ALWAYS EVERYTHING

MAN LIKE HACKMAN

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Tracklisting:

Manuel Tur - Agrafena Beats
Thomas Schumacher - Slow
Falty DL - St Marks (Cosmin TRG Remix)
Hackman - Bam Bam
Kode9 Ft Spaceape - You Don’t Wash (Martyn Remix)
Nyabingi - No Snare
JME - CD is Dead (Mickey Pearce Remix)
Hackman - Made Up My Mind
Marcus Price & Carli- Var E Naaken (Girl Unit Remix)
Slackk - Fire Flies
Breach - Fatherless (Doc Daneeka’s Mrr Snrz Remix)
Baobinga ft Rubi Dan - The Future
Fis T - Night Hunter
Kastle - Better Off Alone (Udachi Remix)
NKC - Partisan Efforts
Andy Bell - Call On Me (Deadboy Remix)
VVV - No Time & Temperature

By far one of the most exciting of the new pool of UK House producers, Hackman’s 130bpm productions made their debut on the much hyped, but slightly underwhelming Fabric “Elevator Music” compilation. Since that release, the Leeds producer has gone from strength to strength, each release bettering the last one dramatically. The Bodies and Always EPs for Well Rounded and Shifted Peaks respectively showed a perfect absorption of UK garage tropes into the funky template, a lineage rarely acknowledged as far more worthy of the title “Future Garage” (but that’s for another day). Always’ diva vocal is undeniably brilliant on both Hackman’s super-tropical marimba work out and Brackles’ superb UKG bassline propelled remix, both producers giving more than a nod to the vocal anthems of yesteryear whilst keeping their eyes firmly fwd.

Its the More Than Ever EP on Ramp’s new house imprint Pattern that should solidify Hackman’s position in the ever shifting sands of whatever-you-wanna-call-this-post-dubstep-thing. Whilst previous releases were unquestionably great tracks made up of equal parts x, y and z from the uk bass matrix, Hackman’s newest release is a far more fluid affair, carving out a wicked set of riddims that are still indebted to what comes before, but in a far less perceptible way. This newfound sense of identity finds itself manifest on the speaker-pleasingly sub-loaded “Dusk” and “More Than Ever”. Showing himself to be more than a little proficient with vocal snippets, the EP is littered with outrageously catchy lead lines as diverse as the former’s Zapp-esque talk box stabs and as classic as the title track’s Todd Edwards-alike diva cut up hook.

This mix was unceremoniously posted on Dubstep Forum’s house section and it would be a shame for such a corker to go unnoticed. Warming in with some action from two German house greats Manuel Tur and Thomas Schumacher (the increase in quality some of the UK Funky etc crew’s mixes and productions could undergo if they looked to these kinds of figures is unreal!), Hackman effortlessly raises the intensity and syncopation until he’s knee deep in floor burning funk. Particular highlights come in the two new Hackman tracks, “Made Up My Mind” being the most addictive of the two, sporting a vocal that should be ubiquitous by the end of Summer. Elusive Blunted Robots mystery man turns up with an enigmatic remix of JME and Tempa T’s “CD Is Dead”, twisting the vocal to fit an encroaching tribal technoid riddim that has so little to do with par games its hard to believe it came from the source material. As an aside, is it me or is there something incredibly sinister about Tempa T absorbing JME’s family friendly, grime’s-nicest-guy schtick? Soon to be rising Numbers man Slackk’s Fireflies is also impressive, and indicative of one of my favorite trends of the last couple of years; instrumental grime’s sudden influence on everything future thinking in UK club music. Bristol heads would do well to catch him with the peerless Altered Natives at the tiny Take Five Cafe on July 30th. Cop dat.