Ministry LIVE presenter and garage fanboy, Mike Wooller, delves into the crates to pick out some of his favourite UKG records
Scott Garcia - "It's A London Thing"
I remember buying this on vinyl from the Uptown website in the early 2000s and instantly fell in love with it. When it came out, not only was I too young to go raving, but had also never been to London. Aesthetically, the record sounded like it was made from an amalgamation of everything I had ever heard played on London pirate stations. M1 organ sample? Check. Cockney MC? Check. When I finally got a show on East London pirate station, True FM, back in the mid 2000s this record was always in my bag because it felt made for that setting.
MJ Cole - "Sincere"
Not only is this record arguably the best UK Garage record ever made, it is probably one of my favourite tracks, period. Yes, it doesn’t have the obvious drop that would otherwise make it a powerful club weapon, but Cole’s classical training (he also plays the oboe and piano) is apparent when listening to the musical structure of the track. It’s moody and soulful, yet melodic and that’s one of the main things I love about it. There’s also a mix MJ Cole did just for his sets that I managed to get my hands on a while back… Shhhh don’t tell anyone.
The Streets - "Has It Come To This?"
This one not only kicked off Mike Skinner’s career, but was important for UK Garage as a genre. When I first heard the record, I was admittedly confused to hear some guy from Birmingham rhythmically talking over a UK Garage beat, but became hooked on it quite quickly. It was released on one of my favourite labels at the time, Locked On (which also released a lot of stuff by Zed Bias), so I snapped it up as soon as it came out. The rest is history of course. I remember about two years later going to watch him play a sold-out show at the Southampton Guild Hall with a young Professor Green as the support act.
Mike talked to some of his garage heroes for our new doc, UKG Crate Digging, listen to it on Ministry LIVE here.
Our I Love Garage compilation is chock full of these kind of dancefloor weapons, get your copy here.
