Ueberschall
Mar 1, 2001 12:00 PM, Chris Gill
Two-step artists like MJ Cole, Artful Dodger, Wookie, and Craig David are all the rage in England. And now this U.K. garage offshoot, which combines house instrumentation, drum ’n’ bass and dub bass lines, R&B vocals, reggae toasting, and skippy breakbeat rhythms, is starting to gain a strong following on American shores, making the timing for Ueberschall's 2 Step Garage (two audio CDs, $99.95) couldn't be better.
The disc set provides more than 139 minutes of samples. Each CD contains 15 construction kits that include complete mixes, drum loops, backing tracks, licks, phrases, and individual drum hits. Most of the loops clock in at 135 bpm, although a handful of 132 and 133 bpm loops are provided as well. The instrument parts consist primarily of synth-generated bass, organ, string, horn, and guitar tones, and most of the vocal performances are heavily processed with vocoders or Antares Auto Tune's distinctive warbling pitch-correction effect (the sound heard on Cher's “Believe,” Basement Jaxx's “Rendez-Vu,” and Daft Punk's “One More Time”). A few classic instruments such as Rhodes and Wurlitzer electric pianos and a Hammond B-3 are thrown into the mix to provide a bit of “organic” balance.
The strongest attribute of 2 Step Garage is its collection of drum loops that capture two-step's characteristic rhythm and feel perfectly. Ueberschall also earns kudos for including all of the individual percussion sounds used to compose the patterns. But beyond this, the disc set quickly goes downhill. The main problem with 2 Step Garage is that almost all of the construction kits sound like unpolished General MIDI demos with cheesy, fake-sounding guitars and horns, wimpy organs, piddly pianos, and limp bass lines. Even worse, the performances lack strong hooks, meandering aimlessly without establishing a melody or bass line at any point to draw a listener's focus. You're best off ignoring the instrumental parts and creating your own lines and riffs using the drum patterns as a foundation.
The best two-step singles feature slick R&B diva vocals, lush boy-group harmonies, or spirited rude-boy toasting, but this collection lacks those elements for the most part. Instead, it offers gimmicky house- and disco-influenced vocals made up of hackneyed, clichéd phrases like “Can you feel it,” “Break it down,” “Freak out,” and “Take me high.” Granted, most two-step songs don't have the most original or inspired lyrics, but this dross is particularly dismal.
With the exception of the drum loops, it's really difficult to imagine anyone grooving to these sounds in a nightclub. In fact, the programmers behind 2 Step Garage hint at a better use for this material in the CDs' liner notes. “All the material is excellently suited for commercial and film music,” they claim. “If you have further needs for music production for commercials or telephone music (hold music) just give us your contact address.” I can definitely envision these sounds being used in some amateur porn movie, a radio commercial for a cut-rate insurance company, or as hold music for the phone company.
Overall Rating (out of 5): 2.5
Ueberschall/East West (distributor) tel. (800) 833-8339 or (212)
541-7221; fax (212) 541-7015; e-mail sales@eastwestsounds.com; Web www.soundsonline.com
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