beyond the bleep

 

raggatechno-ish tune off the terrific maxi-EP or is it mini-LP Energy on Vinyl

Rhythmatic is a unit with a lot of tunes 

Like this - the Kevin Saunderson sound with monsta sublo bass added

Well actually not a huge tonnage of tunes actually but lotsa remixes of the same tune for sure

Supposedly there was a "stillborn" attempt to do a full album - resulting in this sampler of what was never to come

But then there's Energy on Vinyl, which is '92 and features "Nu Groove" and does almost constitute an album with its 8 tracks - a short-ish album. And there is an attempt to go "beyond the bleep" with a bit of hardcore rave vibe there.

After that a long long silence from Mark Gamble & Leroy Crawford until 2012 

And then in 2016 the Splatter EP

Rhythmatic contributed to Originators project too - bleep pioneers reactivated and reunited for a record pointedly titled The Adventures of A Warped Collective.

https://theoriginators.bandcamp.com/album/the-adventures-of-a-warped-collective

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

A lot of bleep artists struggled with where to go next once it was clear the bleep moment had passed

I am conducting an ongoing investigation into "late bleep" - twilight gems of a genre that's passed its historical window

but beyond the golden-hour phase, few of them managed to carve out a new direction

NoW went trip hop with dubby touches (nice enough on Smoker's Delight)

RHK went IDM / ambient, more or less - as Sandoz and as himself (that said, some of the most enjoyable late-bleep or edge-of-bleep-during-bleep's-prime stuff I heard in my investigation-so-far is all the Cabaret Voltaire albums of that time, which are essentially Sweet Exorcist with a bit of Mal on vocals here and there) 

Who else? Well, Rob Gordon had a few leaning-towards-propah-techno bits (I have that RG Projects comp somewhere)

Nexus 21 became Altern-8

Ital Rockers became Iration Steppas, right? the dead end of digi-dub

Unique 3? Ability II? Ubik? 

LFO, of course, did Advance, which... wasn't actually much of an advance on Frequencies, and not nearly as good, but a few nice moments... then much later Sheath was a return to what they did best, and very good.

Dance music is cruel, isn't it....  it's quite rare for people to prosper beyond their allotted Moment

The jungle bods actually did better than the bleepers or the Belgians.... had a longer run of it

N

i do love the label's graphics

                                            

but also love the sonics inside the packaging

















this one - watch your bassbins i'm telling ya



that one made the glass shake in my window frames

another genius piece of darkbleep



Network's attempt at pop crossover




although they actually achieved it with this lot



nexus 21 in 'rave loons' alias





hark at the Nitro Deluxe "on a mission" sample in that last tune - even as rave japesters they knew their history (i've long thought "Let's Get Brutal" / "This Brutal House" = THE bleep'n'bass prototype)

and fuck me another Nitro Deluxe sample in this tune - this time plucked from "Brutal" itself











post not exactly in honour of, but in acknowledgement of this recent publication

whose contents i cannot comment upon, not having been sent it  (go figure indeed) but i expect it's a necessary and thorough work