Steve Angello’s ‘KNAS’ made easy

Steve Angello’s ‘KNAS’ made easy

26 August, 2010 | 1.27AM

• Written by: Beatportal
• Filed under: Videos: #1, klf, knas, steve angelo, tech tips, the manual, timofey, tutorials

When the KLF’s Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond wrote The Manual: How to Have a Number One the Easy Way, surely even they didn’t think it could be this easy, but the evidence speaks for itself: just watch the video above for a step-by-step guide to how the hook from Steve Angello’s ‘KNAS’ was written.

Of course, there’s a lot more to having a number one hit than just writing the thing. As Beatport COO Matthew Adell explained in Becoming ‘One’: Anatomy of a #1 hit, you need distribution, fans, and a copious amount of hype.

But the ‘KNAS’ reconstruction is pretty fascinating regardless, if only for the revelation that Angello apparently uses Vengeance sample packs. (Unless, of course, the whole stunt is some kind of marketing campaign dreamed up by Vengeance itself.)

The studio subversive behind the ‘KNAS’ reverse-engineering job is a Russian-born, Belgium-based producer named Timofey; you might remember him from his recreation of Deadmau5’s ‘Ghosts and Stuff’, which we profiled last year.

Timofey offers a number of downloadable Ableton tutorials on his website, including reconstructions of Bodyrox’ ‘Yeah Yeah’, Dada Life’s ‘Let’s Get Bleeped Tonight’, Calvin Harris’ ‘I’m Not Alone’, and Laidback Luke’s ‘Shake It Down’.

Sadly, that list doesn’t include the Timelords’ ‘Doctorin’ the Tardis’, the number-one hit that served as the case study for Cauty and Drummonds’ ‘The Manual’. Timofey, do you take requests?

Thanks to Bartosz for the tip!

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