A track where I deviate away from my usual soft melodies and orchestral elements... drifting a loooong way from there, in the direction of Phonk.
What the phuck is Phonk? Well, Wikipedia states:
Phonk is a subgenre of hip hop and trap music directly inspired by 1990s Memphis rap. The style is characterized by vocals from old Memphis rap tapes and samples from early 1990s hip hop. The genre draws from the dark, distortive techniques of the chopped and screwed sound.
Phonk is great. Really great - I love it. The dirty distortion, grungy beats and pulsing grooves caught my attention immediately when I first heard the genre (check out Kordhell's Scopin or Land of Fire as great examples.)
Naturally, I figured I'd have a go at creating a phonk-inspired track myself. I can't really call the result 'Phonk', because being brutally honest, this track fails. That's not to say it's not worth releasing or talking about, no, not at all. It's not bad in and of itself. But I don't think it's groovy or greasy or dirty enough to be true phonk. So I fell a bit short of my original goal.
Producing a track like this was certainly great fun. Distortion plugins, layering the drums with distorted samples, using a lot of envelope shaping to get the pumping effect.. all a far cry away from what I usually fiddle about with. As I was doing it, I firmly thought I didn't want to go too crazy. Listening back, now, I didn't go crazy enough.
So, yeah. Not bad, but I've got a way to go before I truly embrace the phonk.
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