Jamie Berry is a strong contender
for the biggest name in British electro swing. Having produced so many classics
for the genre, his music is known to all those even mildly familiar with the style,
and for good reason too. Many of his releases serve to represent flawless examples
of the genre, and as I stated in my review of his latest album, will often
stand as some of the first tracks that one may come across when first discovering
this music. His latest release, The Stampede, continues to solidify this
reputation, presenting five new songs that illustrate exactly why Berry has
come to be as popular as he is
The first track is ‘Parade’, a
perfect name for the piece. Starting off slightly disjointedly, it quickly
develops into a solid rhythm, before setting off on a quick journey across
several different styles all the way throughout. Listening to this feels exactly
like experiencing a parade: a parade of musical influences. It’s perhaps a
little more bassy than we’re used to from Berry, which sets the tone for the
rest of the release, representing something a little bit different. This feeling
continues into ‘Cattywampus’; starting off with a bit more of the familiar Berry
sound – making full use of a solid house beat, as well as an understated treatment
of the samples in his trademark style – the emergent bass drop reveals more dubstep-esque
influences, as well as some funky slap bass interspersed throughout as well.
And then ‘Buffalo’s Ballroom’ begins, with its seriously high tempo; this piece
is very very dancey – the beat never once hesitates, and neither will the
listeners. There is some fantastic percussion underneath everything else here,
and even in the more EDM-centric sections of the piece, the drums still remain
closely tied to the jazz tradition – demonstrating the music’s roots.
Following these three more
adventurous pieces, ‘Who’s That?’ is the most traditional Jamie Berry sounding
track – of course, there’s got to be at least one to remind us of what makes
his music so great. It’s quite a slow building track, steadily increasing the
anticipation, and throughout the extended musical samples one can feel the
underlying tension. There’s some terrific glitchy stylings in this one – including
some great treatment of the vocals especially; and the piece ends brilliantly
too, on a rather low note – leaving the audience wanting more. Finally, from the
first few seconds of the title track, ‘The Stampede’, one can tell that this is
going to build to something huge. The rhythm is seriously driving, and at any
moment it feels like the track is building to something bigger and bigger – and
when this comes, it only keeps building even further. Halfway through, we reach
an absolutely filthy drop, which will amount to chaos on the dancefloor, and
then towards the end, there are a few bass swells which seem to have come
straight out of a Hans Zimmer soundtrack. This is how the piece – and the EP –
ends: on a suitably epic tone.
So it certainly feels like Jamie
Berry is trying to go in a bit of a new direction here. Not an entirely
different direction by any means – the style is still instantly recognisable as
his – but these tracks definitely have a bit more of an explorative feel to
them. He seems to be becoming more comfortable stepping outside of his usual
formula, and getting away from the standard house sound. And all this is of
course very welcome – he’s been creating house-based electro swing for almost a
decade now, and can demonstrably do a fine job of whichever subgenre he turns
his hand to. Thus, this release is an excellent addition to his catalogue, and
will delight any of those Berry fans who pay attention, both old and new.
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