- In 2018 a dance sound that has steadfastly refused to come up from the underground, appears to be finally making strides toward more general acceptance. Footwork’s utterly uncompromising commitment to danceability over listenability has traditionally assured its lack of traction with a wider audience. I had wondered whether the world’s tinniest drum machines, those rough as guts samples and the repetition ad nauseum could -as with drum’n’bass or dubstep- ever actually be appropriated by the wider world of producers.
Since dubstep erupted from the underground and into a quick burning trash-fire, the beat-heads of the world haven’t really had a craze to cash in on, so, like a starving person stumbling on a rotting carcass, they’ve been taking some cautious bites of this footwork thing … and regurgitating them for us. JLIN’s dark epics have almost certainly done the most significant work here: a record like Black Origami has been spun by tastemakers everywhere. Part of bringing footwork into the fold though, is a process of gentrification. The rock-bottom production values and stylistic simplicity of footwork are begging to be spruced up, but they’re also an indelible part of the style - there’s a danger of losing the essence of the sound. To me, Black Origami is guilty of that. Its luscious complexity just doesn’t sound that much like what I know as footwork.
I’m not being precious about it though, I actually love Black Origami and I’m all about genre fusion. Speaking of which there’ve been another couple of goes at turning footwork into a Frankenstein’s monster this year. Just a month or two ago The Aphex Twin updated his sound by about twenty years, splicing his signature idm and techno with a relentless footwork friskiness; it’s probably the most vital thing he’s created since coming out of the wilderness. Another example we have right here: The Higher is an anonymous beatmaker (which I’m sure is just a completely coincidental similarity to Richard D. James) who proves in just four tracks that footwork and old-school jungle have just been destined to be together all this time.
The concept is pretty much that simple, even if the sound is sycnopated in the extreme. Repetitive, tinny and sparse footwork rhythms get bonded to utterly uncompromising jungle, with lurid synths and samples of sweet house divas pasted over the top like a very loud coat of paint for this chopper. There’s even a lick of dub, if you’re in danger of getting bored in the course of just four bangers. I’m a bigger fan of jungle than I am of footwork and this is pretty great jungle, with none of the long process of dumbing down that drum’n’bass slowly inflicted on the sound. Ironically, despite not being lofi in the slightest, the crazy syncopations of the style actually let the footwork contributions stand out and still sound like footwork in a way that most similar fusions I’ve heard have struggled with.
It would be funny but, kind of make sense, if this actually did turn out to be yet another Aphex Twin side-project, even though it sounds more like Goldie. Whoever’s responsible, this is an unexpected, brilliant and beautiful Christmas present, even though where I live, it will be far too hot to dance to it.
- Chris Cobcroft.