Music
Why Manchester still moves to a drum’n’bass beat
With a long roll call of legends and a new scene bubbling, the Northern city stands alongside London and Bristol as a true d’n’b stronghold.
When you think of dance music in Manchester, your mind naturally drifts to the obvious – baggy-clad ravers punching the air to acid house on the Haçienda podium, or perhaps to the new crop of Mancunian fusioneers such as Children Of Zeus and Levelz. But there’s a long thread that runs through the rainy city’s dance music history that’s often overlooked. Drum’n’bass runs thick in Manchester’s blood.
Right now, the scene is absolutely thriving with talent, drawing on all the genre’s shades and subgenres – check the knock-out jump-up of Rowney & Propz, the outlandish riffs of Bou & Dutta, the sun-splashed bashment of Think Tonk or the rolling roughage of Euphonique, to name just a few. But this is no new phenomenon. Right back when jungle was first flowering in the mid ‘90s, UK acid house pioneer A Guy Called Gerald was turning out proto jungle tracks like 28 Badboy Salute and Money Honey. Fast forward 10 years and you find Chase & Status, who were studying in the city at the time, and honed their skills in New Mount Street Studio writing breakthrough cuts like Buddha Fist and Love Theme. Of course, Chase & Status were inspired and guided in their mission by Future Cut – another Manny drum’n’bass institution who, with Jenna G, gave the world Midnight, one of the scene’s most soulful anthems.
The early 2010s was another d’n’b golden age in the city, as the likes of Dub Phizix, Strategy, Chimpo and Skittles kickstarted a whole new wave, mixing up drum’n’bass, half-time, dancehall and dubstep into an anything-goes stew. The city’s vocalists and MCs such as Fox, Trigga, DRS, Tonn Piper and Tyler Daley are notoriously diverse in their style, flexing between d’n’b, soul, hip hop and grime. And that’s before we get to some of the city’s influential elder statesmen. Mark XTC, Sappo and Dawn Raid continue to fly the jungle flag while the city’s biggest drum’n’bass promoter Wilf Prophecy has gone onto establish festivals such as Lost & Found and Hideout, and found progressive drug testing initiatives such The Loop.
THE INFLUENCE OF INTALEX
But no history of Mancunian d’n’b should go further without mentioning Marcus Intalex. Hailing from Burnley, just north of Manchester, Intalex truly put the city on the jungle map and incubated the culture from the '90s right through until he sadly passed away in May 2017.
“Marcus and Mark XTC were fundamental in breaking drum‘n’bass in the city,” explains MC DRS, one of the most consistent and creative voices in drum‘n’bass since the mid ‘90s. “First Spin Inn Records, then Eastern Bloc – a lot of scenes were fundamentally coming from those record shops. House, techno, jungle, Niche bassline. They were the hub where you’d go and wrestle it out for test presses on a Saturday afternoon.”
What Marcus Intalex did for drum’n’bass and the city was unparalleled
It wasn’t just the records that Marcus and Mark fed the city with. As founding members of rave outfit Da Intalex, they set the benchmark as producers – a reputation Marcus maintained and developed throughout his career, as a solo artist and with his longstanding partnership with ST Files. Under a variety of guises, the pair had a huge influence on the deeper, soulful side of the genre throughout the late ‘90s and early 2000s with tracks such as How You Make Me Feel and Universal.
“We were all scratching around like feral chickens but they came through like ‘bang, here’s some music for 31, here’s some music for Metaheadz,'” recalls Wilf Gregory, the man behind Manchester’s long-running d’n’b event Metropolis and a member of production powerhouse North Base. “They changed the fucking game. That opened everyone’s eyes.”
Marcus’s attitude and approach to the culture also had a major influence on both the city and the genre at large. Many of the city’s current d’n’b artists attest to the way he put value in music, celebrating an attention to detail, and helping a whole generation of acts – including S.P.Y, Break, Calibre, Marky, Skeptical – develop through his seminal label Soulr. Dub Phizix reminisces how “Marcus brought everyone through”, while Mark XTC reckons “what Marcus did for drum’n’bass and the city was unparalleled.”
PASS THE KNOWLEDGE ON
If there’s one consistent thread that runs through the city’s musical story, regardless of genre, it’s this; everyone in this feature has taught or mentored in some capacity. Jenna G recalls the influence of another Manny maverick, Factory Records/Haçienda founder Tony Wilson, who made it his mission to uncover and celebrate new talent. “In the latter half of his life he was very staunch about creating a place for Manchester to thrive and passing the knowledge down. It’s where a lot of my generation come from. A can-do attitude like ‘come on then! Let’s sort you out, what do you need?’”
This urge to help foster the next generation feels like a constant. The day I call Jenna for this feature, she’s out hosting workshops. Elsewhere artists such as Fox, Chimpo, DRS and Skittles were renowned throughout the city as teachers on government funded and EU subsidised courses throughout the 2000s. “We did workshops all over,” recalls DRS. “Naughty kid schools, youth clubs, prisons, wherever. We’d come with a van and set up a stage, get involved. We brought through some big names. They took it in and did their own thing with it. That’s the most fulfilling thing in music.”
Mark XTC
© Glenn Wiseman
It's this spirit that’s seen the launch of the Marcus Intalex Music Foundation, an organisation dedicated to enabling the next generation of artists and passing on the knowledge and opportunities that Marcus was keen to pass on himself. But if there’s one particularly prominent teacher in the city, it is Marcus’s bandmate Mark XTC who went on to make it his full-time profession and become a lecturer at The Manchester College. Almost everyone studying electronic music in Manchester in the last 15 years would have been schooled and tooled by Mark. Take DJ/producer Euphonique – real name Nikki Crowley – whose rising jungle imprint Subwoofah was an idea formed as part of a university assignment, cooked up when she was student of Mark’s at The Manchester College the year before. It began as a club night and the brand now boasts a label and studios with production areas, recording facilities and a DJ booth for live streams and tutoring.
Like many of her peers, Nikki teaches too and is heavily involved in education and youth work. In fact, she set up the label arm of Subwoofah because she wanted to help a new producer, Epicentre, get his music released. “He was sending us loads of unsigned music when we were in Unity Radio and it was just so sick!” she explains. “We thought it was criminal his tunes weren’t being released. His tunes were what set the label into motion; we just wanted to help him get his music out there.”
Subwoofah is now five years old with Euphonique, her label co-founder S-Man and Epicentre all making big ripples in the wider d’n’b ocean. They’re not alone. There’s a whole new generation of artists breaking through – names like Think Tonk, Bou, Dutta, Indika, Sl8r, Diligent Fingers and Kovert Sound. Many have come through Nikki’s events and label, while many have come through Bloc2Bloc.
The latest torch bearers of Manchester’s teaching tradition, Bloc2Bloc’s story is inspiring and once again galvanises the city’s solid sense of community. “We’re a machine built on the up-and-coming,” says the organisation’s founder Jack Banner. “The next generation is the future. If you know the future and you see these people are the future why wouldn’t you want to be there for them as an elder?”
Bloc2Bloc have a lot of bases covered. They offer free studio time, rehearsal rooms and stream-ready DJ booths. They’re a radio station, hosting DJs from across the world. They host events across the city, facilitating new artists with their first shows and early exposure. They also emphasise a strong line of continued mental health support – and what’s more, they do it for free. “I don’t charge. That’s what we’re known for,” adds Banner. “It’s about opportunity. That’s the game. Chimpo, Dub Phizix and those guys brought me into the game, and I need to pay that forward. Like Skittles says, money ain’t the answer… It’s the problem.”
Dub Phizix
© James Mernagh
“Jack’s an unsung hero,” explains Dub Phizix. “He’s a mad positive guy. He’s at every night, filming and interviewing, just a proper hard worker who thinks about other people, not himself. I don’t think people outside of Manchester know how much of a driving force he is. But that’s the thing about this city; it’s driven by these types of guys who give people opportunities and bring people through.”
The city’s size plays a role in this strong sense of community and support. Jenna describes it as “big enough to get known, and small enough to have people to remind you to hold it down if you start getting too big for your boots.” But even in comparison to similar sized UK cities, Manchester seems to be fuelled by a much stronger sense of altruistic activity.
DARK TIMES BEHIND US
Where did this culture of training and teaching come from? Many think it’s a direct result of the city’s notorious gang crime throughout the '90s.
“It was nothing to do with the music,” explains DRS. “It was the time and the unrest on the streets, drugs coming into the city. It changed the city and people realised money was to be made in the clubs. Gangs came in and that’s when you had people in there with guns. To show off they’d shoot the ceiling for rewinds. It wasn’t the music that brought them in. Different gangs fought for control. It was very messy times.”
While the rise of the sunnier, more convivial UK garage sound certainly helped to distract the criminal element from drum’n’bass in Manchester, and the New Labour government also played a role. Heavy investment in training and teaching was a major driver in changing youth culture in the city. MCs like Fox, who was involved in the city’s gangs during its darkest period, had their lives changed by the opportunities to teach. He, like Banner and many others, now seem driven by helping others out.
“Manchester’s been through a lot of pain and suffering,” explains Wilf. “We’ve been through a lot and it brings you closer together. I think more than other cities we want to see other survive and thrive and do better. There’s definitely more of a community vibe.”
Made In Manchester live at Red Bull Culture Clash Manchester, 2016
© Marcus Maschwitz/Red Bull Content Pool
Manchester’s been through a lot of pain and suffering. We’ve been through a lot and it brings you closer together
Wilf reckons that sense of community has never been stronger, especially within the drum’n’bass scene as the sad loss of influential figures such Marcus and Manchester legend Salford John have reminded everyone that life is precious. Another strong example of how tight Manchester’s d’n’b scene currently is, is Wilf and Mark XTC’s Made In Manchester collective. Previously spotted in Red Bull’s 2016 Culture Clash, the collective comprises many of the city’s most influential artists ranging from Dawn Raid and Euphonique to Rowney & Propz.
“I’m not sure there was a very strong community before,” explains Rowney, whose G13 label and parties has been responsible for breaking a wealth of jump-up talent from Hedex to the late great Dominator. “Everything we’ve built up, we’ve built up on our own. We got nationwide love before we got love here and that was thanks to MC Trigga. I’d say the city became a lot more united when Salford John died. He was friends with everyone, liquid heads, jungle heads, jump up heads. When Marcus died, that just cut deep for the city.”
“We’ve been through it man, we’ve had some really mad times,” grins Mark XTC. “Dark times, crazy times. But we’re still tight.” Mark is a true veteran of the scene – one of the first to import d’n’b sounds into the city, and a teacher who’s had an influence on every generation that’s followed – but he says he’s currently enjoying his busiest year as DJ since the mid '90s. He feels the scene is right there with him: “I don’t think I’ve been as excited about the music or the talented people we have coming through in this city than I have in years. Did I have some part to play in it? Maybe, but trust me I’m a stepping stone in the process. A small cog in a big machine. That’s how it works in Manchester. We all still work together.”
Join dBridge, Dub Phizix, Zed Bias, Jenna G and more at WK:END: the Marcus Intalex Music Foundation’s first programme of events from February 22 and 23. Find out more