Throwback Thursday: Benga - Acid Lie

For this week's installment of my Throwback Thursday series, it is my pleasure to re-introduce the world to one of the most twisted, raucous, raunchy, ratchet-before-ratchet, heavy stomping bass, acid overloaded tracks I've ever come across. Benga's "Acid Lie" the B side from his 2011 Faithless EP.

I first came across this brooding brilliance from Benga while listening to Annie Mac Presents August 12th. In fact it remains one of my go to radio shows, as it's packed with so much great music, much of it released following the BBC's live shows from Ibiza. Whether it's Skream's "Anticipate," Jack Beats remix of Aloe Blacc's "Green Lights," David Guetta's "Glasgow," the first play of Fake Blood's "Deep Red," The 2 Bears "Take A Look Around" or the debut of Knife Party's minimix, Annie Mac brings out all the stops. I've added the full two hour show to my dropbox for your listening and downloading pleasure, here. You'll find Benga and his "Acid Lie" shortly after the 23 minute mark.

Benga strikes an incredible atmosphere right off the get go - bassline ringing, immediately infecting your pulse with inescapable intensity. The anticipation of the action to come, reaches a fever pitch with Benga's finely crafted and well thought out foundation of sound, swirling and climbing ever higher. The acid level rises, swallowing its listeners, melting their flesh like Jesse Pinkman and Walter White's hydrofluoric concoction in the first season of Breaking Bad. The fluid nature and continual movement Benga injects into "Acid Lie" propels the track forward, leaving no sound unchanged or unaltered. It's his boredom with repetition of the same old, same old, that really makes Benga's "Acid Lie" such a powerful, progressive and inescapable masterpiece. It embodies the Terminator endlessly chasing you down, forever haunting your dreams like Freddy Krueger.

Benga has stormed back onto the scene in the last month dropping "Make Moves," an uncompromising auditory attack, and just today he's uploaded "Power" another track from his upcoming Future Funk EP, due to be released February 26. Something tells me Benga has big things in store for 2016, so keep your ears and eyes peeled on his movements.

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Summæry Steel Drum Special - Now Downloadable

With winter on the horizon and the temperature dropping steadily I quickly found myself gobbling up tracks with a more summery feel. Originally, this gave me the urge to simply create a playlist compiling those types of tracks that I most yearned for. This, in itself, was quite the task and I ended up with upwards of 200 tracks, totalling nearly 15 hours of music; a hugely daunting playlist now sat in my library begging to be cut down to an appropriate and manageable size. I then set out to find a more clear sound and theme for this playlist that was quickly becoming more and more important to my daily music consumption, and therefore my happiness quota. I found myself unable to cut the playlist further than to 120 tracks and nearly 9 hours of music; still more than one could possibly jam into a two hour mixtape.

Luckily, I had been inspired by the rapid-fire DJing skills shown off this year's Red Bull Thre3Style DJ World Championships held right here in Toronto. The amazing talent and mixing made me believe that anything was possible in terms of what genres and styles of music could be jam packed into a small span of time (check out my favourite act of the finals Trentino among others). Following the inspiration taken from the RB3Style DJ World Championships and armed with the warm feeling from some of my favourite instruments (the steel drum, chimes, bells and so forth), I slowly began creating what is now called the "Summæry Steel Drum Special" invoking both the summer I most desired and the idea of a summary (year in review) mix.

As is the case with a free Soundcloud account, 2 hours is always my target length for a mixtape. As was also the case with RB3Style there were often audio clips strewn together so as to fashion an introduction as well as conclusion, and with all the great clips available from the infamous Rob Ford, mayor of this great city, I would have been remiss were I not to include and take advantage of our most beloved crack-smoker.