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….
The Information Centre Remixes
Knite Force Nice House
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
Destiny The Cream Journey To Atlantis
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
FEATURED ARTICLE – In-Ter-Dance At Sterns 1990-1993
The Cycles of life go round, In-ter-Dance at Sterns has gone full circle, time for a change!!!
In 1990 sterns saw change!!! After the initial media outcry brought about by the M25 raves and illegal warehouse parties. driven by the explosion of house and dance music, and combined with the eagerness of the youth to party all night, a new breed of promoter emerged. Mensa was one of these and from small one-off events in Bognor Regis, formed In-Ter-Dance. With the help of a Government Enterprise Allowance and the finding of Sterns, the ideal venue to take the illegality away from the initial house music dance parties, a south coast scene started to emerge. After a successful one-off all night party in the June of 1990, January 1991 saw the beginning of a once monthly all-night party at sterns, and with the initial co-operation of police and council Sterns achieved national acclaim and became one of the safest places to party in the country. This also alleviated the local problem of illegal parties and in the August of ‘91 the council and police asked the then licencee (Mr Derek Talbot) if he would be prepared to hold weekly all night events. Of course, we jumped at the chance and the rest of ‘91 was certainly a tear to be remembered. So far so good!
Everything that becomes successful attracts attention and in 1992 sterns attracted some bad attention. The first of two police operations that would result in a media panic suggesting that Sterns was the main focal point for drugs on the south coast. After this time things got progressively worse. The all-night licence was withdrawn and we were back to two o’clock causing problems with the local community with a string of complaints regarding the noise of our patrons congregating wherever trying to find somewhere to carry on partying, none of which had been the case when it was all night and people were going home satisfied. A dilemma that was not of our making.
Well, I started writing this just before heading off to Sterns on what would probably be the last time In-Ter-Dance would grace its walls. Now some time later, after what turned out to be a very highly charged, emotionally uplifting experience, bordering on revolution. A unity was achieved thats message was freedom. Freedom from social hypocrisy, freedom of choice and finally freedom to party. Music and dance combined, help us to express our innermost hopes and fears. We dance to rid ourselves of the confusion that prevails on a global level. we dance to forget!
But let us not forget Sterns, for change is coming soon. We must look to the past with view to the future and adapt, not conform, more to find a common ground. We speak the same language after ali. So lets talk! We must for if the social divide between the generation of then, becomes much wider. Just think what could happen when in twenty to thirty years time it’s our turn to take control. That sort of drastic change could be the beginning of a beautiful and positive world for all of us to live on.
So fear not people. For this is not the end, this is the beginning. For life goes in cycles, and we’re just about to start a new revolution!!!
FREEDOM
Thoughts of the real M.C
Jungle Fever! The Temple Of Doom
ADVERTS
Wax City Records, 306-308 London Road, Croydon
Thunder & Joy Halloween Ball at the Raw Club
Mo’s Music Machine
Jungle Fever! Temple Of Doom!
The History of Amnesia House – The Edge, Lower Ford Street, Coventry
