- Honest Jon's "Meets" series has so far seen spectacularly successful turns from Anthony Shakir, Oni Ayhun, and Mark Ernestus, and the latest remixing honour is given to some of Chicago's most revered footwork producers, giving that urban scene a chance to dialogue with South Africa's high-tempo Shangaan music profiled on 2010's Shangaan Electro compilation.
The producers chosen are two of the most outwardly visible Chicago footwork names—frequent collaborators Rashad and Spinn—and one of the scene's most quietly revered insiders in R.P. Boo. Rashad and Spinn take on Tshetsha Boys, with an exuberant, bouncy number that retains a sense of unusual control common to their own productions. The Tshetsha Boys' group vocals make for interesting sample fodder for the duo's vocal-surgery ways, and the way they let phrases complete before mercilessly repeating syllables is a little less alienating than some of their own R&B-sampling work. Couple that with dynamic tension from the track's buoyant bassline and an unforgivingly rigid snare and you've got yourself a meaty tune that feels fuller than a lot of comparable footwork, ripe for the picking for genre outsiders. Unfortunately, R.P. Boo—who takes on the compilation's source material much like Oni Ayhun—doesn't fare quite so well. Composed mostly of dislocated drums and equally disconnected vocal samples, the only thing that comes close to being glue on the track is the free-floating bass, but not even that is enough to keep it from a total shambles.
Tracklist A DJ Rashad & DJ Spinn - Tshetsha Boys
B RP Boo - Shangaan Electro