Hip Hop and electro go way back. The original genre of electro funk spawned from the pumping beats of all things ghettho – be it hip hop, detroit techno, ghettotech or breakbeat. The sythesis of the looped backing beats of early hip hop and the catchy melodies of Kraftwerk’s synth work saw the genesis of electro.
Now, however, ‘electro’ is used as a somewhat vaguer label and regarded as synonymous with a handful of electronic sub genres – whether it’s disco, crunchy distortion, a more energetic form of house, crunk, electropop, certain progressions of bassline, or the newer glitchy and fidgety styles. Alot of the ‘electro’ found on the blogs is really a newer form of electroclash – a synthesized pop form of electronica. Ahh… but all this relentless pigeonholing is both futile and irrelevant: now electro, hip hop, breakbeat, disco and garage are consistently rolled into one: meshed and mashed as new artists strive for innovation.
A-trak is one such artist. He is hip hop and electro rolled into one. Oh Snap!, Flostradamus, Joker Of The Scene, Mighty Fools and The Cool Kids are but a few also steering this electro-rap crossover. A-Trak however, is the sensei. He’s spent most of his career surrounded by the hip hop world, turning to the decks at a mere age of 13, scratching away at his father’s battered old turnatables, and spurred on by his older brother’s similar passion for big beats. (His brother is, after all, one part of electro-disco dons Chromeo). A-Trak even cites DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince’s first album as his introduction to turntabalism.
A-trak’s DJing soon became a thing of legend after winning the DMC World Championship at just 15 years old. His scratch DJ credentials rose as his skills wowed many, including a young Kanye West who spotted A-trak in a London record score. On the spot A-Trak was hired as Kanye’s offficial DJ, spinning at the likes of giant stadium gigs, and yet he still maintains a firm place in the underground electro scene.
A-trak is the master of mashing hip hop accapellas with big electro, techno and house beats. And over the past year he’s taken on dirty, distorted synth styles as well as the hip hop influenced bounce his tracks previosuly displayed. After all, his recent tour with Boys Noize has no doubt left its mark. However, his hip hop credentials are stll firmly rooted and his record label ‘Fools Gold‘ still displays that urban style and many of their tunes act as throwbacks to the 80s and 90s (with the likes of Kid Sister, Treasure Fingers, Jokers Of The Scene, Kid Cudi and Kavinsky ripping up all things retro).
‘Say Whoa’ is the first track on his Nike Running Man project (an ad campaign). It’s to be released separately as a single on Kitsune. It’s a huge, big room banger: a twanging of a high pitched guitar coupled with blasts of pumping bass, buzzing distortion and a deep voice bellowing ‘They hear the bass and they say WHOA’. Boom:
A-Trak – Say Whoa [pelski highly recommends]
Im particularly enjoying this fun-loving track that’s filled with old school beats, an intermittent bassline, a couple of vocal samples and alot of scratching. An old school, dusty vintage sound, yet strangely fresh:
A-Trak – Knucklehead [pelski highly recommends]
A-trak released two versions of ‘Mastered’: one featuring Kid Cudi on vocals and another featuring Lupe Fiasco. Surprisingly enough I prefer Lupe Fiasco’s. The ominous, eiry backing is infectious, while the lyrics fit perfectly:
A-Trak feat. Lupe Fiasco – Mastered
The jaunty baile funk of Bondo De Role is given a complete makeover, with some rocky guitar riffs, scratchy cuts and a forceful drum beat:
Bonde Do Role – Melo Do Tabaco (A-Trak Remix)
Herve and A-trak have just finished this little collaboration, featuring the Canadian rapper Cadence Weapon. It’s got Herve’s trademark buzzing fidget bassline, A-Trak provides a pulsing beat and mixes in a rap acapella. This tune can be found on this month’s Mixmag CD and on the American Machines Don’t Care album:
Herve & A-Trak feat. Cadence Weapon – Roll With The Winners
Another recent production from A-Trak is this collab with Laidback Luke: a rolling, rumbling four-to-the-floor house beat that, to me, feels uninspired. But many are loving this slight change in tune from A-Trak:
A-Trak & Liadback Luke – Shake It Down
And here are a few of A-trak’s big electro remixes that blew up late last year and early this year
– lending his skillfull hand to huge tunes from 2007′s big players – Simian Mobile Disco, Boys Noise, Sinden and Digitalism. Incidentally, it was A-Trak’s remix on Boys Noize’s remix album that prompted their joint tour (and due to their deep connection through their almighty monobrows…) . His remix of’ Beeper’ added some gnarly grinding of dirty distortion to the much remixed tune. Also worth a look-in is the mash up of Young Dro and Queens Of The Stone Age:
Sinden and The Count Of Monte Cristal – Beeper (A-Trak Remix)
Young Dro vs Queens Of The Stone Age – Shoulder Lean/ Little Sister (A-Trak remix)
Digitalism – Idealistic (A-Trak Remix)
Simian Mobile Disco – Hustler (A-Trak Remix)
Boys Noize – Oh! (A-Trak Remix)
Kanye West – Stronger (A-Trak Remix)
Those attending Bestival (…and I’ll see you there…):
it’s worth checking out A-Trak who’ll be ripping up
the festival on day one with one of his acclaimed and
ever masterful DJ sets.
