If you don’t know, get to know – underground old school garage at its greatest and grittiest, ‘classic’ has never felt so appropriate a phrase to describe ‘Hobson’s Choice’ by Active Minds.
It’s hard to think of a better example to illustrate the raw and darker sounds of 2 step garage around in the late 90s than ‘Hobson’s choice’. Luring you in with a steady susceptible rhythm of percussion shuffles and stuttering vocal chopping, the mood changes dramatically around the 1 minute mark where you are greeted with an immensely powerful bass line. An explosion of low end goodness strong enough to satisfy the cravings of even the most irritable dubstep ‘drop’ warriors, the combination of this, infectious vocals and corrupt eerie strings makes this tune quite simply, a banger! A limited white label release has kept this brilliant track unknown to most, and thus is perhaps what makes it so special. Hearing this a on a club sound system will be an extremely privileged and satisfying experience.
Released: 1998
– Calum Carey
