All hail...Micky Finn
Lord of the Darkside Micky Finn has been at the fore of the UK d&b scene for nigh on twenty years now; so we thought it was about time we had a word. The-Raft sent its Welsh wizard Josh Saunders to a posho London coffee shop where much chin-wagging, tea supping and fag smoking would ensue fo'real.
You have the 'Jungle and Drum & Bass Anthems' album out. What constitutes an anthem?
MF: An anthem is just a bestseller. In terms of blockbusters for movies - it’s a smash that everyone loves. It has to be the anthem of all time i.e. it came out in '97 and is still being played now. I've got tunes in my record bag from then that haven't left it! We picked tunes that hadn't been on a lot of albums before. That’s the surprise, and it was challenging.
No disrespect to anyone but it's too easy to put all the classics on a record and mix it up. We went for things that have never been on a compilation before. Some people wouldn't give up their tunes to any old compilation. Me and Nicky [Blackmarket] dug deep for quite a few days.
So when did the 'rewind' trend start?
The first time I heard a record get rewound was 'Groove'. It happened because they demanded it. The record was so good they wanted to hear that section again. (I mean rewinds come from reggae for the same reason). If it's a drop, or when the baseline comes in, they wanna hear it again.
In Hip-Hop you've got crowds shouting in, but in drum and base when you hear the sirens or there's a pause and the anticipation builds up…
With AWOL there were times we had to bring the record back 4 or 5 times and there comes a point you've gotta say "look, I've got other records to play!"
When do you think the term Drum & Bass came into use? Because beforehand the term being used was Jungle…
I'd say…ninety….five….ninety six. Was constructed by Groove and Goldie though beforehand. I don't know, I could be talking out of my arse.
The music started getting really bad elements in Jungle. Because it was reggae influenced you'd get idiots coming in off the streets who didn't know or understand where we'd come from to get to this point in the scene...
...this 'pretend Yardie' thing which is now going into the grime scene?
Yeah, and they can stay there. What comes with good is bad. When your onto a good thing and you get 'trendy Bill' who doesn't care what it is; thinks it's fashion and wants to get involved without understanding it. I come from a time where people said sorry before they trod on your feet. The wrong elements started getting in there and bastardising Jungle. But you know it wasn't even yardies, it was silly little guys who got into the clubs causing hassle. It started getting violent and people were blaming it on Jungle so the name changed hoping to get rid of the association.
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About Petrol Records
About Petrol Records
