[ No. 8 ]

Big beat: new rock?

by Cyclone Wehner

Big beat may well be the most significant new style of dance music of the 90s. Why? Because, if it survives long-term, big beat threatens to kill off rock, that's why. Indeed, the Prodigy, Chemical Brothers and Propellerheads have spewed up electronic lava all over rock's Pompeii. And it follows that big beat could turn out to be the new rock.

Big beat, which is best described as a molten composite of techno, metallica and ol' skool hip-hop can be traced back to seaside Brighton, the hometown of Fatboy Slim, aka Norman Cook. He's been called the Puff Daddy of big beat (instead of the Cristal, think lager). Here is a perfect instance of an auteur who seems to have endorsed the media hype from behind closed doors.

The centre of the big beat universe these days is Brighton's Big Beat Boutique, which also exists as an extension of the Skint label. Such is the status of this weekly bash that "Mixmag" has proclaimed it, 'the best beats night in the country from the best big beat label in the world.'

Nevertheless, if big beat has a spiritual home, it remains The Heavenly Social (The Big Beat Boutique is merely a lively holiday house). It was here that big beat's first underground DJ, Jon Carter (aka Monkey Mafia), got his lucky break. But surely the true Godfathers of the genre are those other sometime Social residents, Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands, better known as the Chemical Brothers. At the time their big beat prototype (served up on 1995's "Exit Planet Dust") represented a powerful counter to the sameness -- and blatant commercialism -- of most house.

While his biographical material suggests that he is 'the forerunner of a movement called big beat', Fatboy Slim (so-named after an old southern Bluesman) was in fact taking his cues from these Londoners -- who also happened to be friends of his. Cook's musical career had already taken several twists and turns when his first Fatboy album, "Better Living Through Chemistry", dropped in 1996. In the 80s, he put his DJing on hold to become a bassist for The Housemartins (who scored with their Isley Brothers cover, "Caravan Of Love"). After that, Cook formed the dubby outfit Beats International (of "Dub Be Good To Me" fame). Following their demise, he embarked on a series of eclectic dance projects under different aliases -- including Freakpower with American Ashley Slater.

Up until the manifestation of his Fatboy Slim persona, Cook was something of a jack of all trades, producing handbag, house and trip-hop. Cook's first release under his new guise was the single "Santa Cruz", which, he suggested at the time, was trip-hop for dancefloors. It was his then flatmate, G Money, who claims to have thought up the term 'big beat'. The single launched Brighton's Skint label, administered by Damien Harris. Skint was later to release work by Bentley Rhythm Ace and the currently white hot Lo-Fidelity Allstars, not to mention Harris himself (under his Midfield General alias). Skint is also the label behind the essential "Brassic Beats" volumes.

Skint perhaps finds its most credible rival in Wall Of Sound with the likes of the Propellerheads, Wiseguys and Les Rythmes Digitales (aka Jacques Lu Cont) in its stables. Wall Of Sound's headlining act, the Bath-based Propellerheads (Alex Gifford and Will White), are yet another act who cite the Chems as an influence. But the pair (who have expressed a desire to become big beat's answer to George Clinton's Parliament) have nurtured their own sound -- the muscles of which they flex on their recent debut set, "Decksanddrumsandrockandroll". It's a nice little irony that the Propellerheads' anthemic breakthrough single, "History Repeating" (featuring the ol' skool Welsh diva Shirley Bassey), doubles up as a canny commentary on the way pop culture recycles itself.

Big beat's music-makers have tapped into a collective nostalgia. The Chemicals recycled a relatively obscure Schoolly D sample for "Block Rockin' Beats" (from last year's "Dig Your Own Hole"), helping to resurrect the original gangsta's own DJing career in the US (Schoolly now plays raves). And for the US version of their LP, the Propellerheads worked with members of New York's Native Tongues posse (Jungles Brothers, De La Soul). Finally, The Wiseguys, lately reduced to one Wiseguy, (Touche has been left to carry the flag) have from the outset recorded with the underground MC Sense Live and his New York crew. Those who dismiss big beat as white boy's hip-hop wouldn't be too far off the mark. Still, big beat does have mad cred.

Big beat is not entirely tied to the UK club circuit. Hailing from Los Vegas, The Crystal Method have often been (quite unfairly) tagged the American Chemicals. And there are others on their way up -- New York's DeeJay Punk-Roc (it's been said that his hip-hop "ChickenEye" LP sounds like a night at The Big Beat Boutique). The impact of Brit beats can be felt on recent albums from such disparate America acts as the Beastie Boys and BT. Even Public Enemy are about to get into the act.

The future of big beat, as with everything, remains uncertain. Of the current crop, the act mostly likely to transcend the hype would have to be Prodigy (once dubbed somewhat shortsightedly by "Mixmag" as a 'cartoon rave act').