Inayet Motara
The man responsible for rocketing breakbeat’s 1990s incarnation,” jungle” into the popular arena, Goldie, will be playing this weekend at the annual Camel Experience rave party. He’ll top the bill with France’s flamboyant pop diva, Grace Jones.
Currently one of the coolest cultural icons to come out of the United Kingdom, Goldie is an accomplished producer and DJ, with two superb albums under his belt. Saturnz Return was released last year to mixed reviews and Timeless was released in 1995 to immediate and widespread acclaim. The latter, unlike most techno that is packaged to suit small niche markets, was distributed through FFRR (London Records) and reached a massive international audience.
Almost inevitably, the Goldie media extravaganza took off – partly because of the musical experiment, but mostly because of his gansta-rap bad boy looks and array of frightening gold teeth. Here was a pop image that could rival the baddest glock-toting rap artist from across the Atlantic.
The British media have appropriated him as yet another example of their innovative dominance in the pop world and every aspect of his life has been scrutinised. From his engagement to that immaculate crooner Bjrk to fashion shoots with him brandishing his semi- automatic handgun, he has been moulded into the coolest hardcore muthafucka around and somewhere along the line the focus has shifted from his musical concepts to the face that can sell takkies and T-shirts.
So what? You’re probably thinking that this is just another rave DJ playing at just another rave for speed-freak teenagers who think they’re at the cutting edge of pop, right? Well, you would be partly right considering that the Camel Experience does attract that sort of crowd. However, you would be wrong about this particular DJ. The difference lies in the music. Unlike your run-of-the-mill, push-button techno, drum’n’bass does not rely on the monotonous 4/4 time scale that characterises house and techno records.
Where those styles might have been groundbreaking 10 years ago – mostly by contributing the sampler, turntable and mixer as acceptable musical instruments instead of accessories – drum’n’bass has taken the entire genre to the next step by including the software on that list.
Here’s how: your average house track propels itself along simple beat structures that come at you at around 125bpm to 140bpm (beats per minute), well within the range of any acoustic drummer. With drum’n’bass, however, the percussion rockets at you at an alarming 160bpm to 200bpm or more, carried primarily by high-hats and snares in much the same way that bebop did earlier this century.
The rest of the musical overlay, including the kick drum, is then played at half the speed of the percussion. The result is at once frantic and sedate and, to quote Bjrk, has resulted in “the marriage of the gentle and hardcore”.
Since it’s not conceivable for any acoustic percussionist to perform at 200bpm, drum’n’bass musicians have turned to sequencing software for answers. Within any music software package lies the possibility of 320 clocks, or points of entry, between each beat, thus obliterating the standard 4/4, 3/4 musical timing. Today’s drum’n’bass musicians have harnessed this potential to artistic ends. It’s a style of music that, since 1995, has morphed into various branches and offshoots – from ambient, jazzy varieties to manically hard darkcore camps. Somewhere in-between these poles lies Goldie.
With so many raves and so many third- rate washed-out DJs being punted as gods on earth, it’s great to get the opportunity to sample one of the decade’s more exciting products.
Goldie plays at the Camel Experience rave in Cape Town at HQ Acacia on September 23 and in Johannesburg at Gallagher Estate on September 25