Hottest Flips: Cali Gold, Philly Soul, Ru-Jac & 80s Britfunk

Made With Tracklib

Hottest Flips: Cali Gold, Philly Soul, Ru-Jac & 80s Britfunk

A breakdown of new music with Tracklib samples. With Kenny Beats-produced Vince Staples, music previously sampled by Dirty Art Club and Chuck Strangers ft. Navy Blue, two club-ready house tracks & more.

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Tracklib

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July 28, 2021

Vince Staples - TAKING TRIPS (Prod. Kenny Beats & Monte Booker)

"The themes in samples are intentional. [Kenny] is really good at finding things for the moment. He samples based on intention and not the notoriety of the sample of it being a hit song or something."

—Vince Staples (NPR Interview, July 2021)

Doris Bright’s "Days May Come, Days May Go" was covered by two artists on Ru-Jac Records: a rhythm-and-blues song by singer Francine Long, with a funkier instrumental take as the 45 single’s B-side by Utopian Concept.

The latter was previously sampled for music by Dirty Art Club and the Chuck Strangers-produced “Crushed Grapes” by Medhane & Navy Blue, this time around Kenny Beats molded the slow jam to his liking for “TAKING TRIPS” off Vince Staples’ new self-titled album, entirely produced by Kenny Beats. “TAKING TRIPS” was co-produced by Monte Booker, who used Tracklib together with Kenny before for reggie’s “Ain’t Gon’ Stop Me”.

TSHA - Power

"I really like when loops aren’t perfect because you often get really cool bits of the audio popping out."

—TSHA

London-based producer TSHA is about to release a new EP on Ninja Tune. Living up to previous "One to Watch" features by NME, Mixmag, DJ Mag & Billboard features.

“Power” is the B-side opener of her OnlyL EP. “With her DJ career flourishing, the global pandemic shut down the nighttime industries and all access to dancefloors and the shared experience and exhilaration of clubbing,” says the press release. “‘Power’ encapsulates all of that pent-up energy and love and is aimed squarely at the dancefloor–an absolutely storming four-to-the-floor groove.”

I’m The One” is a song by Direct Drive, an 80s electrofunk, disco and soul outfit from the UK. Direct Drive members Paul Hardcastle (keyboard/production) and Derek Green (vocals) later left the band to form Britfunk band First Light, with “Don’t Be Mistaken” as their debut single. “I couldn’t believe my luck to find Britfunk song ‘I’m The One’,” says TSHA. “I looped a part of the sample and started to build the drums around it, and worked from there. I really like when the loops aren’t perfect because you often get really cool bits of the audio popping out.”

Fabich - Summer 21

"I love simplicity when producing. Let the ‘California Gold’ sample and the trumpets be the stars of this record!"

—Fabich

Bill Giant was part of Giant, Baum and Kaye, the songwriting team behind 40+ songs of Elvis Presley. As well as Teresa Brewer’s #1 Billboard hit "Music! Music! Music! (Put Another Nickel In)," covered later by jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal and Beach Boys spin-off California Music. A sped-up sample of Bill Giant's own “California Gold” was the right fit for the sun-drenched “Summer 21” by UK producer Fabich.

“I'm a big fan of 60's music, so I was browsing Tracklib to find music from that era. I instantly fell in love with the feeling and energy of Bill Giant! I knew that I wanted to use the chorus of the original song in my recording, and flip it into a modern feel-good indie dance song. I only sped up the original sample, added some sidechain compression and used one of my favorite plug-ins, RC-20 Retro Color from XLN Audio, to give the production a bit more texture. After finding a cool new drum groove, I added some chords on top of the original sample, with a new and phat baseline.

At first, I was thinking of getting a rapper for the verses. But then I had the idea of involving my friend and former flatmate Lahos to add some trumpets for the verses and keep it instrumental.

Lahos also played the trumpet on Felix Jaehn and OMI's smash hit ‘Cheerleader,’ by the way. I love simplicity when producing and let the ‘California Gold’ sample and the trumpets be the stars of this record!”

Since99 & Kenny Beats - Mutombo

Michigan-based rapper Jade Collins b.k.a. Since99 teamed up with Kenny Beats for “Mutombo,” named after NBA legend Dikembe Mutombo. Kenny Beats got in touch with Collins after his track “Immaculate” together with BasedNas went viral, reaching 3.5 million streams.

The sample here is taken from a 45 by New Jersey/Philadelphia soul/funk group The Nu’Rons. The band consisted of two brothers and two cousins. “All Of My Life” was recorded in 1970 in the iconic Sigma Sound Studios (Gamble & Huff's PIR, Aretha Franklin, ZZ Top, David Bowie, Dexter Wansel) together with Philadelphia soul icon Tom Bell and a range of The Sound of Philadelphia musicians. It was “All Of My Life” which found its way to England, picked up by Northern Soul aficionados and crossover DJs.

Charlie Charlie - Hill St

Swedish deep house producer Bella Boo (Charlie #1) and versatile producer Jens Resch a.k.a. Chords (Charlie #2) describe their production process together as “liberating, free-flowing, and genre-less.”

That indeed shows in their work: their new collaboration “Hill St” is a breakbeat-led deep house track, sampling an upbeat soul song by Greensboro, NC group The Versatile Gents (originally a school band called "The African Americans"). On the other hand, Chords has Chords was a rapper from the late 90s onwards, was part of a reggae outfit called Helt Off, and more recently he released a beat tape called Poisson Noir_sans bars complemented with all multitracks on Tracklib.

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