Etches828 wrote:assuming that 130 is a tempo not a sound, which is the point, think it's pretty good when stuff is just described by tempo opposed to some made up name
Gotta admit, aside from Sphynx, I'm not that fussed about that EP. It's a nice homage to some influential scenes, but I just feel like I have better hardcore, garage and jungle tunes than that already, can't really see where it's gonna add to my collection. Plus, I'm poor at the mo, so probs gonna give that one a miss.
Too much homaging with the tunes for sure. People overdo it with the old rave samples. You can't have "SPREAD OUT AN SCATTAH" and the jungle/garage beep sound and the jungle warfare rewind noise in every tune. Especially when a lot of the tunes are good enough to stand up without relying on references to older tunes in that way.
RKM wrote:
when bae hands u the aux mixtape and your squad blunted 9/11 aye lmao
Interesting, I've long since figured the Etch EP might divide people.
The way I see it, when I listen to other DJs these days they either throw in old school records in the middle of their sets (which I find disjointed) or they're playing those cleaner, housier sounds. With this Etch stuff, it brought those darker jungle & hardcore flavours back into our 130 sets, without having to shoehorn in old records (pitched way down). And those flavours are a welcome and natural addition alongside the blends of darker/rolling/percussive, grimey and synthy/colourful beats that we're enjoying right now.
Plus the Etch tracks not only mix really well together, they bash up venues haha.
Don't get me wrong, I see its purpose, and I can see my man is putting the stuff that influenced him in a newer context, I'm just not that bothered because I have stuff from the genres he's working at that I think is better already. I've got enough jungle and dark, rolling garage than my shelves can handle I can imagine hearing them out will be big, though.
Might be a more effective release for those that don't know as much about the 'nuum.
Not sure how relevant this 'homaging' argument is - no one seems to complain about Wen using old freestyle samples, or Rabit using cold square waves etc. etc. etc.
A lot of what makes this music so good is the dialogue it's having with music that, as garethom's record collection is testament to, people love and connect with.
And, as blackdown says, these tunes are all proper bangers: have been playing them all for months and they are pretty much guaranteed to get that 'wow, what the fuck is this?' reaction that every DJ loves.
Yeah gonna have to back up Etch and say I think this EP is massive. I think it's the way these producers take certain sounds out of their original contexts and put them into new ones(mostly a 130 grime template) which makes this sound so interesting to me - Wen (as s.a.m said) taking grime vocals and putting them into the context of dubstep-influenced 130, Etch using jungle breaks to mutate 130 grime/garage tunes, Mumdance using classic drum machine sounds to make grime rhythms etc. - it's all neatly summed up by Walton's 'Homage' tune really.
Obviously that all means you're going to get plenty of people saying this stuff isn't really new, just old stuff chopped together, but to me new things only ever evolve out of messing about and mutating what's gone before, and it sounds fresher to me than the majority of the Tech-House revivalism that seems to be the only alternative these days.
Obviously though, if you don't enjoy what's coming out of your speakers then none of that means anything really., it's just how I rationalise why I think I like this stuff.