Lockah Nerds Out On Classic Miami Bass Jams

Let me start from the beginning, at the top of the list. This one's widely seen as being the record that started the Bass movement. A.D.E was the son of Billy Hines, a music store owner who started 4 Sight Records in Miami. Focusing lyrically on his love for bass-heavy sound systems and DJ gear, and jacking his hook from Kraftwerk's 'Trans Europe Express' (a nod to Planet Rock, too), A.D.E started an artistic movement country-wide: where the bass itself became the main talking point.

The record was a huge hit, and would be massively important to the genre by piquing the interest of a young promoter named Luke Skywalker. Seeing a potential to capitalise to the fullest extent by working with a relatively unknown 2 Live Crew, he brought the group to Miami; shaping their developing sound into one that would sell locally.

After being turned down by the other local labels, Luke decided to start his own imprint to release their next 12" - and sold 200,000 copies without their help.

J Grey – 'Miami' (Luke Skywalker Records, 1986)

The main track from this record, Anquette's 'Shake It, Do The 61st' is a pretty famous piece of Miami Bass history, and notorious for being a major catalyst for violence in the clubs. Sort of like the era's equivalent of 'Simon Says', or 'Forward Riddim' (and a recent addition for Aberdeen dance floors, the Human League's 'Don't You Want Me').

The flip, featuring a crazy cut and paste-style scratch track credited to J Grey, was more likely put together by 2 Live Crew's DJ, Mr Mixx. Steven J Grey was a popular radio DJ on one of Miami's big radio stations, WEDR 99 Soulstar, and this would have served as a vanity track for him and put the group (not to mention Luke Skywalker, now their official manager & hype man) in his good books. Mr Mixx also did a 'Mega Mixx' on each of the 2 Live Crew's first 5 albums, which is worth checking out.

Ladi Luv - 'Good To The Last Dub' (Joey Boy Records, 1989)

A seriously odd dub flip of Ladi Luv's 'Good To The Last Drop', a record put on to me by Giles Walker. The label responsible for this one was actually started by the owners of Caribbean Manufacturing, a record pressing plant which had established itself as one of the go-to-places for cutting a Miami Bass record at the time. The owner's son (Joey) was in charge of affairs at the label, and after seeing first-hand the amount of records being pressed and sold, decided to move the business' focus into a Bass-heavy direction.

The rap track is dope, but the dub is something else. The sparse "Let the bass come out so clear" intro is just ripe for a cut-up or edit, and the choppy vocal effect that follows is madness. I'm at loss to guess how they did that. '89 is a bit late in the day for a tape edit, maybe it was some combination of a Gate effect and short sampled slices of the vocal track. It reminds me of some of the parts in Edan's crazy edit/mix opus 'Echo Party'.

Dynamix II Featuring Too Tough Tee ‎– 'Just Give The D.J. A Break' (Bass Station Records, 1987)

This stone-cold classic 12" went Gold within a year, has sold an impressive 600,000 copies to date, and deserves to be in any self-respecting Miami Bass DJ's crate. So, what's the nerd factor here? Well, this record is said to be the first time a track featured a bassline made entirely from the long, sustained kick drums that defined Bass music's sound - by implementing a new production technique.

Working in engineer Eddie G's studio, the group utilised an EMU SP-12 sampler to manipulate the pitch of the kick drum sounds, and allow them to play melodic patterns with the results. It's a sound which has found its way into thousands upon thousands of all manner of club tracks, almost 30 years on.

DJ Matrix – 'Feel My Bass' (Bad Boy, 1988)

The term 'Miami Bass' is a bit of a misnomer, as the movement was heavily influenced by classic tracks from Detroit, New York and LA (yes, yes... and Dusseldorf), and existed throughout the rest of Florida and the South.

With that disclaimer out the way, enter Bad Boy Records (Bad Boy, not Bad Boy) which seems to be a brief venture by one Demetrius Ford aka DJ Matrix. I love the clunky, pounding tape-edit style drum intro, but what makes this one a goodie is the awkwardly accurate, Pretty Tony production impersonation on the vocoder. There's a Salt N Pepa scratch in there for good measure too. Matrix rather arrogantly defies you to feel the bass as so many of his contemporaries did, instead insisting that you feel his bass and his bass alone. Nothing wrong with a little braggin' and boastin' in hip hop though, right?

E.V.I.A.N. And The Atlantis Posse - 'Techno City' (Techno Kut Records, 1988)

Speaking of West Coast, it's worth mentioning some work from pioneering producer Unknown DJ right about now. One of my Turntable Lab finds from years back, here's a 'Planet Rock' sampling acid electro beat courtesy of one of his many aliases. Released on the Techno Kut label (a collaborative imprint between Unknown's own Techno Hop and Grandmaster Lonzo's Kru-Cut Records) E.V.I.A.N's lineup is strangely credited as Matrix, DPX-1 and E3, which are various pieces of production equipment of the time.

Even more strange is that the personnel legitimately includes a young MC Eiht, providing a "special space vocal" for us to have a long, hard think about. The instrumental and bonus beats are bangers too. The exact acid bassline features in another track, 'Techbeat 1', by the mysterious Spock. Yup, fucking Unknown again.

Pamp & Da Knox - 'Butta' (DJ Juantio Miami Bass Mix) (Underground Construction, 1996)

I'm a bit low on history behind this one. To the best of my knowledge, these guys were a Chicago duo active in the mid-late 90s operating exclusively on the now-defunct Underground Construction label, who cut three 12"s and then disappeared. Those who know me know I'm not much of a house head, but these guys were actually on a hard house tip.

Even more weirdly, all of their singles feature a Miami Bass remix courtesy of of someone called DJ Juantio. The fake 'Planet Rock' bassline, liberal smattering of 808 cowbells and porno moans let this one slide nicely into any of my Miami Bass sets, even though it's a few years late and about 1500 miles too far north to be a legit classic. Honourable mention goes to their follow-up single 'Shake', again with the Bass mix.

Jamie Jupitor – 'Computer Power' (Egyptian Empire, 1984)

One of LA's biggest influences on Miami Bass, Egyptian Lover's 'Egypt, Egypt' is a hall-of-fame number for basically any classic techno, electro and rap fan, and the Lover's material mostly came out on his own Egyptian Empire label. There are a few releases from other artists though, and this one from Jamie Jupitor might be my favourite.

I seem to recall a lot of speculation in the past that the name might be a simple alias of the Electro Pharoah himself - since the label reads "PRODUCED, ARRANGED AND WRITTEN BY THE EGYPTIAN LOVER" - but tours in recent years have featured both legendary men live in the flesh. So, there's your proof. Jamie Jupiter was his own man, with his own discography.

The song itself is just stunning: lush electro and almost has a big pop production style. It's hard to believe it's 30 years old. Many purists prefer the instrumental on the flip, but Jamie's freaky lyrical delivery - of the delights of a futuristic world where computers rule - has a charm that shouldn't be underestimated, either. 

DJ Battery Brain - '808 Volt Mix' (808 Beatapella Mix) (Techno Hop Records, 1988)

A final mention for Unknown DJ now, but I'm sidestepping the fun cut and paste flavour of '8 Volt Mix' and instead shining a light on '808 Volt Mix (808 Beatapella Mix). What presumably started as a 5 minute tribute to his humble Roland TR-808 ended up providing the backbone for a thousand Funk Carioca songs in Brazil.

The style began in Rio, and was heavily sampled from Miami Bass records of the era which were then picked up by Brazilian DJs record shopping in the USA - to whom Miami was the most accessible plane destination. Battery Brain's raw, solo drum track cut was clearly the most desirable break. 

Chaos – 'This Is Too Much Bass' (Scratch) (Ace Records, 1990)

Finally, here's a dope scratch track from Chaos which was an alias of Lon 'Ace In The Place' Alonzo, at this point now a departed member of Dynamix II, who I mentioned earlier. You can hear some of the trademark Dynamix scratches and samples in here, as well as the chopped up Incredible Bongo Band break they used in 'Feel The Bass'. Like a few others on this list this version was never compiled or repressed, so it can be quite tricky to find. Worth it though, as it bangs so much harder than the vocal cut.

You can follow Lockah on Twitter here: @lockah