The intention behind the floor concept was:
Good sound.
There are two options for this in the room itself:
Good loudspeakers
Control reflections.
Specially developed exciter/vibration speakers with a very good sound are used. They are a bit dangerous in themselves because you can’t really control their volume. They can be very loud without sounding loud.
You want the sound to come directly from the speakers. And not the ones that bounce against the walls first, second and so on.
So you get a lot of damping material and fabric.
Now you have a room where you can actually only hear the speakers. Nothing is washed out by room delays.
Between a kick and a hihat, there is suddenly silence and no reverberation - unless it was already in the music.
This creates space for other sounds - which are also not washed out by reverberation.
The result is impressive, but also dangerous, because we are used to not being able to have a conversation when the music is loud. This makes it impossible to assess the actual volume.
…We have learned that we need some reflections. A room has to resonate - or you produce the music in such a way that you take that into account and add a bit more acoustic dirt. Much more.
Yeah, absolute clubbing revelation for me. First thing that I do when I climb up the stairs in the early hours of the morning is check their lineup for the coming months, because I cannot get enough. Do you go regularly?
Honourable mention for the Jah Shaka Sound System that managed to rearrange my organs somewhere in Brixton probably 20 years ago. I remember my friend and I just laughing at each other due to the intensity. Good times
Anything involving Jah Wobble is going to shake the place. This was a perfect comedown song to greet the dawn with after a long, long night and float away on a river of bass.
Always and forever, especially at Hackney free festivals where the dub sound systems’ bass would bounce off the walls of factories a few kilometres away.
And lest we forget to bass, Meat Beat Manifesto provides a whole EP of test tracks for your PA:
Last time I saw him I went for a piss and the fucking pisscakes was dancing.
Phace, obvs…
EPROM
Saw eprom a few years back. I was probably the most high as balls I’ve ever been when he came on. Shit was like a spiritual experience man. I could feel the bass in the back of my eyes.
Melvins
Electric wizard
Saw these last summer at a festival. Heaviest shit I’ve ever seen. Whole crowd ended up just sort of stood there gazing at it, felt like they played this one for days, in a good way.
Bonus
The original (and still) heavy as fuck bass line.
Imagine hearing that when it came out, must have been fucking terrifying.
I’m not putting Sunn O))) in, because I’m not really sure you can call it a bassline, but obviously that’s the heaviest bass there is.
The first thing that springs to my mind when talking about heavy basslines is Lorn. They’re not necessarily the thickest, most bass heavy, but they’re ominous, dark and heavy in another way.
This is by chance also perhaps my favourite music video ever made. Creepy shit.
If the heaviness of bass is measured only by the amount it tickles the intestines, then my personal heaviest bass experience was seeing James Blake play live in Flow Festival 2011. I felt like my chest was going to burst.
I remember I was booked to end a party in a big sound system… the guy before me doing really great. I have the feeling I have to go mental… but, I feel also the needs to see if the crowd wanted it as well… so I watching what I can do and try something … the timing was great and I can see then if I can go further mental than that (maybe a legowelt or something)
I put that redshape… when the bass arrived slowly I saw how the crowd get in, closed their eyes… couple starting to (finally) watch each other in the eyes… damn moment of a warm bass taking control over anything … I was okay now let ‘s go Finnish that party a different way than warehouse music
I love djing when you succeed to scan what the crowd should want after… or when you get them and turn the wind into what you really like… it’s like playing chests in few move to get there.
