Sach O doesn’t own a car, let alone a garage. MTL has a dope subway yo’.
UK Garage never truly caught on the first time around in North-America. Too busy getting jiggy to our own, we didn’t have time for London’s champagne fueled dance craze: rap albums were selling 5 million copies! It didn’t help that a lot of what made Garage special got lost in translation: without proper live emceeing, pirate radio and UK club culture, Garage often seemed soft, girlie and flighty, particularly compared to the D&B madness we’d only just become accustomed to. So when the scene broke down amidst violence and a disco-style backlash from weary clubbers, we barely noticed around here and the music never attracted a negative stigma. Now, 10 years later amidst Dubstep’s worldwide takeover, the wider world is just starting to return to the genre that birthed it. Enter Swing & Skip Records.
Nominally a Montreal based label and club night formed by local DJ HGLDT, Swing & Skip have already attracted talent from New York and London and will be releasing its first official 12” next month. Spearheading “Future Garage”, less of a genre than a movement to “give Garage a future” through new ideas and abstraction, the crew’s been quietly leaking some amazing music to tastemaker ears, with repeated play on Blackdown’s Rinse FM show and in sets of more opened-minded DJs. It’s easy to see why, with an eye for Garage’s funky drumming and euphoric sound, their club nights and tunes are a welcome respite from the occasionally overwhelming darkness and aggression currently dominating Bass music. This podcast featuring live performances by label artist Hissy Fit is the label’s first full-length showcase, featuring live re-interpretations of the man’s tunes and it stands as a good primer for what the label’s about. Sleep at your peril, these guys will be making moves.
Download:
Swing & Skip Podcast 001 – Hissy Fit live set (stream)
Swing & Skip Podcast 001 – Hissy Fit live set (download)
