- DJ Manny expands on his romantic footwork sound, bringing in influences from jungle, trap and more on an exciting new EP.
- Long-standing Teklifer DJ Manny has a style of romantic footwork that's hard to define. Ahead of his debut album, Signals In My Head he claimed that his goal was "to do something that nobody (in footwork) had ever done before, which is an R&B love type of album but still keeping it footwork, juke, house, techno, with a few breaks." I'd argue he was oversimplifying his artistry a bit there: R&B samples are nothing new in footwork—think DJ Rashad's Double Cup—nor is it something that has ever died out, as this mix of (mostly) DJ Hank's own productions shows. But DJ Manny's latest EP, Control, is different, and unique, thanks to a few clever new tricks.
Space is one of them. "You make me lose control," go the vocals on the title track, and since when has singing been allowed to breathe like this in footwork? It glides at its own tempo over a throbbing bassline, unlike the stuttery (and more footwork friendly) vocal on "Bang This Joint." Compare the crammed and frantic nature of that track with "Time Travel," and you can hear how DJ Manny opens up his music here, unwinding footwork's tight-knit percussion so you have time to enjoy the smoother and slower elements, like a walking bass guitar or dreamy keys.
In some ways, it's almost like DJ Manny has repurposed the multifaceted nature of the early footwork scene where, as he says in this interview, people would play a range of styles at parties and never just footwork. "Let It Break," for example, sounds like a jungle tune, with its "Think" breaks and light dusting of hats. The metal-on-metal percussion of "Spaceship" leans towards trap, albeit with glowing, lullabyesque synths. Nothing's ever quite what it should be on Control. It's similar to what happened when Peverelist weaved house, techno and other styles into the fabric of dubstep in the 2010s, which culminated in "Roll With The Punches." That tune helped lead to the rise of "purple" dubstep and even got swept up by Drake. But what was funny about "Roll With The Punches" was that, according to some, it wasn't even dubstep—it was a grime tune. The same could be said of Control: it might sound like jungle, trap and R&B, but somehow it's still footwork.
Tracklist01. Control
02. Spaceship
03. Bang This Joint
04. Let It Break
05. Time Travel