Speed garage

Speed garage (occasionally known as plus-8^[1]) is a genre of electronic dance music, associated with the UK garage scene, of which it is regarded as one of its subgenres.^[2]

Speed garage
Stylistic origins	Garage house jungle music
Cultural origins	Early to mid-1990s, United Kingdom and United States
Derivative forms	Bassline donk
Other topics
UK hard house

Characteristics

Speed garage features sped-up NY garage 4-to-the-floor rhythms that are combined with breakbeats.^[3] Snares are placed as over the 2nd and the 4th kickdrums, so in other places of the drum pattern.^[4] Speed garage tunes have warped, heavy basslines, influenced by jungle^[5] and reggae.^[6] Sweeping bass is typical for speed garage.^[7] It is also typical for speed garage tunes to have a breakdown.^[8] Speed garage tunes sometimes featured time-stretched vocals.^[9] As it is heavily influenced by jungle, speed garage makes heavy use of jungle and dub sound effects, such as gunshots and sirens.^[10][11]

A widely regarded pioneer of the speed garage sound is record producer, DJ and remixer Armand van Helden, whose Dark Garage remix of the Sneaker Pimps' "Spin Spin Sugar" in 1996 helped bring the style of speed garage into the mainstream arena.^[12]

Notable songs/remixes

The following is a list of notable songs and official remixes which not only charted but were popular within the speed garage scene:

• "Sugar Is Sweeter (Armand's Drum 'n' Bass Mix)" (1996) / "Spin Spin Sugar (Armand's Dark Garage Mix)" (1997) / "Digital (Armand Van Helden's Speed Garage Mix)" (1997) – Armand van Helden
• "Dancing for Heaven" (1995) / "Saved My Life" (1996) – Todd Edwards
• "Gunman" (1997) / "Kung-Fu" (1998) – 187 Lockdown
• "Deeper" (1997) / "God Is a DJ (Serious Danger Remix)" (1998) – Serious Danger
• "Hype Funk (Dub)" (1997) – Reach & Spin
• "RipGroove" (1997) – Double 99
• "Vol. 1 (What You Want What You Need)" (1997) – Industry Standard
• "I Refuse (What You Want)" (1997) – Somore featuring Damon Trueitt
• "Oh Boy" (1997) – The Fabulous Baker Boys
• "Ripped in 2 Minutes" (1998) – A vs B
• "A London Thing" (1997) – Scott Garcia
• "Something Goin' On (Loop Da Loop Uptown / Downtown Mix)" (1997) – Loop Da Loop
• "Superstylin'" (2001) – Groove Armada
• "Let's Groove" (1996) - George Morel

References

1. DJ magazine, 1996–97, "Raggage": "...earning the scene the slightly mocked nick-names of 'plus-8' or 'speed garage'."
2. History of Speed garage: "There are many different forms of garage music, most of these were of little interest to UK hard dance fans until the latest mutation came along, speed garage."
3. History of Speed garage: "Speed garage can be broadly defined as a mixture of slightly sped up garage beats..."
4. 2Step: "In the original 1997 speed garage, the snares are fussy and clattering over the stomping 4-to-the-floor kickdrum."
5. History of Speed garage: "Speed garage can be broadly defined as a mixture of slightly sped up garage beats with a heavy almost junglistic bassline"
6. (2004) "Popular Music Genres: An Introduction", ISBN 0-7486-1745-0, ISBN 978-0-7486-1745-6, p.216: "Speed garage basslines were drawn from Jamaican reggae..."
7. (2004) "The Dance Music Manual", ISBN 0-240-51915-9, ISBN 978-0-240-51915-9, p.157: "The sweeping bass is typical of UK garage and speed garage tracks and consists of a tight yet deep bass that sweeps in pitch and/or frequencies"
8. History of Speed garage: "Speed garage can be broadly defined as a mixture of slightly sped up garage beats [...], and usually with a break in the middle where the beat is stripped down and then builds up for a long period of time."
9. History of Speed garage: "Speed garage can be broadly defined as a mixture of slightly sped up garage beats [...], sometimes with timestretched vocals"
10. (2004) "Popular Music Genres: An Introduction", ISBN 0-7486-1745-0, ISBN 978-0-7486-1745-6, p.216: "Jungle and ragga-style sound effects, such as the rash of gun shot volleys heard on popular speed garage tracks,..."
11. (2004) "Popular Music Genres: An Introduction", ISBN 0-7486-1745-0, ISBN 978-0-7486-1745-6, p.216: "Overall, two-step [..], less relied on the dub sound effects [...] of speed garage"
12. Keith, Jonathan (19 February 2016). "The 15 Greatest Remixes of All Time". Magnetic Magazine. Retrieved 10 September 2017.

External links

• Discogs listing for Spin Spin Sugar
• Speed Garage fans community