1998
The reigning kings of ‘garage’ (pronounced gair-edge across the pond, no relation to early 80s ‘garage house’ from NYC), were as popular in the UK as R&B acts like Blackstreet or 112 were in the US, and the particular ‘2-step’ breakbeat which drove the entire genre was so funky that it was begging to be turned out: enter “speed garage”. Presenting itself like an attempted union of house & jungle, the speed garage sound took over east coast gay clubs in the US before it broke into the rave scene nationwide, initially being championed at vogue-ing competitions from NYC to Baltimore. I have to admit, those sub-bass rolls had me at “hello”, and for a year or so every party you went to had at least one or two DJs spinning this stuff at some point in the night, continuously attracting thick crowds of happy kids rolling face; frankly, some of the breakdowns in these tracks still set my heart a-flutter in ways that no other type of beats can---admittedly, this could be due to the fact that I was ingesting unfathomable amounts of MDMA during the period when this sound was fresh, and I’m willing to concede that speed garage is only good in small doses (i.e. not all night long). That said, these beats still make me wanna dance! This mix was an official release, so I’ve zipped up the tracks rather than turning it into one uncut fusion.
1998
