THE UK HAS LONG BEEN at THE FOREFRONT OF POPULAR MUSIC. BY takING INFluENCES FROM ITS DIVERSE COMMUNITIES, ITS NEWEST RISING stars ARE PRODUCING A TRULY INTErnatIONAL SOUND. ROBIN FEARON INVESTIGatES. © Xxxx usic fans worldwide know Britain’s reputation as a place where musical ideas take seed, grow and are musiciansM with the exportedvision to joinacross and the create globe. their These own musical communities.fertile Nowhere isles are is thisrich successterritory more for young obvious than in the UK’s urban music scene. Hip hop and rap may be an American import, but Britain’s MCs have married it to musical styles such as electronica, garage and underground grime to create new genres of their own. Artists such as Mercury Award-winner Dizzee Rascal, The Streets, Roots Manuva and Sway have imprinted the UK charts with their beats and rhymes. Just one example of a musical style which has originated in the UK is drum and bass (or ‘d&b’). The electronic dance music, which originated in the UK, combines fast broken beat drums with a strong bassline and has had an influence on popular music the world over. Pendulum, the biggest act in drum and bass right now, is no cosmopolitan Londoner, but a native of Perth in Australia – proving the genre’s ability to span continents. Singer, songwriter ACTION FIGURE and artist, M.I.A.Left So how do ideas born in bedroom producers’ home studios bloom into a music scene and take flight? Best www.educationuk-in.org | CLUB UK | 89 O BE THE HOME ‘WHILE I STILL CONSIDERY LONDON T OF DRUM ANDCOM bassE TRUL, IT HAS BE INTErnatIONAL’ ask someone who’s been involved ‘It has to be real and if you’re an artist Above solely confined to London, either. YT’s UK rap star Roots Manuva herself. Mathinga ‘Maya’ Arulpragasam, it has to be a reflection of the life song ‘England Story’ which gives the otherwise known as the recording you’ve lived, your opinions and how album its name is the produce of Mark © Deidre O’Callaghan © Deidre artist M.I.A, is a graduate of the UK’s they work with society today to make Hull from East Anglia. Central Saint Martins College of Art them relevant,’ she insists. and Design. The former film student Jamie Collinson is label manager has spent the best part of the last four Maya’s first love with hip hop came of Big Dada, home of British rap years dissolving genres and rebuilding from the opposite side of the Atlantic sensation Roots Manuva and Florida them into something unique. and US bands such as Public Enemy, producer Diplo. He says the mix of but after that came ragga and styles ranging from the template of US Born in Hounslow, Maya left London UK-based Jamaican rap. ‘It seemed hip hop to the Kingston-Jamaica vibe aged six months for Sri Lanka, the more British,’ she says. ‘There were of ragga and dancehall makes the UK country of her father. She named her Jamaicans who were just coming over scene much more innovative. first album Arular after her father in and it was just really pure, whereas hip acknowledgment of the influence hop was what we got from America. ‘That Jamaican vein has run through her heritage had on her. ‘I knew how Ragga had the island mentality to it.’ the whole scene and it came back the underground and street culture strongly with acts like Roots Manuva,’ worked,’ she told Designer Magazine. A RICH TaPESTRY says Jamie. ‘When grime happened ‘I grew up with hip hop and stuff. I It’s a movement that has bred a few years ago, with [UK hip hop learned a lot of English through hip confidence into the British scene. artists] Dizzee Rascal and Wiley, it hop because it was like someone Rather than emulate the success of diversified things even more. UK rap speaking with force.’ US music labels such as Def Jam, music turned towards garage and hardly possible in Britain’s different drum and bass for influences. M.I.A’s music is a dizzying mix of tribal environment (the culture being too beats, sirens and bass frequencies far removed), Caribbean immigrants Grime was really exciting and that illustrates influences as diverse poured their own flavour into the UK’s completely original, a way of as bhangra, rap and Brazilian baile musical melting pot. developing British art forms. Believe funk in equal measures. Working with me, there’s no point trying to copy top producers such as Timbaland The album An England Story on the the Americans because we’ll never do and Florida’s DJ Diplo has helped her Soul Jazz label tells the story of that better. If you visit London you’ll shape an innovative sound, but her Caribbean influence on every vital notice a rich tapestry of sounds in the lyrics talk of real-life issues such as musical style since the mid-1980s. background and that works its way the dangers of guns in Africa. Despite what you may think, it isn’t into the music that comes from here.’ 90 | CLUB UK | www.educationuk-in.org SOUND OF THE UNDERGROUND THERE ARE PEOPLE FROM FRANCE, SCANDINA ALL OVER THE WORLD VIA AND WHO COME T OUT THE MUSIC SCENE O CHE CK CREATIVE CAPITAL ‘Drum and bass was an exciting, ‘This is a capital city with a lot of London-centric British movement,’ creative industries and it’s easier to says Chris. ‘That has all changed make connections,’ Jamie adds. ‘There now and it’s a good thing. While I still Above left Tony Colman of band are people from France, Scandinavia consider London to be the home of London Elektricity and all over the world who come drum and bass, it has become truly Above right US-born DJ Diplo to check out the music scene. In international. That’s why it’s so strong. my opinion we have to continue to It’s moved away from north London, encourage and develop original UK to Sao Paulo with DJ Marky, as well musical forms, because trying to as to Australia and New Zealand imitate anything else is unhealthy.’ with Pendulum. Hip hop may be strongest in the In a way these are odd aspects, UK’s capital, London, but drum and but they’re real,’ he continues. ‘It’s bass has spread to the four corners 2008, this scene is 15 years old and of Britain and beyond without a it is established. What matters is that backward glance. Labels like Ram, V, this music is more enduring than Full Cycle, Good Looking, Hospital, most other contemporary electronic Breakbeat Kaos and Formation are music styles.’ all producing a different sound. Without exception they are small, Chris explains that the scene’s innovative, independent labels with an push through traditional borders international audience. is managed by embracing new technologies as they become Chris Goss studied design at available. It’s now possible to produce university with thoughts of working in a track on a laptop in six hours and advertising. However, his career has send it to a DJ on the other side of taken a different turn as he now heads the world to be played hours later. the UK’s Hospital Records. London He refuses to call the music ‘urban’, Elektricity is the label’s biggest preferring simply ‘dance music’. act. The music is funky, soulful and uplifting, evolving out of a wide variety ‘It’s not necessarily urban music,’ Chris of dance music styles. insists. ‘Drum and bass is entirely www.educationuk-in.org | CLUB UK | 91 SOUND OF THE UNDERGROUND 92 | CLUB UK | www.educationuk-in.org SOUND OF THE UNDERGROUND URBAN LISTENING BENGA Diary of an Afro Warrior Tempa (2008) DIZZEE RASCAL Maths and English XL (2007) BURIAL Untrue ‘iT’S part OF What MAKES THIS COUNTRY AND MODERN Hyperdub MUSIC EXCITING. PEOPLE ARE CONTInuallY COMING (2007) UP WITH NEW FORMS, NEW IDEAS. I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE What HAPPENS NEXT’ M.I.A. Kala multicultural. It is whatever you ‘It is amazing and exciting.’ Chris XL want it to be.’ continues. ‘Burial clearly has raw (2007) talent and is highly original. He is LONDON CALLING not someone who is making music Solo musician and label partner Tony because he thinks he’s going to get Colman is the man behind London an article in a magazine. He’s just LONDON ELEKTRICITY Elektricity. His new album will be doing what he does and Hyperdub Billion Dollar Gravy available in autumn 2008. He says [his label] is putting it out there.’ Hospital (2003) London’s hand in music is still strong: ‘There is a huge sense of cultural REAL LIFE history for drum and bass here, there The music itself is equal parts urban- is so much going on. There are big influence and poetry, its low basslines SKREAM Skream! events, a large community and lots and vocals echo of a modern era. Tempa of musicians who gravitate here from (2006) around the world. Hospital Records ‘Something happens when I hear the is going through a great spell at the subs, the rolling drums and vocals moment, but the pressure is there to together,’ said Burial, in an interview keep it fresh and interesting.’ with The Wire. ‘To me it’s like a pure UK style of music. I wanted to make It is advice that up-and-coming tunes based on what UK underground musicians would do well to follow. hardcore tunes mean to me, and I The pick of London’s current new want a dose of real life in there too, music scenes include the dubstep something people can relate to.’ scene – a bass-heavy spin-off from the garage genre.