Trillhouse

Well-known member
I recently rewatched that old Redbull lecture with Rashad and Spinn, they sang the praises of the various juke influenced producers out there, saying they found it flattering and liked the fact that they weren't just copying but trying to put their own spin on it. They also stated that, aside from the actual battles, they would only want to hear footwork in a club for a maximum of 2 hours. I think most can understand where they're coming from. And there's the rub really. In the UK we don't, and probably never will, have the footwork dancing side of things and that's essentially what this music is about.
So it has to in some way be recontextualised for a UK dancefloor, which is how you end up with the maligned sound of Adison Groove and the footwork jungle stuff, that some have claimed is too straight ahead. But it's hard to walk the line between avantgaurd and keeping the average dancefloor happy. Just as, besides the sub bass and 160bpm, putting Jungle and Juke together is like putting a round peg in a square hole. The whole rolling nature of dnb doesn't match the more scattered approach of footwork rhythms. The whole stop start, quiet chaotic, style of Chicago footwork is designed to give dancers something to to go in on and then a breather. None of which translates to a dancer in a UK club, who's more used a continuos repetitive beat and a relaxed form of dancing.

As for the whole MPC soul samples thing, I think that ish mainly comes down to quality control. It's fine for Rashad to be making four beats a day everyday, going back to back with another teklife member each taking 15-30 minutes to complete a track. That's part of what gives footwork it's rawness, but that style's bound to have elements that start grating after a while. And why someone like Jabba is refreshing, because he obviously puts a lot of time in to making each beat.
From a UK perspective it's strange to hear Rashad and Spinn longing for the call from some superstar rapper to do his production. I guess that's their ticket into the mainstream, along with the acceptance and acclaim that i get the impression they don't really seem to be getting stateside.
But there is a certain '93 till infinity' element to a lot of their sample choices, which I guess is understandable seeing as several of these cats are older and that music would've been the base for their formative years. But rawly chopped up Roy Ayers samples certainly wouldn't fly in hip hop in 2013, so looking at it through that prism of thought, it's understandable why some would dislike the sound.
 

jackjambie

Voodoo Priest
i'm not saying european juke-inspired music can't be exciting. For my tastes it would probably have to come from a more grime/garage/bassline source rather than a dubstep/dnb one (or the more self-consciously shape-shifting guys like om-unit, mark pritchard and addison groove). But that would have to happen naturally.[/url]

yea, totally agree. lots of space for MCs in there - it is instrumental music largely after all!

i'll see if i can up some audio of this old dnb MC spitting over this bad boy from from my show on pirate radio a few years back -

https://soundcloud.com/slickshoota/fist-t-night-hunter-slick-shoota-remix

he turned up early for the show after me which was obviusly an old school dnb one. he was a bit pissed and just got straight on the mic for the last few tracks of my show. was really good fun....some sort of hardcore lineage instantly affirmed in the music right there then surely? haha!
 

jackjambie

Voodoo Priest
Not juke-inspired I don't think, more trap at 160bpm, but something like this track points to a possible future for me - plenty of room for MCs too.

yea that is pretty sick. so much energy when you get someone like scrufizzer going at that speed ennit.
 

jackjambie

Voodoo Priest
I recently rewatched that old Redbull lecture with Rashad and Spinn, they sang the praises of the various juke influenced producers out there, saying they found it flattering and liked the fact that they weren't just copying but trying to put their own spin on it.

that kind of optimism's really inspiring isn't it though? i really like that part of the teklife philosophy a lot, that's part of the reason why their crew's been so succesful i think....

like - with any hardcore music scene it is really hard for outsiders to immitate it, but often the products of people failing at doing so can be really exciting in themselves because they tap in to some of the energy from it. like with the UK guys trying to do acid house and ragga and whatever else in the late 80s / early 90s and coming up with hardcore...or mark e smith from the fall trying to copy reggae vocals, or the yardbirds and groundhogs and that lot trying to play the blues and coming up with that whole uk rock explosion etc....bit off the beaten track now lol but you know what i mean.
 

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
It's a nice track, but the production is really just hiphop, in the electro - miami bass - southern - trap lineage.

well yeah except its at around 160bpm i think, and the synths are very Funkystepz sounding (which obviously makes sense as Scru used to co-produce with Stimpy from them and I guess he produced this track himself) and there is flat-out grime MCing over the top! Like I said this isn't a juke inspired track, just thought it was a nice example of contemporary US street music feeding into UK stuff and making it work.
 

Trillhouse

Well-known member
well yeah except its at around 160bpm i think, and the synths are very Funkystepz sounding (which obviously makes sense as Scru used to co-produce with Stimpy from them and I guess he produced this track himself) and there is flat-out grime MCing over the top! Like I said this isn't a juke inspired track, just thought it was a nice example of contemporary US street music feeding into UK stuff and making it work.
The Mc is double time but the beat is 80bpm (ish) hip hop, with the standard style boomer 808 kicks and a pitched synth that's very Mad Decent sounding. So, aside from the MC, musically there's very little UK influence in there, which I guess is the point I was making.
Over a decade ago Dizzee took similar influences (of the more electro/bass lineage of hip hop) and made a classic album, but he did it in his own way, which is what made it great. I love the Southern style Us hip hop, and can enjoy some of sprawling variants on the trap sound. But as for that being somewhere to move to in the future, it's already somewhat of a cliche to have 'trap drums' on everything, I fear it's becoming a musical dead end.
 

rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
ive not heard enough euro footwork tracks apart from slick pulla but cant say the idea/sound (based on what ive heard from rashad doing it) of chicago guys doing jungle makes me particularly excited. not that its bad, its not, its well done actually, im just left wondering 'why'.
 

Trillhouse

Well-known member
ive not heard enough euro footwork tracks apart from slick pulla but cant say the idea/sound (based on what ive heard from rashad doing it) of chicago guys doing jungle makes me particularly excited. not that its bad, its not, its well done actually, im just left wondering 'why'.

I think at this point the Chicago footwork sound is, what, over a decade old now. The interest from Europe and the UK has definitely bred some new life into a scene that someone or other has been saying is dying for a while now.

I guess in the same way that the likes of the Teklife people being open to others taking influence from their sound, they're happy for it go the other way as well.

A much more cynical take on it is that they've finally found a wider market for their music, so in a small way they are being led by that.
 

rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
yeah fair enough. i think rashad is also trying to show footwork is more than what people think and can be more, which i think is fine. i just dont know if i want to listen to it that much.

really looking forward to the new traxman album btw. his album was imo the best of all the ones planet mu have put out so far. let there be rock!
 

firefly

Well-known member
rashad & spinn live: http://new.livestream.com/TheTrailerTVuk/events/2347383

it was nice, but nothing special, mostly heard and rinsed teklife material (as usual). the only foreign bit i heard was kode9s. there was also this ghost-in-the-machine tune i can't get out my head... somewhere near 3:25, after rollin and there u go boi... not much jungle-style stuff, though. it seemed they were saving the best bits for fabric tomorrow. if anyone goes, please leave a report! :)
 
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rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
decided to make a list of what i think are the best producer-led footwork albums so far -

traxman
dj roc
dj diamond
rp boo
dj rashad/dj spinn - tek life vol 1 & 2
dj nate
young smoke
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Anyone go to Rashad thing at Fabric - would like an ID on two tunes, probably obvious to all of you guys. One had kind of Carl Craig strings but twisted right out of shape. The other one was a sort of elecrofunk thing that sounded a bit like Intergalactic (or whatever it's called) by the Beastie Boys but, er, twisted right out of shape.
 
very important... dj clent's been one of the essential guys in developing the sound

People sleeping on Clent man. Dude has dance mania classics under his belt and can still make fresh tracks that sound like... no body else.

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