dubplate

Not bad. I like that weird underwater guitar strummy sound in the beginning of "Rude Bwoys" and "Classic Delux" is the kinda mix of frantic beats and subtle understated everything else (which does gradually build in a minimal way) that I like on a couple different levels. I'd save a few megs for some MP3s, definitely.
On another note, I wonder if the fine folks of Atmosphere realize there's someone else recording as "Slug" (under 'Demos') and that his/her/its music fuckin' bumps.

Ha I just posted on the garage comps thread that "Classic Delux" reminded me of a rough Jamaican take on Farben. "HDH" and "Rude Bwoys" are excellent also. As I've said elsewhere repeatedly, Horsepower Productions are sort of the ultimate act for me. It's "What's Next" music I guess in the sense that it exploits so many of the 'futureshock' tricks within dance music's arsenals - the way that the rhythms seem to dart and ricochet around your headspace, and the sonics are always chosen for their disorienting otherness (HP = not really scary but always alien). They're really the perfect act for me, because they use 2-step to capture a sense of cinematic unease which jungle (ostensibly better suited for the job) only ever alluded to in fleeting asides, but which when they occurred were always my absolute favourite tracks ever (FBD Project's "She's So", Dillinja's "The Angels Fell", Hidden Agenda's "Dispatch #2"). That HP can nail it on track after track, whilst drawing from such an exotic array of sounds and styles, is quite astonishing.

I still think their finest moment is "Fists Of Fury" though.

"only ever alluded to in fleeting asides"???

Come on man: Photek, Ed Rush in his lighter moments, Terminator 1-3, Source Direct, Peshay's dark stuff, more Dillinja, Digital... there is too much "cinematic unease" jungle, if anything...

I like the Horsepower stuff (tho, like most others I think, I've only heard it in snippets--wary of rushing to judgement), but not quite convinced they're the second coming yet...

"Come on man: Photek, Ed Rush in his lighter moments, Terminator 1-3, Source Direct, Peshay's dark stuff, more Dillinja, Digital... there is too much "cinematic unease" jungle, if anything..."

Oh there was heaps of noir, but very little of it caught the tension between beauty (which is what I should have used instead of "cinematic") and alienness. And what's more I think very little of the noir stuff seemed to focus its alienness within the *groove itself* - at least it didn't get much of a chance before it all went straight 2-step beats.

To give a better understanding of what I mean, I love Source Direct to death but they're not quite what I'm talking about with Horsepower Productions because they're too relentlessly dark and evil sounding. It's something that HP, being a garage group, are probably better placed to do anyway.

You can listen to all the HP tracks on Tempa at Hyperdub.

True, and that noir stuff got really excessive and formulaic, but I would still give all those people credit for catching that balance on some if not all of their work, including the grooves. Tracks like Hidden Camera, Terminator 2, Nocturnal, Skylab, Warrior Jazz, In My Life have some pretty fractured beats.

Isn't the stuff on Hyperdub just excerpts too?

No they're the full tracks in Windows Media format.

Oh and of course I'm prepared to admit that there were other jungle tracks like the ones I mentioned, but considering how many jungle tracks have been made ever, it's still a couple of angels on the head of a needle in the middle of an enormous haystack.

I gave it a listen, it is pretty gosh darn unimpressive. Maybe I am not on the right drugs anymore, but it just sounds like drum and bass with a little computer synthesis thrown over the top and pleanty of cubase groove quantizing thrown in for good effect. If the future were completely predictable and hinged on cliches, this would be the future of music. Does anybody else remember when dance music was supposed to be VISCERAL?

thumbs down.

mt you are the grinch who stole good music

Just went through and listened to a bunch of the tracks again... I think mt is overstating it a bit, but has a point in that some of it is a bit anemic, a bit too mood music. A track like Gorgon Sound gets that hypnotic Basic Channel vibe, the kind of "glow" that old 70s dub has, which I love, but Fists of Fury sounds a bit new agey, almost--you've got your chilled beats, your eerie flute sound... their sound is surprisingly "tasteful"--the edges of the beats are all muted, the bass pulses away but doesn't really disrupt...

Actually, is this stuff even 2-step? It sounds more like dubby house to me... almost reminds me of that old Gorilla Records stuff (tho that was pretty awful, and Horsepower are better) The thing I loved about 2-step when I first got into it was the super-funky breakbeats and the tweaked vocals, and neither of those elements are really here. It's more late-night weed music, which has always been something I enjoy but ultimately find doesn't resonate so well beyond that context...

I'm still looking forward to the album and I'll be trying to download/burn it ASAP, but sorry Tim, without wanting to argue about the number of angels on the head of a pin, this stuff just doesn't live up to the best d'n'b in the dub disorientation stakes for me. But don't mind me, I'm a jaded old motherfucker who spends most of his time listening to jazz lately ;)

Tim Finney,

I am the grinch who has records from a label called Compass. Basically, Tempa sounds exactly like Horseshow on Compass but with a broken kick instead of a 4/4 kick. As for it being the future of music, did I mention that Compass was the shit in 1996.

The stuff isn't horrible, just not really inventive or very interesting. I hear it and I think about how tired and obvious the idea is. I think Ben Williams is massively OTM when he says it just sounds like dubby house. All it is dubby house from 5 years ago without the 909 kit. It is well executed, but I have lots of well executed records, you better come with something I can feel if you want my praise. Nice production, but I need soul in my music these days, and these tracks are seriously lacking in that dept.

Re: "tasteful"

I agree that there's an unobtrusive quality to their tracks but at the same time I feel that they do indeed disrupt in an inverted sort of way. The small sounds (although not quite Farben yet) arranged in the off-kilter 2-step rungs makes me feel like I have some syncopated stir inside of me. It's not like a beat telling me to move but like I swallowed a little dancing microbot and it has suddenly been activated. In a late night weeded environment my body would probably collapse trying to process all of the little richochets.

A 4/4 909 wouldn't nearly create the same effect, and Dillinja/Photek/Bukem/etc., while complex and full of tension, were not quite as delicate. I can't say I know much about dubby house from 96 though so I'll leave that alone.

Mt, my grinch comment was a joke - but the kernel of truth is that I would be honestly surprised if you ever supported any plug I gave a dance artist/group/track etc., because our tastes in that regard are so fundamentally antithetical. I'm certain that whatever I find exciting you will find mediocre and vice-versa. This is a no-fault thing obv. eg. dismissing 2-step as merely quantized house or demanding some "soul" to your dance music are approaches that do violence to my sensibilities, but that's as much due to my own idiosyncracies.

(to summarise: if you like tim finney music you will like HP, if you like mt music you won't)

We both agree that Let's All Make Mistakes and Immer are good mix CD's.

Hmm this is an aberration clearly ;-)

Out of interest, what do you see in, say, the dubby shuffle-tech of some of the stuff on Immer (like the Thomas Felhmann track) that you don't see in HP? Not that I'm expecting to change your mind on this, but it would be interesting to see where the joints are...

give me another couple days, I am working on a semi-blog piece on why Immer is good and Tempa isn't. It isnt that I don't enough answers, I have too many, and it will be another rambling mt post unless I get it organized.

I take it all back! The Horsepower record is great!

i am unable to shake off the spectre of (relatively) seasoned musicians/but especially listeners firm in the knowledge they're making *good* music

drains the pop allure

I don't get that from it at all. But then, I'm not a pop fundamentalist.

What turns me off somewhat is the "I smoke weed, listen to heavy dub and watch kung fu movies, me" vibe. I'd be happier if they did more with vocals and less with blaxploitation samples.

But a the beats/basslines are strong, and they have a nice blend of dub, techno and 2-step. The tunes really work a lot better at full length, too. It's not revolutionary, and I probably would have liked it a lot more 5 years ago, but still, it's pretty damn good for what it is.

just sounds like basic channel / chain reaction at 45

phffffhtt!
Even not knowing a great deal about 2step/Horsepower nor bc/cr, I can say with all confidence that Horsepower or ANYTHING with even vaguely 2stepish beats is not just bc/r at 45. Don't you even listen to rhythms? Y'know, like, beats?!

btw hey mt, where's your blog?

sorry for the oversimplification. let me restate

sounds like basic channel / chain reaction on 45 with a 2step beat

that's better

"Even not knowing a great deal about 2step/Horsepower nor bc/cr, I can say with all confidence that Horsepower or ANYTHING with even vaguely 2stepish beats is not just bc/r at 45. Don't you even listen to rhythms? Y'know, like, beats?!"

This is exactly my problem with that argument - it totally ignores the THOROUGHLY SEPARATE history of dub/rhythm manipulation that has run through hardcore/jungle/garage. As time has gone on - and HP have released more things apart from "Gorgon Sound" - I have increasingly begun to think that the Basic Channel resemblance is fairly coincidental, if striking. The interplay between bass and rhythms (here as with all jungle and garage) is URGENT AND KEY, and to gloss over it is to miss the point fairly dramatically.