London, February. The slow ending of an English Winter without any snow. Friday, 11 P.M. Charing Cross Road, a main artery in the nervous center of the capital. Pubs, restaurants, clubs, cinema theatres and concert halls, one after the other. The streetlights <was originally the evening sun, but during Winter there's no sun anymore at 11 P.M.> drop their beams on a strange blend of people, wandering through the streets : tourists, locals, people being curious and nocturnal animals. All the way at the end of this big street there are two clubs : Astoria and Busby's. There's a considerable number of people waiting in line in front of both entrances. Fanatic dance freaks are queueing up : the joints open at 10:30 P.M., are completely full by 11:00 P.M. and close their doors at 3:00 A.M. These specific clubs specialise in the latest European dance rhythms : Belgian and, in general, Balearic. So New Beat does exist in London. They tend to talk about it very often, people read about it in the papers and you can hear the genre in the leading clubs as well. However, in record stores they have very little to offer and radiostations refuse to play the music. It's this surprising situation though that contributed to New Beat being the hottest flow of the moment, the most cherished little pet of the underground since the early start of acid, about a year ago.

In Belgium, New Beat is considered to be the offspring of electronic music in the same way it was already being more popularized by Front 242, Men 2nd, Poésie Noire and others. So New Beat was a possible - although not immediately logical - continuation to this; however not the sound nor the concept, but the enormous size of the phenomenon has baffled our country completely.

In England the advancement happened a bit more subtle. For a few years the London DJ's have been very well aware that next to American funk, house from Chicago or English disco, pop or soul there's a lot more dance music to be found. At one time they threw themselves on the "new" sound of the continent, and introduced terms like Euro-beat and Balearic Beat (named after that other cradle, the island Ibiza <yes, even years before the Venga Boys were flying to it they were partying overthere :-)>). This European approach had gotten more popular thanks to the pop-music charts (much like, Mory Kante for example), got a big share in the clubs and was featured on compilations, where the focus lay more into acid. A long time ago New Order, being the first English band to do so, already blended the sound of the continent into its music. In England, New Beat is regarded as a new or adapted (slowed down) version of Balearic Beat. This turns out to be determined by the outside packaging however : if the cover shows tanned faces, they classify the record as Balearic Beat. If the cover is rather plain and there's a sticker with Made In Belgium or Mixed in Belgium on it then Englishmen see it as New Beat.

Trax is a small record store situated in the trendsetting heart of Soho. When opening, a good year ago, they emphasised on gay music, Hi-NRG <something to do with Evelyn Thomas' 80's club hit High Energy ?> leading the way; later the shop started to specialize in New Beat. Most of their customers are London DJ's. Craig, the young manager, simply adores the Belgian floor fillers and tells me the following : "In the whole of London we're the only ones selling New Beat records. They make about a third of our current sales, but we can only replenish our stocks by going to Belgium ourselves. There's no distribution overhere at all. Only the compilation-album New Beat - AB Sounds Take 1 is available directly on the FFRR label, a subsection of London Records. We are aware of the fact that currently nobody will get rich because of New Beat, but we do get a lot of requests for it. It has become a true hype".

"Belgian New Beat is no longer considered a vague memory of the clubs in Ibiza, but as a rejuvenation of the dance-scene that was pushed aside completely by Balearic Beat. After about three years of maturing in Belgium itself, New Beat has reached quite a high level. Hence the genre isn't just a media sensation, but could very well become a vital musical flow". (P. Ablett)

The first all-embracing article in the English music press about the Belgian dance scene already dates back to early November <of 1988> Reporters came over to investigate the Flemish clubs and had a good listen wherever they visited. At that time the rise of New Beat was reaching its peak overhere, and therefore the London "in-crowd" suddenly had a new scoop, one that wasn't overshadowed by a drug-related connotation, as had been the case with Acid.

Much like during the early stages of the Acid-wave, clubs only programmed records that were almost impossible to find anywhere in the capital. Yet again DJ's played a key role in promoting a particular musical taste. Their role apparently exceeds that of the record companies. As long as they are the only ones playing New Beat, the genre will survive. For in that splendid isolation the underground-character of the New Beat flow is being continued. If the jocks <meaning the DJ's, not sporty American guys ;-)> would loose their monopoly however, because radio stations and record companies got seriously involved, it could be the DJ's loose interest completely. This would have severe consequences... The entire system is actually resting on a very fragile base.

By writing articles about New Beat, the reporters played the exact opposite role compared to the one they had before with Acid. The press kept very very quiet about Acid, but is now partially responsible for the creation of the New Beat hype. By means of numerous articles, Melody Maker has tried to label New Beat as the new post-acid-boom, at the same time taking advantage of the total confusion that was going around back then. For at the same time the first examples of Detroit techno, Chicago deep house and New York garage made their appearance in the whole of Europa. At that time the Englishmen's main interest in New Beat was most likely to occur due to the fact they wanted to be the first and most privileged member of the audience. Naturally the best witness is the one that creates the event himself. A starting point that even lead to the publication of New Beat charts and the reviewing of records, which aren't actually available in shops.

However in this context of ultimate competition (techno, deep house, ...) New Beat hasn't pulled through commercially. Main reason for this is the bad (or even non-existent) distribution. English DJ's used this shortcoming to their own benefit : although honestly caring for the music, they have been able to make a respectable hype of the whole phenomenon. Craig adds to this : "DJ's like ...<4 names not mentioned in respect of their privacy> come to our shop to buy all possible New Beat-material. In the clubs they are being chased by kids wanting to get a copy of those records. And then they have a fiendish pleasure in telling them stories about their small trips to Belgium, while they've never even been there. If everybody was able to purchase New Beat records, I fear the end of the whole thing would be quite near. Why would the clubs bother to play music people can listen to at home ?"

Flesh was most certainly a serious hit in the most important centers of the London night life. Even The Marquee makes room for New Beat between the bands doing a live performance there. While being on a promotional trip to London a number of Belgian bands (A Split Second, Taste Of Sugar and Erotic Dissidents) were allowed to get on stage at the Astoria, and about that venture a lot of articles and comments appeared in the music press. Nevertheless, in London, New Beat is considered to be one whole, of which the surroundings are a bit vague. "Sales-wise", says Craig, "mostly Code 61, Amnesia, A Split Second, Boytronic and The Maxx did very well. We've put together a New Beat chart and naturally it hangs in the store. This also allows us to sell Hi-NRG again, because we let it pass as New Beat. People throw themselves on every record mentioned in the chart, what they don't know is that previously most of them had been available for years in the sales-section".

Whatever the determinant factor will be for the post-acid-era (deep house, new beat or another kind of sub-genre) is still something unknown, in any case a return to the seventies can be clearly noticed : deep house refuels the disco-music of the seventies and New Beat continues to work on the sound and concept (more robotics) of Kraftwerk.

Strange, or actually maybe not, is the fact that New Beat's image matches perfectly with the one they have about our country in Albion. The average Englishman has some vague ideas about this kingdom but has no specific image in mind when thinking about Belgium. To him, it remains a boring country one passes through on the way to a holiday destination, but where nobody stays. New Beat even amplifies this lack of identity. Its sound is cold, soulless and is stripped from any emotions; in fact the perfect soundtrack to a movie by Vertov : the physical matter has more value than the idea, the machine more than the individual.

For the time being New Beat's English future remains a question mark. At the end of January the dance label FFRR made a start with the nation-wide distribution of tracks by A Split Second and Taste Of Sugar. The sale of these two 12-inches (which - when being import-products though - did quite well with a specialised audience and on the dancefloor) will determine the next step of New Beat's evolution : a commercial (world) breakthrough or an unconditional let-down. <It became the latter...>