The weekend has landed and all that matters now is clubs, drugs, pubs and parties. You've got 48 hours off the 9-5, it's time to unbutton your hustle and breathe vigor back into life. Whether it be through losing your soul on the dance floor or grooving to it, we have your soundtrack covered. The EARMILK Weekend Selector, an exclusive guest mix series where we invite the latest budding talent from behind the booth to usher you through all the boozie and jam. From your morning bedside to tonight's evening social, your weekend selector is here to fill a void of good taste and allow fresh connections to flow vicariously.
(WKND13) EARMILK Presents: Weekend Selector – Slap In The Bass
Fresh faced duos are a plenty, but few can stand up to the peachy spin Slap In The Bass have put on a genre that many feel is on its way out. Over the recent years electro house has taken quite a battering as the genre spread itself out thinly across the board leading to strung out trends that would rise and fall overnight. The result, producers and DJs have jumped ship. Some trading in their dignity for big room reverb, while others sinking deeper into their own madness to pull out bizarre ideas fitted for niche genres between garage and techno. But some are still on board, setting a course to where the dull yet fiery leads of dutch house left off. Coming to a head when the world renowned Crookers cracked their old hands and returned to the mixing desk to release an LP under the moniker Dr. Gonzo, a monolith atop of a new twist on house music that indulged in a sound more tropical than trancey. This is where Slap In The Bass fits in, along with artists like Wax Motif, Botnek, and Savage Skulls these two boys from Hungary have been sampling the fire circles of the wild with ethnic chants, tribal percussion, and furry calls. Their tracks are lush with a palette of colours from dim low ends to sugary leads that sound like peering in to a fresh bag of skittles. Incorporating the edge of electro house bangers with grinding dutch swing, while leaving plenty of room for the drawing board to push forward thinking and innovation.
A reason to start off the weekend below 120 BPM, "Slowine" by Schlachthofbronx brings out the duo's variety right from the get go as it paces up to dirtybird's juke number "Booty Clap". The tape washes itself down with dreamy vibes from remixes by Cardopusher and Mendoza, throwing on some pants and heading out to the dirty dancehall to dagger with the raw works of Sinden and Swick. There's no doubting the mix hits a peak when the boys cue up their best work yet, a collaboration with Keith & Supabeatz called "Smoka". Released earlier this week on No Brainer Records, the track sits comfortably on the Beatport charts and is sure to get a full rinsing when festival season kicks in. The two go on to explore more distorted boundaries with Felix Cartal's latest single "Domo" and a B-side off their latest EP called "Exhale". Tying it up with Disco of Doom meets Astronomar and an overlooked jam by Eats Everything, Slap In The Bass prove that they are a solid booking for a crowd bred with stingy alt critiques and your average wandering partygoers. Peep the tracklist as you sip on our interview with the group below.
EARMILK: First I want to say awesome work on your collaboration with Keith & Supabeatz, we had them on here a couple weeks ago and "Smoka" was labeled as a question mark on the tracklist. I could swear the moment I heard it hit I thought I was listening to the next Dr. Gonzo single. So let me ask considering there's two of you, what's it like collaborating with another duo? Four people on one track, how do you all agree on things when there's so many ideas and different perspectives floating around?
Slap In The Bass: Thanks it was great to work with them! It was actually so easy because we loved everything they did on their tracks and they loved everything what we did on our own. There really were no disagreements between eachother.
EM: Do you guys feel that certain new technology made this collaboration possible? Being that you two are from Hungary, Keith & Supabeatz are in Italy, we've been seeing a lot more collaborative efforts than ever before in dance music recently. Do you think this would likely not happen say 20 years ago?
SB: Yes, sure! It's so easy nowadays to work on collaborations because of the internet. We already did a collab with Botnek (which was released on our Egypt EP, it's called "Kom Ombo") and they're all the way in Canada. Collabs like this would have never happened 20 years ago. God bless internet!
EM: Is there much of a dance music scene in Hungary? Can you name me some artists from your homeland that you feel are in sync with the style/taste you're pushing on the international stage? And lastly, do you plan on leaving?
SB: Not much of a scene here. We would be really happy if we could name you some other artists who are in line with us but there really are no other producers with this style. There are some DJ’s though that are playing out music similar to ours. Nonetheless there still are some great producers in Hungary overall just in different genres of music. Jay Lumen for example is a great house producer.
EM: I feel like there's always this layer of tropical vibes in every track you two put out whether it be your choice in swing or tribal percussion. Is this a consistent sound for you guys? Are bongos and congas a must have in a Slap in the Bass track?
SB: Yes yes we love bongos and congas, but in the last six months we've started to notice that we don't employ them as extensively as we used to.
