Rubicon by Kumo

Rubicon 1& 2

I was recently asked to do a Drum and Bass DJ set and so started listening back to the heap of vinyl I have from the heyday of the style in the early 90s, when I’d played my part in its development. Although the genre, as so many do, got diluted and commercialised to what seemed the point of no return, there is a powerful militancy about the sound that signifies its origins. The UK at the time was run by a tired, corrupt and failing right-wing regime. People were seeing their rights, their opportunities and their incomes being whittled away by the asset strippers and stock market racketeers who propped up the government. Music culture responded by becoming more urban and more camouflaged. While the old white men at the majors were desperately promoting white bands that played little more that Beatles covers, it seemed the rest of us were flocking to the radical multi-ethnic energy of Drum and Bass. Caribbean rhizomorphism was bearing its teeth. Soon there was a change of government...
Just under 30 years later and we’re in a worse state in the UK. The corruption that set in in the 90s returned with an extra vigour leading to the Brexit catastrophe. National infrastructure and services are reduced to a skeleton as the resources that once funded them languish in the offshore bank accounts of the pirate class. War and famine are on the doorstep and the majority of the population will be unable to heat their homes as winter bites. So where’s the cultural response? Is it bubbling away out of view? When do we cross the Rubicon, don our camouflage and take back what’s ours? Hopefully this little stylistic reminder of the 90s will rekindle some of that spirit. It’s ours for the taking.

Tracklist

1.	Rubicon 1	5:50

2.	Rubicon 2	6:31

Credits

released September 1, 2022

composed and produced by Kumo

License