How Murkz, TRC & Subzero Helped Usher In Bassline’s Revival

In many ways, bassline/4×4 was ahead of its time. Big personalities, bold fashion choices, and sugar-rush anthems built for the dancefloor—it was heaven sent for TikTok and the social media age. Bluetooth and Infrared were all well and good, but the golden age of mid-2000s bassline just didn’t have the infrastructure to support its untameable energy and the insatiable appetite of the ravers who loved it so much.

But it’s a new day, and the genre is currently having a revival up North and in the Midlands, thanks in part to legendary producers and DJs like Murkz, TRC and Subzero, who have been putting into action the plans they’ve been formulating since 2020.

The seed was planted during lockdown, when Subzero’s Instagram Live commanded audiences of thousands—including celebrities such as Ghetts and Watford captain Tom Cleverley—but over the past 18 months, things have really started to heat up. Raves were the first part of the plan, but things have grown far beyond that into a multi-faceted stable they call 4 The Bassline Culture.

It feels cliched to call what Murkz, TRC and Subzero have created a “movement”, but given the huge swathes of support they have across the country, the instant and intense reactions every announcement gets and the support they have from their peers, it’s hard not to agree. Back in November last year, they put on an enormous event in Birmingham called The Wobbler, with themselves as headliners along with sets from bassline icons like Burgaboy, Bassboy and Trilla Jermaine Trilloski, side by side with new gen talents like DJ Rawns. It wasn’t just its popularity that should give bassline heads cause for optimism—its slick execution suggested the Yorkshire-born genre’s future wasn’t going to be anything like its past.

4 The Bassline Culture has the benefit of experience as well as new-gen energy to keep it sustained. More than an event series, it’s almost its own ecosystem. The YouTube channel hosts bassline classics, premieres new music from up-and-comers and legends alike, and hosts all the content that might have otherwise faded into the ether, simultaneously preserving the past and pushing the future.

We caught up with Murkz, TRC and Subzero to get the full lowdown. 

“We’re very humble individuals, but we can say with our chest that—since lockdown—there have been a lot of other bassline events that have been popping up off the back of the buzz that we created in lockdown.”—Subzero

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JGRVEsGKUo&w=750&h=415]

COMPLEX: You guys have been working together for years, but what made you want to launch the 4 The Bassline Culture platform?

Murkz: It’s started in lockdown, really. When we couldn’t leave the house, we started doing livestreams. Subzero kicked it off when he was doing livestreams from his bedroom and, slowly but surely, it began to pick up. We clocked what was happening and we were messaging each other saying, “Yo! Let’s not ruin this and step on each other’s toes. Let’s work together,” and raves were the next step. The name, 4 The Bassline Culture, it came easily because that’s what we were doing it for: the culture. It was for the people. From there, it just escalated into this entertainment brand, which can go so many different ways.

Subzero: It was just a natural response to the ravers that were loving it. They were telling us that we need to put a rave on, so we just answered what was being asked of us. 

So break down exactly what the whole enterprise does.

Murkz: I think the best way to describe it is, it’s a movement. It’s something for us, it’s something for the people, but it’s not just events. We’re artists ourselves—we make music, we release music. 

Is there going to be a label aspect to all of this as well?

TRC: Potentially, yeah, because we’re all about showcasing new bassline as well as the older stuff. We’ve got a lot of outlets, like the YouTube channel, and we’ve been making a Spotify playlist and building that up as well. So it’s definitely something that we’re looking into at the moment.

Bassline seems to be in a really good place at the minute, and not just up North. Would you say that you guys had a helping hand in this revival that’s been happening? 

Subzero: We lit a fire during lockdown, and we’re bringing that bassline buzz back. We’re very humble individuals, but we can say with our chest that—since lockdown—there have been a lot of other bassline events that have been popping up off the back of the buzz that we created. I just think it all boils down to execution, and what we’re trying to do is execute it in the right way. 

Murkz: It’s not quite at the stage where it was in the golden era, when it was charting and stuff, but it’s in a place that has more potential. We’ve learned from the past and we’re correcting our wrongs and moving a bit differently so it can have more longevity. We’re not trying to throw lots of names on the line-ups so we can make a certain amount of money. We don’t wanna be the biggest rave. We just want to be the best. 

Is gatekeeping a part of that? I don’t mean snobbery or anything, but to keep people aware of the difference between bassline/4X4, speed garage, 2-step, etc. 

TRC: To be honest, I think it’s good that all the genres can collide together. I like that you’re able to play a lot of genres together and make it fit because they’re all around that bassline/4×4 sound. It’s good for bassline because it puts it amongst other scenes and puts other genres amongst bassline. It can only help lift it up the same way it lifts up other genres as well.

Subzero: I love that it’s at that crossover level. Sometimes when you go out and you hear a DJ that might play multi-genre, you’ll always come to that old-school section where he might mix in a bit of garage, he might mix in a bit of funky house. You always get a bit of bassline in there, maybe some very old-school drum & bass or jungle, and it all blends. So as long as it stays on that level, it will be everlasting like garage and funky house. 

Will bassline always be a Northern sound?

TRC: I’ll put my opinion on it: I think the biggest reaction and the biggest following for bassline will always be up North. Obviously, it filters into different parts of the UK, going more South and into the Midlands, etc, but it’s always Northern.