Why Garage Vinyl Records Reflect The Origins Of Urban Soul
Trying to categorise garage vinyl records is about as hard as trying to categorise garage music per se. Garage seems to have been miscategorised, misunderstood and mis-defined so often by so many people that it almost becomes impossible to define unless you start by stating the location and the decade at least. Garage music grew out of the RNB urban scene, including hip hop and rap, and has itself spawned a number of sub genres, including speed garage and dubstep.
But one of the things that I do believe in when it comes to garage music, as with most forms of RNB, hip hop and house is that having the music in vinyl form is far better than having it in any other format. Of course, there are certainly plenty of advantages of having your music in MP3 form or carrying about a nice shiny CD, including portability for one. Being able to carry your music about with you is great, and I would be the first to applaud such a benefit.
But that doesn't take away from the fact that when it comes to dubstep music vinyl is the most loved format for me, as well as having a healthy collection of garage vinyl records. Why has vinyl survived at all, and why are these urban genres so right for such a format? Let's be honest, it isn't about the quality, since MP3s and CDs have the music in its purest form, with all the cracks, hisses and pops wiped out, leaving nothing but the notes.
But this is the problem, the notes on their own aren't the full story of the music. RNB, hip hop, garage, dubstep and the many other urban musical genres, including jungle for instance, all share one main thing in common - they're for performance, not just recitation. In other words, the urban music we love is about having a great time with the music, experimenting, being creative. It isn't about sitting back and just listening to the music. Of course, that's perfectly fine if you like, but most garage enthusiasts see the music as being something more than a passive experience. It makes you want to get up, take part and be involved.
Granted, not all music is like this, and there are plenty of pieces of music and genres which are best just listened to as you sit back, relax, and enjoy the experience. But gritty, urban music like garage, RNB, dubstep and such like demand more participation, and vinyl allows you to feel a part of the creation of the music. It's about invention, experimentation and getting active. You just can't do that with an MP3 or a CD. If you try being creative with your MP3s you'll find that you're more or less limited to changing the filename or shuffling your playlist about. Neither of those really do much for me, and I wouldn't expect them to keep many people entertained for long.
But garage vinyl records are different, because they can be touched and felt, allowing you to mix, scratch and experiment with the music. Remember how speed garage came about? If you weren't there, then let me explain how speed garage developed. Throughout the urban scenes and nightclubs at the height of house there were often jungle rooms, but next door there would be a garage room. The DJ's used to speed up the garage tracks to match in with the tempo of the jungle beats. The problem was that when you speed up a disk, the vocals become so distorted you can't make them out.
The solution was for the DJs to strip out the vocals and just play the garage at a faster tempo. But of course this led to the tracks having no vocals, and all instrumental tracks weren't flavour of the day. So to fill in this void the DJs began rapping, or MCeeing over the tracks, almost like reciting poetry in a rhythmic way. Much of this was impromptu, and certain DJs made quite a name for themselves.
This was where garage was born - and you can see for yourself that its very heart and soul is born out of experimentation and creativity. There was so little left of the original track that it was virtually unrecognizable, and the urban scene loved it. This is exactly why garage vinyl records are the truest form of garage there is, and why when it comes to dubstep music vinyl is the only real form of media that is going to let you live the music.
Barnaby Milne is a musician, DJ and avid collector of music from the 70s to today, particularly garage vinyl records and for dubstep music vinyl is his top recommendation.
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