In my last show at around 49.49 I played a Mike Humphries track called “Pulse Detonation Test” which sampled a kick drum taken from Dave Clarke’s red 2 (this is in fact one of the most sampled kickdrums in techno history and might be to techno what funky drummer is to hip hop, or the Amen break is to Drum n Bass). Joey Beltram for instance sampled the same kick drum lots and lots of time (check his album The Rising Sun for instance).
This is what I said on the show:
“Dope Track by mike humhpries, Pulse Detonation test, currently unreleased, you can almost recognize a Mike Humphries track by hearing the Red 2 Kick drum, one of the most sampled kick drums of all time”
My comment caused quite a stir amongst some listeners who are avid Mike Humphries fans:
I would like to get a few points across about this matter:
- In the comments it was suggested that I was disrespecting Mike Humphries and putting him down, let me make myself very clear this was not my intention at all. In fact I have been playing a lot of Mike’s music on my show and I am always delighted when he sends me promo’s. Besides that I even asked him to do a guestmix couple of months a go, and why would I ask someone if I think he wasnt any good? All I said was he sampled a kick.
- What is actually wrong with sampling a kick? In hiphop nobody frowns when you mention usage of sampled drums, but in techno it is perceived as “not being original”. Mike has a signature sound that still holds if he’d use a different kick drum. Apparently this one has his preference, and works well for his sound.
- Sampling is an art, in fact Dave Clarke is probably the best example himself of sampling. If you know your techno history you would be amazed how clever he sampled certain pieces, and even completely flipping lyrics by editing these, giving them a whole other meaning.
- Bear in mind I am not a native English speaker, I am a dutch guy presenting in english, while mixing the show all live, some subtleties can be lost in translation, the Dutch are not known for their subtle usage of language. It is by far not as eloquent as the English language.
Glad to get this of my chest, on the positive side it is really nice to see Mike Humphries has such avid fans. I hope to obtain these myself as well in the future.
R.
EDIT 22:16 25 aug: I’ve gathered some tweets, and feel relieved, also spoke to Mike personally via email, and he is all good and told me not to worry:
