I could probably start a whole new sub-blog about the early days of broken beat/West London, but for now here’s one of the first jams to really blow me away from that scene. Seiji, like Domu and Nubian Mindz, had a background making drum & bass for Reinforced, but once he broke free of the constraints of that genre, delivered a handful of totally unique and brilliant records. Silver Blossom came out on Dego’s 2000 Black label in 2000 and still packs a serious punch, with ridiculously heavy bass, ruffneck breaks, soaring strings and analogue synths.
It’s from that brief but exciting period before Kaidi Tatham started playing on every record distributed by Goya*, and before his fellow Bugz In The Attic started to follow a formula, when every new release from Domu, Mustang, IG Culture and co seemed to rip up the rulebook and start again. This one doesn’t really fit in any box – it’s too slow to be d&b, too abstract and broken to be garage, house or techno – and that’s the beauty of it. The best I can come up with is that it’s a bit like something Theo Parrish might have made if he’d grown up in London listening to jungle.
*Not intended as a diss to Kaidi – he contributed to more than his fair share of brilliant tunes…
Nothin' But Magic 