Issue 45 – Ravescene

FEATURED ARTICLE – BIZZY B – Creator of the Dark style?

Adrian H here with some more Double Egg. This week I speak to one of the nice guys to the scene, one of the innovators in my opinion of the dark sound and has more records out than you’ve had hot dinners (slight exaggeration there, for effect) Da man in the eggcup this week is 22 and from Leyton, East London. He worked his way up “as you dooo” from DJaying in pubs and parties around his area to residencing at the Dungeons, Lea Bridge Road with DJ’s such as Ellis Dee, Chalky White ‘Bob’ and myself (those were the good old days), then he really started concentrating on his chewns. If you buy records it’s almost 99.9% certain that you have one of his chewns in your collection. Bizzy says when he is making his chewns he always thinks of all ravers and tries to please everyone. He likes to think of his music as more hi energy (“music you can get exhausted to”) than dark. Some of the chewns he has made include The Brainstorm EP, Revolution, Crowd Says Rewind, The Science EP. He’s also made records alongside people such as D.LUX, Peshay, Cool Hand Flex, DJ Hype, Formula Seven, Slammin Crew, Information Society and many more, on labels such as Brain (his own label) Quayside Records, One Off Records, Big City, Reinforced, Sub Bass and White House.

These credentials made me sure that he could clear up something that is not very well understood. I asked Bizzy B ‘What Is Dark Music?’ He told me that the way he sees it Dark music is not dark music. People get the word Dark mixed up with the expression eg. if something is good you say ‘wicked’ but people used to say ’dark’ instead. Maybe being someone that’s falling into this trap I asked him what would he call his music because I consider it pretty dark, he said that personally he tries to make it as original as he can moving away from sampling huge chunks of other people’s records and not categorise to one group of ravers. Original that is a word I say often when describing the sounds of this man’s chewns, so maybe Dark can be split up into two groups – original and dark. Original which I think would also include the Reinforced Cru, L.T.J Bukem, Moving Shadow, Ram Records and a few others, and dark including the tracks which Buzz thinks are killing the dark scene which are tracks “that are not music, sound absolutely terrible and do nothing for you apart from give you a headache, you’ll be standing in a rave, hear a tune that is rubbish and call it dark , but it’s not dark, it’s just crap. Bizzy told me that to him the point of a rave is the good feeling, the peace and unity and that a rave without the white glove crew wouldn’t really be a rave”.

Some of the music that is being played sounds sadistic with a devil worship type groove which doesn’t go with the happy side, so people label it as dark. To try to bring this short chat to some sort of conclusion because Bizzy just squeezed me in before he had to do a radio show, we agreed that Dark is not really a music form, but just a term hastily given to a form of music which is misunderstood, original music, but as with most music forms for every 10 dark tunes that are made maybe only two of them are any good, and it’s the other eight that we always seem to hear. Well, after all that I still could not tell you what dark music is, but I could tell you that Bizzy B’s tunes, be they Dark, hardcore, jungle whatever you like to call it always work for me….

ADVERTS

• Helter Skelter – December 3rd 1993 @ The Sanctuary
• Labrynth Recordings Jiimmy J – Bad DJ / Into The Music
• Confusion (Return to ’89) @ 12 Dalston Lane
• Knite Force
• Entity Records – Ferrari Love Chick (R.C.B.) / Bhangra Love Mix
• Flite Crew Promotions
• Wax City Records, 306-308 London Road, Croydon
• Mo’s Music Machine
• Destiny The Cream & Rise & Shine – Journey To Atlantis
• Hard Leaders III

RAVE LISTINGS

• Labrynth Warehouse An aMAZEing Party! Saturday 4th December 1993. Bagleys Film Studios, York Way, Kings Cross, London N1
• Rise & Shine Saturday 27th November. The Pier, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex
• Ultra-Violate Party Night Friday 19th November. Club Labrynth, 12 Dalston Lane, London E8
• Reincarnation Saturday 20th November. Kings Hall, Herne Bay, Kent
• Total Kaos Starlight Saturday 20th November. The Edge, Lower Ford St, Coventry
• Living Dream Saturday 20th November. The Rocket, 166-220 Holloway Road, London N7
• Universe At Quest Saturday 20th November. Palomas, Broad Street, Wolverhampton
• Megadog Friday 26th November. The Rocket, 166-220 Holloway Road, London N7
• Fantazia Saturday 27th November. SECC, Glasgow, Scotland
• Foam Party Saturday 27th November. Club Labrynth, 12 Dalston Lane, London E8
• Elevation & Orange Saturday 27th November. The Rocket, 166-220 Holloway Road, London N7
• Helter Skelter Friday 3rd December. The Sanctuary, V7 Saxon Street, Denbigh Leisure, Milton Keynes, Bucks
• One Nation Saturday 11th December. The Roller Express, Lea Valley Trading Estate, Edmonton, London N18
• Sex, Love & Motion Every Saturday, The Sounshaft (behind Heaven), Charing Cross, London WC1
• Dance Elevation Every Friday. The Paradise Club, Parkfield Street, London N1
• The Box Every Friday. The Bridewell, Lowfield Street, Dartford, Kent
• The Fruit Club Every Friday. The Brunel Rooms, Havelock Square, Swindon, Wilts
• Meltdown Every Wednesday from 10th November. 14 – 17 YEAR OLDS. Bumbles night club, 45 Poole Hill, Bournmouth, Dorset