#TBT | TC - Flatline | EDM Identity

Your heartbeat might stop when you reach this Flatline!

Never let the music flatline! Before we dive, let’s rewind the deck and set up the stage correctly. When you look back at the days prior to the Dubstep movement, you’ll find a very different landscape for the Junglists out there. Bass Music was driven solely by Drum & Bass, the fun UK urban movement that featured frantic breakbeats at a feverish pace looped with scratch samples and Hip Hop vocal stabs.

From the birth of Jungle grew Drum & Bass, and from the birth of Drum & Bass came three of its biggest offspring in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s – Jump Up, Liquid, and Neurofunk. TC became one of the biggest stars of Jump Up during this era and even released an album that heavily influenced the trends of the mid-2000’s take on the genre under the title Evolution.

Skyrocketing from the hills of Snowbombing in 2006 (a Drum & Bass festival held in Austria at a ski resort) during sets from High Contrast, “Flatline” by TC became an instant Jump Up classic. The tune features all the telltale signs of the Jump Up formula – a rolling bassline, feverish drum loops, and a squealing stab that just fits Drum & Bass all too well.

While it remains a prime example of the formula, it’s the other elements that really turn heads. The use of a heart-rate monitor, the lyrical styling of, “You can’t shut me down, oh no you can’t shut me down,” and the melodic elements throughout give rise to the track. Unlike many of its contemporary songs, “Flatline” represented a change – its uplifting mood was abnormal in many Drum & Bass tracks and the interludes were not similar to breaks found in other tunes. The hook grabbed the listener almost immediately and drove you to cut loose on the dance floor – at home, at the nightclub, or even better, at the festival.

So to that end – BOH! REWIND SELECTA!

Check out TC – FLATLINE on YouTube:

TC – FLATLINE – LYRICS

You can’t shut me down
Oh no you can’t shut me down (7x)
You can’t shut me down (2x)
You, make me high and bring me down but that’s ok
I listen to your promises all day
Then I take a little walk into the rain
I realize there’s nothing left to say
You can’t shut me down (x2)
I’m just a simple man and that’s why I need you
Loving everything that you do
Put it all on me, and set me free
Take it all, there’s nothin’ left for me
You can’t shut me down (x2)