Mashit

Back in the mid ’90s I used to go to parties where the Beyond the QE2 crew would be throwing down, and they’d always play an inspiring mix of IDM, techno, jungle, house, rave, etc, in addition to a new sound out of Baltimore that they called Baltimore breaks.

I loved this Baltimore sound and couldn’t understand why it was impossible to find the records they were playing. As it turned out Tim Haslett was getting them directly from the sources in Baltimore and the QE2 crew were buying them all out before they even hit the shelves at Boston Beat. None the less, those shelves were stocked with the freshest electronic-dance-music in the land, as were the shelves at Biscuithead, Other Music and whichever other shops Tim worked at. That Baltimore sound is of course what went on to become known as B-more club which only finally blew up over the past few years. Tim knew it was good then and I thank him for bringing the sound to Boston.

I used to go to Other Music when Tim was a buyer there and he always loved chatting about music. He’d tell me which his favorite recent Breakcore releases were, and then go on about productions by the Neptunes, practically in the same sentence. His knowledge was so deep. I hadn’t seen him in quite a while but was very saddened to hear that he passed away last week. I’ll always remember him as a music luminary with an ear to the deep underground and a knack for shining light on sounds that were otherwise difficult to uncover. This one’s for you, Tim.


DJ C; Baltimore mix download and tracklist ->

There will be an open tribute to Tim at Beat Research, Monday ->

More online tributes:

From DJ Teep of the QE2 crew on Moodmat ->

From David Day on the Weekly Dig blog ->

Update

Concise list of tributes and information on the WZBC blog ->