Early last year, a trio of singles released on Hyperdub – Quarta 330′s ‘Sunset Dub’/’9 Samurai’ remix, Zomby/Rustie’s ‘Mu5h’/'Spliff Dub’ remix, and Ikonika’s ‘Please’/'Simulacrum’ – announced the arrival of the off-kilter ‘wonky’ non-dubstep sound that would subsequently dominate dancefloors in ’08 (as well as critics’ heads as they tried, in vain, to come up with a better name than ‘wonky’ and have it stick).

Of course, those tracks had been around for months – many of us first heard them on Kode 9 and Flying Lotus’ one-off Rinse FM show from late 2007. I mentioned that show in my recent Producers to Watch piece, but it bears repeating just how accurately it predicted the bass music trends of 2008, and predicted Kode 9′s future role as forward-thinking dance music’s chief taste-maker. For those who missed it, Martin Clark’s Pitchfork column from April last year is an excellent primer for this period.

One of the producers played on that Kode 9 show was Bristol’s Joker. Though the 19-year-old producer was originally grouped in with the wonky, er, movement, in truth his production have never had much of the off-kilter about them, bar maybe ‘Grimey Princess’ from 07′s Kapsize EP. Joker’s 08 vinyl output owed nothing to Dilla, Dabrye or Drexciya; instead it weighed heavily on grime (‘Gully Brook Lane’), Dipset (‘Snake Eater’), video games (er, ‘Snake Eater’) and G-funk (’80s’). Originally this was put forward as a show of wonky’s disparity, but judging by Joker’s output since these tracks, he’s got little to do with wonky, but is leading a new bass music movement altogether. Surprisingly, it was oft-overlooked ‘Holly Brook Park’ B-side ’80s’ that first signalled his new direction.

Kiran Sande’s end of year round-up described Joker’s collaboration with Rustie, ‘Play Doh’, as “postmodern G-Funk par excellent, all squealing snyths and full-fat, square-wave bass”, and it’s a description that could equally apply to much of Joker’s material since. Tracks like ‘Do It’, ‘Purple City’ and ‘Digidesign’ are G-Funk remodeled for a generation that thirsts for bassweight and 140BPM but still remembers caning Death Row records at school. Off-kilter beats are out and ultra-smoove melodies are in; in ‘Do It”s case, accompanied by vocoded vocals that owe more to ‘California Love’ than the recent – and slightly crap – trend of Kanye/T-Pain/Lil Wayne autotune. ‘Electric Sea’ (listen below) sounds like the sort of thing Eazy E would seduce his woman to if he wasn’t a misogynist.

Stream: Joker – Electric Sea [courtesy of Dub Studio]

As you might expect, Joker’s mate and, in some regards, musical mentor, Gemmy, is also pushing this stuff – his ‘Bass Transmitter’ single from last year was all about the taut snyths, and that resonates even closer to the surface in recent track ‘Johnny 5′. In an interview with Dub Studio, Joker said he imagines the music in his head first as a picture, using a landscape of a purple-tinted sea [found at the top of this article] as an example. It’s this ‘purple’ aesthetic – squelchy, syrupy sounds vibrant with colour and soul – that binds his tracks.

So if Joker and Gemmy are leading this trend, who’s following? Denmark’s 2000F and Jkamata go straight for the jugular on ‘You Don’t Know What Love Is’, a squelcher’s lament that’s even more explicitly G-Funk than ‘Electric Sea’, and will see release on Hyperdub in February on the flip of Joker’s ‘Digidesign’. Unfortunately, the stuff on 2000F’s myspace is a lot more fist-pumpy – likewise Jkamata, though do check out half-Bmore, half-Eurotrash helium goer ‘Thro Yo Handz Upp’. So maybe ‘You Don’t Know What Love Is’ is an anomaly. Maybe someone knows something I don’t (that’s usually the case). Either way, expect to hear a lot more of it in the future, including possibly on mainstream radio.

Judging by his recent three-track EP on Nod Navigators, Vienna producer Dorian Concept shares more of an overall kinship with Joker’s Purple Funk (P-Funk-not-P-Funk?). A-Side ‘The Fucking Formula’ is quality, ostentatiously fat Rustie-esque digi-bump, but it’s B-Side ‘Sweet Yard Sale’ I’m concerned about, with snaking sunset snyths that are more GTA: San Andreas than Joker and Gemmy’s Star Light Zone, but would work great in the mix with tunes like ‘Do It’. Both that and ‘Digidesign’/'You Don’t Know What Love Is’ are must-have twelves – no questions asked.

Who else follows Joker up the purple path remains to be seen, but don’t be surprised if this year more and more producers throw out the Dilla-style drums that inspired them in their early twenties, and turn to the Dre-style synths that dominated their school days. As long as it leads to some critical rediscovery of Above The Law and Kokane, and more excellent mixes like the one below, then I’m down.

Download: Joker’s Purple Wow Sound Mix

Tom Lea

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 11th, 2009 at 6:20 pm and is filed under Features, Other Features and tagged with 2000&F, Dorian Concept, Gemmy, Guido, Joker. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.