A community radio station, online magazine and events programmer situated in the heart of Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle.
‘Au Seve’ didn’t epitomise the sound of an era, but rather marked the start of the inclusion of house music on mainstream radars, and with it bringing the crowds that continue to sell out Warehouses every weekend across the country.As the mainstream landscape became more inclusive of dance music, as did the demand for club nights and an increase in both ticket sales and ticket prices. The main difference was that ‘Au Seve’ has an ability to create crossover appeal to masses, whilst simultaneously maintaining a purity of tech house not too dissimilar from the first tracks in the genre’s creation; Housey Doingz ‘Curly’, Calisto ‘Get House’ and Cajmere ‘Percolator’ come to mind. Label: Broadwalk Records - BW001 • Format: Vinyl 12 Julio Bashmore - Au Seve (2012, Vinyl) | Discogs Unbelievable catchy but not quite cheesy.
By 2012, it was kept alive through the takeover of brownfield sites and warehouses across UK cities.
Its widespread popularity and acceptance on the mainstream radio stations (with the support of late night DJ turned daytime primary BBC Radio 1 tastemaker Annie Mac), marked a shift in the attitude of house music in society and paved the way for producers like Disclosure, Gorgon City, Jax Jones and Disciples to make big bucks from a previously underground sub-genre. Ben Pearce ‘What I Might Do’ had a similar level of hype. This meant that more people were able to experience the rave, but somehow brought with it an air of corporate power that seemed the antithesis to the times in which the genre was founded. I like to begin it on 45 and somewhere along the track, there are many points of enablement, you switch to 33.
That's what works for me anyway.
Money was filling the pockets of the DJs we love and the founders of the nights that had previously humble beginnings.
This is where Au Seve enters the frame.
Call and response is a technique employed in many genres of music, perhaps most noticeably gospel. Stream Au Seve by Frazah from desktop or your mobile device I think I've sussed The track First Oddesy.
How does this have anything to do with a monumental shift and the demise of an era? I'm not kidding. Julio Bashmore produces one of the songs of 2012 with an almost irritatingly simple melody that alternates between treble and bass.
Call and Response One of the most immediately recognisable features of ‘Au Seve’ is the call and response structure employed in the riffs. In the North West this resulted in the expansion and popularity of The Warehouse Project, Chibuku, Abandon Silence, Circus and the return of Cream to name a few. "Au Seve" contains a sample from The Real Thing - "You To Me Are Everything (Decade Remix)" However if you play it at only 45 or 33 it's not right. Au Seve It has to be switched during the duration of the track. Soundcloud was on the rise and streaming platforms were gaining momentum. View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 2012 Vinyl release of Au Seve on Discogs. It's a multi speed record.
Young Bashmore has an obvious talent for productions dripping in hooky qualities (see his still slay em jam Battle For Middle You as well as production credits for Youth Soul icon Jessie Ware) and Au Seve totally belongs in this canon, slipping carnival ready melodic touches and simple vocal loops over a dusted house mainframe dominated by rasping kicks and a killer rising bass line. Happily, but not securely, on the edge of society with a serious and loyal following.
The main difference was that ‘Au Seve’ has an ability to create crossover appeal to masses, whilst simultaneously maintaining a purity of tech house not too dissimilar from the first tracks in the genre’s creation; Housey Doingz ‘Curly’, Calisto ‘Get House’ and Cajmere ‘Percolator’ come to mind.
I was 16 and regularly spent my time after sixth form getting the train into Liverpool helping promote house and techno night Waxxx, disco night Polka and campaigning to keep various rave “venues” open in the Baltic Triangle that were on the cusp of closing (usually to make way for the housing demand or noise complaints). Although the producers I’ve mentioned are a more pop centric hybrid, Au Seve’s simple call and response baseline, minimal modulation and absent LFO action served as a carrot for the public’s house appetite, and in turn the artists that would meet that demand.
There were a few other tracks in 2012 around the same time that creeped into this new found daytime radio space as well as on to the Waxxx Greenland Street dance floor where I would dance regularly with my mates. It was the year of Hot Natured ‘Benediction’ and Joy Orbison & Boddika ‘Mercy VIP’, and one of my favourite years as a teenager that I look back fondly on.
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The charts were fresh out of the indie reign of the 00s and looking for a new direction.