Tempo Tantrum's blog

RIP Colin Faver

Sad news emanating from social media last week - namely that Colin Faver had passed away. His show on London's Kiss FM in the early 90s was a mecca for burgeoning dance music heads, and brought together all the different strains of the scene at that time, from Dutch and US techno through to emerging UK hardcore.

Along with the likes of Colin Dale and Steve Jackson, be brought the rave sound to a whole generation of eager kids at a time when mainstream radio was completely ignoring this paradigm shift in youth culture.

Digging a bit deeper into his CV, it seems Colin had played a big part in the underground scene as a whole throughout the 80s, working at Small Wonder Records (which signed the likes of The Cure and Bauhaus) while holding down a residency at Camden Palace.

That he made the switch to Acid house when it took off in the UK says much about the open-mindedness of many scene-creating DJs from those days - a far cry from the often purist myopia of the modern DJ/Producer.

The outpouring of tweets and facebook comments show that the man was held in high esteem. Perhaps it was his understated presentation style that simply let the music do the talking. Here's a rip from one of his 1992 shows on Kiss 100 FM, which features 'The Horn Track', a classic by Tim Taylor (Egyptian Empire), and here remixed by Micky Finn.

 

 "One time for the foghorn" 

 

 

The Heritage Orchestra perform Goldie's Timeless at the Royal Festival Hall

London's Meltdown Festival, curated by James Lavelle, has scaled new heights. Almost 19 years on from its release, it was a truly uplifting experience sitting in the Royal Festival Hall last night to hear Goldie's DnB album Timeless performed live by The Heritage Orchestra. I say sitting, but the majority of the audience were standing, swaying and skanking out to these ageless tracks.

The performers struck a fine balance between the subtlety and savagery that are the hallmarks of Goldie's material, and tracks such as "This is a bad" and "Kemistry" (originally released in November 1992) sounded fresher than ever. The drumming deserves a special mention - Adam Betts visibly relished a challenge that was made for him and drew gasps of admiration as soon as the first snares sounded. 

Full credit to everyone involved in this project, not least the inimitable Goldie himself - who marauded across the stage at various points - but also The Heritage Orchestra members, who reinvigorated this era-defining album in a way few could have imagined ahead of the night. I look forward to following their projects in the future. 

Deep inside the jungle

A common theme is emerging on this occasional blog, namely just how good the now venerable history of UK bass music is. I spend a lot of time listening to old DnB nuggets from the nineties, so was pleased to discover a great group on Facebook - Long live beautifully crafted Jungle! - following a tip-off.

Knowledge levels are red hot on this page, with plenty of like-minded peeps congregating to share various blasts from the plast, typically undercover numbers from the 92-97 timeframe. Great to see some heavy producers getting ongoing props - Source Direct's material, for one, is receiving plenty of love. Here's one of their deeper grooves from the golden era of jungle:

 

At a time when bass frequencies seem to have infiltrated every form of electronica, paving the way for ever more reiterations of house templates with subby undertones, it's good to be reminded of the originators, whose work was years ahead of its time.

It's also reassuring to know that passion levels for these sounds remain high, extending well beyond the anthems of the era and ensuring a lively second-hand market on Discogs.

Fresh DnB fuelled by a passion for the past

Drum and Bass has been alive and kicking for some twenty years now. While the pace of innovation may have slowed somewhat in the last decade or so, there's no doubting that the DnB sound has cemented its status, both as a revolutionary musical statement and a mainstay of the electronica scene.

For many, the early days of jungle remain the movement's heyday. Over the years, many producers - both newcomers and scene stalwarts - have turned to early-to-mid 90s classics for inspiration, with varying degrees of success. Here's one of the best ones, a rolling number from Digital released in 2000, but which references an earlier DnB template:

 

Fast forward to 2013, and DJ Vapour is breathing new life into the genre with some well-chosen inflections from the '93 era. Allied to modern production values, his sets echo the sounds of the scene as it moved from hardcore to jungle. Warm, rippling basslines and chopped-up beats are the order of the day.

Check out this mix, pulled together by the man himself for Knowledge Magazine. Tough but rolling, it features some tidy remixes of old skool tracks by the likes of Bay B Kane and Cool Hand Flex. 

DJ Vapour Guest Mix for Kmag

Proper!

Tempo Tantrum @ Vibe Bar, London - Fri 12th April with Qualifide, Reza, Xerxes and DJ Logic

We're back at the Vibe Bar on Brick Lane, London for our next instalment of beats and bass.

Expect an April appetiser of bass music at various tempos. This time round, we welcome the one and only Qualifide. One of the leading lights of the UK garage scene, more recently he's been winning plaudits as part of Compound One, who put out a very tasty remix of Joe Goddard's track "Gabriel":

 

Meanwhile, Reza and Xerxes will be on the case with their 130bpm behaviour - and we've also got dubstepfm.co.uk's DJ Logic on the bill to lay down some bass. The full line-up is:

Qualifide (Compound One)
Reza
Xerxes
DJ Logic
Ed Max
Matt Juice

Host: Jon Audio

Date: Friday 12th April
Venue: Upstairs at Vibe Bar, 91-95 Brick Lane, London E1 6Q1
Time: 8pm-1am
Admission: £5 all night

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Tempo Tantrum @ Vibe Bar, London - Fri 8th Feb with Jeremy Sylvester, Jerona Fruits, Reza and Xerxes

Happy New Year! We're back for our first night of 2013, genre-hopping out on the east side of London town at the legendary Vibe Bar on Brick Lane.

Expect a February feast of bass, house and DnB as we serve up the platters that matter with the help of some special guests, namely UK garage godfather Jeremy Sylvester and TT favourites Jerona Fruits. The line-up on the night consists of:

Jeremy Sylvester
Jerona Fruits
Reza
Xerxes
Matt Juice
B_Sic
Hoover McGavin

Host: Jon Audio

Date: Friday 8th February
Venue: Upstairs at Vibe Bar, 91-95 Brick Lane, London E1 6Q1
Time: 8pm-1am
Admission: £5 all night

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Jeremy Sylvester - Rush

Tempo Tantrum @ The Garage, London - Sat 6th Oct with Appleblim, Cooly G, Fabio, Horsepower Productions, Altered Natives and more

As mentioned before, we are back with a big line-up at The Garage, London on Saturday 6th October.

We've drafted in a whole heap of exciting acts for one serious bass session, with Appleblim, Cooly G, Horsepower Productions and Altered Natives all taking the reins in the main room. Also on the bill is the legendary Fabio, who will be rolling out some classic jungle, while Coda will bring their live dubstep to the party. Residents Reza and Xerxes will curate audio matters to complete the Room 1 line-up.

Over in Room 2, TT favourites Jerona Fruits and Kyshido will be dropping some classics on the DnB tip with residents B_Sic and Matt Juice also ready with some housey numbers. Meanwhile, Craylo is on duty with a downtempo selection in Room 3, with additional guests set to be announced...

Here are the details - early bird £8 tickets are on sale now!

Date: Saturday 6th October 2012
Venue: The Garage, London N5 1RD
Time: 10pm-6am
Admission: £8 (early bird)/£10 in advance +BF... more on the door
Ticket web: http://goo.gl/qla3K
Resident Advisor: http://goo.gl/SH5Fr

Room 1 - Bass Music

APPLEBLIM
COOLY G
ALTERED NATIVES
HORSEPOWER PRODUCTIONS
FABIO (JUNGLE SET)
CODA (LIVE)
REZA & XERXES

Room 2 - DnB/House

JERONA FRUITS
KYSHIDO
B_SIC
MATT JUICE
DJ INERTIA
SOLO PROJECT
ALEX AVERY

Room 3 - Downtempo

CRAYLO and GUESTS

Visuals: VOLVO

 

Date for your diary - Sat 6th Oct 2012

After a bit of a summer break, we are back with a bang in the Autumn. Plans are afoot for a Tempo Tantrum night in London, this time at the Garage in Islington. More details to come - but it promises to be a heavy night, with acts across two rooms.

Watch this space!

Old school hardcore twenty years on

It's now twenty years since rave music began its mutation away from its house and techno roots into what became jungle.

The pace of change has slowed considerably since then but it's always good to hark back to some of those off-the-wall tracks, where a host of often disparate sounds are crammed into 5 minutes and the bpm count started its relentless march upwards.

Here's a remix of 1991 Manix track "Special Request" by 4 Hero:

  

Some serious samples and synths in this one. While the original is probably better known, this remix is hardcore at its most uncompromising...

Leftfield and Friends

Next stop for us is Leftfield and Friends on Sat 21st April at Brixton Academy. We last played for them on their UK tour in 2010 so looking forward to another session, this time packed with a heap of big acts. The event is for Warchild, so all for a very worthy cause...

...if you missed out on tickets for this event, then do check out the after-party, down the road at Plan B. We're hosting one of the rooms, so expect a selection of bass, house, dubstep, jungle and all the rest of the good stuff.