One of the things that has defined underground club music during this decade (which is now coming to a close) is the almost complete deconstruction of its chronology. I've somewhat already touched upon this on some past entries; but to briefly reiterate: the “new” (the “innovative”, the "fresh", the “future”, the “unknown”) is no longer the sole object of fixation; the “good” simply suffices.

The instant accessibility of 40 years of electronic club music has been a reality for the past 10+ years. DJs, producers and listeners (and not just the geekiest of them anymore) are now more and more aware of its history, digging deeper and deeper to see what can be discovered and rediscovered, introduced and brought back to life, imitated and reinterpreted, etc.

Everything and anything can be new now. Young DJs making a living out of playing old boogie records isn't weird. In fact, you can probably book one for your house or techno night, and not many people will bat an eye. I don't know how many times I've heard a track on a set, thinking it was new, only to find out later that it had come out 25 years ago – and vice versa.

This thought came into my back during the mesmerizing first hour of Josey Rebelle's set in Toronto back in February – a completely obvious fact as to be almost laughably : for all the stylistic flourishes that club music has gone through in the past three decades or so, the backbone has always been, well, bass and drums (not to say “drum and bass”). That is what ties it all together. Josey Rebelle seems to take that to heart; her set in Toronto consisted of stripped-back beats from these last three decades, mixing a breakbeat techno track into a minimalist UK funky track into an old school Chicago drum machine, hand-clap jam into a weighty, modern UK techno track (à la Kaizen) - all of it ready to make the bass bins burst into flames. It was her careful selection that made it seem like, despite all of these tracks' different origins, in the end, it's all the same thing, and it all congealed into a cohesive-yet-varied sound.

Those are the kind of DJs that are my favourites: the ones that have a particular vision, the ones who aim to achieve a particular sound or vibe, while taking music from different places (and now, from different eras). It's like how Ben UFO used to do back in the early part of this decade, mixing techno with carefully selected grime and dubstep tracks, underlining the similarities these seemingly disparate genres might have. Much more interesting than the DJs that just go through the Drumcode and Planet Rhythm catalogs, or the genre-hopping DJs with a severe lack of focus and no vision.

Inadvertently, this ended up being the underlying theme for most of my mixes selection for the month of March: It's All About Bass and Drums Still, Isn't? I've always leaned towards the more stripped-back, “groove-based” side of club music, whether in house, dubstep or dnb, and these mixes really reflect that. They mostly consist of new “new” music (which I actively look for nowadays), mostly drawing from fresher styles of underground club music. As such, none of them really adhere to a genre, but each strive to reach a vibe showing how they interpret "deep", "rude", "heavy" electronic club music somewhat rooted in (or influenced by) UK sound system culture (hardcore, dnb, jungle, dubstep, etc).

Anna Morgan's ravey mix of hard drum, subby UK techno, new wave breakbeat techno (including a great remix of Mr Vegas' “Head High”) and weird 4x4 techno tracks from the likes of Object Blue and Quest?onmarc makes for a thrilling listen. Shampain keeps it ravey as well with his set on Noods Radio which ranges from leftfield, bright electro and 4x4 weighty stompers (including an awesome hard dance remix of Destiny Child's “Lose My Breath”). Deena Abdelwahed also leans close to UK techno sounds, but hones into a more “tribal”/oriental vibe, if you will. Chants takes that tribal vibe further into global bass and hard drum territory that would sure make the Nervous Horizon members grin like idiots. Henry Greenleaf does his own take on UK techno, influenced by old school dubstep's dubby vibes and Swamp 81's trippier subbass excursions. Toronto's Ciel goes into stripped-back and bassy (and sometimes heavy) underground house, techno and electro vibes for the city's new ISO Radio, including fresh tracks from great new producers like Nite Fleit, Klein Zage, Lauren Flax (her “Work Dat” has really been making the rounds, eh?) and herself. Following his big Keep Hush set, Manchester's Strategy has been on people's radars and he joins Chunky for his birthday special on NTS Radio to offer one hour of his own new, unreleased material: a concoction of funky, deep tech, old XXXY-like tracks, electro and Swamp 81-approved beats. Finally, DJ Booga from Germany offers a set of the modern, deeper ends of everything dnb (two-steppers, halftime, juke-inspired, dark atmopheric, etc, etc).

There you have it: eight great mixes and sets from March of new, groove-based ravey goodness. And a DJ Katapila set of Afrobeats and Afropop to top it off. His releases on Awesome Tapes From Africa are kind of shit to be honest, but he's a fine selector.

**HER SET STARTS AT AROUND 01:02:00**

**HIS SET STARTS AT AROUND 00:30:40**