[...] Perhaps now I will step on some toes. I will apologize in advance. Why is it that the industry in England feels that is necessary to re-classify or categorize House music ? Every six months there is some sort of new twist on an old sound and it is born a new name. They come and they go. That sound is then changed and exploited by UK industry strong-arms, labels and producers and the creator never gets credit for his/her originality.
Ex. Speed Garage. First of all, it has nothing to do with "the Garage" This music was never played at "the Garage", nor is it what one could assume to make sense, a sped up version of Garage style music. Second Armand Van Helden developed a style of production. He didn't give it a name other than Armand mix. Well somewhere along the line, his style was adopted by a whole nation of producers oversees and it was deemed to be Speed Garage. Not once have I seen him get any recognition for being the creator of this style of music. I have seen producers emerge from the UK . So, I guess I am not a big fan of this style of music.
Every once in awhile, I will hear a song in its classification that will catch my ear, but for the most part it all sounds the same and there are usually no vocals. How can this be helping our industry if there are never any words to identify the song or no focus on the development of artists. Again, I apologize, if I am stepping on any toes, but these things are important to me.
"House music for me is about a multicultural mix. Speedgarage is a part of bringin' black folks back into the clubs. That's what it really means to me. And to me that's real important."
--
Armand Van Helden,
Grandfather of Speedgarage
The Armand Van Helden remix of CJ Bolland's "Sugar is Sweeter" defined the whole [speed garage] sound with that huge breakdown and massive bass-line. He was the first one to really come up with any sort of formula for the music.
Armand, "For me when I first started to make speedgarage, I didn't term it as speedgarage. I'd been into drum and bass for years. The scenario was, I'm not gonna try and make drum and bass, I'm gonna take it and put it with house and see what happens. That's all it is, that's the birth of Speedgarage."
One of these people doing it well is New Jersey based producer Todd Edwards. Van Helden cites Edwards as the best of the "other side" of Speedgarage, that of tight beats with an underlying garage influence. This style is most evident on Edwards' single "Dancing for Heaven".
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