PVC – ‘She Can Get It’ / ‘You Know My Man’

What goes around comes around and what goes up must come down. It’s been over 15 years since the heyday of UKG, the emergence of grime and then later bassline. While they never got fully swept under the carpet, this branch of the bountiful tree of dance music has taken until now to resurface on the wider UK underground scene once more and win back the credibility it had in ’99.

We all know DJ Q from his UKG show on 1Xtra and his pioneering work at the head of the bassline scene (which itself is on its way back) and this is an early indication of what to expect from his own imprint, Q Recordings. While the name of the label hardly imbues a great sense of creativity, the ‘She Can Get It’ / ‘You Know My Man’ release by Brighton-based PVC (PurpleVelvetCurtains) features two fresh cuts to wrap your ears around.

In the last year or two, there has been a ’90s house and garage revival where time has afforded UKG in particular a lot of credit, which had waned considerably by the mid-2000s. In fact, though they would probably never admit it, the type of people who would have looked down their nose at garage in the late ’90s are often now the biggest proponents of one of the more ‘urban’ and sometimes misunderstood arms of dance music.

From UKG evolved grime and then bassline, so it is only logical that what comes next is the reinvention of these genres too, but the modern hipsters who are all over the late ’90s sound of the underground might be less willing, or able to embrace the more acquired taste of proper grime and bassline – they are two of the more obtuse tangents of dance.

These tracks aren’t quite either, though, neither are they particularly obtuse. There is a very subtle compromise to accommodate the sensitive palates of modern listeners. After all, the original progression to grime took several years and was reflective of the time and culture, therefore the transition was more fluid and easily absorbed.

This all means that these two solid tracks would fit in a set or rave now just as easily as they would have at a Sidewinder at Sanctuary all those years back (PVC has already seen support from the likes of Rossi B & Luca and Marcus Nasty).

So what we have here is a slice of the familiar, at least for my generation, but what’s so bad about that? The tracks are well-produced with all the energy, intensity and menace you’d expect given their influences. If you strip away the shackles of genre and precursors and take them on face value, these tracks, out at the end of January, have a lot to offer.

PVC is an up-and-coming artist with bags of talent (he even did a guest set on Kiss 100 at the tender age of 16). We’re eager to hear more from PurpleVelvetCurtains and Q recordings, and if you are too, be sure to clock the release and keep an eye out for future developments.

For a taste of what’s to come, check out his latest track on Soundcloud, ‘Leng of the Ting’, which is free to download.

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