- The rapid ascent of footwork and juke over the past few years has made it hard to remember how jarring and alien the sounds really were when they first appeared outside their native Chicago. Even after my ears had grown accustomed, I was sceptical of the genre's longevity. I was wrong to be, of course, as recent years have seen a deluge of fantastic interpretations of the style. And while countless producers have picked up the sound, the Teklife crew have really been the ones pushing it into new areas. Alongside the late DJ Rashad, Corky "Traxman" Strong is an artist whose albums have shown exactly how versatile footwork can be. 2012's Da Mind Of Traxman busted the sound right open, employing a crate-digging, sample-heavy aesthetic and moving through soul, funk and rock to create something relatively trippy and ambient.
Da Mind Of Traxman Vol. 2 shows Strong using many of the same tricks that made the first edition exciting, but they haven't gotten stale just yet. Part of what makes his productions so unique is the space he leaves in the percussion—while footwork can often feel like a constant barrage of bass drums and hi-hats, here there's room for the samples to breathe, which adds to the druggy haze. On "Ever And Always," or the Kraftwerk sampling "Computer Getto," the source material is always so present that the tracks feel like they have more in common with Madlib than Spinn. Sometimes that link is explicit— ""Your Just Moving" borrows what sounds like the same Melvin Van Peebles sample Madlib used in "Come On Feet."
There's lots of energy here as well. "Bubbles" smashes through with a ferocious synth at the forefront and not much else, and "Under Cover Jack" combines an acid squelch with some soulful chords and a pounding bass drum pattern. "I Wanna Be High" notably samples Mr Finger's "Can You Feel It" to great effect—perhaps predictably, it's one of the album's most dance floor-friendly moments. "Tha Edge Of Panic" works conceptually, but the speed metal sampling means that it's definitely not going to be to everyone's taste. Da Mind Of Traxman Vol. 2 might not be Traxman's most innovative album, but that's fine. It's still one of the genre's most singular records so far.
Tracklist01. Time Slip
02. Blow Your Whistle (Tha Out Of Here Remixx)
03. Nothing Stays The Same
04. Mic
05. Computer Getto
06. Make Love To Me
07. Bubbles
08. Let It Roll Geto
09. Ever And Always
10. Under Cover Jack
11. Can Nutin Hold Me Back
12. 15416
13. Gone And Hit That Shit
14. I Need Too Do It feat. DJ Fred
15. Your Just Movin
16. Tha Edge Of Panic
17. I Wanna Be High
18. U Got Me Runnin (Remixx)