Features

 

10 Jan 2011

 

 

Tech Itch
 

Don't underestimate the influence of house music on drum & bass. US house gave birth to acid house, a UK phenomenon that in turn spawned jungle and drum & bass. There are rhythmic differences of course. House almost always uses four-to-the-floor rhythms while jungle and drum & bass use more complex beats. But the production methods behind house are the same as those used by the early drum & bass producers.

House producers pioneered the use of new equipment such as Roland 808 drum machines, and were among the first to use the booming 808 kick sound, which is the building block of more jungle basslines than I could name. House producers also embraced sampling, a technique essential to most modern dance music but especially to jungle and drum & bass.
 
One producer who recognises the influence of house on drum & bass is Technical Itch. His track Elevation, which appears on the 2003 release The Diagene EP, samples a classic house tune by Xpansions called Move Your Body.
 
Elevation has long been one of my favourite Tech Itch tunes. It has an epic quality that you don't often get with dancefloor drum & bass – I think it's the ethereal female vocal that does it. It also has a slamming, off-kilter Amen rhythm that stimulates the mind and body in equal measure. I'm grateful to DJ P-dex – also a fan of the tune – for discovering where Tech Itch got the sample. As often happens, it was in somewhat bizarre circumstances. P-dex was watching a late-night TV show about rock climbing (don't ask me why) which had used the original Xpansions track as backing music.
 
Released in 1990, Move Your Body was one of the first house tracks to experiment with pitching up vocals. This technique is often overdone, and is rightly known as the 'chipmunk' effect, because this was how the creators of the cartoon 'Alvin and the Chipmunks' made the characters' high-pitched voices. But if done with care, pitch-shifting is great for achieving the kind of uplifting, energetic sound heard on Move Your Body.
 

 

 


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