The first time I heard Rob Gee's work was also the first time I heard
gabba. A friend of mine gave me a mixtape of Sensei Ayoki spinning at the
Limelight, and I listened to it on a low-quality walkman. My young mind got excited by the utter frenzy, as I tried to imagine the bass booming that wasn't there. As senseless as gabba might seem, and as hollow it may sound without bass, it had me hooked. Rob Gee's tracks had a certain quality to it, that strangely enough, was reminiscint of
punk.
Not surprisingly, Robert Gilmore, born May 26, 1971. grew up on punk and hip-hop, before getting into house music in 1987. Since then, he has been a mainstay of the hardcore techno subgenre called gabba.
His tracks could best be desrcibed as a how-to guide on abusing a sampler. Insanely funny or amazingly immature (depending on your perspective) vocals are supported by furiously distorted 909 kicks and handclaps.
The subject matter of his songs were extremely lighthearted compared to the Rotterdam stuff coming out of Europe at the time. Big Mac Daddy pokes fun at the incomprehensibility of your standard drive-thru fast-food restaurant order-taker. Ecstacy You Got What I Need is an ode to the raver's drug of choice. Of course, he has his more "hardcore" moments such as Gabba Up Your Ass.
Although I am not fortunate enough to see him perform, his DJ sets are known to get the floor filled. He stage dives, which hints at his penchant for sky diving. He supposedly inserts vocal breaks into his mixes.
He founded Natas Productions, a division of Industrial Strength Records. He is popular in Europe, where gabba is appreciated, but DJs in the United States as well as Japan.