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Bad men talk sense >>
Drum
& bass extraterrestrials Bad Company make a point of entry in Montreal
Mirror:
It seemed like a lot of people were really shitting on the state of
drum & bass not even a year ago. I heard people saying, “drum
& bass is dead,” a lot, but the tracks just kept coming. Fresh: It’s
like how everybody is talking about legalizing weed, now. It takes a
while for people to clock on and really do the sensible thing. M: So what’s
the sensible thing to do with drum & bass? F: Listen
to it. Vegas: Enjoy
it. Don’t get all fucking deep and twisted on it. F: Dance
music is the music of youth culture, and drum & bass is the punk
of dance music. It’s always changing. M: Do you
think tracks are going to get any faster then they already are? F: No. I
don’t think so. V: I hope
not. F: I think
everybody in the scene shares the same view, and this comes up a lot.
It’s getting too fast. It’s all down to the producers and
what speed they program the tracks at, y’know? V: It’s
all about the point of entry. There’s a lot of producers who enter
the scene from going out to hear DJs play. Like, a DJ will play a track
recorded at 170 bpm slightly faster, at about 175 or 176 bpm. A punter
goes to the party and hears the track at 176 and goes home to make tracks
that fast. It gets pressed and sold, and then another DJ will pitch
it up again when he’s playing out, you see what I mean? M: Definitely. F: I reckon
a lot of people have a consciousness about the speed problem, if you
will (laughs). Breakbeat garage is now filling up the space left by
hardcore drum & bass, for the people who got lost with the speed.
Right now, drum & bass is at quite a good tempo because it’s
exactly double the speed of hip hop and slower music, so it’s good
for working with vocals. M: Do you
guys consider yourselves leaders or followers when it comes time to
produce? F: We’re
from another planet, man! V: Another galaxy! : With C-Rat vs.
Krinjah, Sase One, Jack Beetz, Insomniak, Jorah Kai, Mini and more at
the WHAT?! Party on Saturday, Jan. 12, $20 in advance, location tba
(call 302-4424 for info) |
Long,
long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, four alien life forms decided it
was time that the rest of the cosmos got a taste of where they were
coming from. London, England’s D Bridge, Maldini, Fresh and Vegas
embarked on a journey that was to take them to the centre of the known
drum & bass universe and—well, Ottawa. As Bad Company tread
lightly on the Canadian Massive, touring hot on the heels of their latest
not-so-evil release Book of the Bad Vol. 3: Libri Improbus (!), the
Mirror was able to speak with Fresh and Vegas from a hotel in our nation’s
capital, where they were being held captive.