Future Classic: Dabrye “Lump Sum Slum Lord Remix”

Dabrye steps out of the shadows to release a remix of Mophono’s “Lump Sum Slum Lord”.

Dabrye has been a favourite of mine for quite some time. Hailing from Ann Arbor, Michigan, the man keeps himself extremely hard to pin down, using a large number of styles and aliases. Most beat makers these days are using either a computer or chopping samples on an MPC / SP404, but Dabrye adds in a special blend of modular synthesizers and other hardware instruments to craft his signature sound. With a growing resurgence in the use of modular synthesizers, it’s really cool to see someone using them within the hip-hop BPM range – it’s actually something I almost never see other than in Dabrye’s music.

His beats have a sort of hypnotic quality to them, slowly knocking along and changing ever so slightly over the course of long bar-counts. To me they sound as if they are made in a house-music mentality, but with the intention of making someone’s head bob rather than making someone dance.

Mophono‘s original track is more of a gritty drum-break smasher in the vein of The Gaslamp Killer, with more of an early dubstep-ish edge. A cool breakdown comes in halfway with a distorted bassline and some nice twinkling keys to chill it out some. Both versions of the track are definite not-to-sleep-ons!

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