Obviously when bassline house poked its way into the 2007 charts what I hoped – and I wasn’t alone – is that this heralded UK Garage 2.0, one of those convergences of dance music trends, pop, and sales that lights up the Top 40 for a year or so. Didn’t happen, and there are a lot of reasons why that even a barely informed observer like me could pick up on: the scene is a regional one and lacked really committed metropolitan support, the follow-up singles weren’t always up to much, and importantly the bassline scene didn’t need chart success, whether as sales indicator or ‘validation’. As The Lex pointed out when the subject came up on Poptimists, there was no failure here.
Perhaps there won’t ever be that kind of insurgent scene again: if making money off deep fans seems actually easier than trying to skim it off a broad support base, why would any big niche players ever want to crossover?
Anyway, this track at least was a rush, pleas and ultimatums tumbling over one another, trying to make themselves heard over the flexing, wobbling bass. Because the bass does so much of the physical work, the top end of bassline – the melodies, singing, etc. – often seemed deliciously flighty to me: its big commercial hits (this among them) following up on that twee strain in pop-garage from “Sweet Like Chocolate” to “Babycakes” – itself probably a lift from happy hardcore’s mega sweet tooth.