UNTOLD
Jack Dunning a.k.a. Untold is at the cross section of a rapidly mutating UK bass movement: bass heavy music at varying tempos, old and new influences, from house to dubstep, and beyond. To listen to an Untold production is an exciting marker to how mashed up – how cross pollinated – house, 2-step, grime, and dubstep have become overseas. And where once music, parties, and people seemed tightly aligned by genre, eclecticism and diversity have moved to the mainfloor.
We caught up with Untold, for a chat on dubstep, the culture of UK bass music, and his mix for Big Up Magazine.
Interview by James Healy
Prior jungle fans in the States detail how they left jungle as a jump-up aesthetic dominated (fist pumping, rewinds, and constant MCing). There’s a concern that dubstep may follow the same path. Some are worried that dubstep’s many creative strains may fall prey to crossover, as the music comes to saturate our pop lives and moves to the mainfloor…
The money is starting to come in – people are really starting to make careers out of this – and when the money comes, there can be bad elements but at it’s core it’s run by good people. Many people are not in it for the cash. They are in it to write music because they have to write music. Enough people in London have the desire to steer it in the right path so it is about experimentation and not just another functional strain of rave music developed for clubs.
Dance music is going through a bit of a noisy stage – the sound’s quite immediate and raw… There is a side of it that is more mainstream – rave music, something for the students to dance to – but that’s OK. They don’t want to go too deep into a scene and this is that presentation. I’ll play a 100-person club in Eastern Europe and they will have been in it from the beginning, requesting music that was released last week. I’ll play 20 miles from London and people won’t be having it.
There is no reason why bass music can’t make people dance in the large clubs. House has had hold on the main room for so long, but it looks like that is changing now. The small interesting bits of house are now turning up the back rooms. It’s
a wonderful mess at the moment. It’s all topsy-turvy and there are loads of paradoxes but thankfully, there is just good music…. People are doing interesting stuff. I hope it gets messed up some more.
