100 BEST SINGLES
01. FRESH & MALDINI )E|B( – THE NINE (BC)
There’s something fitting about ‘The Nine’ the time there was a film out called Spawn. There ‘The Nine’ wasn’t really getting a great reception
ranking as the public’s best drum & bass track was something about ‘The Nine’ that reminded when played in raves. After coming out, it gradu-
of all time. Music can be quite throwaway in me of that film. I had an image from the viewpoint ally seemed to get played more, until everybody
any industry, whether it’s pop or drum & bass. of someone flying gradually through a dark started teasing it with other records, and it
Records come and go – even big anthems can cityscape, between skyscrapers and buildings. I became a classic. Like you say, it snowballed.”
draw a lot of criticism when the public get sick also think of a HUGE Bad Company logo moving
of them. But ‘The Nine’ – a dark, oppressive very slowly and menacingly.” ‘The Nine’, originally released bearing the Bad
composition – never rode in on a wave of hype, Company logo but later re-launched with the ad-
expectation or promise. It was what it was, and Disappointingly, it has been rumoured that ‘The dition of Fresh & Maldini’s names (complete with
like an audio snowball gathered momentum, Nine’ was given its name just because it sounded a new B-side ‘Dogfight’), sums up their careers.
first at a snail’s pace, being played by a handful cool. “That’s not true,” Fresh clears up. “I was “It does,” he finalises, “and the whole of Bad
of DJs, and then in a few years it ended up in reading a book at the time. I can’t say what it is. Company’s too, because even though ‘The Nine’
everybody’s box, even outside of the drum & If I let that go it would be the ultimate sin, but it was absolutely massive, most people outside
bass genre. It remains as powerful today as came from there. The great thing about the num- of drum & bass don’t even know what it is. Yet
it did a decade ago, serving as the blueprint ber nine, Jason Maldini and I decided, is that it’s a there are so many big, commercial D&B tunes
behind other dynamic D&B anthems such as recurring theme in life. ‘Nine Lives’, the nine pyra- that lasted for six months, which aren’t played
Ram Trilogy’s ‘Titan’. The truth is, record produc- mids, and so on – it can be found everywhere.” anymore. ‘The Nine’ carried on being important
ers can’t manufacture these everlasting hits, and characterises that simple, underground
so to quantify what keeps ‘The Nine’ fresh after So for those who speculated that ‘The Nine’ was mentality separating commercial drum & bass
all these years is nigh on impossible. DJ Fresh, about the nine Nazgûl in Lord of the Rings, it is from hardcore drum & bass.”
one half of its creators, tries: “Because it’s so – if that’s the way you interpret the number. One
simple,” he spells it out for us. mystery down, yet another to be solved – who It’s ironic that ‘The Nine’ is the world’s favourite
was responsible for ‘The Nine’ becoming what it is drum & bass tune, in light of its lack of commer-
Everyone has their own interpretation of ‘The today? “Andy C,” says Fresh. “Grooverider, Ed Rush. cial recognition. But drum & bass is all about the
Nine’, but what does Fresh visualise when he When we made it, Andy was the first person who underground, and in this respect, ‘The Nine’ is,
hears it? “I remember listening to ‘The Nine’ in the was into ‘The Nine’. Back then, nobody knew who and always will be, “king of darkness”.
studio before it was finished,” Fresh recalls. “At the fuck we were, because that was our first tune.
2007
We have to change the name to Kmag after
the holding company goes into liquidation.
2006
We change our confusing numbering system. After changing from A5 to A4 size in 1997 we changed the numbering
system from issue 15 to volume 2 issue 1. In anticipation of our 100th issue we go back to the original numbering order.
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www.kmag.co.uk
K37-40_100BestSingles-v2.indd 40 30/5/08 14:04:39
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