Witch house has been the big blog buzz scene of 2010. But bubbling just behind it has been footwork (chillwave was so 2009). And I missed a step, sleeping on this scene. Even The Guardian have had it down, posting this introductory footwork article in May.
Missed it too? Well this quote from said piece should clear it up a little…
“The music stems from juke, a speedy but strict evolution of Chicago's four-on-the-floor ghetto house style. Footwork, though, is more experimental than juke. The chief difference is in its warped basslines, which buzz beneath frenetic synth toms and rapid-fire vocal samples. It sounds dark and messy, like the brooding urban soundtrack of Burial reimagined for a city with faster, meaner streets”.
As for the name, that comes from the style of dancing that has developed in step with the music. How do you dance to complex 160bpm rhythms? The Chicago youth tackled it by developing a hyper-kinetic Riverdance-esque style and battling each other, all blurred feet, stiff torsos and death stares.
As the ever-excellent Alexis Petridis says in a review of Bangs & Works Vol 1: A Chicago Footwork Compilation...
“There's something fascinating about music intended to be entirely utilitarian that ends up in the realms of avant-garde abstraction by default rather than by design.” And “There's certainly a hypnotic, slightly druggy quality to its minimalism, but none of house or disco's sense of escapism […] everything here sounds reflective of a grim urban environment…”
I downloaded footwork figurehead DJ Nate’s Make Em Run in July. On first listen, I thought it was another load of hipster shit. But by cropping up on my phone repeatedly over these winter months it’s sunk into my head and I find myself mumbling “makeemrunmakeemrunmakeemrunmakeemrunmakeamakeamakeamakeamake” at inappropriate moments.
Would I want to listen to a whole album of it? Probably not, but for three minutes and a second this is the weirdest and most compelling track of the year.
mp3---> DJ Nate - Make Em Run
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