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Big up Dan Hancox for posting this and bringing back memories.

Sinogrime is a sub-genre that barely ever existed, a momentary glitch in the supposedly predictable sonic geography of London dance music. Around 2002-3, with garage crumbling and the cement still drying on grime as a genre, a few producers in E3 suddenly lurched further east than they ever had before.

This is the sound of Shanghai towerblocks and the millennial promise of a new superpower, refracted through the scuffed windows of Crossways Estate in Bow. From the outset grime’s sonic palette defined it as the most futurist of genres – a steel sword cutting cleanly through UK hip-hop’s wooden edifice – but it rarely sounded as futurist as this.

I went to interview Kode9 for The Guardian recently (link here), and among other things we got talking about sinogrime… Here’s what he said:

“I’ve always been fascinated by these little squiggly synths, whether it’s been in jazz funk, or gangsta rap, or 80s synth pop… and also grime. That’s what I love most about grime actually, that kind of hyper-coloured sound. I was never so into the aggression of grime – I liked it in the MCs and the music, but it was actually how fucking beautiful melodically Target, Wiley, Terror Danjah, Ruff Sqwad and Jammer were – the Chinese style instrumentals.

I did this mix a few years ago that was just Jammer and Wiley and Target – of just half an hour of these Chinese-style plinky-plonk sounds… it was a bit sloppy, but it is fucking amazing music. Those guys were just on taking an aspect of hip-hop and blending it with really quite jarring, brash melodies.”

Download here

And heres some more bits I been listening to today..