Roots at the shore of a dirty old town
A throw back to the music of a youth spent by the sea in Brighton
I had been stuck for inspiration for a few weeks as to what to share. I want to share something a little more meaningful on this stack and I was feeling spent to be honest. But mid last week I started thinking about music that shaped my initial musical explorations and how growing up in Brighton, a unique dirty old seaside town on England’s south coast shaped that. Now for those of you who are not familiar with Brighton its a town with an open mind, a scruffy faded regency façade and a reputation for hedonism and debauchery. When I was a girl growing into my teenage years, Brighton was having a renaissance as a 90s mecca for nights out, for hedonistic Londoners and Southerners of all shapes. There were always clubs and bars playing house and drum & bass packed at the weekends, especially in the summer months. It was a LGBTQ haven with its huge annual Pride celebration. Music, drinking and dancing were everywhere. There was also a simmering hip hop and skate scene which meant there were plenty of b-boys and skaters around too. Influences came from around the world - even though it was a very white British place in the 90s and early 00s. There are certain sounds and frequencies from that era, and specific stand out tracks that really shaped my tastes - outside of the music I was lucky enough to be played at home. I hope you can hear the waves on the pebbles and the energy of the place I experienced through today’s selection.
Firstly Brand New Second Hand by Roots Manuva - that eccentric and talented british MC - was a seminal album to stoned hazy days round friends houses and teenage nonsense. The whole album could be posted here. But for me there is something about the depths of Inna that take me back to the feeling of being that age and finding a love of UK hip hop. This album led me to many others Jehst, Task Force, Skinny Man, Rodney P, but no one had a sound like Mr Manuva.
Deep moody sounds and hip hop style samples were having a moment in the mid to late 90s, was it a trip hop hangover? I don’t know. But an album that sat somewhere perfectly nestled between atmospheric electronica and hip hop style samples and cuts was Entroducing… by DJ Shadow. My first boyfriend bought me this CD in high school when I turned 14 (thanks Dylan) and I honestly am so grateful that he did. Midnight In A Perfect World was immediately my favourite track and it felt like a soundtrack to the bittersweet sadness of my teenage life to me - I am sure that it isn’t a universal trigger emotion, but this album led me into a world of sample heavy beats that I still relish today.
Ahhh John B. Brighton was a DnB heavy town. In 2001 - 2003 I went to numerous raves in Brighton. Meltdown was a monthly dance at The Beach club, Lunacy was an anarchic jungle rave in the Volks nightclub which happened most Fridays (from memory) and Concorde 2 hosted Legends of the Dark Black. I went frequently to all them. And there are so many incredible legendary tracks that instantly transport me to my first tastes of raving but Up All Night by John B was particularly special. I have memories driving around in my friend Alice’s VW polo singing this at the top of our lungs. The synth topline and the vocals make this otherwise heavy drum and bass masterpiece feel pretty emotional and it always tears up a dancefloor.
Concrete Schoolyard by Jurassic 5 was a track I think I first heard in Year 9 of high school, and it was part of a huge wave of underground hip hop and rap that came into my life from that age through until I was 18/19 when I went to University. I loved the sound of hip hop, I loved the samples, the bounce, the lyrical word play and the attitude. This particular track was just the beginning. I became less interested in Jurassic 5 after their first two albums - but I still feel this as a classic. It was an LP that went hand in hand with the skate culture that I was adjacent to in Brighton.
One of my earliest experiences of real rave music (even when I wasn’t anywhere close to being old enough to go be there in person) was discovering The Prodigy when I was in Year 7. A friend of mine China lived in a flat in Kemptown. I loved going round there as her mum was a circus performer and their flat was so artistic and quirky with lots of colour and nick nacks from their lives. China played Music For A Jilted Generation and I was in love. I thought it was so raw and immediate. This track No Good (Start The Dance) alongside Their Law, was an intensity of sound and a window into a world I had yet to experience. That night life world grew to be one of my favourite places to escape into. But this track still sounds like that moment of first discovery.
Today’s final selection is a track I had recorded from the radio on to a cassette when I was listening to John Peel’s show on Radio 1. I was a keen radio listener in the mid 90s. I always had it on when I was doing my homework or drawing in my bedroom. This track The First Big Weekend by Arab Strap tapped into my teenage melancholy I think. And I loved the bleak sound of this Scottish voice with this underlying sadness - talking about being with friends. I lost the track name and artist for years, and discovered it again years later when experiences like the ones Arab Strap are singing about were so much more familiar to me. Now it makes me have a little pain in my chest remembering the state of my mental health when I was young - how much I was uncomfortable being me - but how the nights out with friends that were to come were a salve and a tonic for all the discomfort I was feeling. A beautiful, simple song that takes me back to a life that started by the sea.
Hope you get to visit Brighton some day soon. The fish and chips and the pub scene continue to be the best there is.
Love Brighton and love this post. I started going down there in the late 90’s and this brought back a lot of memories