My introduction to Hospital was taping High Contrast's 2003 Essential Mix on Radio 1 because it sounded out of this world to me at the time. I strictly was into Hardcore & Hard Trance in those days but i fell in love with Liquid Drum & Bass due to that Essential Mix. I would advise everybody to give it a listen (its on youtube lol). Tony comes across as a cool guy, i have always got bit of a Tony Wilson vibe from him
Was good to hear about the early days of the prescription label sleeves - I owned a few Hospital vinyls but must've been after that era because I think i'd have remembered that - decent out of the box thinking on a budget. He's right about there being a lot to explore around the Hospital name, especially like the catalogue numbers being NHS## :D
It's a difficult one about the commercialisation of d&b. For me personally, the scene changed not long after Pendulum arrived. We had tunes that crossed over before like LK & Shake your Body etc but the scene still felt organic and all encompassing up until then. After, it felt to me anyway, like there became more of a split between underground and commercial d&b
It is a very interesting topic to discuss. Like them or not, but Pendulum are the game changers music wise. Their striclty dnb tunes pushed the boundries of the genre. The things pre Hold Your Colour, and HYC itself are amazing! They later sound pushed the boundires even further outside the genre. Back then I didn't care as much about In Silico, and Immersion. I was expecting another HYC. Not electronic rock and metal d'n'b. But after few years I rediscovered those albums, and I love them. It's simply a great music, not dnb, but music in general. When any radical/fast change is happening, forwardthinking people get the blame from purists. While usualy the things get worse quality wise because of people who are inspired by them, and try to replicate the things, but they do it in less competent way. Personaly I think dnb would get to the place it is now even without Pendulum. I think it is a natural progression of any genre of music. But for sure Pendulum accelerated things, and helped to shape that big room/stadium very white dnb sound, influenced both by rock, and later on by more commercial house, trance or EDM. I uderstand why a big part of the scene doesn't really like it. I guess it's too far from the black, urban, soundsytem culture roots of hardcore/jungle/dnb vibe wise. But I find the scene very healthy, we have so many subgenres, everyone will find something for themselves. From oldschool to new school, from some strange autonomic sounds of Dbridge to heavy and banging crossbreed sounds of PRSPCT. And more commercial/mainstream or crossover stuff is a gateaway for new audience. And if the scene wants to stay healthy, then it needs to attract new people :) Also what we consider as commercial from a perspective of a dnb fan (Pendulum, Fresh, Chase and Status, Sigma, and so on) is not even close to the real commercial world, if you know what I mean ;) Cheers!
@@oskar_oskarewicz great answer and explanation mate 👍🏻 loads of interesting points there. For me it's not a dislike of Pendulum, they just are symbolic of the timing when I personally started to feel a shift. I liked the change up of style then which ultimately brought about the likes of Netsky, Fred V & Graphics etc etc and so many absolute bangers - which had been normal in d&b anyway with its so many sub genres - but it always felt like around that point it began heading in a different direction. So glad though that despite this (even metaphorical) split, both scenes have carried on and progressed. And with liquid, to me that has remained ever-present and mostly unchanged. It's still very underground and has that feel to it. D&B is a colossus of a style of music and I still think massively not talked about enough on the biggest stages. Once I heard it in school bk in 1998/1999 I was hooked, and will be forever - yet outside of the scene itself I still find I feel like it's a niche I love and I don't know many people who are as into it. I suppose though that's what has kept it mostly underground which I think is a good thing - the only downside being that the DJs, Producers and MCs who haven't chosen the commercial route then aren't as financially successful as they could be if they did...
@@DilbertWhitehead Yes man, sure, I understood that your not dissing Pendulum. Just wanted to focus on the time period a bit more. I agree that moment in genre history is pivotal, for better or worse, it depends on people's tastes, as always. Interesting that you say you think liquidfunk has remained mostly unchanged. In my humble opinion there is a split in a vibe as well. You've got oldfashioned traditional liquidfunk. And you have stuff you can find on channels like Liquicity, which is way more big room/festival sound, defenitly more white, cotton candy step hehe. Poeple tend to call it liquid as well. I like to talk about liquidfunk, and liquid, as that more festival incarnation of the subgenre is more funkless for sure :) I guess its' the same story with modernday neuro. Neurofunk used to be funky. Even when it went dark and militant. And nowadays what people tend to call neurofunk is very often just a loud, banging hard dnb, that for sure is rooted in neurofunk and techstep, but it's very much less funky, is very big room, ans shares a lot with jump up vibe wise. So again, we have neurofunk and neuro :)
Lets just remind ourselves here; those whitewashing the scene to this day. It’s unwelcome, Fabio / Swerve is the pioneer for the soulful sound. A brother from Brixton who may not have the millions like Hospital but whose back catalogue set the tone for the music all y’all now copy. Taken the soul out of and calling it Funk. Middle Class Foolishness me call it, Their business model is superb but the ethos and culture to cause the racism within it is the problem.
True lol! hospital staff producers and fans are upper class and middle class white lefty hipsters lol. Some good tunes here and there tho. Still a lot of talented producers on there!!
To not just run a massively successful label but to have an incredible personal back catalog as well, Tony is a machine!
My introduction to Hospital was taping High Contrast's 2003 Essential Mix on Radio 1 because it sounded out of this world to me at the time. I strictly was into Hardcore & Hard Trance in those days but i fell in love with Liquid Drum & Bass due to that Essential Mix. I would advise everybody to give it a listen (its on youtube lol). Tony comes across as a cool guy, i have always got bit of a Tony Wilson vibe from him
Ow my gosh! Unexpected is this one... Looking forward....
I printed some of those dot matrix stickers for Tony and Chris when I worked at Hospital twenty-odd years ago! Haha.
Was good to hear about the early days of the prescription label sleeves - I owned a few Hospital vinyls but must've been after that era because I think i'd have remembered that - decent out of the box thinking on a budget. He's right about there being a lot to explore around the Hospital name, especially like the catalogue numbers being NHS## :D
It's a difficult one about the commercialisation of d&b. For me personally, the scene changed not long after Pendulum arrived. We had tunes that crossed over before like LK & Shake your Body etc but the scene still felt organic and all encompassing up until then. After, it felt to me anyway, like there became more of a split between underground and commercial d&b
It is a very interesting topic to discuss.
Like them or not, but Pendulum are the game changers music wise.
Their striclty dnb tunes pushed the boundries of the genre.
The things pre Hold Your Colour, and HYC itself are amazing!
They later sound pushed the boundires even further outside the genre.
Back then I didn't care as much about In Silico, and Immersion.
I was expecting another HYC.
Not electronic rock and metal d'n'b.
But after few years I rediscovered those albums, and I love them.
It's simply a great music, not dnb, but music in general.
When any radical/fast change is happening, forwardthinking people get the blame from purists.
While usualy the things get worse quality wise because of people who are inspired by them, and try to replicate the things, but they do it in less competent way.
Personaly I think dnb would get to the place it is now even without Pendulum.
I think it is a natural progression of any genre of music.
But for sure Pendulum accelerated things, and helped to shape that big room/stadium very white dnb sound, influenced both by rock, and later on by more commercial house, trance or EDM.
I uderstand why a big part of the scene doesn't really like it.
I guess it's too far from the black, urban, soundsytem culture roots of hardcore/jungle/dnb vibe wise.
But I find the scene very healthy, we have so many subgenres, everyone will find something for themselves.
From oldschool to new school, from some strange autonomic sounds of Dbridge to heavy and banging crossbreed sounds of PRSPCT.
And more commercial/mainstream or crossover stuff is a gateaway for new audience.
And if the scene wants to stay healthy, then it needs to attract new people :)
Also what we consider as commercial from a perspective of a dnb fan (Pendulum, Fresh, Chase and Status, Sigma, and so on) is not even close to the real commercial world, if you know what I mean ;)
Cheers!
@@oskar_oskarewicz great answer and explanation mate 👍🏻 loads of interesting points there. For me it's not a dislike of Pendulum, they just are symbolic of the timing when I personally started to feel a shift. I liked the change up of style then which ultimately brought about the likes of Netsky, Fred V & Graphics etc etc and so many absolute bangers - which had been normal in d&b anyway with its so many sub genres - but it always felt like around that point it began heading in a different direction. So glad though that despite this (even metaphorical) split, both scenes have carried on and progressed. And with liquid, to me that has remained ever-present and mostly unchanged. It's still very underground and has that feel to it. D&B is a colossus of a style of music and I still think massively not talked about enough on the biggest stages. Once I heard it in school bk in 1998/1999 I was hooked, and will be forever - yet outside of the scene itself I still find I feel like it's a niche I love and I don't know many people who are as into it. I suppose though that's what has kept it mostly underground which I think is a good thing - the only downside being that the DJs, Producers and MCs who haven't chosen the commercial route then aren't as financially successful as they could be if they did...
@@DilbertWhitehead
Yes man, sure, I understood that your not dissing Pendulum.
Just wanted to focus on the time period a bit more.
I agree that moment in genre history is pivotal, for better or worse, it depends on people's tastes, as always.
Interesting that you say you think liquidfunk has remained mostly unchanged.
In my humble opinion there is a split in a vibe as well.
You've got oldfashioned traditional liquidfunk.
And you have stuff you can find on channels like Liquicity, which is way more big room/festival sound, defenitly more white, cotton candy step hehe.
Poeple tend to call it liquid as well.
I like to talk about liquidfunk, and liquid, as that more festival incarnation of the subgenre is more funkless for sure :)
I guess its' the same story with modernday neuro.
Neurofunk used to be funky. Even when it went dark and militant.
And nowadays what people tend to call neurofunk is very often just a loud, banging hard dnb, that for sure is rooted in neurofunk and techstep, but it's very much less funky, is very big room, ans shares a lot with jump up vibe wise.
So again, we have neurofunk and neuro :)
I think the guy he can't remember the name of who did all the 90s design was Jon Black (BlackEye Design) who seemed to do everything.
Lets just remind ourselves here; those whitewashing the scene to this day. It’s unwelcome, Fabio / Swerve is the pioneer for the soulful sound. A brother from Brixton who may not have the millions like Hospital but whose back catalogue set the tone for the music all y’all now copy. Taken the soul out of and calling it Funk.
Middle Class Foolishness me call it, Their business model is superb but the ethos and culture to cause the racism within it is the problem.
Middle class junglism
hahahahha nail on head fella!!
True lol! hospital staff producers and fans are upper class and middle class white lefty hipsters lol. Some good tunes here and there tho. Still a lot of talented producers on there!!