Today in the Tuesday Time Machine we are looking back at a few tracks by two of the finest producers from the ’94/’95 glory daze of happy hardcore … Vibes & Wishdokta!
Later on Vibes would go on to become the cheesiest of the cheesy, and Wishdokta would become one of the pioneers of the UK Garage sound under his actual name, Grant Nelson, but for a brief shining period in the mid-90’s they made classic after classic after classic together. Everything that was awesome about Happy Hardcore in its initial incarnation can be heard in their music.
Propulsive breakbeats? Check.
Euphoric piano breaks? Check.
Exploding cascades of diva vocals? Check.
Deeply dub-tastic basslines? Check.
Cheeky samples? Check.
Sheer, unadulterated fun? Check, check, and check.
Don’t believe me? More fool you. Check this shit out:
For some bizarre reason, it’s taken me a long time to get into the amazing music of Machinedrum, aka Travis Stewart.
If you are unaware of him, he is an American dj/producer who has been based in Berlin for the last few years (I believe in Kreuzberg, which is much hipper than Wilmersdorf, where I live), and he makes an absolutely beautiful hybrid electronic music, combining bass-heavy juke and jungle influenced beats with the beautiful melodies and atmospherics more commonly heard in the music of downtempo artists like Boards of Canada or 76:14-era Global Communication. Or you could also say that his music is a bit like Burial’s, except fun to dance to. Thinking about it, what really draws me to his music is that it is in a sense like a hyper-modern update on that old atmospheric jungle sound that I’ve always loved – strong beats, big bass, gorgeous melodies.
Although I have been dimly aware of his music for a while, it wasn’t until I started listen to Om Unit a lot that I decided to also explore Machinedrum’s body of work. I’ve listened to more of Om Unit in the past six months than any other artist, and I’ve been greedily devouring everything I can find by him, because I just can’t get enough of his unique take on slow/fast beats with tons of gorgeous electronics layered over the top. Anyways, Om Unit and Machinedrum did a one-off collaboration last year as Dream Continuum on Mike Paradinas’ Planet Mu Records, where they recast old skool hardcore using modern production techniques and juke-influenced beats. Honestly, I loved it, so from there I went on to buy Machinedrum’s latest album, Vapor City, which is amazing, and then I got his previous album, Room(s), which is also amazing, and then I got a bunch more of his stuff, and then, well, here we are.
Obviously, I can’t give a comprehensive overview of his music here, but I can give you a nice little taster, so here are a few of my favorite cuts from his two most recent albums, plus a few freebies and remixes that I also dig.
The remix EP for Substanced’s killer 2011 album When The World Collapses is here … and it’s amazing!
It’s an exciting taster for his forthcoming second album, Futureform, and it’s a good indicator that 2014 will be as good or better on the freeform front as the last two (excellent) years.
My personal faves are Japanese man of the moment Le Dos-On’s turbo-charge remix of Shadows of Tomorrow, and Transcend & Dyzphazia’s chunky as fuck refix of Skullcrush. The Proteus remake of Geneva Part II is awesome as well, but if my ears don’t deceive me, it sounds like there is some clipping in the track and that it wasn’t mastered properly? Anyways, good work everyone!
Two weeks ago, Sunday Sounds looked at Chicago’s drill music scene, it’s own particular local spin on the trap sound that has dominated American hip-hop over the last few years.
Of course, over the last thirty years Chicago has been much better-known internationally for its contributions to electronic music than for the produce of its rap scene (even though Chicago has produced one of the most famous rappers of them all in the douche-tacular shape of Kanye West). So today I just wanted to throw up a few mixes of Chicago juke music, the hyper-speed polythythmic sound that has inspired producers all over the world in the last few years. It’s also been the soundtrack to a unique style of dancing called footworking, which was born in Chicago’s ghettos and is, frankly, pretty amazing to watch (as well as mind-bogglingly complicated) – I’ve also posted a documentary on that, too.
