Intermission: Music.

While you’re waiting, here’s some music to keep you entertained. It’s a UK Garage mix I did last year, focusing on the more abstract, chthonic elements of classical UKG. It’s funky as fuck and has some of my favourite 2step tracks on it.

It’s here at http://www.grievousangel.net/Abstract_2_Step_Mix.mp3.

Track listing:
Dem 2: Keep It Coming
Dem 2: Bad Funk (Big Time Scary Dub)
US Alliance: All I know (Dem 2 Dub)
El B: Digital
Leee John: Your Mind Your Body Your Soul (MJ Cole Mix) /
Wideboys Feat. Rusty: Somethings Got Me Started (Wideboys Breakbeat Dub)
MJ & Rob D: Cum Cakes!
El B: Urban Myth
Headtop: The Matrix
Dem 2: Baby You’re So Sexy (Dub)
Groove Chronicles: Black Puppet
Groove Chronicles: Holiday Da Vybe
M Dubs: For Real (Grievous Angel Twisted Dub)
Top Cat: Gal Dem Sugar
Lady Saw: Bump’n’Grind
ATFC Bad Habit (Grievous Angel Edit)
Artful Dodger / Robbie Craig / Craig David: Woman Trouble
Artful Dodger / Craig David: Drop the Funk

It’s 73 minutes long, and weighs 15Mb. More mixes are coming.

I don’t think there’s anything in there from after 1999, but there might
be one or two nuggets from 2000 I forgot about.

That last, Indian Summer, golden period of dance music before it
collapsed as a creative force… but god did it go out on a high point.
2step was for me the absolute pinnacle of dance music’s creativity.
Techno’s intelligence, house’s propulsive grooviness, r’n’b’s
sensuality, d’n’b’s harshness, ragga’s itality, breakbeat’s sheer poppy
silliness. And if there was ever a better record than Something’s Got Me
Started — soul + abstract breakbeats + plane-taking-off noises — I
never heard it.

There’s a big contrast between this and grime. For one thing, as the new
orthodoxy suggests, grime isn’t dance music. For another, Grime is
pretty monotonous in comparison, cos the backing track is downplayed.
Here, there’s scarcely room for an MC. There’s scarcely room for vocals.

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