A brief history of Bass House from the Night Bass boss

 

AC Slater: Bass house as a genre is pretty new. Here’s some tunes that were labeled with the bass house name, as well as a few faves of mine that probably inspired bass house.

 

EJ - "UFO"

When I started touring in the UK I would go into the bassline/UKG shops and buy tons of records. A lot of labels there were still doing vinyl only even though MP3s were the norm already. I felt so special going back to the states with the new heat. Found this one while digging in Manchester back in like 2006, it’s the wobbliest of the wobbly basslines.

 

Claude von Stroke - "Who's Afraid Of Detroit"

I remember hearing this song and thinking 'woah, house music with basslines!' It was inspiring to see someone from outside of the UK making something I was very interested in. Up to this point almost everything I liked came out of the UK.

 

AC Slater - "Jack Got Jacked" (Jack Beats Remix)

'Jack Got Jacked' was my anti-house music song I wrote in 2007, I always found house boring (sorry!). I thought it would be dope to get Jack Beats on the remix, not only because of their name, but because they had just done a remix for T&B and it was fire. Well, they smashed the remix and it is a timeless track that still holds up in clubs, while my original mix is pretty much laughable at this point.

 

The Count & Sinden - "Beeper"

This was a game changer. Just fun bass-driven dance music. You couldn’t go anywhere without hearing this one.

 

Champion - "Lighter"

UK Funky was a big sound for me, but Champion’s grimy garage basslines took it to another level. The man is still killing it today.

 

DJ Q - "Big"

This is a personal one for me, I’m not sure if the tune was big (no pun intended) on a grand scale. We booked DJ Haus for our T&B party at SXSW in 2013, he played this track, and as a huge fan of UK bassline from like 2007 I had to ask him what it was. He said it’s the new thing in England coming out of the midlands. People slowing down that classic 140bpm bassline sound and using more of a housey beat. I’m thinking, 'You’re speaking my language, let’s go.'

 

Shadow Child ft. Tymer - "23" (Zinc VIP)

This is definitely one of the closest things to an early bass house anthem in my opinion. If you played this out still it would go off without a doubt.

 

Neville Bartos ft. Chris Lorenzo - "Coke Diet"

People still play this three year old banger. It’s still relevant and definitely help set the tone of that bass house sound.

 

P Money - "Round The Clock" (Cause And Affect Remix)

This definitely was one of the biggest tunes at the time it came out. Everyone played it. Zillions of producers tried to copy the Cause & Affect style. Good luck.

 

Taiki Nulight - "IAEATD" feat Hervé

Taiki took the 'house' out of the bass house. This tune swerved to the left of the standard house drums and a lot of people started  using breakbeats in tunes. Game changer.

 

AC Slater’s new EP Bass Inside is out 26th May on OWSLA, pre-order it here.

 

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Ministry of Sound's The Sound Of Bass House is out on 13th May, pre-order it here.