by: Juan Porrata
Born out of his interest in the then bustling rave scene of the tri-state area during the late 90's, Keith P has had a long standing love for electronic music. Southern Connecticut wasn't exactly the music capital of the world and neither was Keith old enough to enjoy it at whim, but seeing flyers filled with themes from the post 'ardcore era peaked his interest enough. After his family moved to Dallas he had an accessible rave scene to partake in. Keith's love for electronic music was fueled almost weekly from the events coordinated by 32 Degrees, Prototype and Valence. Later in high school Keith was able to round up enough cash to buy his own set up. This soon led to weekly trips to Core records where he began buying whatever Jungle, and eventually, 2-step records he could find.
In 2000, Keith P (then known as SoulFonik) was approached by local DJ The Logic Theorist to partake in a new UKGarage weekly called 'Funkdays'. From that point on, Keith completely shifted his focus to UKGarage and all of its subsequent sounds. With the popularity of the soon to follow weekly 'Groovology', and because of the efforts put through far earlier by promoter Wes Stubblefield, UKGarage had firmly planted itself as a fixture in Dallas night life. It's been about 7 years since then and Keith has followed the progression of UKGarage into it's various sub-genres such as Dubstep and even explored it's initial roots in house music or US Garage. Because of the inherent diversity in UKGarage, Keith has also begun to embrace a wider range of dance music.
Back in 2000, local Promoter Tiny and Mary Floyd formed the promotion group Unit One. Between those years and the present day Keith and Tiny have formed a strong friendship and business relationship through their shared love of UKGarage and especially Grime music. Unit One's main focus has been in pushing new forms of music and never relenting on the importance of musical progression. Because of their shared love for diversity, Keith, Tiny and Mary have worked in introducing Dallas and a wider audience to the sounds of Grime, Dubstep and presently popular forms of electronic music. This vision has been realized in independent and cooperative efforts involving Unit One. One notable event of late was "Drop The Lime", a cooperative effort between Sexy Terrorist and Unit One. This night was truely representative of Unit One's eclectic music appreciation as bass heavy genres such as Baltimore Club, Dubstep, and Grime were all seamlessly integrated into the night.
Whether planting Dubstep as a musical fixture in Texas or embracing the current popularity of Electrohouse, Keith's main goal is in introducing as many people as possible to these bass heavy genres and becoming an outlet for new music.
What would you consider to be the common thread over the years as you have evolved your musical tastes?
I'll put this out there right now. I still love 2-step. If there's any one genre I'll keep going back to for nostalgia, it'll be 2-step.
UKG/2-step garage has always acted as a fulcrum point for me in terms of musical interests. I always found it one of the most versatile genres as it drew from so many different forms of music. This has obviously been leant to Grime and Dubstep as both sounds come right out of 2-step. Take for instance fidget house right now. Those bass lines reek of speed garage influence. I can't think of any other explanation for it. I've listened to house, been to house nights, and I never heard anything with that much wobble. I love what producers like Switch are doing right now because of that.
That's where my second fulcrum point comes in for musical taste...bass. I fucking love bass, I mean LOVE IT. Whether its some coked out Justice bassline or some deep gut churning, lowest frequency audible to the human ear dubstep bass. I don't always need a crap load of low end, but it helps.
