CLUBS

Adam Burrows heads for the South Side.

When Tony Williams (aka Headhunter) dropped ‘Footcrab’ at Outlook in 2008, hardly anyone in the crowd had heard anything like it before. By the time of its vinyl release 18 months later it was a phenomenon – played out by everyone from Ricardo Villalobos to Mr Scruff to Kode 9. Around the same time, two new words – ‘ juke’ and ‘footwork’ – entered the lexicon of British dance music, while Headunter became Addison Groove, Bristol’s ambassador for both of them.

The words in question come from the ‘ghetto house’ subculture of South Side Chicago. The music is a gritty, frantically paced blend of b-boy electro and house, with neck-snapping snares, propulsive sub-bass, rampaging toms, vinyl spinbacks and insanely chopped ’n’ screwed samples of hip-hop, jazz and pop. Williams didn’t hear it in Chicago, though. “I learned about it from watching Youtube movies,” he says. “And then I thought I’d transfer it to a slower tempo to see what happened. It turned out to be quite a winner.” Having made his name in dubstep, he saw it as “a new way of looking at how you can make music and get some unexpected results”, adding, “dubstep and drum & bass are quite set in their ways.”

With its rawness, its urgency, and the way it draws on both house and hip-hop, some of us have seen juke as an American version of 90s British hardcore. “It reminds me more of grime,” says Williams, “the way it takes stripped back, raw elements and makes them the main part of a track. It’s a very loose genre that’s open to expansion – similar to how dubstep was in 2005, or hardcore before the big split.” He’s aware that both of our parallels come from a British perspective, though – juke’s key influences are all American: “from 50s R&B to electro”.

A key feature of the Chicago scene is the dancing itself, with its focus on high-speed ‘footwork’. It looks structured and competitive – not to mention difficult – to anyone used to the freeform mess of the British rave. Are people here picking up on the moves? “I’ve not seen anyone yet,” Williams says. “I’m gonna get Rashad to teach me something – see if a white man can do it.”
The Rashad in question is a DJ from Chicago – one of the originators of the juke style – and this weekend they’re joining forces for Addison Groove’s Jukebox. Williams cites Rashad as an influence, saying: “I love his stuff, and the crew he hangs out with in Chicago are on a similar tip.” Rashad has also been championed by Planet Mu’s Mike Paradinas, who included cuts like ‘Itz Not Rite’ and ‘Teknitian’ on the label’s essential juke primer ‘Bangs & Works Volume 1’.

A night like Jukebox – showcasing Rashad’s frenetic style alongside the slower, Anglicised version – couldn’t be more timely. More and more UK ravers are picking up on the sound. In the past, says Williams, “if I were to do 60 minutes of straight-up footwork music I’d have got plenty of hate, but nowadays I don’t get asked for Boregore and Bro DJ so much.” Venue suspects that must be something of a relief.

ADDISON GROOVE, DJ RASHAD AND BODDIKA PLAYED AT BASEMENT 45 ON FRI 8 APR. 
 

Copyright Adam Burrows 2011 

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