Asian Dan

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We have now come to the end of the Todd Edwards guest blog series for Asian Dan. He has shared with us some of his favorite House tracks that have helped shape his sound, a sound we all know and love.

Thank you Todd for taking the time to put together these post and sharing the music you love with us.

“Another great example of MK’s dark and moody tracks is his remix of the Pet Shop Boy’s “Can You Forgive Her?” (One of my all time favorites!)MK’s influence became more than a third of the ingredients of what I do. I tried immitating his style with my remix dub of “Love Me Tonite”by JD Braithwaite. I became very fascinated with use of vocals.”

[audio:http://diestruktur.com/asianmandan/music/Oct%202010/Can%20You%20Forgive%20Her%3f%20(MK%20Remix).mp3]
Pet Shop Boys – Can You Forgive Her? (MK Remix)

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Before MK, vocal samples were very straight forward. They were used as hooks, a few words looping. MK opened new doors for vocal use, and I explored the different ways you could use vocals in tracks. The track “The Praise” on my Nervous ep The Sample Choir was highly inspired by MK’s sound. Even my secondary sound known as the Sunshine Brothers was actually born out of emulating MK’s remix of Bet Midler’s “To Deserve You” My music exists because of his influence. Do yourself the favor if you haven’t already, look at his full discog and get all of his work.

[audio:http://diestruktur.com/asianmandan/music/Oct%202010/32%20To%20Deserve%20You%20(MK%20Mix).mp3]
Bette Midler – To Deserver You (MK Remix)

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This week Todd brings us a classic House track from Marc Kinchen aka MK. It is a dub track of MK’s remix of Nightcrawlers’ “Pushing The Feeling”, a classic track and sample you will all recognize.

It was the catchiest hook I ever heard. What was it saying? Nothing. It was put together by sampling bits of the vocal and constructing a new pattern of cut-up vocals. GENIUS!!! Aside from one of having one of the biggest remixes of the time, MK (Marc Kinchen) went on to do what he does best for artists like Celine Dion, Bet Midler, Masters At Work, The B 52’s, and Jodeci to name a few. Here is another example of an artist with a signature sound. He had cut-up vocal hook runnings, along with some great keyboard playing. MK used piano, organ, and synth sax sounds to create melodic hooks with dark basslines to finish them off.

[audio:http://diestruktur.com/asianmandan/music/Oct%202010/02%20Push%20the%20Feeling%20On%20(The%20Dub%20of%20Doom).mp3]
Nightcrawlers – Push the Feeling On (The Dub of Doom)

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This week Todd brings us a track by Martha Wash, a track produced by Masters at Work. FYI Martha Wash had her starts as a backup singer for the disco legend Sylvester. Check out this alternative mix by Masters at Work.

MAW produced Martha Wash’s “Carry On.” To a young producer, hearing a track like this, words don’t do it justice. I was just learning, and I’m hearing all these musical elements that are overwhelming, and the thought that drove me was, “How did they do that?” I don’t know where Kenny Dope got his drum sounds but they were the strongest sounds I ever heard. Tony Humphries played on Kiss FM Saturday nights. All of a sudden I here this wah filter keyboard riff being mixed in. Then this amazing drum pattern that seemed to be using some vocals laced in as snares. Then small snipets of a vocal…it sounded like Martha Wash. An unreleased dub of “Carry On?”. It had to be. The drums sounds showed up in the MAW remix of “Erotica”. That unreleased dub inspired the keyboard work in my vocal remix of Veda Simpson’s “Ooh Baby” On Nervous Records

[audio:http://diestruktur.com/asianmandan/music/Oct%202010/Carry%20On%20(Louie%20Vega%20&%20Kenny%20Dope%20Alternative%20Mix).mp3]
Martha Wash – Carry On (Louie Vega & Kenny Dope Alternative Mix)

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A continuation of Todd Edwards’ stroll down memory lane, as he looks back at the important Sound Factory moments and tracks that shaped his music.

After Sole Fusion, Little Louie played MAW’s dub of Barbara Tucker’s “I Get Lifted” with those wah-wah filtered organ chords running under Barbara Tucker’s vocals. That night I went home inspired. In two weeks I made four tracks, “Dancing For Heaven, Stronger, FOT, and most importantly “Saved My Life”.

[audio:http://diestruktur.com/asianmandan/music/Sept%202010/03%20I%20Get%20Lifted%20(The%20Bar%20Dub).mp3]

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This week Todd dives into one of his favorite club memories at the Sound Factory Bar back in its heyday. Yet another classic track by Masters At Work.

MAW feat.India “Can’t Get No Sleep” The best memory at the Sound Factory Bar…India performing “I Can’t Get No Sleep” Every producer knew when this song was being mixed in during a dj set from Kenny Dope’s recognizable drum snare (Like a banging hollow plastic tub, that’s what I thought it sounded like) It wasn’t until that familiar Sax riff came in that everyone recognized the track and cheered. But to see India perform it live…goosebumps!!!

You may or may not know the song, (though I don’t see how you wouldn’t) but halfway through the song India sings the phrase “You’re the one I’m thinking of” sliding the last note upwards with a crescendo, and the mood of the track goes really deep and jazzy. At that moment the crowd went NUTS!!! As if we all were hitting that note with her. The cheers were so loud. I know anyone that was there that night cherishes that memory. I know I do.

[audio:http://diestruktur.com/asianmandan/music/Sept%202010/14%20I%20Can’t%20Get%20No%20Sleep.mp3]
Masters At Work – I Can’t Get No Sleep feat. India

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Yet another installment of guest posts from Mr. Edwards, this time a lovely remix by Masters At Work of Bjork along side the tune that it inspired, The Sample Choir “Feeling Lonely”. Hope you are all enjoying and learning from this House music history less from Professor Todd.

Masters at Work’s Bjork “Violently Happy” Dub, another of my favorite MAW productions. It is Taken or influenced from an interlude by Kool And The Gang, the musical riff is one of the catchiest and most uplifiting used in an MAW dub. Once again, Kenny Dope’s use of hard snares and reverb drive the track.I attempted, once again, to emulate their work. This attempt came in the form of my track “Feeling Lonely” on The Sample Choir EP…I didn’t come close. 😉

[audio:http://diestruktur.com/asianmandan/music/Sept%202010/02%20Violently%20Happy%20(MAW%20dub).mp3]
Björk – Violently Happy (Masters At Work Dub)

[audio:http://diestruktur.com/asianmandan/music/Sept%202010/07%20Feelin%20Lonely.mp3]
The Sample Choir – Feeling Lonely

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Here is the third round of “Classic House Tracks According to the Word of Todd” by Todd Edwards. These next few posts will have a theme of tracks by the classic house duo Masters At Work who heavily influenced the Todd Edwards’ sound. Here are some words from Todd himself.
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Masters At Work created an epic catalog of orginal productions and remixes beginning in the early nineties. I idolized them, I really did. The only club I religiously went to was the Sound Factory Bar on Wednsday nights to hear Little Louie Vega spin and he NEVER disappoints!

The perfect combination of keyboard playing and drum programming. They are both masters of their craft. Little Louie always reconstructed the songs they remixed. He would always use very jazzy musical chords while keeping the vocals in the song the same. It was a great lesson for a young and new producer like myself, “you can make a song sound completely different just by using different chords that still work with the melody, BRILLIANT!”
If that weren’t enough, there was Kenny Dope Gonzalez’ drum programming. To this day there is no drum programmer that I have more respect and admiration for. It was Kenny Dope’s drumming that inspired my muscial style.

When I heard MAW’s remix of St Etienne’s “Only Love Can Break Your Heart”, I was blown away! The swing Kenny Dope put on his snares and hi hats… I tried to immitate… yeah, not so good. However, others started to take note of my drum programming and the shuffling boardering on sloppy swing that my tracks had. Who would have thought that poor imitation would help me develop a sound? My track “So Real” on The Messenger ep was based on this remix.

[audio:http://diestruktur.com/asianmandan/music/Sept%202010/Only%20Love%20Can%20Break%20Your%20Heart%20(Masters%20At%20Work%20Dub%20Remix).mp3]
St. Etienne – Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Masters At Work Remix)

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Here is the 2nd installment in ” Classic House Tracks According to the Word of Todd” by the one and only Todd Edwards. This week it is a track by the Chicago-House DJ/Producer pioneer, Lil’ Louis.

[audio:http://diestruktur.com/asianmandan/music/Todd%20Edwards/lil%20louis%20-Club%20Lonely.mp3]
Lil’ Louis – Club Lonely

Lil’ Louis is an extremely innovative producer. His track “French Kiss” was a very deep house track which slowly went down in tempo until the whole track came to a complete stop, while a woman simultaneously is moaning to a point of climax. It sounds even better than it reads. Even though that was a ground breaking track, it is his other brilliant work that inspired me.

The track is called “Club Lonely” It starts out with a deep bassline and synth chords. Then another layer of synth chords come in complimenting the first. Then, a saxaphone pattern comes in on top of that. And if that weren’t enough, a beautiful song on top of that. But the peak of this song is the chorus. The harmony that was created for the chorus is one that inspired me like no other. I definitely learned to layer music from this song. If you listen to my Sunshine Brothers work, you will here some of that influence, especially “Like A Fire”.

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This post is the first of many weekly guest posts from the one and only Todd Edwards. He agreed to grace us with some of his House music wisdom with quintessential tracks of the canon of House music as well as tracks that heavily influenced and mean a lot to Todd himself. First off is a track by Todd Terry, “Slam Jam” that samples my fav Ramjam song “Black Betty”. Also Todd Edwards offers up his remix of the legendary Dusseldorf quartet, Kraftwerk’s “Numbers”.

“Todd Terry’s productions were the first that I studied in depth. He lead the way in sample-based house track productions from the late 80’s, and from then on was known as “Todd The God”. (That’s catchy) “Slam Jam” had Todd’s signature drums running under a simple bassline which sounded more like a sample of a sound than an actual keyboard synth, rawww!!! The track is filled with catchy samples running through it. It was always a great feeling when I stumbled across a record where Mr. Terry got his samples from. Todd’s beats and use of samples gave him his signature sound. When you put on a Todd Terry record, you know it’s Todd Terry. So, that’s what I set out to do. He inspired me to create a sound that would be reconginzable to anyone who played my tracks. I owe him a big thanks for being the first of my house music inspirations. Of course, he should know this by now because I told him every chance I saw him at the clubs in the 90’s.”

[audio:http://diestruktur.com/asianmandan/music/Todd%20Edwards/Todd%20Terry%20-%20Slam%20Jam.mp3]
Todd Terry – Slam Jam

Bonus:
[audio:http://diestruktur.com/asianmandan/music/Aug%202010/Numbers%20(Todd%20Edwards%20Remix).mp3]
Kraftwerk – Numbers (Todd Edwards Remix)