Think Tonk

Think Tonk is a Manchester bass-music project with jungle, reggae, and dancehall at its centre. The name plays on “think tank”, with “tonk” supplying the idea of something big and strong. It suits music shaped by a long route through the dancefloor rather than one fixed tempo.

That route began with breaking, electro, and hip-hop, before moving through house, techno, hardcore, and jungle. Following the dancehall records sampled by jungle producers led to a deeper interest in Jamaican and other West Indian music, giving Think Tonk more material to draw on than the samples alone.

The project’s collaborations include DRS and Fox, while its catalogue has found a home with V Recordings. Manchester also matters to the story: in a Deeper Vision interview, the artist credited the city with bringing musicians and vocalists together who might otherwise never have met.

Think Tonk’s remix of Take Your Time, featuring David Boomah, brings those connections into a single record. The production draws on marimba and kalimba colours heard in contemporary UK music, with a dubby bassline for its jungle character. The working approach is similarly flexible: drums often come first, but a melody, vocal, or sample can be the thing that starts a tune moving.