Much more famous for their sets at raves
in the early 90's. Top Buzz were fronted Mad P who would spit
out ragga rhymes and had two dj's (though not always at the
same time). They would always play the most underground tunes,
very dark too. "Are you really ready for some Jungle
Tekno".
Top Buzz shocked crowds with their upfront,
driving music for half a decade, and looked set to do so for
a long time but, but then the team disbanded.
The crew consisted of Jason K . Mikey B and Patrick (Mad
P) - the MC who is the son of Cynthia Jarrett, who died after
a police raid on her London home in 1985, an event that attracted
much media attention at the time.
Jason Kyriakides - Interview
Jason was born in London on the 19th February 1969. After
leaving Southgate School, he had the choice either to go on
a Royal Institute of Charted Surveyors course or become a
DJ. Fortunately for us, he didn't think he could stand the
excitement of surveying, and he plumped instead for a quiet
life in the tranquil surroundings of clubland.
"The music was just holdin' me at the time. Dem times
I was working with affluent Jewish people that drove around
in Bentleys, Ferraris an' fings like that. Yeah, an' I used
to war a suit an' have to speak perfect Queen's English, an
I'm not really into that. It's only t'rough the congregation
with the brother that I lost it - I'm not English anyway,
I'm 100% Greek Cypriot."
Top Buzz got into House because they reckoned they could
do better than the DJs they were listening to at the time.
"Well, we were raving at the time-this was when the
music being played was more or less Garage in 88 / 89. Every
Rave that was on, we was there. Whether there was a million
roadblocks, we were getting in in them days.
"We thought certain man weren't drawing the tunes, so
we went home and Mikey got the decks out the van from this
old soul sound called Funky Express that he used to have,
and we put them with the decks I had already, an' we just
started messing about. We had the tunes at home, but we were
just some Mickey Mouse outfit fuckin' about. Then we got a
couple of plays an' certain people started to hear of us an'
it just went from there really.
"It became an ambition to play in front of a big crowd
and we did eventually. "
"Our style of music is Dance music, maan. There's no
wild noises or anyfin' like that. It's music you can understand,
it's got a lot of rhythm to it, so it would cross over to
other ears.
"The music that was coming out when we was labelled
was just Reggae with a faster beat. We originally said 'Jungle
Techno' just as a phrase, but people jumped on to it when
it wasn't really meant to mean anything. Jungle was just a
word to describe the feelin' of the music that was bein' made,
but people were misinterpreting it like they do with 'dark'.
When you say something's 'dar', you're sayin', 'Yeah, it's
wicked'. But I hear people sayin', 'Yeah, that tune, darkness
music'. What do they know about 'dark' They're saying it's
a music, but it ain't. 'Dark' is just one word that mean 'wicked'
or somefin' like that.
"Shut Up and Dance [a record label that had national
chart success with the tune 'Raving, I'm Raving'] said, 'Jungle
Techno is a racist term', an' that if you took the drugs out
of ravin', blacks and whites would start to fight. But that's
fucking rubbish, because here in England we've got a better
colour bonding than any other country in the world. At the
end of the day, all these kids are gonna realise that it doesn't
matter what colour you are, 'cause you're all the same. The
youngsters are mixing now- and there is still a lot of racism
out there, but give it another twenty years or what ever and
they won't even notice a colour difference.
Top Buzz did take their career into the next stage, remixing
and producing, but continued to play to crowds because, as
Jason said, 'DJing is hard work but good fun'.
Jason regards Fabio and Grooverider as top DJs, and the best
up-and-coming unknown DJ as Donnovan Smith, although there
are a few people he would like to see make it to the top -
but whether they will cut the standards or not is a different
matter, or t'ing, as the boys would say.
After going their separate ways Jason Kaye continue playing
as Top Buzz on his own as well as playing garage. Mikey B
is now on radio 1 and is part of the Dream Team. Mad P spent
a time in prison and following his recent release is back
as the MC for Top Buzz.
Group's Web Links
Audio Sets
Top Buzz @ 2 Blacks and A Bubble
- Part 1 A
Top Buzz @ 2 Blacks and A Bubble
- Part 1 B
Top Buzz @ 2 Blacks and A Bubble
- Part 2
Top Buzz @ 2 Rain Dance 91
Top Buzz @ The Rave
| UK Old Skool Rave &
Hardcore Compilations ::Top Buzz
