If 187 Lockdown and The Dreem Team are an overground expression of what has brewing in undergound London clubs for the last few years, then the music of Matthew B and co-conspirators Mr C, Layo, Terry Francis, Eddie Richards, Nathan Cole and Asad Rizvi represents the flip side of the coin. Using C's clubber-friendly End nightclub and Francis' Wiggle parties as a DJing outlet, and labels like The End, Reverberations, Plank, Eye 4 Sound, and Urban Decay as a platform for release, this close-knit circle of DJs and producers have created a sound all their own.
Call it tech-house, tech-funk or whatever the hell you like, but the music coming out of this scene is undeniably original, innovative, entertaining and accessible. Fusing the best parts of house, techno, breakbeat and (in some cases) electro, this musical movement has grown silently, steadily and through word-of-mouth. Free from the usual suffocating attention of the bandwagon jumping dance media, the producers have developed their own unmistakable sound and, within the pool of artists credited with kick-starting the scene, Matthew B's involvement has been perhaps the most significant.
Recording for his own Plank imprint as Mash-Up Heads, Two Full Minds and Makesomebreaksome, and for The End, Kickin' and Urban Decay as Matthew B, The Usual Suspects and Plantastik, Matthew's music is the sound of now. At times, the breaks are skeletal and almost inaudible as they flow through deep, blissed out textures, while in other, less reserved, moments they rage in and out of funky house and techno structures before becoming subsumed by filthy acid lines, most notable on Matthew's current 'Nightstalkin'/'Daydreamin' release with Layo on The End as Usual Suspects.
"It's a long term project," says a rather distracted Matthew from what sounds like a very busy studio. "Myself and Layo spend only one or two days a month on The Usual Suspects, and its developing really nicely." The fruits of the collaboration will be more apparent later in the year, when the pair release an LP under the name.
Until then, fans of Matthew's funky breaks can satisfy themselves with his excellent long play debut, 'Wak'd', on Kickin, a soon-to-be-released compilation on Plank next month, containing tracks from Matthew, Nathan Cole and DJ Vaughan under a number of different guises, and more floor gear on the End and Urban Decay.
Speaking on the subject closest to his heart, Matthew says that "the tech-house or tech-funk names don't mean anything: UK producers are finally getting the recognition they deserve. The music isn't too hard or soft, just funky, and was heading in that direction and has developed over the years anyway . A good example of this is Dave Angel: he used to play it hard, and now his sets have become funkier and more housey."
Which brings us on to Matthew's own DJing abilities: he's rated as one of the best in a scene where precision and skill are taken for granted, and his charts often feature more conventional house and techno numbers.
"It does tend to confuse people, but my box usually features a lot of house and techno, so it's good to throw in loads of breaks during my sets to destroy the 4/4 monotony!"
Matthew's first taste of DJ and club culture came at the tender age of 15, when, he became curious as to why, every weekend, a shady bunch of youths called the Ratpack would religiously hire lights and a fuck-off PA from the store he worked in. Following them to their HQ at an empty swimming pool, Matthew soon realised the joys of acid house, and, by his own admission, started to "get busy."
However, as the initial optimism of dancing till dawn became superseded by the appearance of criminal elements and the accompanying bad vibes, Matthew began to lose faith in an increasingly unfriendly scene.
"I got disillusioned in the early '90s by the moodiness and the bad vibes. I didn't like the reggae and ragga elements that were coming into the music, and I wasn't too keen on loads of dodgy geezers standing beside me and telling me what to do when I was on the decks. If I'd stuck with that scene I know I could have gone further quicker, but I can't do something I don't like. Instead, I looked for musical direction and took inspiration from US house music."
By the same token, Matthew maintains he felt very negative about dance music for a few years, until he met up with Mr. C, who taught him how to have a positive outlook, and encouraged him to take up DJing and production work again. Happily, Matthew returned to stamp his individualistic mark all over London's party and club scene, but says: "it's only been in the last year that things have moved on properly for us all. The music we play is accessible without being commercial, and we're all DJs, so we have that angle and are aware of what works. We don't need any hype or big push, we know that this music is going to go a long way." n
* 'Wak'd' and 'Nightstalkin'/'Daydreamin' are out now on Kickin' and The End respectively.