Kid Kenobi and Hook ‘n’ Sling, normally known for producing quality party rocking breaks with enough depth and substance to appease the chinstrokers, have teamed up for Hussle Black to produce a bowel-shaking, arse-wiggling, wall-smashing electro house cut, “The Bump”, with Tonite Only on the remix duties on the flip side. And with DJ support from the likes of James Zabiela and Rogue Element, you know it’s going to be worth having a listen to this one at your local record store.

The original is pure brilliance. This is seriously high quality electro house, which is a real rarity these days. Everything you need in a dancefloor destroying tune is right here: heavy beats, crunchy percussion, and a bassline that will make you crap your pants (seriously). The intro is long enough for any DJ, and that’s not much of a surprise given both these fellows spend plenty of time behind the decks, so they know how to make a DJ friendly tune. The intro leads in to a short breakdown featuring just the bassline, before the kick is brought back in, but it’s not until an excellent cut-up synth acts as a drop does the track really start working its magic. The insanely massive bassline is matched perfectly by the thumping kick, raspy percussion, and some ridiculously over the top squeaks, bleeps and squelches. But what really is the highlight of this tune is how Kenobi and Sling keep the track interesting: every 4 bars the bassline is twisted up in a new and more head-caving way than the last time, and quirky little synth stabs, short builds and wash effects signal it’s time for the next drop. The second breakdown eventually follows, and it’s more ridiculous than the first. The bassline somehow manages to be turned into a wobbly, bubbly wall of noise, before slowly being brought back in as a fuzzy, buzz saw styled bassline, which is almost drowned out by the high pitched synth washes and thumping single kicks used as the build. The drop is even more massive than the first time, with the bassline returning to its snaky rhythm, but intensified ten fold, for a brief period, before then turning in to a single drone which is slowly made higher and higher pitched, acting as an outro for the track. As I said, pure brilliance.

Tonite Only are on the remix duties on the flip, but unfortunately don’t even come close to Kid Kenobi and Hook ‘n’ Sling’s effort. The original is just that damn good almost anything sounds average by comparison, but even still, this remix falls pretty short of the mark anyway. It’s just uninspiring and cheesey. While Kenobi and Sling’s original is a dancefloor friendly cut, it has a certain something that gives it some substance, finesse and originality; Tonite Only’s remix just sounds like every other electro house track out there. Starting off with a breakbeat intro using some sounds from the original that have been warped almost beyond recognition, the track eventually drops in to a melodic breakdown. Once it finally gets underway it’s really nothing special. A pretty stock standard stabby electro-house bassline is offset by a few womps from the original bassline, and some synth stabs that sound like telephones having seizures bleep away in the background. A second breakdown the same as the first eventually makes an appearance, and when the track drops back in, it’s just noisey to the point of being annoying. There’s a fine line between cleverly arranging lots of elements that push the boundaries of musicality and just throwing together a whole bunch of strange noises and having it come off sounding like a computer having a seizure, and this redefines stepping over that line. The one bonus is there’s a long outro for the DJs who choose to play this, but I’m not sure why you would when the original makes this look like child’s play.

Overall, this is worth the money just for the original mix alone. Kid Kenobi and Hook ‘n’ Sling have produced a top notch, quality electro house tune guaranteed to work dancefloors without resorting to sounding like every other noisy electro house track out there, a real rarity these days.