| Suburban Base | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Founded | 1990 |
| Founder | Danny Donnelly |
| Genre | |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Official website | suburbanbaserecords |
Suburban Base Records is a British breakbeat hardcore, rave and jungle/drum and bass record label. It is based in Romford, Havering, England. It was established by Danny Donnelly and operated in the UK from 1990 to 1997 and in the United States from 1994 to 1997, however, started to release again in 2014. [1]
Danny Donnelly opened a record store in his native Romford, Essex. [2] Named Boogie Times, the store specialised in dance music as well as producing its own self-made white label records. [2] Donnelly's first release was a track called "Hypersonic" which he made with André Jacobs, the owner of Essex-based D-Zone Records. These Boogie Times white labels were well received by customers, as well as DJs from the nearby capital London, which enhanced the store's reputation. [3] In the wake of this success, Donnelly was able to fund a nascent label entitled Suburban Base. [2]
The fledgling label's first release was Kromozone's "The Rush", released in April 1991. This was followed by six further releases later in the year from artists Austin, M&M, Rachel Wallace, Run Tings, Phuture Assassins and QBass. [4] 1992 saw the label's first Top 40 success in the UK Singles Chart - Sonz of a Loop Da Loop Eras' "Far Out" [2] - a piano-led breakbeat track which reached number 36 in February. As music heard at raves filtered into the mainstream, the label was to end the year with twelve UK Singles Chart hits, and experienced the highest-charted debut from an independent record company since the charts began with Smart E's "Sesame's Treet". [2] The track, which sampled heavily from the US children's TV show Sesame Street , reached number two in the UK Singles Chart in July of that year.
As the rave scene began to mutate into two contrasting scenes, 4/4 helium-vocal-characterised happy hardcore and darker, more bass-led darkcore (which itself mutated in jungle/drum and bass), the Suburban Base label found itself drawn to the latter. Such releases as DJ Hype's "Weird Energy" and "Shot In The Dark" and Boogie Times Tribe's "The Dark Stranger" (all 1993) maintained the label's high standing within the scene, which continued as jungle/drum and bass broke through into the mainstream in 1994. Tracks from this period were showcased on the two The Joint compilation releases; a joint collaboration with fellow leading record label Moving Shadow.
That year, Donnelly launched Breakdown Records, [2] a compilation-only subsidiary with which he and others devised and compiled an entire range of albums covering all genres of dance. [5] The most successful of these were the 'Drum & Bass Selection' series, [2] compiled with the help of Danny Breaks and DJ Ash, which sold in excess of 300,000 copies and were the first TV-advertised jungle compilations.
The label's successes allowed it to expand its horizons, setting up a US subsidiary, Sub Base USA, and opening an office in Los Angeles, as well as securing a distribution deal for North America. [2] Further label deals for South America and Japan soon followed. [6]
Towards the end of 1997, however, Donnelly took the decision to close Suburban Base down. [7] This was to allow him to pursue other new challenges in business, and he felt it would be a great injustice to continue running Suburban Base without his full attention. In particular, with the emergence of the speed garage music scene, a genre that derived many elements from jungle and which saw many jungle/drum and bass fans and club-goers defect to this new scene, Donnelly had created a specific sub-label, Quench, [8] for speed garage releases. [9]
In 2014, the label returned initially with a compilation, [10] and then in 2021 started to release previously unreleased material and re-issues.
Suburban Base regularly showcased its catalogue throughout its brief history. These compilations include:
Drum and bass is a genre of electronic dance music characterised by fast breakbeats with heavy bass and sub-bass lines, samples, and synthesizers. The genre grew out of the UK's jungle scene in the 1990s.
Breakbeat hardcore is a music genre that spawned from the UK rave scene during the early 1990s. It combines four-on-the-floor rhythms with breakbeats usually sampled from hip hop. In addition to the inclusion of breakbeats, the genre also features shuffled drum machine patterns, hoover, and other noises originating from new beat and Belgian techno, sounds from acid house and bleep techno, and often upbeat house piano riffs and vocals.
Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that tends to use drum breaks sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as hip hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat hardcore, and UK garage styles.
Hip house, also known as rap house or house rap, is a musical genre that mixes elements of house music and hip hop music, that originated in both London, United Kingdom and Chicago, United States in the mid to late 1980s.
Jungle is a genre of dance music that developed out of the UK rave scene and sound system culture in the 1990s. Emerging from breakbeat hardcore, the style is characterised by rapid breakbeats, heavily syncopated percussive loops, samples, and synthesised effects, combined with the deep basslines, melodies, and vocal samples found in dub, reggae and dancehall, as well as hip hop and funk. Many producers frequently sampled the "Amen break" or other breakbeats from funk and jazz recordings. Jungle was a direct precursor to the drum and bass genre which emerged in the mid-1990s.
Happy hardcore, also known as 4-beat or happycore, is a subgenre of hardcore dance music or "hard dance". It emerged both from the UK breakbeat hardcore rave scene, and Belgian, German and Dutch hardcore techno scenes in the early 1990s.
Techstep is a dark subgenre of drum and bass that was created in the mid-1990s.
Bouncy techno is a hardcore dance music rave style that developed in the early 1990s from Scotland and North England. Described as an accessible gabber-like form, it was popularised by Scottish DJ and music producer Scott Brown under numerous aliases.
Formed in 1991, 2 Bad Mice are an English breakbeat hardcore group, composed of Sean O'Keeffe, Simon Colebrooke, and Rob Playford who was originally the third member and the owner of the Moving Shadow record label. In the 1990s, the group had two singles that charted in the UK.
Moving Shadow is an English breakbeat hardcore, jungle and drum and bass record label which was founded in 1990 by Rob Playford.
Kevin Ford, better known as DJ Hype, is a British jungle and drum and bass producer and DJ.
Darkcore is a music subgenre of breakbeat hardcore in the UK rave scene, that emerged from late 1992. It is recognised as being one of the direct precursors of the genre now known as drum and bass.
Danny Breaks is a British drum and bass DJ, record producer and record label owner. He is known for his experimental instrumental hip hop production, and early music career as the breakbeat hardcore artist Sonz of a Loop Da Loop Era.
Hard trance is a subgenre of trance music that originated in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands in the early 1990s as the Breakbeat hardcore production community began to diversify into new and different styles of electronic music, all influenced by Hard house, New beat, Happy hardcore and Jungle music. The popularity of hard trance peaked during the late 1990s and has since then faded in scope of newer forms of trance.
Good Looking Records is a jungle and drum & bass record label, formed in 1991 by producer LTJ Bukem. The label specializes in jazz-influenced and atmospheric intelligent drum & bass.
Luna-C is a British DJ and record producer, known for his work in breakbeat hardcore music. He was a member of the group Smart E's in 1992, who scored a No. 2 hit on the UK Singles Chart with "Sesame's Treet" which samples the Sesame Street theme song. He founded Kniteforce Records in 1992, for which he produced tracks and remixes under various aliases. The label was sold in 1997 but resurrected as Kniteforce Again (KFA) in 2001.
Drum and bass is an electronic music genre that originated in the UK rave scene having developed from breakbeat hardcore. The genre would go on to become one of the most popular genres of electronic dance music, becoming international and spawning multiple different derivatives and subgenres.
Deekline is a British producer and DJ of breakbeat, breakstep, drum and bass and garage music. He is the innovator of breakstep music which is bass-heavy, breakbeat-infused 2-step, first characterised in his 1999 hit "I Don't Smoke", which reached No. 11 on the UK charts. He is the owner of Rat Records, which has released material of such artists as DJ Fresh, Jack Beats, Stanton Warriors, Wiley, Skinny Man, Rennie Pilgrem, House Breakers and Freq Nasty. Deekline has also had notable collaborations with British electronic music producers Ed Solo and Wizard. In 2011, he opened up his online clothing store, Bass Boutique.
Reinforced Records is a British breakbeat hardcore, jungle, and drum and bass record label, first founded in 1989 by 4hero and based in Dollis Hill, London. Reinforced is one of the groundbreaking record labels of the genre.
Belgian hardcore techno is an early style of hardcore techno that emerged from new beat as EBM and techno influences became more prevalent in this genre. This particular style has been described as an "apocalyptic, almost Wagnerian, bombastic techno", due to its use of dramatic orchestral stabs and menacing synth tones that set it apart from earlier forms of electronic dance music. It flourished in Belgium and influenced the sound of early hardcore from Netherlands, Germany, Italy, UK and North America during the early-1990s, as a part of the rave movement during that period.
