DLaurent

Well-known member
There's a couple of tracks I like the opening bars to more than the tracks themselves. MK - GIven (MK Dub) and Chez Damier - I Never Knew Love (Made in Detroit Mix).

This track is as ravey and bumpy as it is deep though.

 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
MK’s dubs formed a foundation that left an indelible imprint on House. He can be off occasionally and has pumped out the odd turnip (who hasn’t), so the flip is a discography that contains loads of gems

Up there with Blaze, Eddie Perez/Smack, Kerri Chaos-623 and Jovonn for whipcracking production guile and musical intuition. MK has it all. Been a blast during lockdown too

 

DLaurent

Well-known member
What does MK play now? I clicked on a MK at Creamfields set the other day and noticed a lot of fine people singing along to every track.
 

Leo

Well-known member
@WashYourHands do you know enough about Blaze to do a mini-primer? I've always felt I sure know and like them but haven't taken the time to explore.
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
Good question, maybe @pattycakes_ could weigh in

Blaze have had an ability to make drum programming seem almost effortless bordering on inconsequential, except they punch tight and it's key to 1 of their most consistent strengths (Klubhead, Black Rascals). Masterful at compression. Incredibly rare sense of spatial awareness and layering, little triplets on shuffles, pure ear boners. Richly harmonic productions, early releases are organ-heavy riffs with a distinctive Jersey sound (see Humphries, Jovonn). Keyboard playing of impeccable subtlety - hammond, Moog solos, xylophones - a fountain-head of fun. Their sound opens up even more on a half-decent system and when other producers attempt to remix them, it usually seems futile compared to the originals

2 distinct flavours - full gospel vocal hallelu-jahs and more stripped back, thumping garage-house. A completely intersectional world all of their own. For a garidge/gar-rarge crowd what might sound minimal or overblown at home blossoms at volume

Some late 80's gear can sound a bit dated over-reaching at pop tones, yet not long after they clicked. How can this be covered? These.
Get into it

If You Should Need a Friend (Quark)


Black Rascals - Keeping My Mind....the reaction this side of the pond was a giant gasp. STILL the satori yard-stick for this genre


BR's The Piano, och just filthy and sacred in essence, the dub is class too (double copies)


Live the Happy Life (Klubhead vocal), it dares you not to dance


So In Love, nuanced and that fuckin shuffle is like a drug


Hubert St, for the piano. Even the Italians would raise a toast to this keyboard work


Season of Love = MONSTER


My Beat = if you ever got to hear this in an intimate setting, pure natural high. Another yard-stick for sheer exuberance of musicianship underpinned by restraint


Gloria's Muse (Karizma's Drum-n-Base mix), a grounding plateau of polyrhythms. Steady and ready to gorge on


The few times remixes haven't ruined their percussion work, 20:20 and Swag (Leeds and Sheffield)

 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
@WashYourHands @Leo


This one on the right system whisks up the hype with the quickness. Heard it dropped at Panorama Bar once and you could barely make out the mid range synth note thing which the whole thing revolves around smh. Suppedly great sound in there though? But pow, simple & effective. And then there's that vocal. As WYH says, the drum programming, the swing. These guys are proper musicians. Deceptively simple in appearance. The details tho.


Power of suggestion here, but man can this one send you on a journey if you let your guard down and get on the floating cloud it presents you. You're reclining in a planetarium, the history of the cosmos projected above in total clarity. Words unnecessary. Yeah yeah luka and third we've heard it all before, music is not for relaxing or even feeling good. Agree to disagree. This one's a keeper.

My Beat (Original) is the one 4 me though
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty

Heart and mind honey but with a dirtied up low end for the rough with the smoov.

More of the above. A stripped down mix that can't help but at least get the toes tapping. Vocal performance de la creme


Exiting the stratos, back to the astral travelogue. Soaring through constellations. Weightless, painless, free.
 
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