Audio By Carbonatix
After flirting with the mainstream in the late ’90s, drum ‘n’ bass got a little confused when the millennium turned. The music became darker, and harder, diverging into way too many subgenres with ridiculous names (drill ‘n’ bass, anyone?) and scaring off the women. Most of the female energy went into new forms such as two-step and garage, and plenty of junglist dudes wandered off into grime and dubstep.
But drum ‘n’ bass never really died, and one of the main figures responsible for keeping it alive during the lean years was gold-toothed rudebwoy Goldie. His 1995 debut album, Timeless, with its searing single “Inner City Life,” helped define the genre in its early days, melding hardcore rave breaks with soulful samples and ragga-derived rinse-outs.
As the styles changed, though, Goldie’s stable, Metalheadz, became a weathervane of it all, with a record label and a legendary Sunday weekly in London. It’s now a monthly, and the label has seen some ups and downs, but with the rising popularity of dubstep, d’n’b looks poised for a mini-revival as well. Things have been ramping up in Goldie’s camp, with the master releasing his ninth studio album, 2009’s Memoirs of an Afterlife. And following a spot on a British reality show called Maestro, he even learned to compose and conduct a classical piece, called Sine Tempore (Timeless). Staying power, it seems, is a Goldie theme. Learn what’s new and next in the world of drum ‘n’ bass when he spins at the Metalheadz vs. Bassdrive party during Conference.
