Bass Is Maternal is the debut studio album by Bristolian production duo Smith & Mighty, originally released by More Rockers in 1995. The album was originally recorded in 1989 for ffrr/London Records, who had signed the duo after they had built up underground success in their native city for their innovative Bristol underground scene sound, but the labels deemed the record unsuitable for release. The record explores links between dub music and British rave culture, incorporating styles of rock, reggae and electronic music with an emphasis on dub-style bass. The album title and artwork highlight the perceived association between the exposure of bass and maternity.
Upon its release, Bass Is Maternal was largely commercially unsuccessful, although it peaked at number 35 on the UK R&B Albums Chart. It received mixed and positive commentary from critics, who described the record as a long-awaited release. It has since been regarded as a groundbreaking album that anticipated 1990s progressions in drum and bass, jungle, trip hop and Bristolian music. In 2000, the album was re-released on Studio !K7. In the January 2001 issue of Spin, it was listed among the "Top 10 Reissues of the Year". In 2015, Fact placed the album at number 42 on the "50 Best Trip-Hop Albums of All Time" list, and cited it as "an important chapter in British musical history."
Background and production
Smith & Mighty, consisting of Rob Smith and Ray Mighty, formed in Bristol in the 1987. They became innovators of the Bristol sound, with initial endeavours including cutting up samples of pianist Erik Satie and applying them to hip hop-reggae rhythms, and recording with Pop Group member Mark Stewart on "Stranger Than Love". Alongside producing fellow Bristolian act Massive Attack's debut single "Any Love" and Fresh 4's sole hit "Wishing on a Star", Smith & Mighty released off-kilter covers of the Burt Bacharach and Hal David songs "Walk on By" and "Anyone Who Had a Heart." These covers were ragga jungle recordings that highlighted the duo's interest in introducing pop song forms to experimental dance music.
The singles turned Smith & Mighty into popular underground figures, and attracted the interest of ffrr/London Records, who signed the duo believing them to be a production team with a crossover style similar to Soul II Soul. Although the duo recorded Bass Is Maternal in 1989, the label did not want to release the album, deeming it unsuitable for release. The duo thus found themselves in "music industry purgatory," unwilling to alter their style to fit ffrr/London's wishes, but contractually prevented from releasing the album elsewhere. While the record remained unreleased, the duo began working with other artists such as The Ragga Twins, Neneh Cherry and Beats International in the early 1990s, and only the 1992 proto-jungle EP Stepper's Delight and singer Carlton's 1990 album The Call Is Strong featured the duo's production skills during the era. The duo were finally freed from their contract with ffrr/London in 1994, and released a reworked version of Bass Is Maternal on Smith's recently-launched drum and bass label More Rockers in 1995. Smith later recalled:
Composition
Bass Is Maternal is a trip hop album that explores the link between British rave culture and Jamaican dub music. The duo took an experimental approach, mixing dub, hip hop, reggae, rock and electronic music into numerous hybrids largely of a dance music nature. The record prominently incorporates dense jungle music, applying the genre's sped up breakbeats to dub music and shoegaze, and also fuses ambient music, electropop and usage of space synths, although characteristic of the album throughout is the heavy usage of seismic bass. The duo felt that the dub-style "low end pressure" bass, felt in the music of King Tubby, Prince Jammy and Scientist, was the main element of their production style. According to The Wire, Bass Is Maternal foregrounds the bass, but experiments with synth melodies and heavy, distorted drum sounds which are juxtaposed with "ghostly backwards guitar effects" and feedback. They compared the album's experimental trawl through different genres and soundscapes to dub producers like King Tubby, Scientist and Dennis Bovell and experimental post-punk bands like Public Image Ltd.