As I’ve mentioned in the past, Scion‘s involvement with the American electronic and hiphop music scene is a little bit of a dubious one. On one hand, they are a freaking car company. They make cars. Vroom vroom four wheels, etc etc.
On the other hand, for the last year or so, the company has sponsored a wide range of online radio stations hosted by some of the bigger names across many different genres, from UK Garage to hiphop to metal. Additionally, they’ve brought names like Roy Davis Jr, Dj Craze, and Blu Jemz to Kansas City.
While the company has released several compilations intended to promote these shows, they’ve also recently moved into publishing more cohesive releases along the lines of the Dub Police label sampler, a Pelican ep, the Ghostface Killah remix project, or last year’s remix package for Japanese noise-metal trio Boris that featured Nosaj Thing, Optimo, and New Jersey’s long-standing garridge master, Todd Edwards.
The label looks to Edwards for its latest release with the I Might Be ep. The original take on “I Might Be” is pretty much what you’d expect from Todd Edwards at this point – skippy 2-step beats, cut up synths, and an uplifting vocal that is unfortunately just too sugary for its own good. The guy has been doing more or less this same sound to great effect for well over a decade now, and admittedly by now it’s something most listeners are either going to love or hate. There’s no questioning the man’s influence on dance music, especially in the UK.
We might have Scion’s corporate backing to thank for introducing more American listeners to Joy Orbison, who here autotunes the vocals to decent effect, straightens up Edward’s 2-step gallop a fair amount, and makes the whole thing a little more luscious-sounding thanks to a stripped-down approach to the arrangement. The bassline somehow manages to sound both smooth and chunky at the same time, and while this might not be the young producer’s most imaginative work to date, it does show that even his more vanilla offerings are going to be worth taking note of.
The label cash comes through with another winner, this time with the resurging MJ Cole. Cole has a history that stretches back almost as far as Todd Edwards’, and is undoubtedly among the vanguard of the UK Garage/2-Step movement that owed so much of its initial formation to Edwards’ early releases. Because their sounds come from such similar palettes, it’s quite easy to hold both the original and Cole’s mix up to the same light and see the shared genetics – again, the snared third beat (albeit less skippy), chopped up synths, and infectious energy are all present. Cole manages to upstage Edwards here though by using the vocal as a multi-pitched sample layered in over a more atmospheric approach to the synths that more mirrors Joy Orbison’s mix than the original.
The package is rounded out with two more versions. First up is a mix from “dance band” My Dear Disco that is more suited for the dance tent at Wakarusa or some other Birkenstock-sponsored nonsense aimed at the incidental, inconsiderate listener who probably doesn’t care too much about what’s going in their ears. Lastly is a mix from FEADZ, who is yet another artist associated with the Ed Banger crowd that I wish I could have avoided hearing – it’s the sort of thing that defines the lowest common denominator in dance music and sounds like the tripe generally played in the shiny-shirt clubs around town where people still care about things like Winter Music Conference or not being able to count to four. Neither of these mixes works for several reasons, but the most glaring is the attachment to the original vocal.
I’m cautious about encouraging Scion on these things, but so far the signal to noise ratio has been surprisingly decent. It seems that the label only has two speeds – quality and crap – and it would be nice to see a little more of the previous and a whole lot less of the latter. The encouraging aspect is the possibility of the artists the label features, such as Todd Edwards or MJ Cole or be-still-my-beating-heart Joy Orbison, making a sponsored tour stop in Kansas City.