Sidestepper is a lesson about getting lost in music. Richard Blair was a rising producer in the U.K., working with Peter Gabriel's Real World sound factory and a host of international stars when he took a fateful detour to Bogota, Colombia, back in 1992. Thinking he'd spend a few months, Blair...
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Sidestepper is a lesson about getting lost in music. Richard Blair was a rising producer in the U.K., working with Peter Gabriel's Real World sound factory and a host of international stars when he took a fateful detour to Bogota, Colombia, back in 1992. Thinking he'd spend a few months, Blair tarried in Colombia for three years, transformed the local music scene, and then returned to the U.K. under the nom-du-club Sidestepper and did the same to London's percolating drum 'n' bass scene.
Sidestepper is 21st century salsa, drum n bass direct from the developing world. Imagine the heat of Latin club shot through with endorphin rush of junglist clatter or the boom of a drum 'n' bass session deepened with tropical percussion and horns. Forget what you heard Sidestepper is the real Latin boom.
Beat junkies already know that the Sidestepper story begins with the sui generis singles "Maine" and "Logozo", the mighty 12-inches that brought Latin fire to the dancehall. More Grip takes Blair's vision further, wrapping vocals and live instruments around his devastating bass lines. Featuring some of Colombias most lethal singers and players like Aterciopelados vocalist Andrea Echeverri and Carlos Vives songwriter/Bloque vocalist Ivan Benavides, More Grip does for Latin music what Bristol prophets Massive Attack and Roni Size did for R&B and hip-hop.
In 1999, Sidestepper was transformed from a solo electronic project with a full band beginning to play live. Sidestepper played extensively in Europe during 2000 and 2001. 2003 saw the release of '3am in beats we trust', and a live band based in Bogota that has toured the US, and continues to play in Colombia and abroad.
On ferocious More Grip tracks like "La Bara" and "Linda Manigua," Sidestepper continues the reinvention of Latin music with subsonic bass and state-of-the-art production smarts. Where so much of todays Latin music is formulaic salsa romantica, Sidesteppers tough rhythms conjure up the spirits of bad boys like Eddie Palmieri, Willie Colon, and Larry Harlow. At same time, Blair and co. remind dnb jocks that the beats don't have to get soft to be progressive.
It goes without saying that you can't make Sidestepper's music without living it; you've gotta walk the walk and talk the talk. Richard Blair was no tourist. Living in Colombia's crowded, rainy capital, he learned the language, soaked up the nightlife and fell in with some of the country's most forward-thinking musicians. Blair produced and engineered pivotal albums by the pop vallenato superstar Carlos Vives and pioneering rockers Aterciopelados, becoming a catalyst for Colombian music at a time when artists were fusing Latin roots with modern sounds. Blair knew both his introduction to Colombian rhythms was producing the dynamic Afro-Colombian percussion ensemble of Toto La Momposina for Real World.
Having already set two musical revolutions in motion, Sidestepper's unique mission continues on More Grip. Salsa and drum 'n' bass will never be the same. Heading out to the club? Pack sunscreen.
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20 Songs, only $14.99
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