I remember the first time I heard “two-step” a.k.a. UK Garage.  Having recently arrived in London in 1998 to go to school at Westminster, I followed the scent of ganja in my dorm floor and made some new friends.  The stereo in their small, smoky dorm room was tuned to a pirate radio station and it was playing a new kind of dance music that I hadn’t heard before.  I asked what it was and one of the guys replied, “garridge.”

At the time, I thought they meant “garage” as in disco and house made famous by New York’s Paradise Garage.  They were quick to correct me: no, this was a completely different kind of music, the next evolutionary step from mid-90’s Speed Garage, and the predecessor to the Dubstep and Grime genres that rose to prominence in the early 2000’s.  Two-step’s popularity only lasted a few short years, and inspired both strong loyalty from its fans and scathing hate from those who preferred harder bass lines and rougher, more aggressive sounds.

Nowadays it can be pretty hard to find a good, let alone definitive mix of this music.  This mix captures all the top singles from the Locked On label, a sub-label of Pure Groove and home to some of the most famous two-step artists and singles.  If you’re searching for a great two-step mix to reminisce on, this is it.   Originally packaged with Muzik Magazine’s November 2000 issue, this is a flawless mix showcasing the distinctive clipped rhythms and sugar-sweet R&B vocals of two-step, which retain their funky soulful vibe a decade later.

Listen now:

Download here (right click and “save as”)

95.82mb /// 52min 19 sec /// 256kbps .mp3 file

Tracklist after the jump… Continue reading →