Dj Nate - Da Trak Genious on CD

Description

Juke, with its dance-oriented subgenre footwork, is the latest ghetto bass culture to begin spreading the globe. A descendent of Chicago house, it’s fast becoming the latest sound to satisfy the UK bass underground’s constant hunger for new influences. UK labels Hum & Buzz, SWAMP‘81, and Night Slugs have both promoted and hybridised the sound and exciting things can be expected from them in the near future. While the output from their artists (like Addison Groove, Ikonika and Girl Unit) shows symptoms of footwork infection, Mike Paradinas’ seminal label Planet Mu has also signed a handful of Chicago born and bred Juke artists, and this is the first resulting LP. Essentially, juke is sped-up ghetto house – the edgy evolution of Chicago house – and footwork is made to provoke dancers. The restless, utterly infectious pulse of ghetto house is driven to insane extremes and complicated by syncopation. Nate himself sounds like an autonomic reclamation of decades of urban soundtracking: there are obvious hip hop influences, and RnB and old soul vocal samples are spliced and distorted in intricately disjointed 16-bar variations and recapitulations. Where these are occasionally violent the sampling has a surreal effect, and tracks like Footwurk Homicide are obvious geared towards dance competitions. Nate’s strength is also his unique ability to manipulate emotions, like the effusive desire in Let Me Show U Girl, and the ache in My Heart. Closing track Poetry pitches up barely discernible cries of loneliness and yearning into dramatic, anthemic alienation. As it the case with so many bass scenes, juke is riven by internal politics. Originators of the sound look down on Nate and his peers as sell-outs – Nate has recently been making hip hop, and so isn’t really a scene insider, plus the tracks on this LP are a couple of years old (it’s a compilation, an anthology-to-date, rather than an album ‘proper’). While such gripes are sort-of understandable, especially from an economic point of view, music like this is such a strange thrill to an outsider that it would be a shame if the rest of the juke and footwork scene didn’t embrace their newly extended audience. But whatever happens next is bound to be exciting. 2010 debut album from the Chicago native. On Da Trak Genious, DJ Nate uses samples from Pop and Hip Hop, pitched, layered and triggered into unusual edits and often edging into distortion. Simple phrases are repeated to hypnotizing effect, combined with sparse 808 drum patterns, busy fills, relentless triplets and off-kilter accents. Tracks like "Back Up Kid" and "You're Gonna Love Me" work with modern R&B samples, while others like "Footwurk Homicide" and "Fade Da Black Trak" echo the contemporary British grime sound. "Go Hard," "Let the Beat Build" and "Free" reach back to earlier soul music, crossing half-time drums with slow, looped soul licks, while "A+ Mayhem" cranks the pitch up to hysterical effect.

Tracks

1 Back Up Kid
2 U Ain't Workin Wit Nuthin
3 Footwurk Homicide
4 Turn Back Time
5 Hatas Our Motivation
6 Call Me When You're Sober
7 My Heart
8 You're Gonna Luv Me
9 It's Impossible
10 Below Zero
11 Fade Da Black Trak
12 Halloween Wurks
13 Ga Ga Lord R.I.P.
14 3 Peat
15 Let Me Show U Girl
16 May Be Sum Day
17 Go Hard
18 A+ Mayhem
19 Let Da Beat Build
20 Sexual Healing
21 He Ain't Bout It
22 Free
23 Lil' Mama Bad As Hell
24 Give Dat Man Room
25 Poetry