chicago juke: dj nate, dj rashad [R.I.P. 2014], leatherface aka kaptain cadillac, dj roc &c &c

the chrissy record is cool and sort of lodged itself in my head more than i expected it to but its a bit too lightweight and well, silly, though maybe thats just cos it was going for such an early 90sish vibe, idk. bit all over the place.

it is very silly.

it's weird, these machinedrum tracks sound as sterile as i remember his '04 glitch-hop stuff sounding, but the sepalcure records are really lush. must be due to the other guy.

will investigate dj diamond & chrissy murderbot albumes

chrissy murderbot album is good though if you're going to get anything with that vibe you may as well go for toddla t.

was gonna listen to the machinedrum but i think i lost my promo :/

all juke is pretty "idm" 2 me

really like the last song, maybe the least footwork-ey though?

some parts of the murderbot album are good silly and some parts are bad silly

reverend otm

the bad silly parts remind me of (bad/old) diplo

sterile is a good way to describe machinedrum

that Machinedrum record isn't rly 'IDMified' in any meaningful way imo, other than what's obviously gonna be projected onto it considering what he spent most of the last decade making

I think it's good, sometimes, v good, on a basic level but it does essentially feel (to me) that he wrote a laundry list of dance genres he was feeling and then had a go at making them

need to listen to DJ Diamond more but I'm fairly sure I prefer it to Machinedrum, all that said

diamonds album is>>>

however i now think the murderbot album is one of those albums thats trying so hard to be FUN that it actually isnt as much fun as it wants to be

Enjoying the DJ Diamond album, sounds fairly straight down the line Juke, but very well done. Anyone else?

feel like there's some cool detroit techno sounding synths on "flight muzik" that lift it above the rest imo

machinedrum sort of a simultaneous update on both squarepusher and burial

sorry for the redundant "both"

love this set, esp the first three tracks and the steve reich sandwich: http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/41502

Who, outside of the Chicago DJs, is making footwork music ATM? I can only really think of Africa Hitech and Sully. Must be others? I'm not too up with this kind of stuff, but it interests me.

some uk producers have done stuff influenced by it but im struggling with examples

I just realised this Sully album I've been caning for the last couple of weeks was actually produced by an old mate I used to hang with a few years ago. Quite rare for the North Herts area...

machinedrum, this guy munchi, nguzunguzu, addison groove, etc

addison groove!!

I like the Sully album but I take it that's not what you're referring to wrt his footwork productions

right...?

hm? There is quite a bit of footwork in the second half of the album. i can't believe it's the same guy i used to know - he used to play guitar in a true black metal band and now he's making this stuff...!

i don't think dudes who are not from chicago can credibly be said to produce footwork tracks

yeh dude and no one outside of bronx can credibly make hip hop.

excellent analogy

fake juke (or "footwork-inspired") tracks can be good too.

oh absolutely, machinedrum's "room(s)" is like a daily listen for me right now and if i had to make a top 10 tracks of the last two years there would for sure be at least one if not two or three addison groove tracks (mind you, he has a total of eight tracks released)

but i think that to say that addison groove is "making chicago juke" or "making footwork tracks" is not true to either chicago juke or addison groove

i don't think it's that untrue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e31Cdk1ijk

add chrissy murderbot to the encyclopedia of ersatz footwork

See, I understand the OG footwork stuff is pretty righteous and whatnot, but even aficionados will admit that much of the tacky/brutal aspects can get a bit wearisome after a while. I kind of like the more polished takes that are starting to creep into the work of external producers.

yeh dude and no one outside of bronx can credibly make hip hop.

― historyyy (prettylikealaindelon), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 14:54 (50 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

excellent analogy

― mr peabody (moonship journey to baja), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:09 (34 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

think the point is more that if this production style starts to get proper global recognition outside of nerd circles (and I'm not saying it will), then if the consensus wants it to get called footwork then that's what it'll get called

would've thought that was obvious. Saying it ain't footwork if it doesn't come from Chicago is like saying it ain't dubstep unless it's from South London or something.

it seems like there are only a few options when outsiders get inspired by a regional scene like this:

1) they cop the style really hard and make music that passes as authentic/integrate themselves into the scene

2) they take some of the ideas and do a watered-down, shittier interpretation

3) they take some of the ideas and make something that is different but actually good in its own right

has anyone not from chicago done #1

there are ppl from chicago doing # 2 certainly

would've thought that was obvious. Saying it ain't footwork if it doesn't come from Chicago is like saying it ain't dubstep unless it's from South London or something.

no, it's not

has anyone not from chicago done #1

not that i know of, but it's certainly happened with other scenes (thinking of new orleans, certain jazz & latin music, etc)

yes and that may happen in the future too

with chicago juke / footwork too

it's a bit like arguing that diplo is making "baile funk". i mean, i guess you can argue that if you want, but there's not really any point in learning anything about favelas or brazil because that's not going to tell you anything about diplo, whereas it will tell you quite a bit about actual funk carioca

same with calling addison groove or machinedrum footwork

footcrab was totally overrated looking back on it now

dumb shit is a bit better

he did a good thing in bringing it to ppl's attention though

"Dumbshit" is alright, but "Footcrab" (and "Fuk Tha 101") are way more fun. Rly tho the best fake juke track by some distance is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYFYAa8iOBg

Hmmm.... I guess this hinges on whether you consider footwork to be exclusive to Chicago or not. I'd find it hard to parse if a UK producer were said to be making "Chicago Juke", absolutely, but without the geographical signifier footwork has a very specific sound and I don't see why someone from out of Chicago couldn't be said to make it. This is starting to get like a conversation about champagne and sparkling wine.

xpost - I agree 'work them' is a fantastic track.

re: champagne and sparkling wine - similar but perhaps there is nothing as tangible as a grape to work with in this discussion.

I think there's enough of a sonic difference between Chicago Juke dudes and non Chicago Juke dudes to make a distinction that's not strictly geographical. Like, even something like footcrab would stand out from a list of DJ Rashad tracks, or whatever.

i think that to say that addison groove is "making chicago juke" or "making footwork tracks" is not true to either chicago juke or addison groove

― mr peabody (moonship journey to baja), Wednesday, August 31, 2011 10:15 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

OTM. Plus, Addison Groove = <3

I have to step in here with the Champagne / sparkling wine comparison (I do wine for a living)... Champagne is Champagne because of the particularities of soil, climate, luminosity, weather patterns, ambient yeasts, etc, etc; i.e., it's of a specific place, and by definition cannot be made (or replicated) anywhere else on earth. This is the crux of meaningful wine, its "somewhereness"; no amount of technical copying or procedural mimicry can give it a sense of place other than that of where it's grown, unless it's heavily manipulated in the cellar, in which case it doesn't have a sense of place at all but just a sense of heavy-handed authorship/sculpting...

This is obviously different from music and musicians' places of origin in ways I don't think I need to elaborate, but the way I understand it, footwork is (at this point) very much rooted (pun intended) in Chicago, so I don't see why it's wrong to be suspicious of the notion that it can be made elsewhere in lumped right on in with what's happening there. I think we would all agree that music nearly always has a sense of place (and time); it's hard to articulate, but we as sensitive listeners recognize it.

Also, I hate to be Mr. Hi-Fi Bore yet again, but how many ITT who aren't much impressed with, say, the Machinedrum record or the DJ Diamond record have only heard soundclips from the Planet Mu website, or YouTube videos, or other similarly fidelity-compromised outlets? I mean shit, this music gets so much of its energy and propulsion and vitality from BASS (I feel like Captain Obvious pointing that out)! It just sounds like skittery pitter-patter without that, and definitely not exciting... There are certain styles of music that I feel just cannot be properly evaluated on small systems.

yeah, juke is compared to grime a lot but juke sounds better on a big system, or makes better use of it at least - the bass is quite big and deep which might surprise some people and a lot of the tracks dont sound complete unless you hear the bass really. a lot of juke is actually based around the bass.

and it has a lot of naked sub bass, not doubled with mid-range synths or anything