The Eclectic Selector

The Eclectic Selector

14 August, 2009 | 5.55AM

• Written by: Elite Force
• Filed under: Music News: eclectic selector, elite force, lot49, tech-funk, u&a;recordings

The idea of starting a new monthly column on Beatportal that focuses on a wide selection of genre defying music, is one that Terry Church and myself had been knocking around for a while.

Like most people who run their own label, produce, blog, record and DJ, there’s precious little time at the end of the month for anything other than a sharp intake of breath, but I’ve always loved to write, and as the saying goes, ‘if you want something doing, ask a busy person.’

The main focus of the ‘Eclectic Selector’ pieces will not be to dwell on absolutes and the kind of purism that will always be the domain of others more ‘dedicated’ to their specialty than me, but to celebrate the open-mindedness of producers that live on the margins, and artists who walk the line.

Much of what I’ll be focusing on will still be bound together by a common BPM as represented by the tech-funk ethos (a loose amalgamation of house, breaks, electro and techno), but I’ll also concentrate on hybrid music that attempts to create dancefloors without boundaries. 

As a young DJ, the Heavenly Socials were inspirational, heady nights. The Chemical Brothers were residents, but the likes of Justin Robertson, Norman Cook, Jon Carter, Andrew Weatherall and no end of imported guests all provided a gripping, challenging, diverse and sometimes amusing soundtrack to each and every evening.

Just listening back now to tracks like the The Sabres Of Paradise ‘Tow Truck’ (Chemical Brothers Mix) you can hear acid house being forced through a new breakbeat blueprint back in ‘95, whilst pre-dating that by a couple of years Leftfield, Underworld, Daft Punk and Orbital were busy combining a beats-based backdrop to their ethnically charged prog-melodicism and street-savvy filter-funk respectively. 

If there were no rules, it’s because the rules hadn’t yet been written. Sure there were the Salsoul anoraks and the earnest counter geeks who would look down their noses at you if you refused to buy the latest one-sided white of plodding US garage, but they will always exist in one form or another, and there’s no richer breeding ground for bitching than the internet itself.

It was precisely that rich melting pot, and the creative freedoms that come with it that always excited me, and continues to do so.

Right now, things have seldom been healthier for musical cross-pollination. You have the likes of Jack Beats topping the dubstep charts with what is basically a house track in ‘UFO’ and Foamo and Lee Mortimer riding high in the electro charts with ‘It’s Going Down’ which could just as easily fall on the dubstep side of the fence as well as the house side, a precedent partly set by Foamo’s ‘Rockerman’ back in 2008.

On the more esoteric and minimal side of things, Shackleton & Ricardo Villalobos’ remix swap up back in 2007 ‘Blood On My Hands’ on Skull Disco just served to show what close bedfellows the likes of minimal techno and dubstep could be at different ends of the scale, and for my own part, I’ve recently put together a number of re-edits of dubstep tracks that take them right off into breakbeat territory (these will be coming on my U&A imprint later in the year, but for the time being my Soundcloud Page is the best reference for them).

If breaks has rather let itself down in many people’s eyes over the past few years, it is worth considering that much of our genre-definition comes down to semantics.

The fact is that many tracks in the electro house and indie dance categories could just as easily be appropriated as ‘breaks’ if you draw the broader definition of the term as I tend to do (taking it back to its origins as the ‘style-once-known-as-eclectic’).

In a lot of ways for a scene that so readily absorbs the influences around it, it’s slightly ironic that it hasn’t ‘appropriated’ some of the many releases over the years that could easily fall within its broad remit (think Prodigy, Soulwax, Alex Metric, Boys Noize, Fake Blood, Freeland, Streetlife DJs, Proxy, the list goes on ....).

A quick glance now at some recent tunes doing the business for me: one of the most incendiary breaks-but-not-breaks tracks of the past few weeks has without a doubt been Haggstrom & Caswell ‘Room Is Spinning’ (Flat Out) which thumps with a ragged techno warehouse vibe, but retains an inherently breakbeat underbelly.

On a similar tip (and from the same production team) comes the excellent Haggstrom ‘Be My Baby’ (Peo De Pitte Mix), perfect for those Herve style cut and paste throwdowns, and Peo once again comes correct (if you can get with the vocal parts!) on Drumattic Twins ‘Crazy Love’ (Peo De Pitte Mix).

On U&A this whole ethos is one we feel passionately about and it has been a genuine thrill to see newcomers The Loops of Fury do quite as well as they have done with their debut single ‘Flick A Switch’ and especially gratifying has been the massive success of the DJ Dan & Mike Balance Remix which sits at No.3 in the Beatport electro house chart at the time of writing.

Along with Rektchordz and Mike Hulme they symbolize the new wave of producers who are coming through right now, influenced by the old guard but resolutely taking their own paths and finding their own blends.

Likewise, my good friends and allies at LOT49 have been busy of late with another great package, this time from Dylan Rhymes and the excellent tech-funk stomper ‘Kemptown’, the pick of which for me would have to be the Dub Mix, being the vocal-phobe I am.

Also from the same camp, comes up and comer Kid Blue who is finally finding the time he has been craving to get on with some serious studio output, and from his recent EP, look no further than the excellent Kid Blue ‘Speak Freak’ for evidence of a huge talent about to break through.

Speaking of unique blends, I want to leave you with my tune of the moment, Freeland ‘Mancry’ (Gui Boratto Remix).

Every couple of months a track comes along that just seems to unite a whole bunch of seemingly disparate styles, and this is that tune. Glorious stuff.

More coming from me next month, and if you want to submit music for inclusion in this column, send it to me via my Soundcloud Dropbox.

About Elite Force

Elite Force is often credited for being a lynchpin in the developing the tech-funk genre (an amalgamation of breaks, house, techno and electro) and in a career dating back to 1996, he has released a series of highly successful singles & remixes, finding broad support from DJs and musicians across the board, including the likes of James Zabiela, Sasha, Crystal Method, Laurent Garnier and Fatboy Slim to name but five.

In 2006 he set up his own imprint, U&A Recordings and has overseen it going from strength with chart-topping tracks from a burgeoning roster that includes Zodiac Cartel, Dustbowl, Mike Hulme, Meat Katie, The Loops of Fury, Rektchordz, Butter Party. and of course Elite Force himself.

His music has also been the soundtrack to many a movie, with a huge list of impressive A-list credits to his name, including the likes of the Matrix, Charlie’s Angels, Arlington Road, Mortal Kombat,
Crow, The Bone Collector, The Jackyll, Spiderman 2. He’s also soundtracked a number of computer games, including no fewer than 5 FIFA games, several of the Wipeout series, The Matrix and Motorstorm, and also finds time to maintain one of the biggest blogs (Tech-Funk Manifesto) and forums (Tech-Funk Forum) out there.

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