El-B - Roots of El-B

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5...according to our Brett on Thu 26 Feb, 2009.

I was quite excited to hear this Roots of El-B double 12" pack on Tempa but it got stuck on earlier without my knowing what it was and I thought it sounded a bit Artful Dodger. The first track kind of does, but then these four tracks date from the first couple of years of this century and a bit of perspective does wonders for your ability to appreciate it, both in it's own right and in terms of 'importance'. The latter's easy enough to prove, this is all way ahead of it's time in terms of merging the worlds of garage and drum 'n' bass. As far as enjoying it today after being exposed to countless evolutions and mutations in the intervening years, it's all in the sound he gets. The vocal samples might date it fairly horribly but if you're able to look past those there are wonders to be found in the beats (particularly the lovely, snappy snare sound) and the bass which, when it really kicks in, rivals the deepest rumbles you'll hear at dubstep nights to this day. All the big players in the scene cite El-B as an influence and it isn't hard to see why! Seminal urban transmissions - MORTAL!!!

Finally it’s here! ‘The Roots of El-B’ is the first retrospective to pull together all the ultra rare white labels, lost remixes and dusty DAT tapes, to preserve for posterity the output of this transient but seminal moment. CD version follows in a few weeks.

In the words of Wire Magazine: "PRACTICALLY NOTHING IN BRITISH DANCE MUSIC BEFORE OR SINCE THE TURN OF THE MILLENNIUM HAS HAD EL-B’s EXACTITUDE, HIS THRILLINGLY TENSE WARINESS, HIS SENSE OF KNOWING..THESE ARE EXQUISITE PURPOSE-BUILT CONSTRUCTIONS , WHOSE LASTING IMPORTANCE IS ONLY NOW BEING FELT IN THE MUSIC OF BURIAL , TRG AND THE REST OF THE FUTURE GARAGE CROP WHO ARE SO BEHOLDEN TO THOSE SNAPPING WOOD BLOCKS."

During 2000-2002, a brief but influential window opened in urban music. Drum & Bass moved out of its London heartland and UK garage imploded under the weight of commercial expectation. Between these forces one man, Lewis
Beadle aka El-B, assembled a production crew in Streatham, south London.

The roots of dubstep were sewn in a shed at the end of a winding garden path in Streatham. Paid for by the funds of a failed album deal and built by hand by the crew themselves, the shed contained Ghost studios, where during the night hours, El-B and the camp built a sound all of their own. Edgier than UK garage but sexier than the cold onslaught drum & bass was moving into, the Ghost sound was unique.

At its core were El-B’s incredible talents as a producer. Having rolled on the edge of the Metalheadz camp as a teenager, never getting a let in, he’d gained fame in UK garage as one half of UK garage outfit Groove Chronicles.
Out of the ashes of this partnership grew El- B’s signature sound of sharp woodblock snares, ghostly edgy textures, dark bass combined with a little black secret technology: the dark art of swing.

Even at that time, the effect of this sound was self evident, as producer after local producer, from Skream to Kode9 and later Burial, became influenced by it. ‘The thing about those drums: they’re still the future’ Burial insisted before his first album. "People still don’t know how to do those drums. It’s an unknown thing. It’s like the last fucking secret left in music: how you do those drums. I’ve tried..."

Eight years later, as dubstep blossoms into an international phenomenon, the El-B sound remains peerless. It’s perhaps fitting now that, for the first time, El-B’s seminal work is lifted from treasured record collections and lost vaults.

TRACKLIST:

A. Ghost: The Club
B. El-B feat. Rolla: Serious
C. El-B: Express
D. Ghost: Lyrical Tempo