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SPEED GARAGE
There’s so much that could be said about Todd’s work, from his influence, paving the way for UK Garage, which ended up leading to the creation of Grime, Dubstep & contributing to the development of Drum ‘n’ Bass in the UK in the early to mid 2000s. Or the beautiful Nervous Records cuts which built up to him producing & singing on a song off Daft Punk’s “Discovery” (Face to Face).
I’d describe Speed Garage as being fast-paced Deep House with off-grid snares, contrary to aligning with every second beat of a 4 to the floor rhythm, the snares would instead hit before, and after, the second beat, instantly creating more groove.
Todd’s style was actually pretty innovative and complex for the time, he would gather as many samples as he could find and chop them up along with the vocals that are on the track. If there weren’t any vocals on the original sample, then he’d just add a vocal sample over the song and chop that up as well, recreating an entirely new song and discovering a hidden melody buried in an obscure sample from the 70s.
(this video has been automatically coded to start at the 1:12 point, if that isn’t the case, please skip to then.)
Now THIS is quite a special moment. Todd Edwards, who had influenced the birth of UK Garage along with featuring on one of Dance Music’s best-selling records of all time, is seen performing in the UK for the first time ever. The cut you hear playing at the 1:12 point is called “Wishing I Were Home” by Todd, you can hear the original sample playing for a couple of bars before transitioning to his chopped up version of the loop. This should begin giving you a grasp on what to expect with the next songs i’m about to share, but for now, enjoy the crowd freaking out over the drop.
(3:20 of this song includes one of the most beautiful flips I think i’ve ever heard tbh like damn are y’all hearing this???)
While researching Todd’s music and the Nervous Records catalog, I actually stumbled upon a reddit post in a J Dilla subreddit where a user was seen comparing the two’s production styles, putting Todd’s complex chopping over Dilla’s. Now, while I don’t feel like i’m in a position to be comparing the two, I’m happy that dance production’s complexity has started becoming more recognized and embraced. When it comes to sample chopping, it’s true that most people will think of old school hip hop but dance music has equally complex techniques, albeit less common than in boom bap. Gravitating towards dance music as I age, I still have massive respect for the whole 90s hiphop scene, but I still feel like most of the dance production from back then is often overlooked when it comes to production.
I still use a lot of the sample chopping techniques I learned as a young teenager making boom-bap beats to my current day Deep Speed Garage/House & Jungle songs.
I also wanted to mention that I was listening to so much of the Nervous Records catalog in early 2021 that I actually ended up making some Speed Garage cuts on Karajj Music without actually being conscious of it. I didn’t know anything about Todd or the musical impact of that music at the time, I just subconsciouly learned the production techniques I was hearing in these songs. damn.
UK GARAGE
Ngl, I don’t really have as much to say about UKG than I did about Speed Garage but I just want y’all to realize that THIS is what paved the way for Grime, eventually leading the way for modern UK Drill but ALSO Dubstep, (early 2000s, don’t get it mixed up with that Skrillex brostep bullshit lmfao) and Future Garage.