Clubbers: Check out World Bass Culture at Dali in Cork this weekend 

One of the longest-running clubbing collectives in Cork, World Bass Culture was founded in 2007. They are mainly remembered for many a wild night at The Pavilion, at the time under an ownership that was overseeing a golden era of clubbing and live music from that time on up to 2014.

World Bass Culture encompassed DJs, MCs, music producers and artists. As the name suggests, they were primarily focused on a spectrum of bass music that ranged from roots reggae to dub and drum ’n bass and they were aligned with local dub jam band Wiggle, digi-dub producer Prof. Ruff Chuff and reggae sound system Revelation Sound.

What’s particularly interesting about this crew is that the majority of them are part of Cork’s Polish community. If they have a leader, it may as well be Man-G. A DJ in Poland, he arrived in Cork in 2005. “I came here only for six months,” he once joked.

He got his first gig through the Tikki Lounge, a cosy little alternative bar upstairs from Jim Cashman’s on the corner of Academy Street and Paul Street, with a night called Jungle United. Through that he met the people behind Impact Drum ‘N’ Bass, a night which was running in the Crúiscín Lán on Douglas Street, and he got to play there.

Cork was also home to other compatriots of Man-G who shared a similar musical outlook. One of them was Mateusz Miller. A producer who made music under the name Radikal Guru, Miller was into instrumental hip-hop and jungle, but his time in Cork exposed him to soundsystem culture and heavy dub music, courtesy of Revelation Soundsystem, influences which would feed into his music. As well as that, it was in Cork he connected with reggae artist Cian Finn, who became a regular collaborator on vocals for Radikal Guru.

With Impact Drum ‘N’ Bass having reached its demise, Man-G and Miller founded World Bass Culture, inspired by nights like Impact and Revelation Sound, as a way of promoting the underground bass music they loved.

“It’s not about the clothes. It’s not about being cool. It’s like all the friends coming together in the one spot and dancing together, having a good time,” explained Man-G.

While Miller would return to Poland in 2010, Man-G had gathered enough friends under the World Bass Culture umbrella to create a diverse family of like-minded people. DJs like Killamanselector, Spetz, Kukura, Almer and Smokesystem, and MCs like RasTinny, Fyahred and Harry J. They also borrowed Wiggle’s live visual mixer, VJ Present.

In 2015, World Bass Culture also became a label, releasing a single featuring Spetz and Revelation Soundsystem. Indeed, Spetz has been a mainstay of every release since. In 2017, they launched WBC Soundsystem. While their appearances in Cork in recent years have been sporadic, and in more off-the-beaten-path spaces like Crack Jenny’s on Union Quay, Mason’s Rooftop on Tuckey Street, and An Spailpín Fánach (they even put Radikal Guru on in Ma Murphy’s in Bantry in 2023), they have appeared regularly at festivals such as the Trenchtown Stage at Electric Picnic.

It is therefore great to be able to check them out at Dali on Lavitt's Quay this Friday, April 17. The simple posting on their socials merely said WBC Full Crew & Guests, which is enough guarantee of a good vibe. Expect steppers, dub and heavy low bass. And it’s free!