Contemporary R&B is a music genre that combines elements of hip hop, soul, R&B and funk.Although the abbreviation “R&B” originates from traditional rhythm and blues music, today the term R&B is most often used to describe a style of African American music originating after the demise of disco in...
, all broadly filed under the description urban
Mainstream Urban
Mainstream Urban is a term used to describe a radio format similar to an Urban Contemporary format. The format differentiates itself due to two factors: playlist composition and target demographic...
music. The pronunciation of UK garage uses British English
British English
British English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...
ˈɡærɨdʒ , rather than American English
American English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
/ɡəˈrɑːʒ/ gə-.
Artists such as Grant Nelson
Grant Nelson
Grant Nelson , also known as Wishdokta, 24 Hour Experience, Bump & Flex and N'n'G, is a DJ, producer and remix artist....
, M.J. Cole, The Artful Dodger
The Artful Dodger (UK band)
Artful Dodger is a British R&B and UK garage band from the city of Southampton, which became famous through its 2-Step hits, and gave Craig David's career a boost after he appeared on their #2 hit, "Re-Rewind", in December 1999....
, Jaimeson
Jaimeson
Jaimeson, real name Jamie Williams, is a drum and bass and garage producer and MC best known for a string of hits in 2003 and 2004. Jaimeson emerged in the underground music scene, breaking through in January 2003 with the release of "True", a dance track featuring vocalist Angel Blu and a rap by...
, So Solid Crew
So Solid Crew
So Solid Crew is an electronic and urban musical collective from South London, England, whose hits include "Oh No " and "21 Seconds", the latter reaching number one in the UK Singles Chart in August 2001. Another hit, "They Don't Know", reached number three in November 2001 and "Haters" got to...
, Heartless Crew
Heartless Crew
Heartless Crew were a British UK garage sound system from London, that consisted of three members MC's Bushkin, Mighty Moe and DJ Fonti. Mighty Moe started out as a hip-hop DJ. His parents are from the Middle-East. Bushkin and Fonti have West Indian backgrounds....
, The Streets
The Streets
The Streets were a British rap/garage project from Birmingham, United Kingdom, led by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Mike Skinner and has included a myriad of other contributors most notably drummer Johnny Drum Machine, vocalist Kevin Mark Trail and the Italian-American beatmaker Leroy.The...
, Shanks & Bigfoot
Shanks & Bigfoot
Shanks & Bigfoot were a British duo of dance music/UK garage producers Steven Meade and Danny Langsman, best known for their hit single "Sweet Like Chocolate". They were originally known as Doolally, recording the pirate anthem "Straight from the Heart" under this name in 1998. It was the first...
, DJ Luck and MC Neat
Luck & Neat
DJ Luck & MC Neat are a British musical duo, composed of Joel Samuels and Michael Rose , mainly performing a combination of house music and UK garage...
, Sunship (Ceri Evans), Oxide and Neutrino
Oxide & Neutrino
Oxide & Neutrino is a DJ and MC Garage duo from London, consisting of Alex Rivers and Mark Osei-Tutu .Their first single "Bound 4 Da Reload " went to number 1 in the United Kingdom in May 2000...
and numerous others have made garage music mainstream in the UK, whilst Dizzee Rascal
Dizzee Rascal
Dylan Kwabena Mills , better known by his stage name Dizzee Rascal, is a Ghanaian British rapper, songwriter and record producer. His music is a blend of garage, hip hop, grime, ragga, pop and electronic music, with eclectic samples and more exotic styles...
, Kano
Kano (rapper)
Kane Brett Robinson , better known as Kano and also known as Kane O, is an English rapper and actor. His grandparents came to England as immigrants from Jamaica. He was formerly a key member of east London’s N.A.S.T.Y...
and Wiley's
Wiley (rapper)
Richard Kylea Cowie , better known by his stage name Wiley is a prolific British music producer, MC and recording artist, and rapper with roots from Trinidad...
arrival raised the profile of grime
Grime (music)
Grime is a style of music that emerged from Bow, East London, England in the early 2000s, primarily as a development of UK garage, dancehall, and hip hop...
, an offshoot of garage.
Cole once stated, "London is a multicultural city... it's like a melting pot of young people, and that's reflected in the music of UK garage".
Female garage artists include Lisa Maffia
Lisa Maffia
Lisa Finch Maffia is a platinum selling English singer-songwriter, musician, fashion designer, model and presenter, who originally came to the public's attention as the main female member of So Solid Crew...
, Ms. Dynamite
Ms. Dynamite
Niomi Arleen McLean-Daley , who performs as Ms. Dynamite, is a double BRIT Award and three time MOBO Awards winning UK garage, R&B and hip hop singer and rapper.-Biography:...
, Gemma Fox
Gemma Fox
Gemma Fox is a UK pop, R&B and hip hop singer, best known for her 2004 album Messy. The lead single, "Girlfriends Story", was released in April of that year and featured MC Lyte. The second single, "Gone", featured Juelz Santana...
, Kele Le Roc
Kele Le Roc
Kele Le Roc is a British pop, UK garage and R&B singer.-Career:Le Roc began singing at the age of three, and she attended Langdon Comprehensive School in East Ham. She first found widespread acclaim in 1995 with the underground hit "Let Me Know"...
, Shola Ama
Shola Ama
Shola Ama is an English singer who scored her biggest hit in 1997 with a cover of Turley Richards' "You Might Need Somebody".-Early life and career:...
, Sweet Female Attitude
Sweet Female Attitude
Sweet Female Attitude was a UK garage duo, consisting of Leanne Brown and Catherine Cassidy, who are considered a one-hit wonder in the United Kingdom. Their April 2000 single "Flowers", with music video directed by Pete Nilsen and Ryan Davids, made it to number two in the UK Singles Chart...
, Mis-Teeq
Mis-Teeq
Mis-Teeq are a British R&B girl group, comprising singers Alesha Dixon, Su-Elise Nash and Sabrina Washington. Originally a quartet which included Zena McNally, the group was formed in 1999 and released three major studio albums and seven consecutive UK top ten singles, including international hits...
and Ladies First.
"'Garage' is considered a mangled term in dance music. The term derives from the Paradise GarageParadise GarageThe Paradise Garage was a discotheque notable in the history of modern gay and nightclub cultures and in dance and pop music. It was founded by Michael Brody, its sole proprietor, and was located at 84 King Street, in the Hudson Square neighborhood of New York City. It operated from 1976 to 1987...
itself, but it has meant so many different things to so many different people that unless you're talking about a specific time and place, it is virtually meaningless. Part of the reason for this confusion (aside from various journalistic misunderstandings and industry misappropriations) is that the range of music played at the garage was so broad. The music we now call 'garage' has evolved from only a small part of the club's wildly eclectic soundtrack."
-- Frank Broughton/Bill Brewster in Last Night A DJ Saved My Life
History
In the UK, where jungleOldschool jungle
Jungle is a genre of electronic music that incorporates influences from genres including breakbeat hardcore, and reggae/dub/dancehall. There is debate as to whether jungle is a separate genre from drum and bass as many use the terms interchangeably...
was very popular at the time, garage was played in a second room at jungle events. DJs started to speed up garage tracks to make them more suitable for the jungle audience in the UK. The media started to call this tempo-altered type of garage music "speed garage
Speed garage
Speed garage is a type of music, associated with UK garage and hard dance scenes.-Characteristics:Speed garage has sped-up NY garage 4-to-the-floor rhythms. Snares are placed as over the 2nd and the 4th kickdrums, so in other places of the drum pattern. Speed garage tunes have warp, heavy...
", 4x4
Speed garage
Speed garage is a type of music, associated with UK garage and hard dance scenes.-Characteristics:Speed garage has sped-up NY garage 4-to-the-floor rhythms. Snares are placed as over the 2nd and the 4th kickdrums, so in other places of the drum pattern. Speed garage tunes have warp, heavy...
and 2-step's
2-step garage
2-step garage, or simply 2-step, is a typically English style of modern electronic dance music, and a relatively popular subgenre of UK garage.A transcription of this article is available as a PDF file.-Characteristics:...
predecessor. DJs would usually play dub versions (arrangements without vocals) of garage tracks, because pitch-shifting vocals could sometimes render the music unrecognizable (although sped up and time stretched
Audio timescale-pitch modification
Time stretching is the process of changing the speed or duration of an audio signal without affecting its pitch.Pitch scaling or pitch shifting is the opposite: the process of changing the pitch without affecting the speed...
vocals were an important part of the early jungle sound, and later played a key role in speed garage). The absence of vocals left space in the music for MCs
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”...
, who started rhyming to the records. Since then MCs have become one of the vital aspects of Speed and UK garage parties and records. Early promoters of speed garage included the Dreem Team and Tuff Jam and pirate radio
Pirate radio
Pirate radio is illegal or unregulated radio transmission. The term is most commonly used to describe illegal broadcasting for entertainment or political purposes, but is also sometimes used for illegal two-way radio operation...
stations like London Underground, Ice FM, Magic Fm, Mac Fm, Upfront Fm, and Freek Fm. During its initial phase, the speed garage scene was also known as "the Sunday scene", as initially speed garage promoters could only hire venues on Sunday evenings (venue owners preferred to save Friday and Saturday nights for more popular musical styles). Labels whose outputs would become synonymous with the emerging speed garage sound included Confetti, Public Demand, 500 Rekords, Spread Love and VIP. Debate continues to rage over the first true speed garage record; contenders include "So More (I Refuse)" by Industry Standard, "Love Bug" by Ramsey and Fen, 'RIP Groove' by Double-99, and Armand van Helden
Armand Van Helden
Armand Van Helden is a record producer, DJ and remixer whose biggest commercial successes came from his remixes of the 1996 Tori Amos song "Professional Widow" , which reached number 1 in the UK Singles Chart in January 1997, and his own track "U Don't Know Me ", which went to number 1...
's remix of Tori Amos's "Professional Widow" . Speed garage tracks were characterised by a sped-up house-style beat, complemented by the rolling snares and reverse-warped basslines that were popular with the drum & bass producers of the time.
Speed garage already incorporated many aspects of today's UK garage sound like sub-bass lines, ragga
Ragga
-Origins:Ragga originated in Jamaica during the 1980s, at the same time that electronic dance music's popularity was increasing globally. One of the reasons for ragga's swift propagation is that it is generally easier and less expensive to produce than reggae performed on traditional musical...
vocals, spin backs and reversed drums. What changed over time, until the so called 2-step
2-step garage
2-step garage, or simply 2-step, is a typically English style of modern electronic dance music, and a relatively popular subgenre of UK garage.A transcription of this article is available as a PDF file.-Characteristics:...
sound emerged, was the addition of further 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...
y elements like R&B
Contemporary R&B
Contemporary R&B is a music genre that combines elements of hip hop, soul, R&B and funk.Although the abbreviation “R&B” originates from traditional rhythm and blues music, today the term R&B is most often used to describe a style of African American music originating after the demise of disco in...
vocals, more shuffled beats and a different drum pattern. The most radical change from speed garage to 2-step was the removal of the 2nd and 4th bass kick from each bar (see "Characteristics" for more details). Although tracks with only two kick drum beats to a bar are perceived as being slower than the traditional four-to-the-floor beat, the listener's interest is maintained by the introduction of syncopating bass lines and the percussive use of other instruments such as pads and strings.
Among those credited with honing the speed garage sound, Todd Edwards
Todd Edwards
Todd Edwards is an American house and garage producer.-History:Todd Edwards began his musical career around 1992. He employs vocal reconstruction techniques to his songs, creating a unique vocal collage set to a four-on-the-floor beat...
is often cited as a seminal influence on the UK garage sound. The producer from New Jersey introduced a new way of working with vocals. Instead of having full verses and choruses, he picked out vocal phrases and played them like an instrument, using sampling technology . Often, individual syllables were reversed or pitch-shifted. This type of vocal treatment is still a key characteristic of the UK garage style.
The UK's counterpart to Todd Edwards was MJ Cole, a classically trained oboe and piano player, who had a string of chart and underground hits in the late 1990s and early 2000s, most notably with "Sincere" and "Crazy Love". MJ Cole won a BBC Young Musician of the year.
Arguably one of the earliest examples of a 2-step
2-step garage
2-step garage, or simply 2-step, is a typically English style of modern electronic dance music, and a relatively popular subgenre of UK garage.A transcription of this article is available as a PDF file.-Characteristics:...
track is 'Never Gonna Let You Go' by Tina Moore. Jess Jackson was responsible for many garage records but one which stood out was "Hobsons Choice". The B Side of this record changed the UK garage scene from funky and soulful to dark and bassy.
Another example of the evolution in 2 step was the release of "Troublesome" by Shy Cookie and DJ Luck, in which non sampled 2 step beats were merged with a full ragga vocal (performed by ragga artist Troublesome).
The producer duos Shanks & Bigfoot
Shanks & Bigfoot
Shanks & Bigfoot were a British duo of dance music/UK garage producers Steven Meade and Danny Langsman, best known for their hit single "Sweet Like Chocolate". They were originally known as Doolally, recording the pirate anthem "Straight from the Heart" under this name in 1998. It was the first...
with Sweet Like Chocolate
Sweet Like Chocolate
"Sweet Like Chocolate" is a number 1 hit single by the musical duo Shanks & Bigfoot with vocalist Sharon Woolf. The track was later added to the duo's album Swings and Roundabouts....
and The Artful Dodger, aka Pete Devereux and Mark Hill
Mark Hill
Mark Hill is a British recording artist, songwriter and record producer. He rose to fame as one half of the Artful Dodger and co-writer/producer of Craig David's multi platinum album, Born To Do It....
, who (together with Craig David
Craig David
Craig Ashley David is an English singer and songwriter. He has released five studio albums: Born to Do It, Slicker Than Your Average, The Story Goes..., Trust Me, Signed Sealed Delivered and a Greatest Hits album...
) were very successful with the track "Re-rewind", which became an anthem for the 2-step scene, and got onto BBC Top Of The Pops. After the platinum-selling success of Shanks & Bigfoot's Sweet Like Chocolate
Sweet Like Chocolate
"Sweet Like Chocolate" is a number 1 hit single by the musical duo Shanks & Bigfoot with vocalist Sharon Woolf. The track was later added to the duo's album Swings and Roundabouts....
released the year before, the floodgates had been opened. Although Re-rewind was denied a #1 position by Cliff Richard
Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard, OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist who has sold over an estimated 250 million records worldwide....
, it was also a platinum seller, one of the garage scene's first and last.
2-step's deprecation
2002 saw an evolution into two main directions: the first being that, 2-step was moving away from its funky and soul-oriented sound into a darker direction called grimeGrime (music)
Grime is a style of music that emerged from Bow, East London, England in the early 2000s, primarily as a development of UK garage, dancehall, and hip hop...
(now a genre in its own right - generally no longer considered or classified as UK garage but retaining BPMs which usually range from 138-143 beats per minute, a common element in modern garage). During this period traditional UK garage was pushed back underground amongst the bad publicity emanating from the tougher side of the genre, and publicised violence surrounding members of the So Solid Crew
So Solid Crew
So Solid Crew is an electronic and urban musical collective from South London, England, whose hits include "Oh No " and "21 Seconds", the latter reaching number one in the UK Singles Chart in August 2001. Another hit, "They Don't Know", reached number three in November 2001 and "Haters" got to...
.
Notable early grime artists around 2001-2003 include So Solid Crew
So Solid Crew
So Solid Crew is an electronic and urban musical collective from South London, England, whose hits include "Oh No " and "21 Seconds", the latter reaching number one in the UK Singles Chart in August 2001. Another hit, "They Don't Know", reached number three in November 2001 and "Haters" got to...
, More Fire Crew
More Fire Crew
More Fire Crew was an east London-based grime crew from Waltham Forest, and was one of the first crews in the grime scene.The crew was formed when Ozzie B and Lethal Bizzle went to secondary school together. Ozzie and Lethal soon joined up with their friend Shaunie B, who was a DJ on Amy FM, and...
, Dizzee Rascal
Dizzee Rascal
Dylan Kwabena Mills , better known by his stage name Dizzee Rascal, is a Ghanaian British rapper, songwriter and record producer. His music is a blend of garage, hip hop, grime, ragga, pop and electronic music, with eclectic samples and more exotic styles...
's debut album Boy in da Corner
Boy in Da Corner
Boy in da Corner is the debut album of British grime MC Dizzee Rascal, released on 21 July 2003 by XL Recordings in the United Kingdom and Matador Records in the United States...
, Roll Deep
Roll Deep
Roll Deep are an Urban Music Awards-winning London-based grime music collective. They were founded in 2002, by a group of MCs including Wiley. Roll Deep were also closely associated with Boy Better Know with members in both. Their debut album, In at the Deep End, was released in June 2005...
's mixtapes Volume 1 and 2 which were never released commercially and Wiley
Wiley (rapper)
Richard Kylea Cowie , better known by his stage name Wiley is a prolific British music producer, MC and recording artist, and rapper with roots from Trinidad...
.
Revival of 2step
In 2007, DJs such as DJ Nabstar, DJ Charma, DJ Elski, MistaPlum and Matt Farley have been involved in the promoting and revival of UK garage's popularity, with producers like Delinquent, Ayklogic, Control-S, Wideboys, DJ Ade, Marvel, Solution, Duncan Powell and Danny Dubz producing fresh new UK garage, also known as "new skool" UK garage.So called "old skool" UK garage producers MJ Cole, Sunship, Wideboys- to name a few, have produced new UK garage to give the scene a huge push, which also provides a nostalgic link to the "old skool" UK garage scene.
The end of 2007 saw "new skool" UK garage push to the mainstream again with notable tracks like Delinquent's "My Destiny", T2's "Heartbroken" (which some class as Bassline rather than UK garage) and Wideboys' "Snowflake", reaching the mainstream charts. This was topped by DJ EZ
DJ EZ
DJ EZ is a DJ from Tottenham, North London, specialising in UK garage music. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest DJs ever to grace the UK garage scene.- Biography :...
releasing "Pure Garage Rewind Back to the Old Skool
Pure Garage
Pure Garage is a successful series of UK garage compilation albums. Nearly all of them are mixed by DJ EZ.In January 2000, Warner Music chose Kiss 100's DJ EZ to mix Pure Garage, a new garage compilation CD. Pure Garage...
", which contained three CD's of "old skool" UK garage and a fourth CD with fresh "new skool" UK garage.
The end of 2007 and beginning of 2008 has seen the rising popularity of an off-shoot of UK garage, called bassline
Bassline house
Bassline is a type of music related to UK garage that originated from speed garage, and shares characteristics with fellow subgenres dubstep and grime for their emphasis on bass. The style originated in Sheffield around 2002....
. Artists like DJ Q, Riplash and Sus, DJ BDM & Ender MC, MC Bones, Northern Line Records, Brett Maverick, T2, Delinquent have been producing fresh new bassline, and currently the UK garage scene contains a significant number of bassline producers, who are strongly promoting and pushing this sub genre of UK garage.
For more information on bassline, which started out in Niche Nightclub, access the bassline house
Bassline house
Bassline is a type of music related to UK garage that originated from speed garage, and shares characteristics with fellow subgenres dubstep and grime for their emphasis on bass. The style originated in Sheffield around 2002....
article.
One popular mutation of UK Garage is Dubstep
Dubstep
Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in south London, England. Its overall sound has been described as "tightly coiled productions with overwhelming bass lines and reverberant drum patterns, clipped samples, and occasional vocals"....
, originally a dark take on the 2step Garage sound, according to Kode9, the bass used takes influence from Jamaican music such as reggae music. It is now the sound of underground bass music in many UK towns and cities. Dubstep was originated by Garage producers such as Wookie, Zed Bias, Shy Cookie, El-b and Artwork (Arthur Smith of DND), who inspired a new generation of producers such as Skream, Benga, Kode9 and Digital Mystikz to create what is now known as Dubstep.
A current scene of people offshooting from Dubstep, taking it back to its UK Garage roots and fusing it with futuristic and often very off kilter modern production styles and more is often called Future Garage. The term was coined by Sub.FM boss Whistla, and proves to be very controversial with a lot of producers given the tag. Some notable innovators include Whistla, Submerse, Sully, Littlefoot, Erra, Kingthing as well established artists from other areas such as Duncan Powell, Falty DL, Monz etc.
Some UK Garage/Grime/Bassline/Dubstep producers are leaning towards a newer evolution called UK Funky, often misnamed Funky House, a term for commercial House music. UK Funky takes production values from many different shades of UK Garage music and blends them, at a standard House Music
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...
tempo, with tribal style percussion. There are many different takes on Funky, including producers such as Apple, Champion, Lil Silva, Roska and Scratcha DVA, who have a harder, more syncopated sound, and other producers aiming for a more commercial, RNB friendly audience, such as Crazy Cousinz.
Early 2011 saw the start of a gradual resurgence of 2 step Garage; producer, Mike Delinquent (previously part of the Bassline
Bassline house
Bassline is a type of music related to UK garage that originated from speed garage, and shares characteristics with fellow subgenres dubstep and grime for their emphasis on bass. The style originated in Sheffield around 2002....
/UKG group, Delinquent) has been seen as a driving force behind the revival, with DJ's such as MistaJam
MistaJam
MistaJam is an award-winning DJ and Radio presenter for BBC Radio 1, joining in 2008 and BBC Radio 1Xtra, joining in 2005.His show on BBC Radio 1, taglined the "Saturday Night Soundclash", is broadcast on Saturday nights between 11pm - 1am and is simulcast on BBC Radio 1Xtra. The show is part of...
, Annie Nightingale
Annie Nightingale
Anne "Annie" Nightingale MBE is an English radio broadcaster. She is most commonly known by the more informal name of Annie...
but more specifically Annie Mac
Annie Mac
Annie Mac is an Irish DJ and television presenter who hosts an eponymous electronic dance music show on BBC Radio 1 in the United Kingdom which airs at 7:00 pm on Friday evenings as well as a Sunday evening show alongside co-presenter Nick Grimshaw.-Personal life:Annie Mac was born in Dublin,...
has been quoted on her 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...
show stating that he's "single handedly bringing Garage back
." A song called 'Out Of Control' featuring KCAT and Donae'o has received airplay on KISS Radio and BBC Radio 1Xtra. There has been an gradual increase in demand for UK Garage remixes of chart songs. And producers (i.e. Wookie, MJ Cole, Zed Bias
Zed Bias
Zed Bias is an English electronic musician who operates within the UK garage and broken beat genres, both as a producer and a DJ. Jones has also released material under the pseudonym Maddslinky, and is half of the Phuturistix duo, as well as other side projects.Zed Bias is best known for his...
and Artful
Mark Hill
Mark Hill is a British recording artist, songwriter and record producer. He rose to fame as one half of the Artful Dodger and co-writer/producer of Craig David's multi platinum album, Born To Do It....
(Mark Hill, formerly one half of Artful Dodger)) from when UK Garage was at its peak have made a return to the scene, by producing tracks more with a 2step feel.