Killer D’N’B and jungle sounds from two UK pioneers Fabio & Grooverider to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Windrush.
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June 2023 marks 75 years since the first members of the Windrush generation arrived in the UK. The impact of this migration has been incalculable, and to celebrate this legacy, Mixmag has launched an editorial series dedicated to exploring stories, issues and sounds that honour the Windrush generation and their cultural impact.
The development of UK dance music has been heavily influenced by the Windrush generation, with styles such as jungle, grime, UK funky, garage – and the concept of soundsystem-powered parties and rave culture – all traceable to soundsystem culture from the Caribbean and immigrant communities that arrived in the UK to help fill labour shortages and brought a wealth of new cultural inspirations to these shores.
Fabio & Grooverider are legendary representations of this. Both of their parents arrived from Jamaica to the UK in the 60s to work in the transport industry, with their children later forming a partnership that built on the rise to rave culture to help inspire the creation of jungle and drum ‘n’ bass. Fabio & Grooverider’s residency at Rage, which ran in Heaven in the late ’80s and early ’90s, is considered among the country’s most influential DJ sets, spurring on a new musical movement by speeding up styles like hardcore, breaks and hip hop in a flurry of genre-bending mixing.
