As part of #europeanmusic its a bit hard to showcase #UKmusic as there's ...

Julian Bond - 2012-03-18 17:48:53+0000 - Updated: 2012-03-18 17:48:53+0000

As part of #europeanmusic its a bit hard to showcase #UKmusic as there's just so much of it. However I love this track and it sums up a certain UK 2011 aesthetic for me.

Let start with the name. The piece is about Stokes Croft in Bristol which is hipster central for that town. So there's some psycho-geography and psycho-history going on here. It's got that melancholic Burial "music on the headphones while walking back from the club at sunrise" feel. But can you hear the echoes of Bristol's history as well? Is that the slave trade or the press gang in the background. Is it noise, tape hiss, or rain on cobbles? Not so much on this track but on other's on the same album and definitely from other people, there's a two-step rhythm that evokes the flying shuttle in the old cotton mills. So is this "Steampunk Dubstep"?

The album is called "Old Raves End". And I get images of a retirement cottage in the country populated by ageing turbo-hippies and crusty festival goers. Perhaps the house in Old Raves End is called DunRavin.

I don't actually know anything about Swarms, but looking at their picture on http://www.last.fm/music/Swarms there's some 20-somethings in hoodies looking back at me. Have they got a bit part in Being Human? If they've got a day job, is it as a hospital porter despite a 1st in Music Technology? There's precious little biography and even the photos are quite anonymous. Tom, Sam and Pete, who are you? So that's another part of the 2011 UK Bass aesthetic, the anti-cult of the anonymous producer.

75 Trinity Rd

Swarms - Stokes Croft (LoDubs 2011) From the album 'Old Raves End' Video cut from 'Jubilee line' by Tim Hope http://lodubs.bandcamp.com/album/swarms-old-raves-end http://www.facebook.com/Swarmsfanpage

Jeffrey J Davis - 2012-03-18 18:00:45+0000 - Updated: 2012-03-18 18:02:32+0000

Not quite as dank and gritty as Burial, but still very nice, thanks for the tip, rest of the album is pretty good too, from initial Spotify perusing

Julian Bond - 2012-03-19 06:56:17+0000

+Jeffrey J Davis If you like that, you'll like... !
Synkro, Indigo, Clubroot, DFRNT, Kryptic Minds, Phaeleh, Late. Apparently Eleven Tigers is in the mix, but that quickly leads you to Scuba and onwards.

I really like the softer, more down beat, UK Bass music both in 2-step and 4/4 house/techno forms. So I link in my head people like this and more House producers like Maya Jane Coles, George Fitzgerald and Dauwd. Genre fanatics think this makes me easy to shoot down because I'm wildly confusing genres!

http://www.last.fm/user/jbond

Jeffrey J Davis - 2012-03-19 10:59:48+0000

I've already been on SCUBA for awhile, just started digging Kryptic Minds recently, but appreciate your other tips. Seemss we are of like mind.

Julian Bond - 2012-03-19 22:12:04+0000

Here's a fun game! http://audiomap.tuneglue.net

Alexander Farennikov - 2012-03-31 17:07:45+0000

Loving this track Swarms - Flikr of ur eyes

Bristol. Don't know much about Bristol. I know Massive Attack is from that town.

Julian Bond - 2012-04-01 07:07:57+0000

+Alexander Farennikov Old Raves End is one of my favourite album's at the moment. on heavy rotation. Yes, from the 90s, Massive Attack, Portishead, Tricky, Smith and Mighty and a host of others were from Bristol. Portsihead is a small town on the outskirts. Bristol is an old port and the core of the old slave trade, so it has many centuries experience of being "a bit dodgy". If you go round all the UK, bass heavy, downbeat music from the 2005 onwards you find a very high proportion from Bristol along with the other centres of South/Central London and the industrial North.

Alexander Farennikov - 2012-04-01 07:11:28+0000

I know the trip-hop gang very well. They actually influenced me in getting into electronic music. Although KLF and U-69 were first bands I used to listen to.

Alexander Farennikov - 2012-04-01 07:12:49+0000

Julian Bond - 2012-04-01 08:53:29+0000

Yes, mate! KLF - 3 a m eternal (Complete) Can't remember what the track was now but I've recently heard the cellphone tones from 3am Eternal in a UK-Bass, dubstep track.

Alexander Farennikov - 2012-04-01 17:10:57+0000

sorry for <3 - my roommate was messing with my laptop )

Julian Bond - 2012-04-23 13:40:06+0000

I've been listening to Stumbleine a lot in the last few days and trying (and failing) to find out who/what they/he/she/it are. Turns out it's the guitarist from Swarms and Stumbleine is his moniker for solo projects. Well worth seeking out. And also his collaborators Owsey and Asa.

Jeffrey J Davis - 2012-04-23 13:57:51+0000

I figured there was a relationship . . . I noticed that Swarms posted a bunch of new tracks (I think maybe older stuff) to their Soundcloud page but also Swarms "Favorited" a bunch of stuff by Stumbleine. I like the Stunbleine a lot , very reminiscient of Balam Acab (who I will see live in a couple of weeks, pumped). He's got a couple of nice mix tapes up as well.