2-step Garage Samples

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Antonio: 'Hyperfunk' (Steve Gurley Mix) (source: CD) 1.4 Mb

A lovely example of Gurley's crisp, lite production.

Dem 2: 'Destiny' (Dem 2's Luv Dub Remix) (source: vinyl) 1.5 Mb

Not strictly 2-step, due to the 4/4 kickdrum, but 2-step DJs will often fit a couple of records like this into their sets.

Chris Dukes: 'Clearly' (source: pirate radio) 1.1 Mb

Blows my head off every time, with a B-line programmed by Satan himself.

Fierce: 'So Long' (Brothers Glen Step Mix) (source: vinyl) 1.5 Mb

"Ignore the bland, four-to-the-floor mixes bulking out this release, and instead go straight to the sublime Brothers Glen version. Moodier than most 2-step, the flavour of this track is both queasily euphoric and suffused with a tense, evanescent sense of dread. The highlight of the track comes with the breakdown, where ambient keyboard pads swirl gaseously around a pulsing, droning b-line, while an agonised female voice neurotically repeats the words 'love, love, love...', like a mantra against some indefinable existential threat." (Gareth Metford, UK Garage Reviews, unpublished manuscript 1999.)

Nesha: 'What's It Gonna Be?' (Sticky 2-step Mix) (source: vinyl) 1.5 Mb

"The original version of Nesha's 'What's It Gonna Be?', featured on one side of this double A-sided single, turns out to be a rather damp imitation of Timbaland's futurist R&B productions for the likes of Missy Elliott. All the more surprising, then, that producer, Sticky has succeeded in re-constituting it on the second side as an exemplar of some of 2-step's most radical possibilities. Over a stuttering, stumbling rhythm, vocal phrases from the original are layered like trails of ectoplasm, alternately fragmenting into isolated syllables and piling up in drifts of writhing, wriggling audio-matter. Beneath the track's crust, tubular bass extrusions slither and slide, while wierd synth fanfares and blasts of synthesised Hammond inscribe themselves violently upon its surface. It's a soundscape from which 'soul' is utterly absent, separated out through virtuality's centrifugal motion - a gateway to an alien dimension of solipsistic, cyborg pop." (Gareth Metford, UK Garage Reviews, unpublished manuscript 1999.)

Same People: 'Dangerous' (Zed Bias Mix) (source: CD) 1.4 Mb

Ultra-rude bassline - lovely.

Unknown artist / title (source: pirate radio) 971 Kb

Another bassline track. Some of the filtering on this one reminds me of Ram Trilogy's psychedelic jungle sound.

Unknown artist / title (source: pirate radio) 539 Kb

Great experimental dub.

Unknown artist / title (source: pirate radio) 664 Kb

More dubbiness.

US Alliance: 'All I Know' (Dem 2's Grunge Mix) (source: CD) 1.3 Mb

Simply one of the best 2-step tracks yet produced. This has everything: body-baffling drum syncopations, astounding vocal transformations, and a superb range of mutated FX.