For the latest edition of Soundtrack To My Life, we talked to Mumdance about awkward drum programming, break beats and listening to happy hardcore at the back of the bus. The ten tracks Mumdance has chosen for this list, chart his progression through listening to hardcore tapes through to garage, grime and, ultimately, experimental music, paralleling the progression of his own music. He often talks of having two phases in his career. The first being the club-friendly 8-bar grime bangers associated with what he calls his "Mad Decent era", through to the more melancholic, downbeat productions.
One defining characteristic feature of Jack Adams' music is the desire to unite. Whether he's uniting disparate factions in a club, juxtaposing styles and genres in his music or simply juxtaposing ideas against one another – that motif remains a constant. What seems to pervade this interview, and much of Adams' thoughts, is the idea of uniting the high and low-brow without, as he puts it, "being a dickhead." Marrying up his hardcore and jungle roots with the effects-driven experimentalism of avant-garde, shoegaze and drone, is something he admits can be challenging at times, but an endeavour he's determined to master.
Despite the influx of the high-brow, Mumdance's music remains listenable and inviting without a hint of pretension. Scroll through below to see what music left a lasting impression on this future-thinking producer. (He releases his 1 Sec EP with Novelist on January 20 via XL Recordings).
Interview by James Keith (@JamesMBKeith)
4 Hero – "The Elements (Fire & Water Mix)"
Bass Selective – "Blowout Part 2"
Todd Terry f/ Martha Walsh – "Something Going On (Loop Da Loop Downtown Mix)"
187 Lockdown – "Kung Fu"
Digital – "Deadline"
Nasty Habits – "Shadow Boxing"
Wiley – "Wot Do U Call It?"
Oddz & Eastwood – "Champion VIP"
Logos – "Cloudbursting"
"Logos is a man after my own heart. 'Cloudbursting was the first track of his that I heard, and it instantly grabbed my attention. After hearing the song, for the next couple of days, I got talking with Logos; I played him some stuff, he liked it, and that was that. That was about three years ago now. Then, in the first session when he came down, we wrote 'In Reverse' and 'Drum Boss' together and just kept banging out tunes. But if I hadn't heard this tune right here, I wouldn't have got in touch with him and I wouldn't be where I am today."