The Stool Pigeon music newspaper

“We started DJing together by accident in my bedroom one night, when I played a new Wiley vocal and Manara dropped Yomanda’s ‘Synth String’ into it. It was a magical moment.”

So says Alex Sushon, aka Bok Bok, of the genesis of his musical association with Sara Manara. The two, formerly called Faggatronix, have been spreading a grimey, bassline gospel ever since, and the collaboration has recently resulted in the opening of their first clubnight in the capital, the monthly Night Slugs. “It feels like bassline hasn’t really hit London yet - not properly,” says Alex. Bassline - speeded-up garage overlaid with fabulous, wobbly bass - has become the keystone of their set, just as it’s gradually spread across the country and into the charts. “Bassline/niche is great because it feels like the sound I’ve had in the back of my mind all this time when I’ve fantasised about good dance music,” says Sara. “It’s my dream thing. I love the combination of the girly helium vocals and heavy bass.”

Concerning grime, the pair have a refreshing appreciation of it as an art form first and foremost, distancing it from associations attached to the scene by sections of the mainstream press. “Grime is particularly daunting for some because it’s character and vocal driven,” explains Sara. “It’s always been easy to typify it as ‘angry young men’ music. The media had its brief romantic period with grime, but you only have to look at how urban genres and generally working class culture is portrayed within England - they’re seen as laughable, imperfect and ultimately alienating.”

“It’s really a club music,” adds Alex. “People need to hear it for what it is - away form the stigma - to realise how good it is.”

Slowly, the message is getting across and it’s particularly striking to see how the influence of British dance music is spreading across the globe. From Trouble and Bass in New York to Buraka Som Sistema in Lisbon, artists across the world are latching onto the energy and innovation of the new British music, mutating it into something original again and ensuring its constant regeneration. For Alex and Sara, the internationalism of the scene is positive. “We’re living in times when everything is connected and the cross-pollination of ideas can only be a good thing,” says the former. Sara: “There’s definitely fertilisation going on. British music is exactly that - British - and that isn’t compromised by mixing it with other cultures and demographics.”

To that extent, the pair recently put together a bassline mix for Diplo’s Mad Decent podcast series, but with some care. “We didn’t want to look like London culture tourists who’d just heard of this ‘bassline thing’ and had decided to claim it for our own,” says Sara. And the vibrancy of the scene, its partial existence in blogs and free online mixtapes, is helping to breed this accessibility and flexibility. As Alex recognises, it’s all terribly exiting: “MP3s have put music back in the hands of the people. For the first time ever, it’s possible for labels and artists to completely bypass the established music industry channels.” Bok Bok & Manara have also been spotted playing Berlin recently, the mecca of minimal. Even there, British bass is seeping through. “People we met in Berlin were sick to death of minimal”, says Alex. ‘We want maximal!’ they told us.”