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Tuesday 11 November 2008

The Return of UKG

Underground Garage. Speed Garage. 2Step. Ragage. The Sunday Scene.

It's come a long way from the Paradise Garage, the club that gave it it's name, and it has changed and split into one of the most varied scenes in modern music. A lot of well respected US Garage DJs and producers, most notably Tony Humphries, have rejected the UK's version of Garage, and called it a cop-out from the original New York vibe...



Paradise Garage. 84 King St. New York City, NY.

Coming in 1997 with the first ever Garage tune using an MC over the top inna London Style, Scott Garcia & MC Styles with 'It's A London Thing' changed the way this music was perceived in the UK, more importantly London.




A new breed of music began to emerge after this around '98-'99. MCs would replace or chat alongside vocalists. Tunes like DJ Luck & MC Neat's 'A Little Bit of Luck' and the much hated but classic, 'Casualty' sampled 'Bound 4 Da Reload' by Oxide & Neutrino became the new sound of the UK mainstream. Garage was pop music!

From there we've seen it split into 2Step, Breakbeat Garage, 42DaFloor, Grime, Dubstep, Broken Beat (atticablues, B.I.T.A, Seiji, Domu, Co-Op crew etc..) Bassline, UK Funky etc..


Pete Tong and his crew at 'In New Music We Trust' over at the BBC have put together a 30 minute 'Garage Resurgence' documentary, covering the past and present nature of UKG. It features artists like Scott Garcia, Lisa Mafia, MC Neat, Sweet Female Attitude, Skepta, DJ Spoony, Ras Kwame, Benga and a little piece from me.


It covers why the term 'Garage' was thrown out, and where it is now.


Head over to Pete Tongs page and hit the 'Listen Back' feature, it's up until Thursday, and starts at exactly 15 minutes in.


Pete Tong's BBC Page :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/innewmusicwetrust/petetong/


yagga.

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