Hardy Hard & Lady Waks feat. Mr X - Minimal

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  • Clear the dancefloor - there’s gonna be a knifefight! It’s breakbeat versus techno as Hardy Hard & Lady Waks spill first blood with their Berlin-bashing breaks stormer ‘Minimal’. Vocals courtesy of Mr. X pie-face the titular with assaults like, “You call your music minimal but…I call it simple!” and “Yo DJ, producer, you’re just a button-pusher!” It’s unlikely that Richie Hawtin and Ellen Allien are embraced and weeping in nervous anticipation of the breakbeat invasion on their sacred ground. But while ‘Minimal’ has all the ingredients for failure – pointless beef as thesis statement, unknowns behind the decks and the son of Afrika Bambaataa on the mic (seriously!) – it’s a surprisingly rad track, with a stripped-down (dare I say…minimal?) gritty bassline punctuated by electro stabs and filtered vocal repeat of “you whack” that work on a near-subliminal level. The Rogue Element remix on the flip should’ve been a no-brainer, after the man single-handedly revived breakbeat’s production standards a couple years back with an Ed Banger-esque, “arena breaks” bent. Here, however, RE is on autopilot, turning in a simplistically juiced-up version for which the only guiding principal seems to be, “More cowbell!” It’s less Rogue, more Predictable Element this time around. But that doesn’t stop the original from being a techno-hatin’ breaks fan’s wet dream – syncopation rulez, beeyotch!
  • Tracklist
      A. Minimal B. Minimal (Rogue Element Remix)
RA