There’s been so much talk of recession this year that many music commentators have missed the green shoots of recovery starting to spring up in UK clubland. Or make that ‘purple’ shoots. For that is the tag, the phrase, the er… colour being assigned clubland’s the next big scene and, once again, Bristol is behind it.
Bristol brought us the pioneering trip-hop of Portishead, the gritty, urban manoeuvrings of Massive Attack and Roni Size’s intelligent, tuned-up drum & bass. And that’s forgetting the likes of Nellee Hooper and Tricky. But it’s all about ‘purple’ now, a melodious West Country brew of grime and dubstep that’s intoxicating folk up and down the country.
“It’s not a genre, but purple is the colour we all get along with,” mentioned 20-year-old producer Joker, rather intriguingly, in a national newspaper interview last month. “When you hear a song, you envisage things – soul music is mahoghany, basslines are yellow….”
Joker, already an established dubstep star, represents purple’s ear-catching frontline alongside producers Guy ‘Guido’ Middleton, 21, and Jemal ‘Gemmy’ Phillips, 23. The three’s choice of colour for their sound suggests a sonic warmth a million miles away from grime’s razor edged machismo and dubstep’s unfathomable, juggernaut-like bass wobbles.
Indeed, purple aims to wrap grime and dubstep’s weighty rumblings in bold, hooky melodies, soulful keys and rich, uplifting vocals; there are further nods to peppy 80s synths and 90s Yank G-Funkers like Teddy Riley and Snoop Dogg. An early Gemmy release was actually entitled ‘Purple Moon’, but the tag has become more prevalent in recent weeks - one of Joker’s latest tracks is called ‘Purple City’; both Joker and Gemmy are currently recording a ‘Purple Wow’ album with Guido, and there is the guarantee of more colourful shenanigans on the boys’ respective solo long-players; all currently works in progress.
There’s no reason to think purple will be a flash in one very niche pan. Gemmy has actually just signed an album deal with the revered Planet Mu label; Joker is getting high-profile remix commissions from the likes of Bloc Party; and Guido’s online mixtapes and recordings via Bristolian imprint Punch Drunk are leading to wider opportunities.
The three are keen on making music that can be listened to in headphones as well as nightclub; crucially, by both sexes. Grime and dubstep have mounted increasingly fruitless expeditions to find fierce new sub-bass and drum sounds, and left themselves open to accusations of becoming inaccessible, too club-focussed and too masculine. There have obviously been the negative headlines about male-heavy club nights pushing aggressive urban music and attracting gun and knife crime; the boys simply feel things can change.
Purple is, according to Joker, “something for people without decks” – something forward-thinking, in other words, set to attract a whole new crowd of devotees away from grime and dubstep’s traditional spheres of reach. If the music is upbeat, flirtatious, even happy-go-lucky, then it still packs a meaty punch; and one likely, for once, to leave a big, ‘phat’ smile on your face.
For further info:
www.myspace.com/guidoproductions
www.myspace.com/thejokerproductions
www.myspace.com/djgemmy
