Sam Binga Shares His 5 Most Cherishable Dance Music Albums

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Sam Binga Shares His 5 Most Cherishable Dance Music Albums

Ahead of his highly anticipated return to our shores, we got to have a yarn with the UK lord Sam Binga to find out what  his favourite classic dance music albums are, what it is  he loves about them and whether or not they helped in the moulding of his own sound.

Sam Binga kicks off his Aus & NZ tour next week. To add to the hype, we have an exclusive mix from the man himself, courtesy of the crew at COLOURS.

Check it out below, as well as your dates.

  • 12 May, Christchurch, Darkroom
  • 13 May, Melbourne, Grumpy’s
  • 14 May, Auckland, Cassette Nine
  • 20 May, Perth, Flyrite
  • 21 May, Sydney Plan B

1. Photek – Modus Operandi

I only bought this because I read a review of it in a copy of Sidewalk Surfer (the UK’s homegrown skate mag, which I guess had just got started by the time this album came out). Anyway, the review made it sound amazing, so I bought it on CD without knowing anything at all about it, least of all what it sounded like, and had my mind blown. I was listening to it the other day, however many years later, and still heard some details that I hadn’t clocked before. ‘KJZ’ is my favourite drum workout of all time. Get the drums right and I’m good, really.

2. Richie Hawtin – Decks, EFX & 909

Gotta be a contender for the greatest mix album of all time, and the first time I heard Rhythm & Sound ‘Never Tell You’, which is my all time favourite dub techno tune. I remember when I was at uni, I lent this to a housemate who was more into guitar type stuff, and he said he thought it was great until after about half an hour he realised it wasn’t one long evolving tune, but ‘loads of really simple ones stitched together’ – at which point he decided it was shit. We had a massive (and unrelated) falling out after that, but still – strange way to judge something which works so well as a full experience. Still listen to this regularly – it’s hypnotic, funky, tense, melancholy, and totally involving. Also great drums.

3. Bjork – Debut / Post / Homogenic

I’ve got to admit that after these first three albums, I kinda stopped checking Bjork, which is foolish, but it’s been so long now and I don’t know if I can commit myself… Plus I really hated ‘The Hidden Place’ which was the first single off ‘Vespertine’ and I’m not sure I’ve got over it yet. I’ve also just realised that this was supposed to be ‘dance albums’ but I’ve been writing about ‘electronic albums’ so maybe they shouldn’t be here at all, but who cares – this is electronic music with a dance production sensibility done to perfection. No matter what your gender or sexual orientation, if you haven’t fallen in love with Bjork at some point in your life, you might not have a soul. Consistently good drums as well, now I come to think of it.

4. Fila Brazilla – Mess

Definitely more for the afterclub than the club, so again probably missing the point of choosing ‘dance music albums’, this made a huge impact on me as a teenager – mostly because it came from Hull, the small, literally-end-of-the-trainline town that I grew up in, right on the east coast of East Yorkshire, in the North East. At the time I could hardly afford to buy music, so I sat with this album on loop and absorbed it to such a thorough degree – I think that’s something you have to really make time for as you get older, that space for intense immersion into an album. Anyway, I’ve got this on in the background now, and I’m still loving the slightly roughly hewn, dusty charm Steve Cobby and Dave McSherry pulled together here. I met Steve in Croatia a few years back, and we compared notes on having studios in odd places – he’s rocking the ‘Shedio’, which is fairly self-explanatory, and my attempts to operate out of a ‘Ludio’ (i.e. I commandeered the lounge for my studio) for a while led me to split up with a long term girlfriend. PS: more great drums here, of the live variety.

5. Rhythm & Sound – Showcase

Better writers than me have wiffled on about the understated genius of Moritz von Oswald and Mark Ernestus, so I won’t go into too much detail here, other than to say this is a great introduction into the muted, hiss-drenched, repetitive world of dub techno, where subtle changes to the phasing on an echoed snare drum somehow combines with the slightest change to the filter on a minor chord to create immersive perfection. This is still my go-to album for the flight home after a gig. Simple, but perfect drums.

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