Life, music and fashion all run on a continuous repeating loop, which is why in 2009 we're all knocking around looking like extras from a John Hughes (R.I.P) movie...
Being down with the kids is pretty tough, you have to face things you thought you'd safely buried back in the 90's. What's worse is coming to terms with actually liking them. Over the last year Speed Garage and 4x4 have slowly, but none the less forcefully, been creeping into my frontal lobe. My iPod has been dominated by a few young but talented DJ's: Kissy Sell Out, Foamo, A1 Bassline to name a few that have sodomised my ears with music that 10 years earlier would have had me fleeing for the nearest hat pin to perforate my ear drums. A little exaggerated perhaps but 10 years ago I was 15 and teenagers tend to have an all or nothing ethos. Simply put I've been unwittingly listening to a lot of Speed Garage, but it's not the Garage of the 90's, it has had a style update and now it's up beat tempo and all over chirpy disposition makes it perfect ear fodder for the young and raving.
Day glow paint and glow sticks are no longer the articles of the grimy underground, they are at the forefront of the festival and club scene so much so that I spent an afternoon at Field Day and returned home looking like a Stephen Sprouse masterpiece. With the neon has come a happier bouncier side to Garage, gone are the gelled short back and sides and Rockports, the skinny jeans and plimsolls have won the day. In the hands of this new breed of DJ's even the hardest of old school Garage is tweaked and mixed to sound new, fresh and ironically cool. This new life that has been breathed into the genre has been so effective that it is a task beyond my ears to listen to a mix and pick out the new releases from the vintage.
The reason that Speed Garage has been able to crash our party so stealthily is because few DJ's (worth listening to) use the term Garage any more, the genre goes by other monikers and sub-genres, 4x4 and Bassline House being the most prolific. Sheffieldians will tell you that Bassline House is a genre unto itself but only because since the steel industry collapsed the city has little going for it and claiming a music genre of their own is a big deal... just humour them. Sure there are subtle differences between the genres but it's the same as trying to differentiate between the Cheeky Girls, a tough task that no one cares enough about to bother. These "sub" genres are gaining momentum right now and are yet to peak in clubs, but be sure that the latter half of this year will be dominated by 4x4 and Bassline, they are already seeping into the mainstream and it won't be long before Calvin Harris gets his untalented teeth into them.
The appeal of Speed Garage is it's throw away charm; there is nothing special or clever about a speed garage track- a simple and uniform 4x4 beat with some synthesised bass and, if you're lucky, a touch of vocals, lyrically uncomplicated but with a self awareness that lets you forgive it's simplicity and lack of panache. Thinking about it I now wonder what we ever danced to before Garage, everything else seems so serious in comparison... the only thing that comes close is early 80's Italian Disco and sadly that hasn't taken off in the clubs. Electro is obviously danceable, but these days you get the feeling that as a genre it takes itself far too seriously. Deep and Vocal House suffer from the same affliction that Electro does with an added nail in the coffin in that the genre has progressed little in the last 10 years. Hip-Hop and Drum and Bass are out because unless you're a 17yr old driving your Corsa round town then they're totally unacceptable. And that doesn't leave much for the New Rave Warriors does it?
I may have to rename this post - Speed Garage: The Saviour of Dance - because I think it really is.
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