OMNI TRIO – “Step Off”
I’ve been in a time warp for the past week. Yes, this year has been brilliant, Ludicrus is mighty, Missy knocked out the box, Kelly Rowland’s solo single is mint, The Clipse are excellent, blah blah blah blah; I’ve spent the past two days at work going off my nut to the “Mystic Stepper” EP and remembering those grand college days when my main requirements for music were a storming breakbeat and sine-wave synth lines mixed in with chipmunk samples and big thumping fuck-off bass lines. I really wanted tracks like this to take over the world; screw melody, screw harmonic structure, just give me some bangin’ thematic sections sequenced together based on a “maximize-the-boogie” algorithm, supported by a stuttering, syncopated beat chopped up and shredded until it’s barely recognizable. Big beat started us down this road, but forgot its roots and got all melodic and songy. Where is the legacy promised by Omni Trio, Acen, early Prodigy, Altern8, Sonz of a Loop da Loop Era, D’Cruze, Boogie Times Tribe, Austin, Blame, 2 Bad Mice, early 4 Hero, Cloud 9, Hyper-On Experience, Yolk, Krome and Time, The House Crew, and all those other greats? Who’s got the tempos to go with the bleeps to go with the riddims? I must be officially old because I want my golden age back.