interview by Simon Sellars

Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 5 January 2003.

In England, UK Garage has been sweeping the charts for some time now. But in London, typically, just when a sound breaks through, that’s when newer, virulent variants ferment, creating something totally unexpected from the ordinal ingredients. Kennington-based Steve Goodman splices the sexed-up vibe of UK Garage with something altogether darker. As “kode9″, he used to make “death garage”. Now it’s “hyperdub”, an audio virus tracking the original experiments of dub-wise Jamaica and its sonic mutations right across the matrix of London underground beats.

Goodman’s music has a theoretical grounding: as a member of the brainbusting Ccru posse, he rubs shoulders with Kodwo Eshun and a number of other ‘afrofuturist’ writers. Goodman’s web site, Hyperdub — a shrine to underground breakbeat — contains a number of his articles, all of them containing rare intelligence and insight. Read them, then listen to some hyperdub and feel the cybernetic spread of breakbeat culture enveloping you in its tentacles…

How important are “accidents” or “glitches” in your music?

“Accidents” and “glitches” mark the onset of turbulence, a rhythmic threshold and the emergence of a vortex. I’m interested in a rhythmic consistency far from equilibrium. It’s a balancing act, rather like a martial art. How far can you break a rhythm and make it unpredictable, but at the same time anticipatable? How far before it loses propulsion? For me, this is what underpins breakbeat as an experimental science.

What’s the significance of “turbulence” and “torque”?

Totally fundamental.

And the value and function of random acts of sonic violence?

Don’t have too much time just now for random acts of sonic violence. I would distinguish violence from war, and stress a war tactics of “fighting without fighting” — camouflage and stealth. Seduction is often a more effective strategy than violence.

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