hekkle & koch
A Guy Called Gerald’s Black Secret Technology has always occupied its own niche in the drum’n’bass firmament. There were a lot of records that borrowed its basic elements (erratic sub-bass, chopped-up tinny breakbeats, sampled soul and R&B vocals) but none that capture its weird sound, which stands outside the continuum that extends from old UK hardcore through modern drum’n’bass. It’s a really weird mixture of cheap plastic retro-futurism and soul, with murky midrange and bass that goes from nonexistent to room-shaking with no transition, and vocals that are the furthest thing from slick. Even though seemingly everybody loves this record, people copied Goldie’s schmaltzy theatrics and pristine gloss and left AGCG’s much woolier (and more interesting) sound alone. Goldie was reaching for the stars, and AGCG wanted you to know that he made these songs for you himself, with his own hands.
Gerald evidently knew he had his hands on something special, because he kept tinkering with Black Secret Technology for years after it was initially released. I’m not really sure how many versions I own, because I have it twice on CD and once on vinyl, and all three versions sound different, even though there are only two distinct track listings. I keep both the CD versions on my iPod at all times, because I think it’s interesting to listen to the two of them back to back and try to figure out what errors Gerald thought he was fixing in the reissued version. I’ve never figured it out. Both of them sound pretty much perfect to me the way they are.