From Raving at Sun City to Live Streaming Keep Hush: the Evolution of UK Garage
Photo credit: Jenny Jo
This week I had the pleasure of chatting with Garage Splash resident DJ Rhi Spect. She’s an original London raver, and completely immersed in old and new school UK bass culture.
Incase you’re thinking, what the hell is UK garage?! In a nutshell, the original UKG was all about heavy basslines, 4x4 beats and choppy vocal cuts. It’s early influences included RnB, ragga and reggae. Garage has been definitive in London bass culture since the early 90s, and it’s still going strong today. It even paved the way for new genres like UK grime, UK funky, bassline and dubstep.
Hey Rhi! How long have you been playing garage?
Hey! Well My brother, Hijack got his first decks in 99 and I first had a go at mixing then. He was buying garage at the time as we used to go out to garage raves all the time.
About eight years later he bought me a set of Technics and I started mixing drum and bass.
I’ve always been into a wide variety of music from techno, acid house, jungle, dnb, garage and old skool… I wasn’t specifically a garage head, just a raver.
What era did you start going to garage raves?
Maybe 98? 99?
So you’ve properly seen the scene evolve!
When I first started going out I used to go to Trinity at Channel Club in Vauxhall.
“They had garage in one room and in the other room they’d have like, happy hardcore, or more trance probably...yeah...it was quite a weird mix”.
You don’t get that so much now, but then it was quite normal!
What were your other fav garage nights from back in the day?
I used to go to Bagleys, Gas Club, Velvet Rooms, The End. We also used to go to the Warehouse, which was this after party in Enfield.
It was on an industrial estate in north London, some people used to call it the ‘Scarehouse’. It had a reputation haha... it was full of sweaty people at 4 in the morning.
But they played really good music, and they had a bongo player at the front. They were playing like classic EZ, proper old skool garage, it was wicked actually.
And what about the classic Moschino wearing, champagne drinking era, did you get involved in that too?
Well I was never like that myself. We used to get a bit dressed up - the guys wore shirts.
“But in my experience there were always people there with D&G jeans and all that, but I wasn’t like that at all. There was a mixture of people”.
As fashion became more entwined with garage I think because the scene got more media attention - people liked dressing up. It was a more glamorous alternative to say a dnb rave where fashion wasn’t as important.
Speaking of which, garage is definitely back in fashion! How do you think London UKG nightlife has evolved today?
Recently we went to Keep Hush, I don’t know if you’ve heard of it?
Ooh, of course! Which one did you go to?
We went to see Ollie Rant play some of his new garage dubplates! It’s a multi- genre thing but they’ve been pushing a lot of new garage lately.
“It’s so interesting because the crowd was really different, a bit hipster. And some of the garage was a bit Euro-sounding! But that’s not a bad thing, it’s just different”.
Yeah, it’s more of a Boiler Room setup...
It was a bit yeah, I stayed on the other side of the camera! Ahahah. It’s just mad to see all those young people into it and being part of the new garage scene.
And I’m well happy about it obviously, when I first started DJing on digital, everyone was into the bassline stuff. You’d put on an old school garage tune and a whole crowd would leave the room or whatever.
But I think the future generation are starting to get it, starting to understand it.
Someone like Conducta he’s really taken off, done a lot of work with Keep Hush. Now he’s doing a world tour, playing in Japan and everything! And his nights always sell out...There’s a real revival going on.
Conducta is absolutely killing it right now! My friend and fellow Garage Splash resident Smokey Bubblin B has just been signed to his new label Kiwi Rekords.
And there’s a lot more producers who are making wicked tracks too like Movement, On1, MOAD, and Might who are making more grimey garage.
“I love the deep and heavy basslines, a bit raw and a bit two steppy. Black Puppet sorta vibes. And it’s so good! It’s a bit darker, but I love it. You could do a whole set of that sorta stuff now”.
I also have to mention Moony. His tunes are what got me into new garage because his beats and melodies are more true to the old UKG sound, yet his production is sick! He makes darker stuff too, even dubstep.
Oh yeah, El-b’s another one pushing that massively, it’s the darker garage that’s been getting me more into UK grime lately.
So obviously you have a residency at Garage splash at Fire and Lightbox in Vauxhall. I’ve heard it’s got a pretty unique vibe. Tell me more?!
It’s a different crowd, a lot of students and they’re all just up for the rave!
“Garage Splash reminds me of the original ravers to be honest, a lot of them wear cool clothes and tracksuits, they’re quite into fashion. And they just love the music! People are shuffling on the dance floors, having dance-offs together, I love it!”
Because that was me when I was a raver, back in the day.
Aw you just gave me goosebumps, that’s beautiful. Any final comments on the future of UKG?
I think the future’s exciting - there’s loads of different elements now so you don’t know which direction it’s gonna go in! A lot of labels are now even producing vinyl tracks, like Sneaker Social Club.
“Check out Chavinski’s tracks - he is a badman! Truly captures the old skool flava”.
There’s also a lot of funky and soulful tracks, and I’ve also been hearing more speed garage and garage house. Ramsey and Fen have been pushing more 4x4 tunes that are less choppy and more dance friendly, this has been labelled garage house. Or housey garage haha!
The fact there was a debate shows you the level of interest. But I’m happy about all the directions, because I really like the new sounds and think all the elements influence each other.
Yeah, I’m genuinely excited about the future of UKG too. And while I’m by no means proud of everything about our English culture, I’m genuinely proud of this. ❤️
Rhi playing at Kapow! Shouts to Luke Skyz