ALAN DUCKWORTH – Concert Reviewer

My earliest music memories are from the mid-1980’s. Being that I was a toddler almost every single one of those memories involves a cartoon series from that time period, especially the theme songs. I would literally hear the first and second notes of the Duck Tales, Jem and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle theme songs and go crazy. For the most part, my early childhood was dominated by cartoon theme songs which I do believe played a major part in why I enjoy music so much today.

I moved from the District to Temple Hills, MD in 1990. I’m going to be honest about some of the music I liked as a kid. It was Ace of Base all the time followed by the Police in a close second. “Message in a Bottle” was my song. My first album I bought (sigh) was All 4 One. I guess their light heartedness was Mom approved and “I Swear” was too much to pass up. My next big time musical influence as a child had to be “TLC” especially the song “Waterfalls.” I sat in front of the radio just waiting for that song to come on so I could record in on my cassette player. When I started listening to rock, though, all of the above was swept under the carpet so to say.

I always expressed interest in playing music as well. In elementary school, I wanted to join the band when I was in third grade before band was even offered. I wanted to play the trombone – I remember loving the jazzy salsa solos from Hector Lavoe. I then moved on to baritone when I joined the band at Eugene Burroughs Middle School. For some reason I always got into bands playing the instrument no body wanted to play. This trend would continue into high school. Standing around with a bunch of my friends from high school we wanted to form a band. Everybody wanted to play guitar and we had a drummer, a singer, but no bass player. That’s pretty much how I started my career at bass. My first rock band, The Broken, was wild. We covered rock songs from Nirvana, Deftones, Marilyn Manson, Offspring, and Bush. Those were the days – we jammed for a good three years all through high school.

Next, I joined the best rap rock band ever to come out of Prince George’s County, “Cause for Conflict.” I grabbed my rig (bass amp) and scooted on up to Cheverly. We had smash hits like “Comatose Victim,” “Funk Jam,” and “Grid Iron.” We started getting regular gigs at the Thunder Dome in Baltimore and had an audience as well. Cause for Conflict concerts rolled about 60 deep – we were on our way. We crashed rock bars all through Baltimore like the Vault, Brass Monkey, and the Mojo Lounge. After three years, we disbanded, having reached the finals at a battle of the bands competition at the Thunder Dome and recording a 1- track LP.

After my Cause for Conflict days, I was finishing up school and was diligently practicing graphics. Being a fan of bass, I was previously introduced to a new genre of music by John B’s brother Greg aka Deejay Hebe Geebee called Drum and Bass. I started listening to house music like David Guetta, Roman Salzger and Steven Bodzin and deejays like Aphrodite and Noisia. When I started listening to Electronica, I found a whole new appreciation for old school game music from the 1980s – 1990s. I started to study music science and write game music. I had the idea years ago of mixing game music. There are elements of Dubstep that are extremely similar since Drum and Bass is the Father of Dubstep and Dubstep often samples old school game music. I have since started searching YouTube far and wide for acts from all over the world, and am doing my best to promote artists like Steve Aoki, Nero, Rusko, Mt Eden, Future Cop, Cookie Monsta, the Weeknd, Deadmau5 and more and see them live.