Album: Timeless
Artist: Goldie
Born: Walsall, West Midlands
Released: September 1995
Genre: Drum & Bass / Jungle
1994-5 was a time when a lot of underground dance music moved into the mainstream, from Music For The Jilted Generation and Leftism to the chill out of Nightmares On Wax's Smoker's Delight and the big-beat of The Chemical Brothers' Exit Planet Dust. The finest expression of drum & bass on record was Goldie's Timeless, proving that the album could be just as immersive a platform for the genre as many of the infectious singles released at the time, like M-Beat & General Levy's Incredible and UK Apachi & Shy FX's Original Nuttah. Jungle never achieved a crossover hit but progressive artists like Goldie, Metalheads, Omni Trio and LTJ Bukem (check out Atlantis) produced some truly groundbreaking music in this period. For me, there's no better writer than Simon Reynolds when it comes to covering Britain's evolving dance music scene. In his words: "Always more multiracial than other post-rave scenes, hardcore got 'blacker' as hip hop, ragga, dub and soul influences kicked in, and by 1993 it had evolved into jungle. By this point, hardcore / jungle (the terms remain interchangeable) was universally scorned by dance hipsters and banished from the media. But the scene thrived thanks to a self-sufficient network of small labels, specialist record shops, pirate radio stations and clubs." The club that me and my pals would frequent in the mid-90s was Studios in Woolwich, but it was at the legendary Fabric, near London's Smithfields market, where I saw Goldie DJ live (in a room with speakers built into the dancefloor) and memorably play Inner City Life.
Goldie became the figurehead of jungle and drum & bass following Timeless' release, his past existence as a B-boy and graffiti artist enhancing his larger-than-life status. Recorded in collaboration with engineer Rob Playford (aka Timecode), opener Timeless: Inner City Life / Pressure / Jah is a concept track about time and the struggle to survive inner city pressures. Mixing tightly-woven breakbeats, heavenly strings and the impassioned jazz-like vocals of Diane Charlemagne, it draws on Goldie's experiences of growing up in a gritty urban environment. As well as appealing to an urban audience, Timeless also became the soundtrack for a generation of ravers and clubbers coming down from a drug-fuelled high. According to Goldie, “Technically, Timeless is like a Rolex. Beautiful surface, but the mechanism is a mindfuck. The loops, they’ve been sculpted, they’re in 4D.” There are blissed out, reflective moments like State Of Mind that blend well with the more menacing sounds of Angel and other tracks, while longer compositions Sea Of Tears and Still Life are two of the record's highlights. With its sample of Brian Eno & David Byrne's Mountain Of Needles, guitar licks and liquid basslines, Sea Of Tears is a masterpiece. There's a melancholy grandeur to the track, enhanced by Lorna Harris’ vocals, making its sound like avant-garde jazz from a distant universe. Kemistry is another favourite of mine, its euphoric singing and underwater sound effects enhancing a track that still sounds fresh and exciting. Timeless is arguably the best dance music album of the 90s.
1994-5 was a time when a lot of underground dance music moved into the mainstream, from Music For The Jilted Generation and Leftism to the chill out of Nightmares On Wax's Smoker's Delight and the big-beat of The Chemical Brothers' Exit Planet Dust. The finest expression of drum & bass on record was Goldie's Timeless, proving that the album could be just as immersive a platform for the genre as many of the infectious singles released at the time, like M-Beat & General Levy's Incredible and UK Apachi & Shy FX's Original Nuttah. Jungle never achieved a crossover hit but progressive artists like Goldie, Metalheads, Omni Trio and LTJ Bukem (check out Atlantis) produced some truly groundbreaking music in this period. For me, there's no better writer than Simon Reynolds when it comes to covering Britain's evolving dance music scene. In his words: "Always more multiracial than other post-rave scenes, hardcore got 'blacker' as hip hop, ragga, dub and soul influences kicked in, and by 1993 it had evolved into jungle. By this point, hardcore / jungle (the terms remain interchangeable) was universally scorned by dance hipsters and banished from the media. But the scene thrived thanks to a self-sufficient network of small labels, specialist record shops, pirate radio stations and clubs." The club that me and my pals would frequent in the mid-90s was Studios in Woolwich, but it was at the legendary Fabric, near London's Smithfields market, where I saw Goldie DJ live (in a room with speakers built into the dancefloor) and memorably play Inner City Life.
Goldie became the figurehead of jungle and drum & bass following Timeless' release, his past existence as a B-boy and graffiti artist enhancing his larger-than-life status. Recorded in collaboration with engineer Rob Playford (aka Timecode), opener Timeless: Inner City Life / Pressure / Jah is a concept track about time and the struggle to survive inner city pressures. Mixing tightly-woven breakbeats, heavenly strings and the impassioned jazz-like vocals of Diane Charlemagne, it draws on Goldie's experiences of growing up in a gritty urban environment. As well as appealing to an urban audience, Timeless also became the soundtrack for a generation of ravers and clubbers coming down from a drug-fuelled high. According to Goldie, “Technically, Timeless is like a Rolex. Beautiful surface, but the mechanism is a mindfuck. The loops, they’ve been sculpted, they’re in 4D.” There are blissed out, reflective moments like State Of Mind that blend well with the more menacing sounds of Angel and other tracks, while longer compositions Sea Of Tears and Still Life are two of the record's highlights. With its sample of Brian Eno & David Byrne's Mountain Of Needles, guitar licks and liquid basslines, Sea Of Tears is a masterpiece. There's a melancholy grandeur to the track, enhanced by Lorna Harris’ vocals, making its sound like avant-garde jazz from a distant universe. Kemistry is another favourite of mine, its euphoric singing and underwater sound effects enhancing a track that still sounds fresh and exciting. Timeless is arguably the best dance music album of the 90s.
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