ALWAYS EVERYTHING

FOOTCRABBIN

This was my column for the epigram t’other week. Hard not to seem voyeuristic/interlopery when you try and condense over a decade’s dance music development into a teeny-tiny space, but I gave it a good shot. Reading a recent interview with Kode9 where he made fun of online journalism making out that there’s a game changing paradigm shift every month in dance music made me think of the first sentence and cringe pretty badly… 

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Another month goes by, another subgenre gets absorbed into the ever expanding continuum of UK bass music. The culprit? Bristol’s very own Addison Groove né Headhunter. Though formerly the creator of distinctively Bristolian technoid dubstep hybrids, with the arrival of the anthemic Footcrab a transatlantic flavour has been thrown into the mix courtesy of Chicago Juke.

Juke’s lineage can be traced fairly straightforwardly from Chicago House’s beginnings, though a creative explosion in a new generation of producers sent it careening headlong into pastures entirely unfamiliar for any fans of classic house. Whilst house producer Jesse Saunders’ label Dance Mania didn’t enjoy the immediate success of peers like Trax Records and DJ International during the eighties, it was in the mid 90s it began to come into is own through its Ghetto House releases. Key players in this era like DJ Slugo, DJ Deeon and DJ Nehpets crafted unique booty bass anthems centred around extremely minimal jacking house beats and comically explicit, sex-filled vocals. The tracks were simplistic but groove filled, an R-rated upgrade of Hip House and pure dancefloor fire.

It was after ghetto house that juke came into being. Turning the hip house dynamic  on its head, the music transformed into 160bpm manic double time hip hop, with skittering 909 toms and triplet bass drum patterns creating an unhinged, barely held together energy. Retaining some of ghetto house’s simplicity, tiny chunks of hip hop bars are endlessly repeated, the only stable element in a completely volatile music. Its almost reminiscent of jungle, if only for its incredible, unrestrained rhythmic freedom. People like DJ Nate, RP Boo and DJ Rashad appear to be operating with complete disregard to any traditional dance music rules, some too young to really know what they are anyway. Samples from anywhere they can be found are haphazardly applied and fall over the edges, whilst some of the production is speaker blowingly rough. Unfortunately the scene is incredibly insular, seeing little released outside of Chicago. In fact youtube videos of dance battles are essentially the only way to hear it here, search for Wolf Pac TS vs Creation for some mind boggling action.

Its this energy that Addison Groove harnesses for the explosive Footcrab 12”. Brought down to a more dubstep friendly tempo, the tracks augment traditional sub heavy tropes with some brilliant 808 work and one of the most unforgettable hooks of the year. Sample-happy yet imbued with more emotional weight than most juke, its certainly a unique beast. Its adoption by everybody from Scuba to Bok Bok, plus certified anthem status at Bloc Weekend and DMZ has ensured that juke’s influence will be felt in the UK this year. In fact, with Hyperdub’s Ikonika planning to release juke bits on her new label and Night Slugs repping with Girl UNIT’s IRL, it seems likely that more and more people will catch the bug.

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Been pretty lax with this blog recently, but big plans are afoot for a large scale overhaul, v. exciting