Unique samples in electronic music

Flying Lotus’ “Unexpected Delight” (sample of Tito Puente – “Call of the Jungle Birds”)

Even on his debut album Flying Lotus was making unique sample choices. In a shift from the subtle beat-centered tracks, 1983 closes with this unusual pairing between Laura Darlington’s languid guest vocal and a simple but entrancing space-age/jazz sample from the Cuban drummer Tito Puente.

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Unique samples in electronic music

Lukid – “Bless My Heart” (sample of Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King – “Shame”, 1977)

Part of a new column highlighting creative uses of sampling in electronic context.

Lukid’s Lonely At The Top is an example of the huge potential lying in modern electronic music and it’s never-ending connections, through sampling or otherwise, especially when we avoid cliches. Like a mutating creature, it shifts gradually from ferocious water-splashing rhythms (”This Dog Can Swim”) to techno synths shrouded in fog and shattering like glass (“Southpaw”).

One of it’s more emotive songs, “Bless My Heart” makes a distinctive opening by morphing this Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King hit into something both robotic and soulful, emphasizing the shimmer of the e-piano and adding a number of strange (but subtle) down-pitched voices.