DIESEL

A key figure in the development of DJ and sampling culture, Tim Simenon aka Bomb The Bass was as important to UK dance music late 80s development as MARRS, S-Express and Coldcut. After the success of singles Beat Dis and Bug Powder Dust Simenon went on to produce one of Depeche Mode's definitive albums, 1997's Ultra, in addition to working with David Bowie and Bjork. Now signed to Berlin's excellent !K7 label - home of the DJ Kicks series - Simenon, like his contemporaries Coldcut and Massive Attack, continues to endure after over 20 years of pushing the envelope.

Bomb The Bass and Massive Attack share common ground in way other than the purely musical - in the early 90s both fell victim to possibly the most bizarre case of censorship UK music has ever known. As the first Gulf war started in 1991, a set of unofficial broadcast regulations were put in place that blacklisted any thing deemed even the tiniest bit controversial - hence Massive Attack came to temporarily be known simply as Massive, and Bomb The Bass´s singles were released under Tim Simenon's name.

Such conservative measures by the likes of Radio 1 et al are somewhat surprising seeing as this was in the past 20 years. That said, the early 90s was still a somewhat conservative era - Thatcher had just handed ver the reigns of government ot John Major, and even the likes of Color Me Badd's number one hit I Wanna Sex You Up was causing a stir due to its 'racy content', despite the fact that a lyric such as 'I wanna sex you up' could only be written by someone that's never actually had intercourse before and is still some way off of ever doing so. Such measures seem quaint today - it makes you wonder what names would be adopted by current acts during this ongoing period of war - what would Ghostface Killah change his name to? Would Blood Red Shoes become Nice White Plimsoles? These are questions that demand answers as Bomb the Bass hits xXx Munich!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6tUsX4OhOs