Originally released in 1983, the drum machine was a mainstay of early house and techno but the way it was used in bleep was a bit different: rather than sticking to rigid drum patterns or using it as a solid background for other percussion instruments, bleep producers liked to push the machine to create an almost breakbeaty syncopation. The mighty 909 casts a huge shadow over bleep, helping to define the sound. Three bleep production essentials Roland TR-909 drums The South Yorkshire steel city has a lot of superficial similarities with Detroit, in the sense of its proud industrial heritage and strong musical tradition, which perhaps goes some way to explaining why this uniquely English take on techno struck a chord, from the early days of Warp Records onwards. If one place in particular really latched onto the sound of bleep, it’s hard to look past Sheffield. The influence of bleep is vastly underestimated In his 2019 book Join the Future: Bleep Techno and the Birth of British Bass Music, writer and DJ Matt Anniss argues that the influence of bleep is vastly underestimated, not just in terms of the syncopated rhythms of jungle and garage which followed, but in terms of the obsession with bass weight which went on to inform dubstep, grime, UK funky and more.

Similar sounds quickly began to emerge from other cities around the North: Forgemasters’ sinister calling card Track With No Name (Sheffield, 1989) the vaguely motorik brutalism of LFO’s LFO (Leeds, 1990) the Detroit-inspired throb of Nexus 21’s Self Hypnosis (Stafford, 1990 – Nexus 21 would go on to become rave hellraisers Altern 8).Ĭall it bleep techno, Yorkshire bleep or bleep and bass, the new sound dominated northern clubs and raves for a couple of years before mutating and evolving further.

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