artist : El-B
title : The Roots of El-B
label : Tempa
cat# : TEMPACD012
genre : Bass
street date : 2009-00-00
tracks : 15
bitrate : 148 kbps avg. 44.1/Joint Stereo
size : 83.06 mb
source : CD
type : Retail
url : http://www.tempa.co.uk
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For all the non-vinyl heads and those who had their tastes piqued by the
doublepack, your wait is over, as the Roots Of El-B CD compilation arrives
just in time for the first warm breeze of spring. The Martin "Blackdown"
Clarke compiled retrospective covers the work of Lewis Beadle aka El-B with
a killer 15 track compilation of ultra rare white labels and lost remixes
from his 2000-2002 halcyon days. As history now tells us, garage emerged
as the UK's urban music style of choice after the dominance of drum'n'bass
in the mid-late nineties, but during this transition period a young crew
calcified around producer El-B and his Ghost recordings label out of
Streatham, South London, acting as the missing link between the two styles.
El-B combined the spacious flex of jungle and D'n'B's dynamic rhythms with
the slink and slide of Garage style production techniques and tempos to
create a typically UK centric and idiosyncratic dance music. Most notably,
many of these cuts have never appeared on CD before. 'The Club' was the first
release on Ghost Records, backed with the equally seminal 'Bison' and 'Two
Thousand' produced with J Da Flex, it defined a tougher and more focussed
direction for Garage in paralell with the nascent production of Zed Bias who
was carving out a similar niche at the time. Released in 2001 for garage
powerhouse Locked On, 'Serious' hooked up with MC Rolla for a sharp shock of
millenial futurism with deadly bass licks and tucked polyrhythmic kinks that
blew the rest of the crowd out of the club, while 'Express' solidifies garage
rhythms into a mad effective minimalism with a paucity of elements pivoting
around those clocking wood blocks that have come to influence a whole
generation of dubstep and post-dubstep producers. While tracks like 'Digital'
take hardstepping Ed Rush D'n'B styles and reconfigure them for a slinkier
tempo, his classic refix of Zed Bias' 'Neighborhood' swings in the opposite
direction with a legendary revision of a garage staple with pure feminine
pressure. Without the push from Martin Clarke, tracks like the killer
'Cruiser' or 'Among The Stars' may never have seen the light of day again,
or recieved such a high profile presence so it's thanks to all involved
with this project for bringing it to the wider attention of the world.
Fans of Burial, Martyn, Pangaea, Untold, Brackles, Zed Bias or the new
wave of steppin' bass music, this is as essential as they come!
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01 Ghost - The Club 5:29
02 Ghost - 2000 5:18
03 El-B - Express 5:17
04 El-B - Show A Little Love (feat. Simba & Juiceman) 5:44
05 Ghost - Lyrical Tempo 4:59
06 El-B - Digital (feat. Juiceman) 5:17
07 El-B - Buck n Bury (feat. Juiceman) 5:04
08 Zed Bias - Time Out (El-B Remix) 5:37
09 Zed Bias - Neighbourhood (El-B Remix) 4:54
10 Brasstooth - Celebrate Life (El-B Remix) 5:00
11 El-B - Serious (feat. Rolla) 5:38
12 El-B - Cuba 4:52
13 El-B - Cruiser 5:31
14 El-B - Amazon 4:57
15 El-B - Among The Stars 4:38
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