Whether you’re spinning tunes as a DJ or handling the critical task of controlling the AUX cord at a party, you will know there’s nothing worse than turning up to the rave unequipped. Rave Weapons is a weekly series in which I present one or two musical tools I have stumbled across digging through my record-crates recently to ensure that you’ll be armed with the best tunes for peak party hours. The music will be old as well as new, and the styles will be like liquorice: allsorts, but often best from the UK.
Volume #002:
This week: two records that blend into each other perfectly. Not only do they share BPM and key, they both carry some very heavy late-night-into-early-morning vibes. Both choices are therefore ideal for that time of the night when the first gloom of the rising sun appears at the horizon, but there’s still some grooving to be done.
1. “Keep It Gully” – Diplo & Swick
Released in spring 2013, one of both Diplo’s and Swick’s greatest records has since been a consistent part of my and many others’ sets, but I still feel like it needs some sort of a revival, as it represents a bouncy style of 4×4 that I happen to miss in today’s music a lot. Australian-born Swick, who is with Nina Las Vegas’s NLV Records, has been one to watch for many years (as proven by this record). Listening to “Keep it Gully” might also help listeners unfamiliar with Diplo’s ‘older’ work (bare in mind he has been active for a decade and a half) to understand why so many people who’ve been into electronic music for a while are sticking with him, although he has focused on a more popular style in his production recently.
130 bpm, C Minor [5a in Camelot]
2. “Shake” – Branchez
Branchez is, in my opinion, one of the most important artists that electronic music has to offer today. Released four years ago, “Shake” proves to be one of his most successful records and, personally, I consider this one of the greatest pieces of electronic music ever written.
130 bpm, C Minor [5a in Camelot]
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