ABOUT BASSMENT



Bassment was the brainchild some 5 years ago of Steve Harris aka DJ Linus, who has been involved in both the Berkshire Drum'n'Bass and Breaks scenes for the last 8 years. It all came about from a frustration with the music available in the area (or lack thereof) and wanting to give quality DnB a platform for other people to enjoy it. One day the straw broke the camels back and Bassment was born.

In 2004, Bassment started out small, drawing from the pool of local talent and with a rapidly growing following. In 2007 we decided to take the risk of investing in big name guests - we chose to start with BBC 1xtra's DJ Friction. For us, this moment was like when the ape reached out and touched the monolith in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. The event far exceeded our wildest expectations, packing the venue out over capacity and giving us the confidence to carry on bringing quality acts to Berkshire. Once we'd seen how good a dnb night could be, we wanted to put on more, and this night set the standard by which all others would be compared.

Over the years the night has moved back and forth between venues in Reading and Maidenhead, with a bigger and better venue with each move as popularity grew. Now that Bassment has landed at Mango, all involved really feel that this is the right place for our event, with Mango's immense sound system and lighting rig. It's the sort of venue where you can put on a big guest act but still keep that intimate feeling which makes the Bassment vibes so unique.

A new addition to the night is something we've always wanted to do - hosting a second room in which we can offer an alternative to what's on offer in the main room. With Dubstep becoming increasingly popular, with support on Radio 1 and MTV, and a shortage of Dubstep nights in the area, we leave it to our friends at Resonance to offer up a selection of dubstep and other left-field musical goodies in Mango's second room.

Bassment's music policy is all about making DnB accessible to people who would not normally give it a chance, while still satisfying the purists. Above all though, it's all about putting smiles on peoples faces and trying to change the commonly-held perception that a dnb night is just a big dark room with moody people in it.

At Bassment, we let the music do the talking rather than hyping ourselves up as the biggest or baddest. Having somebody come up to us at the end of a night and tell us that one certain tune really touched them or that they really enjoyed what we have done is worth more than having a club full of people going nuts, though that's always appreciated!

Artists that have touched down over the last couple of years, some of them playing for the very first time in the Berkshire area, include: Grooverider, Shy FX, Stamina MC, DJ Friction, Bailey, DJ Hype, John B, Logistics, Randall, Sub Focus, Commix, Break, Xample and Alix Perez. We also regularly invite residents from other nights in the area to play guest slots at Bassment, and we are always interested in finding new local talent and giving them a chance to play out, so if you see us about, give us a demo cd and you could find yourself on a future lineup.

Over the years, the team has grown as Linus found the work too much to cope with on his own, recruiting close friends Matt Hunt (Smuntee,) Dan Barua and Nick Reakes (Deviate) to jump aboard. We also have street team members in many towns helping to spread the word, as well as friends from other ends of the country who pop down to help on the night. All have helped shape and prepare Bassment for 2009, we'd like to stamp ourselves on the map as one of the best nights in Berkshire if not the South East.

See you on the dancefloor.