Deep-Diving The Todd Edwards Bandcamp Dump
On Friday 26 January 2024, I received a Bandcamp notification innocuously titled “New releases from 4 To The Floor” — 4 To The Floor being the Defected reissues sub-label curated by Classic Music co-founder Luke Solomon. I had previously bought Terrence Parker’s ‘Spiritual Warfare’ from the label’s first compilation and enjoyed playing this relatively straightforward house tune at various parties, including, from memory, Gimme A Reason in NOLA. Little did I know that this small chain of events, and that innocuous notification, would lead me to take on one of the most challenging tasks I’ve ever set myself:
"New releases" — plural — is what the notification said, and it wasn't joking around. I counted around 60 in total excluding duplicates, and I think we can forgive whichever Defected intern got lumbered with the task of putting all of this on Bandcamp for accidentally uploading some of them more than once. (Incidentally, while writing this I discovered that this digital dump of Todd's remastered i! Records releases actually took place back in 2021, ten years after he'd regained the rights to them from the label. It's possible this was the first time the releases got put up for download rather than streaming.)
Now I'm obviously a Todd Edwards fan. Who isn't? As we all know, Todd is responsible for unwittingly inventing UKG from across the pond (his remix of Sound Of One’s ‘As I Am’ came out in 1993, if you can believe it), and ‘Face To Face’ (2001), which he co-produced with Daft Punk and features his own vocals, is one of the best songs of the 00s. And his full name is Todd Edwards IMPERATRICE, so obviously he’s not someone to be fucked with.
But it has to be said, more than once I've heard the tell-tale tic of a Todd E vocal cut-up and cringed a little inside. For example, one of my favourite DJ mixes of all time, an amazing blend of US house and UKG recorded by Charlie TTB back in 2010, features no less than four Todd Edwards tunes in it, but at least one of them — the dub of 'Shut The Door' (2001) — I find difficult to even listen to. The line between creative genius and drilling a technical trick into the ground can be a thin and dangerous one, and Todd is no exception. So as I clicked on the first release on the Bandcamp list I wasn't quite sure what my reaction would be. I didn't have to wait long to find out: within 15 seconds of the vocals starting up I almost instinctively pressed 'stop'.
You might think that developing an almost pathological animosity to Todd’s classic cut-up vocals within 15 seconds of listening to them might be something of a barrier to deep-diving his oeuvre. You might question the cost-benefit of committing to such a painful undertaking without knowing what you'll get in return. And you’d be right. But, I thought to myself, if Luke Solomon had seen fit to put all of these tunes out there in one go, it must be because a good proportion of them were worth the time of day. Right? Well, I can tell you upfront that there were moments writing this when I wanted to claw my ears off the sides of my head just so I would never have to hear a pitchbent clip of someone going "ah" or "eee" ever again. And don’t even get me started on "ooh".
So, having now listened to all 60 releases in the 4 To The Floor Todd Edwards Dump, my appraisal pretty much boils down to: “70% completely forgettable/20% basically unlistenable/10% mindblowingly good”. Let me break that down for you.
The features of the ‘70% completely forgettable’ category are, as the name suggests, difficult to capture in words. These tracks sound like what you’d expect a Todd Edwards algorithm to produce if you fed it everything he’d ever made and asked it to play it safe on the next one. The beats skip, the vocals chop, the basslines walk, God is more-or-less-obliquely praised. To mark the upper limit of this category in terms of quality we could pick a fun but ultimately disposable track like ‘You Are Wonderful’ (2004), while the bottom limit could be marked by any number of other less-fun and even-more-disposable tracks that I can't remember to save my life.
The ‘20% basically unlistenable’ category is where things get much more interesting, if not morbidly fascinating. This motley crew stretches from "algorithmic Todd but with a slight malfunction" — for example, the clunky-then-tinkly ‘My Family’ (2004), which sounds like a cathedral gift shop music box gone horribly wrong — to some fully batshit outliers that I’ll get to in more detail below. To be honest, the longer you listen to Todd's tunes the more the ‘unlistenable’ category expands, until it becomes almost all-encompassing. There is definitely a feeling that after you’ve heard the first minute and a half of a Todd Edwards tune, you’ve pretty much heard it all, and the next four and a half minutes are going to be a rinse and repeat with ever diminishing returns. This is categorically not music that rewards binge listening.
Then there's the '10% mindblowingly good'. Of course, this percentage might look a little mean in the light of Todd's towering contribution to dance music, and I have considered whether I'm underselling the proportion of mindblowingly good music that Todd has made over the course of his whole career. After all, this is only a 60-release sample taken from the period 1995-2005, with a few newer tracks tacked on the end, so it's not exactly representative of his life's work. That being said, as I slogged through the years I did identify a clear trend of declining quality post-2000, so I would take an educated guess that there aren't that many more mindblowingly good tunes hiding in his output since 2005. (Though this review of his 2006 full-length Odyssey, for example, begs to differ.)
Anyway, to save you all from having to go through what I've gone through these past weeks, out of all of the "aahs" and "eees" and even "oohs" on the 4 To The Floor bandcamp I've settled on sharing four mindblowingly good releases and four that I consider largely unlistenable. You might go through this and thank me for my dedication and good taste. But you might also listen and ask yourselves what the hell is Joe going on about, he really needs to get his ears checked out, doesn't he realise that 'I Love Liverpool' is a modern classic? In which case I invite you to take up the challenge yourself, if you're mad enough.
First up, the absolute smangers!
Todd Edwards - New Trend's Sound EP [i! Records, 1995]
According to his RBMA interview, Todd's earliest records were made using only original hardware sounds until producer James Bratton encouraged him to start using samples, especially of drums, which is something Todd credits with beefing up his tracks. At the time he was also looking to Marc Kinchen aka MK's vocal cut-up approach and Masters At Work's shuffly house beats as influences, but trying to create something new of his own. By applying the sampling logic to vocals and using them as instruments and not merely as adornment — something for which he credits Enya as an inspiration — he hit on a formula that would serve him for the next 10 years and beyond.
All of these elements are in resplendent effect on the New Trend's Sound EP, Todd's first full set of tracks on i! Records. Released in 1995, the EP ranged from the extravagant yet pious overture-meets-carnival 'Radio Thing' to the floaty 'Can't You Believe' and the eerie, spacious 'Never Ever Far'. The fact that the latter track falls closer to contemporaries Smack Productions or Jovonn gives a good illustration of where Todd was coming from and where he was going.
('Can't You Believe' also hints at where Todd's music was going without him, that is, over the pond: his microsample of Grover Washington would itself be nicked by London's R.I.P. Productions to become the unmistakable hook on their 1997 UKG milestone 'Jump'.)
Todd Edwards - Push The Love (Dub) [i! Records, 1997]
Immaculate stripped-down Todd on the dub here. From the detail of the miniature guitar riffs to the call-and-response between the warped, almost speed-garagey bassline and the syncopated snare, it’s all reduced to the absolute essence. When some vocals do appear towards the back half of the track they're remarkably restrained for Todd, giving an extra joyful push to an already upbeat instrumental.
Sunshine Bros – I Need Someone (Just Like You) / In The Groove [i! Records, 1998]
Often the weird intonation of Todd's cyclical mantras can fall on the wrong side of palatable — try tracks like ‘Never Far From You’ or ‘Wishing I Were Home’ and see if you don't agree with me. On ‘I Need Someone (Just Like You)’, though, he stays the right side of the line, teasing out a lyricism in the title without it ever beginning to grate.
Weirdly, one of the things that the sharp-edged ‘In The Groove’ most reminds me of is ‘Flat Beat’ by Mr Oizo, a full year before the fact. French producers were of course paying a lot of attention to Todd around this time (he was one of the 'Teachers' that Daft Punk shouted out in 1997), so I don't think it's beyond the realm of possibility that this was going round Mr Oizo's head while he was in the studio with Flat Eric.
Todd Edwards - ‘Without Samples’ [i! Records, 2000]
This is FIRE. If we take Todd at his word that this is sample-free, then I can only say I wish he’d used this approach more often. The absence of vocals allows you to get sucked into the interplay of the beat and keys and those strange overdriven tones without any distraction. The metallic edge to the track makes it really stand out from everything else here — it's kind of funny the first time you hear it, then gradually turns more unhinged with exposure. Rave face in full effect with this one.
And now time for the what-was-he-thinking clangers!
Todd Edwards - Thank You (Vocal Whisper Dub) [4 To The Floor, 2021]
It seems that Todd returned to 'Thank You' (2003) especially for this 4 To The Floor dump, giving it a new 'Whisper' vocal and dub treatment. The original is completely unmemorable; the 'Whisper' versions, however, are much worse. They actually start off really well, the bouncy bassline, vocal and lead pinging off each other promisingly. Unfortunately this turns out to be a bait and switch, as Todd then hits us with a fully garbled vocal that contorts into ever more pained spirals as the track progresses.
Todd Edwards - Never Leave [i! Records, 2003]
The sound of Todd as you're just falling into a k-hole, this tune appeared on the same 2003 compilation as the original 'Thank You'. Again it starts off promisingly, before a 'Bolero'-like flute motif comes in and the wheels start coming off. The arrival of the vocals seals the deal and all I want to do is lock myself in a toilet cubicle until the nightmare is over.
Todd Edwards — Stop The Fighting [i! Records, 2003]
2003 was clearly an odd year for Todd and this track sits squarely in the 'batshit outliers' category. For a track I'm classifying as unlistenable I sure have listened to it plenty of times, but that's because I'm desperate to work out what's going on. I actually think there's an incredible hi-NRG tune inside 'Stop The Fighting' that's just bursting to get out? Give it a properly stomping 1984 disco beat and up the drama on Todd's platitudinous vox with some fanfares and fills and you'd have yourself a Saint-style stormer. Unfortunately, without that sense of theatre, Todd's drums and vocals sound embarrassingly plain and the track falls flat on its face.
Todd Edwards - I Love Liverpool (AKA I Remember Liverpool) [Defected, 2021]
Another 2021 dump exclusive, this is the shining jewel in the unlistenable crown, a track that delves so far into the realms of the ridiculous that it almost comes out the other side as a work of genius. Almost.
First, the context:
This was a track I was going to use as an intro for my Liverpool gig, but unfortunately my four city tour was cancelled by a volcano in Iceland. Anyway, here's my track, I Love Liverpool — Todd Edwards
That Todd made a track expressly to open a single gig in Liverpool tells you something about the man. He's clearly an absolute sweetheart. But that's no excuse for visiting this particular indignity on the world, let alone Liverpool. It combines all of the worst traits of Todd's mid-period work, from excessive sampling to dodgy harmonic choices to incessant repetition.
With apologies to the denizens of Liverpool, it's safe to say that Icelandic volcano knew exactly what it was doing.
Postscript!
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