Pilgrem s Progress

He mightn t sound familiar, but Rennie Pilgrem has been DJing, producing and remixing dance music for the best part of a decade. Originally a member of proto hardcore outfit Rhythm Section, who sold 20,000 copies of their Comin On Strong single, Rennie subsequently recorded as Philadelphia Bluntz releasing two albums, as well as working under the New Electro Sound Of London, Thursday Club and Bionic Dog monikers. Apart from his remix work he s put his distinctive touch to everyone from Jazzy Jeff to Freq Nasty, Pilgrem also runs the TCR label and has mixed the Explicit Beats and Nu Skool Breakz compilations. Then there s the small matter of the Friction club-night he started with Adam Freeland.

One of the first clubs to bring the pioneering nu-breaks sound to a wider audience, Friction has been indirectly responsible for the proliferation of a wealth of new break beat labels, artists and club-nights. More recently, Rennie has also released his debut album, Selected Werkz. A collection of rare, exclusive and classic moments from Pilgrem s career, Rennie explains the reasoning behind the release of the album.
The idea was to collect the material from a few years ago until now and release it all in one go and then concentrate on a brand new thing, he explains, pointing out that quite a lot of people haven t got the older stuff so it s a case of forgetting about it or putting it all together.
Naturally, Pilgrem isn t one to rest on his laurels, with TCR releasing six new singles before the end of 2000, as well as setting up a new label to provide a forum for what he believes is the most important development in electronic music in recent years the 2 step / break beat crossover.
Referring to the new style as break step , Rennie says some of the 2-step stuff is getting closer to what we do, but it appeals to different people. It won t be radically different to what I m making now but it ll be an attempt to try and influence that world. I m not really into the glammy end of the 2-step movement, because I m after the raw, nasty, street stuff! What s going on at the moment is that two scenes are being joined together.
I ve also done a sound track for MTV s Dancefloor Chart , which is very dark and will be the first release on the new label. What s happening is that there are a lot of drum n bass producers who make that kind of music but don t put their names to it. They re influencing it so you re hearing drum n bass influenced 2 step at break beat speed! It s opening up a lot of doors. At the last Friction there were five or six 2 step producers checking out the music, and you re seeing people like Dee Kline working with Freq Nasty.
Pilgrem believes that the breaks structure allows a lot more flexibility and more room for experimentation, something that s evident on Selected Werkz , where acid, dub, hip-hop, ragga and hardcore elements are woven into the breaks structure.
Hardcore is where I m from and it influenced everything we wouldn t have had drum n bass, break beat or 2 step without hardcore, he explains, adding that its successor, break beat, has no rules, it isn t regimented. At the moment, there s so many different sounds in break beat; there s the funk stuff that s getting house DJs interested, the progressive breaks end of things that s got the likes of Digweed into it and there s the electro influenced break beat as well. There s a huge range, something there for everyone. It s become an established sound.
So, with Selected Werkz hitting the shelves and Rennie even teaming up with the former members of Rhythm Section to remix one of Moby s old tracks, his old skool hardcore credentials remain intact.
I think the problem is that what most people hear as dance music has been watered down, and you need that element in dance music that ll annoy someone s parents, he observes. The majority of the dance scene is too conservative, it s music I can actually imagine my parents buying: cheap, commercialized disco music, lowest common denominator stuff. Eight or nine years ago, if you saw a dance record in the Top 40 you d think yes, we did it, whereas now that s taken over and I don t like what it s become. Still, I don t regret one single thing that I ve done in the last ten years.

Selected Werkz is out now on TCR