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 Break beat pioneer Ali B reveals all about his journeys though Air.
Nilly: Tell us a bit about yourself and your journeys in Asia
Ali B: I’m Ali B, DJ based in London. Fabric resident, before that Blue Note resident and I have a label called Air Recordings. This is also a breaks club that I have been running for 9 years. Yeah so I live and breathe Air!
At the moment I have done a tour of China and am off to do a big Air launch festival in Australia and an Air club tour in New Zealand. This is all to promote the forthcoming compilation album “Air Breaks”. Nilly: There’s all this melodic stuff that is really picked up in China, trance style, happy hardcore-esque. This is all quite different from break beat. How do you think China takes in break beat?
Ali B: People love breaks in China. There are probably more breaks guys going out there in China over the trance and house dudes that I know of anyway. It’s a different scene from anything I’m used to in London. The gig I did in Beijing on Saturday was in a student led district at a bar called Sub and it gave me a totally different take on the club scene in China. You could say that many places in China are quite showy where people like to sit at tables with bottles of liquors. Sub Club was a totally different scene. It was in a very creative area and there were people there who were clearly heads of arts movements gathering there, a scene that I had no idea even existed. Breaks for me has never really been a type of sound that is fueled by drugs, the way perhaps trance and house has. The scene I have noticed about Chinese culture is mainly about drinking and having a good time and maybe the music fits a bit better. Nilly: Do you come from a musical background?
Ali B: Not at all. Probably the most useful record I found at home, and this is not saying much, was a Simon and Garfunkel. So I had to go out and buy loads of records. Nilly: The story goes, that you jumped on the train and got off at Old Street, knocked on the door of ‘The Blue Note’ and landed yourself a residency. Is that right?
Ali B: Basically at eighteen I got the opportunity to DJ at a bar I worked at. At the time I was playing mainly funk, soul jazz. I was playing stuff by the “Brand New Heavies”. Then I found about the Acid Jazz at Hoxton in East London. So I just got on a train and got a job running the café for about two years and DJ-ing at various bars. At the time breaks didn’t really exist but there were a few likeminded guys who were searching for a certain type of music…playing drum and bass records at a certain speed and funk and hip hop records a bit faster. Basically trying to find a sound that fit the genre. Gradually there was a few of us and we started the breaks night “Air” at “The Blue Note” in Hoxton. I’ve run “Air” for the past nine years in London at various venues. It’s incredible to see the scene grow. Nilly: What was one of the first breaks style vinyl you bought?
Ali B: After starting “Air” I bought a vinyl by an artist called Rennie Pilgrim, who now runs TCR Records. Nilly: What do you think helped nurture your sound and the break beat scene?
Ali B: I feel privileged being at “The Blue Note” to see the whole drum and bass scene move from massive outdoor raves with 25,000 people to a club setting. One day Goldie comes to “The Blue Note” to set up a graffiti exhibition and starts putting on all the big guys like Doc Scott and Kemistry under one roof. It really nurtured the scene and the “Metalheaz” nights and the scene itself just grew from there. Watching all this as an 18 year old and subsequently setting up “Air” at “The Blue Note” I learnt a lot about this shift in culture and watch the development of this scene. It really helped when I moved “Air” to “The Rhythm Factory” in Whitechapel, East London and started getting big line ups. It forged a really good relations with the DJs and put the spotlight on something you are so passionate about. Guys like “Stanton Warriors”, “Plump DJs”, Krafty Kuts, we’ve all been tight about the scene for a long time. Nilly: How do you feel being one of the pioneers for a genre of music?
Ali B: We started “Air” in 1996-97 in London. The scene was kicking off in Miami but it was more a boogie kind of sound with DJ Icey, so there was a trans-Atlantic thing taking a part in it. The roots of this genre are very honest, maybe it’s a generation thing, but it’s just amazing to see how it’s grown and seeing sub-circles within the genre. Nowadays technology plays a major part in the development of the sound. Kids can make breaks records sitting at their home computers. Nilly: Do you think technology is necessarily a good thing for electronic music?
Ali B: Well, with computers often the sound does become more diluted. But ultimately it’s about the ideas you have not necessarily how decked out your studio is. However, though some sounds may be diluted, it can be a good thing as it raises the bar and pushes people to produce quality music. Nilly: Is there a second generation of breaks artists coming out?
Ali B: The second generation of artists have emerged in the last two or three years. For instance Janette Slack from Hong Kong is a great example. She’s a female breaks DJ now based in London. She’s got her single coming out, a track on the album, heavily involved at Fabric, coming to festivals with us and really kicking it off well. Nilly: Tell us a little about your latest compilation “Air Breaks”.
Ali B: It’s different from most club compilations. We asked everyone who had played at “Air” to do a bespoke record. Our nights have always had a bit o funk, a bit of groove to the night. Everyone was up for it, but it was a bit of a mission to chase twenty DJs to get the final product. It’s a great example of our bond with the old guys like Plump DJs and second-generation artists. It’s important to highlight who will be championing the future. Nilly: Any launch parties in mind?
Ali B: We have a big party in mind for April in London. This is partly why we are touring at the moment. All our shows in China and the ones coming up in Australia and New Zealand are “Air” shows. We are looking to take breaks to another level at festivals in the summer. We have “Air” arenas at places like Global Gathering, Homelands. Nilly: Is there any one album that never leaves your bag?
Ali B: Ohh How long have you got? It would have to be something beautiful like Kool and the Gang’s Summer Madness that would stand the test of time. Current breaks stuff, anything by Stanton Warriors. I fail to have a DJ set that doesn’t have a bit of Stanton Warriors tribute in between. Air Breaks UK Release date 20th March 2006
Interview By: Nilly Chaudhuri |
