Jeez this is such a superstar lineup, I had no clue when I bought it for 50p in John Menzies as a 16 year old where it would lead me. Howie B, Dobie and Diane Charlemagne (RIP)

Somewhere between street soul, Balearic, acid jazz and what would become trip hop, Britain made THE greatest music at the turn of the 90s

I MEAN

WELL underrated Scottish groover

RIP Denise Johnson

When UK street soul met house it was amazing too. There's a whole sound from that interface...

Loved this as a kid but never realised how unique it was

And of course Smith & Mighty, Smith & Mighty, Smith & mighty

This was almost more a Smith & Mighty record than a fully fledged Massive one...

Often wonder why DCP never crossed over bigger... but if they had, maybe we'd never have got IG Culture's bruk briliance

That border with balearic was so porous... this is kind of cosmic soul really - RIP The Guvnor

Not a British record but the remix is, so...

More Scottish action!

IMAGINE this is Paul Oakenfold tho!

Yet more Smith & Mighty on the mix, plus Krust & Flynn... and what a P E R F E C T video. Pure Bristolian excellence. As I completed Bass, Mids, Tops, I realised that this record was a cornerstone of the whole thing....

SO many of these I picked up for 50p at the time because they were on major label imprints, sent out to shops in the tens of thousands in promo drives, but what high art!

This has turned into quite a mammoth thread. I didn't realise how foundational so much of this stuff was for me (essentially a goth / indie kid turning raver) - and for music that would follow - at the time. But I bought it ALL.

So there's a serious aspect to this. Any history or theory of UK underground music that excludes this stuff - mass market records, often top ten hits - is like a house with a wall removed. It was as important as the acid house and rave of the same period.

We never really separated the jazzy from the hip hoppy from the electronic. If I could persuade my mates to listen to these tunes, it was on "smokers" mixtapes along with Happy Mondays, Orb, The Doors, The Beloved...

Realised that this thread is the flipside of the coin of the "drug dub" stuff I've always obsessed with. Same time period (88-94), same tempos, same hybridity, many of the same overlaps (UK hip hop, dub soundsystems, Balearica), but they're night and day. https://www.mixcloud.com/joemuggs/luckyme-mixtape-108-joe-muggs-dug-drug-dub-88-94/

Further to my thread about uk circa 1990.... oh my giddy gosh.