WOEBOT

1. Never Gonna Let You Go / Tina Moore (Tuff Jam Classic Vocal Mix)
2. Friday Night / David Anthony (Sunship Vocal Mix)
3. Cape Fear / KMA
4. Life Is What We Live In / Yardcore Crew
5. Body Killin / Vincent J Alvis
6. Beautiful / Matt Darey (Dubaholics Deeper Dub)
7. Kaotic Madness / KMA
8. Cum Cakes / MJ and Rob D
9. Flava / Young Offendaz feat CKP
10. 1999 Remix / Groove Chronicles
11. Endorphins / Skycap
12. Faith In You / Groove Chronicles and First Steps
13. Dibby Dibby Sound / Napa-Tac
14. The Clash / Skyjoose Feat Skycap
15. Screw Face II / Tweaker Pimps
16. Stuck to the Floor / Sticky
17. Un-known Genius / Dizzy Rascal
18. Down 4 U / Ja Rule, Ashanti, Vita and Charli Baltimore (D'n'D Conemelt Mix)
19. Tonka / Jammin (Menta Remix)

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After exhaustive research and much deliberation I've made the Two-Step mix I was threatening to back in December. Johnny Dark had asked me to send him the tunes I'd referred to in the review I did of his record (I was surprised, even impressed he was unaware of them) and that inspired me to gather up all my material. Since plaguing Tim Finney, Matt Mason and Paul Meme for their insights I fleshed out my own selection with about twenty new tunes, five of which appear here (4, 5, 6, 8 and 9), so thanks to them and all the Dissensus massive who contributed to that thread.

I was attempting to make an abstract historical point with this set. I was trying to point to the scene's drift away from its Paradaisical Garage roots and towards the Swizz-y Beatz of Grime and the riddimatized void of Dubstep. I'll freely concede that Two-Step's presence in Grime is practically (woefully?) non-existent, the two tracks I've marshaled, Sticky's "Stuck to the Floor" and Dizzy Rascal's "Un-known Genius" are almost surreally, fascinatingly, improbable. Yes, there's an infinitely stronger case for connecting Dubstep to Two-Step. The more reggaematic and hip-hopped-up strand of Two-Step, which ironically was more-often-than-not made by righteous white blokes, mutated into the FWD scene and Dubstep. Back in the day, buying tracks like El-B's "Digital" I remember mourning the death of what Simon Reynolds called "Feminine Pressure" and the expunging of slinky R'n'B flava from the music. I suppose my reservations about Dubstep are tediously well-documented, at least with Garage Rap or UK Bounce (my own fruitless coinage!) there was some kind of substitution of content with the MC's rhymes. Putting Arthur "DND" Menta's amazing Jammin remix at the end of this is a tacit acknowledgment of that drift.

But it's also a mix which tries to show the emotional journey the music took. I remember shocking out on the desperation in Tina Moore's "Never Gonna Let You Go" when it pumped into the offices on Kiss FM in 1996. This was an archetypal Speed Garage track but the way the vocal looped and twisted into the siren sonic (here plumbing the greek derivation as well as its familiar use as an emergency signal) hinted at the way the surplus of emotion was to form the drive towards formal abstraction. This is obviously the case with the over-excitement curdling (again) into desperation of David Anthony's peerless "Friday Night", twitching with impossible expectations of pleasure; then rupturing and buckling. It's a very short step from there to the darkside vibe of KMA, made explicit in the hijacking of B-Movie dialogue from the Cape Fear remake: "the only thing to fear on those enchanted summer nights was that the magic would end and real life would come crashing in" This isn't really a contrast as bleak the blazing heat of Ardkore's chart-peak to the frozen tundra of Darkcore, more an Indian Summer shading into Autumn.

The actualisation of real life crashing itself becomes the thrill. The "real" street life (albeit elegiac) of Kronik records' Yardcore Crew, the rudely masculine "Body Killin" a possibly transgressive acting out of over-stimulated male desire (actually one wonders if only the Adina Howard of "Freak Like Me" would approve of someone coming on this strong!). Perhaps this marks the first signs of the incipient male encroachment on the territory which had previously sparkled with feminine delight; the clubs draining of girls. The music though is still thrilling; the middle section of the mix here is topsy-turvey with the moody, hiccoughing and scat-scattered; the two Groove Chronicles tunes trading on ever more minor key modulation buffered with bass.

Everyone on my links-bar is very welcome to a free copy of the CD which I will gladly mail out. Futhermore blog-less Dissensoids: mms, droid, stelfox, confucius, bassnation, gumdrops, matt b, hint (all more than 500 posts) are very welcome to a copy. Just email me.