We're always harping on about UKG's Lost Years - a vinyl-only time after the genre's early noughties heyday, where bangers went unnoticed and have since been forgotten: lost in a pre-digital era, only to be heard via limited pressings... for which there is little demand.
One artist who was particularly prolific during this period was Russia's Kodyaev Konstantin - better known as Artifact. An exceptionally talented producer who made a name for himself with a plethora of freely available remixes from 2step.ru, he later affiliated himself with Matt 'Jam' Lamont's Solo Recordings following a smattering of support from the man himself on his Kiss FM show.
What emerged from that arrangement was a three-strong run of EP releases (From Russia With Dubz vols 1-3), along with a couple of alternate releases to boot under pseudoynms Justice League and Secret Squirrel. If you've never heard any of that stuff, you really need to go source it & give it a listen - it's undoubtedly some of the finest UKG you'll ever hear.
But let's talk today about an official release which first dropped in December of 2003 on Latvian label Microphone Records. Yana Kay was particularly prolific during this period, & her label commissioned our UKG-loving friend Artifact to put together a 2 Step mix of her single 'Tears In The Rain'. His mix featured as the B2 on the vinyl release (in old skool lingo - the label-elected "weakest" piece on a 4-track release: though in reality this undoubtedly reflects more on UKG's status as a genre at the time, as opposed to the quality of the production).
Ignoring for a minute the insult of the label initially treating this mix like an afterthought, we can't help but wonder listening back to it today (enjoying it just as much as the first listen) - what could've been for this absolutely stellar piece of Garage music, had it been recorded 2-3 years earlier.
For one reason or another, a few years after its release Artifact moved away from producing UKG - only returning briefly for a one-time thing in 2011 when some bright spark at Ministry Of Sound paid him to remix Fredrik Nyberg's smash 'Breaking Up' for a compilation. Since then he's had plenty of success elsewhere in music, but it's probably fair to say that - unlike fellow Lost Years UKG alumni Will Phillips (aka Tourist), Dezz Jones (aka Huxley), Dr. Venom (of Hadouken! fame) and Scott Tonic (aka Scott Diaz): this guy - who had all the potential to be a world-beater, sitting atop the grandest of stages - never quite achieved the heights his skills deserved.
All that said, he did deliver us a somewhat underappreciated-yet-fantastic-nonetheless vocal 2 Step gem - which we here at NUKG 24/7 will always cherish as one of our all time favourites. Salute Mr Artifact!
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