Johnny Ilan talks, Rusko, Future Garage and how genres in the bass music world become more blurred..

Thus far in 2010, it's been the more experimental side of bass music that's pushed itself to the forefront of the scene. Certain genre orthodoxies have been widely transgressed, others were reinforced. For many producers the structures, patterns and formulae that had once seemed so fresh have clearly lost their automatic appeal. At the same time, there has been a massive revival in interest in garage and 2step. Across the board, however, is an observable intention to move beyond past ways of doing things with a firm eye to the future. Even if at times, it doesn't always seem that different to the past!

Future garage is probably one of the hottest tickets in bass music at the moment. Not always so easily defined, but fairly hard to miss, future garage amorphously segues into a cross-section of exciting releases towards more 'intelligent' end of a dubstep, funky, tropical, techno and jungle. For those who have been following the consistently excellent releases on labels like Hessle Audio and Hotflush, the arrival of future garage is no great surprise. A great strength of this music is its variety, breadth of influence and far flung scope. It's got that really original more ephemeral side typified by the kinds of sounds that put Joy Orbison on a wider radar last year. Various different beats sit underneath heavy basslines, chopped and sped vocals, and silky synths. There's another side to the sound that slavishly enough transposes the 2step of 'old' garage, updating its feel and focus, whilst leaving its bones pretty much intact. In any event, whether experimenting in steppy ambience or prompting the raver to reach for the lighter, there’s a wealth of recent enough releases on labels like L2S, Well Rounded and Haunted to get you hooked. Check out Whistla's Tuesday sessions on Sub FM to stay up to date. Deadboy's 'U Cheated', released last October combines purring bass, clippy percussion and a vocal line that really sticks in the head. It's a pleasing combination of tropical underpinnings with the future vibe. His new offering 'If U Want Me' is set to drop soon on Numbers and this more identifiably future tune raises the vocal stakes to a next level:

Equally, a more future orientated funky/tropical sound has been the happy result of a fruitful collaboration between Untold and Babinga who’s 'Ride It' layers a skippy beat, heavy on the bell over a dynamic bassline and a rake of interesting synth sounds. Definitely one for the dancers.

Check the Shortstuff & Brackles remix of Geoim's 'Sugar Coated Lover' for tough bass stabs under a sultry vocal and Doc Daneeka's remix of Norrit's 'Nobody Baby' (off the 'Now Jack Swung' release) for sophisticated soca-beat and synth. For that matter, Nightslugs have just dropped their latest release, this time from Egyptrixx and Kingdom evidences his growing production prowess by hitting the right mood on his remix of 'Everyone Bleeding':

On a more recognisably garage tip, Detox's 'Burning' off his recently released 'In the Groove EP' is a straight 2step skanker that is more than reminiscent of how the genre sounded in its glory days:

It's Whistla's own L2S label that really seems to be bringing out the releases that most astutely walk that line between the classic and future elements of that 2step sound, nicely exemplified by their last offering by Vibezin, 'I Need You/Listen'. On the other hand, the label's next release (from MetalboxProducts) is definitely way out there in experimental territory! On the more ambient side of things you can hear a similarly diverse range of sounds apart from some of the more obvious Joy Orbison, Cooly G etc cuts. Check Owl's brooding 'Doing it Again', complete with cheeky Nate Dogg sample. Serve alongside cuts like 16Bit's latest offering 'Twice' on Caz records for pensive vocals, one of a host of Pangea's ghostly tracks and some Burial for an off-kilter mellow vibe. Another more atmospheric track that's really hitting all the right buttons is Klang by Buraka Son Sistema's J-Wow. The track manages to seamlessly incorporate elements of tropical and even a jungle-style think break. Complete with a really well animated video, it's proving to be the Bassfiles track of the month.

It's not that unexpected to hear this kind of jungle influence straying from home. The drum n bass scene has been the site of a good few innovations over the last number of months. Leaving aside the top-notch 140bpm adventures of J-Tek (jungle-techno dontcha know), a good few youth orientated acts are jamming on the breaks to produce slower and relatively fresher sounds for the cross-over market. Sub Focus deftly moved into electro with last year's 'Could this be Real' and Noisia have been turning their hand to some 110bpm breaky hiphop. The boundaries between genres are growing ever more porous, and although not 'future' in the future garage sense, these developments hint towards new frontiers for urban dance music, even if they aren't always that interesting. On the plus side the gates open for traffic both ways, and we can look forward to interesting and effective producers from the bass scene getting their teeth into dnb/jungle, from J-Wow's expert taming of the break above, to Skream's well judged treatment of Donaeo's 'Riot Music' and a new release from Warrior One later this year that promises nuff jump up goodness. There's so much exciting material coming out of the future scene that hopefully it will continue developing unmolested. It was a little unsettling thus to hear that Rusko is getting his oar in. Then again, Rusko isn't just the author of a thousand chainsaw dubstep atrocities (even if they are damn catchy), he's also the man behind the prophetically futuristic 'Love is Real', a tune yet to be exceeded by the existing body of future garage. Rusko's new tune is actually not that bad as you'll see for yourselves.