10 Saturday, August 16, 2014 www.thenational.ae The National thereview The National thereview Saturday, August 16, 2014 www.thenational.ae 11 this week’s essential reading { ‘A raised voice: how Nina Simone turned ‘The feelings she displayed in the 1960s, pain, anger, a desire for revenge, made her seem the movement into music,’ by Claudia at times emotionally disturbed and at others, the most honest black woman in America’ music { Roth Pierpont, Newyorker.com playlist From the annals of the ‘hardcore continuum’, four influential titles to wrap your ears around

Various Artists Rhythmic Hardcore: U Know the Score, November 2001

A solid two-CD survey of formative rave anthems by 4hero, Omni Trio, 2 Bad Mice and more – the beginning of the “hardcore continuum”. connectivity Either cheesy or a trip down memory lane depending on whether you’ve ever queued to get into a disused factory.

Hyperdub, which turned 10 this year, is a record Various Artists label that continues to turn the DNA of electronic Platinum Breakz, music inside out, writes Andy Battaglia July 1996 The hyperdub mastermind DNA is a twisty, intertwined affair. proffer a state in which both diagno- Somewhere in the intersecting cir- Kode9 got into electronic Just take a look at a double helix. So ses are true. The great flash of action cles of such extremes is the sound of music via jungle and drum ’n’ imagine that, all coiled and contort- has passed and yet it somehow also Hyperdub as it now exists on a series bass of the kind compiled on ed and bent, twisted even more. From flashes on. There is reason to revel of new 10th-anniversary releases. this survey of Metalheadz, the a certain angle it might be ugly or in the contradictions, and there are Each is a compilation with its own label founded by Goldie and strange; from another, it might make sounds to accompany them in their stated theme and each tells elements Kemistry & Storm in 1994. for an arrangement more beautiful state of grace or disgrace, whichever of a story still in the process of work- than can fully be explained. Either might apply. ing itself out. The UK-based label is cred- way, it will be complex, complicated The Hyperdub tale begins with a “I’m fascinated by rhythmic collec- ited with bringing jungle and and interconnected. Scottish man, Steve Goodman, who tivity, whether it’s pleasurable or not Steve Goodman, known as Kode9, first started posting electronic music material to the Hyperdub website. Courtesy Maximilian Montgomery / Hyperdub records drum ‘n’ bass to the masses. The label started 10 years ago from has come to be known under the – just people moving together, differ- roots in the information stream. Hy- mantle Kode9. At first, he was one of ently, in time,” Goodman said to The perdub was originally a website de- many smart and heady followers of Wire magazine in 2009. War II army battalions and newfan- of experimental dance music, but transmitted through blast-from-the- Various Artists voted to developments in UK dance electronic music, who started post- “I just think there’s something very gled ultrasonic insect alarms. then also radically stranger than just past keyboards and antic beats from music as it evolved from the early ing material to a ­Hyperdub website fundamental or basic that comes It is also as good an introduction as about anything else going. times still ahead. Sound of the Pirates, cataclysms of rave into jungle, drum around the arrival of 2-step garage. ­before any political affiliation, any to the Hyperdub world, which re- The effect can be subtle and sly and, The third compilation in the series July 2000 ‘n’ bass, 2-step garage, grime, dub- The genre, minted with a bright, ideological affiliation, almost un- mains open and inviting to both cer- every so often, explosive, as it is in is Hyperdub 10.3, which focuses on step and so on. This, among people shiny and approachable sound in derneath social categories, a basic ebral partisans and those who might Spaceape by the gnomic artist Burial. ambient music from various releases The fertile early-’00s genre seriously ­devoted to the study of such London around the turn of 2000, of- model of what a collective is ... people not be compelled to think about Burial is the biggest act in the Hyper- in the past. This would ostensibly be known as 2-step garage is the things, is known as the “hardcore fered an intoxicating way into the coming together, joined by one thing, sound as more than mere ­material dub world by far, and yet his haunted, the lightest entry, with weightless focus of this exhilarating DJ mix ­continuum”. hardcore continuum and all its re- rhythm. The way I see it, rhythm is for entertainment. To mark ten years hallowed minimal dubstep sounds ambience the order for the occasion by Zed Bias, with classics by Take the earliest rave music from fracted, but interrelated, storylines. something that joins things.” of Hyperdub for all, the label is releas- very much in line with the rest, even but its effects can be heavy and devas- Azzido Da Bass, Artful Dodger, the early 1990s, identified in its time And then, with the onset of so much It is a simple statement that is at ing a series of themed compilations, when it’s far apart. tating. Kode9 & The Spaceape’s Hole El-B, Wookie and more. It’s the as “hardcore”, and from that follows brightness, came an interest in the once basic and profound. The no- with three already released and an- “I definitely think Burial has had a in the Sky is all sadness and dashed hugely successful music pro- an extraordinary tale of musical ex- opposite: dark, moody, melancholy tion that rhythm is an agent for other two yet to come. big effect on aspects of popular mu- hopes but somehow life-affirmingly pansion and mutation. Rhythms music with a pent-up sense of dread ­connectivity or change requires a de- The first special memento is a two- sic, in terms of people imitating him, so, and Laurel Halo’s Melt sounds like ducer’s first mix album and an shifted, tones and timbres­ changed, and a pronounced dystopian streak. votion to music that goes beyond idle CD set, titled Hyperdub 10.1, which but also being more open to stuff plaintive theme music to a despairing attempt to toughen 2-step after patterns arranged­ themselves only to creation and consumption. Indeed, it offers a mix of new tracks and high- that’s dark, melancholy and, most movie from a forgotten age. That it all mainstream success. be torn apart and reassembled. requires great faith in purpose, too. lights from the catalogue during the importantly, overtly emotional,” works so well, and so resonantly in All of it happened over the course of In the same interview, Goodman past five years. The focus goes to the Goodman told the website Pitchfork. connection with the rest of the label’s just a few years – and then it ended. Or referred to the late German media label’s “dance floor dimension”, and The emotional part of that goes to wares, upholds Hyperdub’s conten- Burial at least that’s what some observers theorist Friedrich Kittler (no raver, to the most suitable­ term for the occa- the theme of the second anniversary tion that club music need not suit any have suggested of late, by way of fate- be sure), and his suggestion that “our sion is “abstract”.­ compilation, Hyperdub 10.2, which one kind of manner or mood. Untrue, ful pronouncements about the seem- discos are preparing our youth for a DVA’s Mad Hatter starts off the focuses on the label’s liking for futur- In the same retrospective interview November 2007 ing impossibility of truly big new mu- retaliatory strike”. Here we have club 32-track ride with a woozy, whip- istic R&B. Beats still rumble, crack with Pitchfork earlier this year, Good- The keystone album of sical movements now and increasing­ culture as an active zone for physical crack spell of stretching and lurching, and creak but more prominent are man, in a rare bit of self-celebration, Hyperdub so far – a haunting resistance to any meaningful cross- and metaphysical training, dancing and from there it shifts to a steady, slurred vocals and sound effects said, “I’d hope we’ve opened the land- masterpiece to turn to in cultural sway. as an ongoing exercise in getting fit methodical, rhythmic building-block­ geared towards the heart and its scape a bit and made it easier for cer- Others, taking a big-picture view, for whatever the future might yet have structure by the young Detroit techno many movable parts. tain connections between that may times of want and need. disagree. Periods of consistency and in store. acolyte Kyle Hall. By the arrival of Ma- Burial himself figures in with the not have linked otherwise.” Burial aka Will Bevan was stasis are just as significant as times Goodman mentions the same quo- la’s Expected, zoned-out and entirely wistful Shell of Light. Other artists in- They did, and those connec- tipped to win the 2008 of great rupture, they say; there is tation in his book, Sonic Warfare. hypnotising by just the third track in, clude Cooly G, DJ Rashad, Dean Blunt tions are still busy finding new and Mercury Prize for best album. much to be learned from the old, Focused on the subject of sound as a a question arises: how did this all get & Inga Copeland and Jessy Lanza. ­enlightening ways to link up all the In a rare public statement this earthy wisdom­ in the proverbial 10.1 weapon throughout ­history, it is an so weird and otherworldly so fast? Ikonika, aka the London-born pro- more. January, Burial promised new “calm before­ the storm”. Hyperdub academic tract that reads like an ec- The whole Hyperdub world has ducer Sara Abdel-Hamid, takes a tunes to celebrate 10 years of As conversations of the sort have Various artists centric screed, shouting about whis- a way of sounding somewhat con- tack toward retro-futurism with I Andy Battaglia is a regular contributor Hyperdub. progressed, Hyperdub has worked to Dh80 pered connections between World Ikonika. Courtesy Georg Gatas / Hyperdub records ventional, at least within the realm Know (That You Are the 1), a pop tune to The Review.