i negotiated my way into the amorphous belly of the beast we call ‘electro’ via a circuitous, and at times frankly embarrassing path through the past decade of dance music (i may, or may not own a wide variety of ministry of sound and gatecrasher trance compilations circa 1999. i was 14. AND SO FUCKING AWESOME). but my most recent pre-electro love was the similarly loose ‘breaks’ phenomenon, a hodge podge of different influences which combined rolling basslines with non-4 to the floor beats rolling out at ~135 bpm to great effect. think slowed down drum’n'bass without the sweat drenched junglist e-tards. of course this wasn’t so much a phenomenon as a phase, because, as far as i can tell, breaks had about three or four good years in it before it too was largely absorbed by the vanguard of the electro onslaught. tragedy. of a sort.

this merge, somewhat predictably, led to a fairly turgid period of electro-shouse knock-offery. but amidst the mediocrity of these side-to-side stepathons there were still artists of integrity (or somesuch) producing chunky as electro-breaks crossover tunes and 25 year-old ben medcalf a.k.a. the rogue element was one of them. a fact which prevented that sentence from being profoundly redundant. overall it’s kinda rocky stuff with hard, grinding synth lines and heavy bass kicks, so it probably ain’t gonna float the boat of your first year uni goon’n'grope parties, but unleashing these tasty treats in that post 3 am charger phase is definitely going to win you friends and influence people.

first up in today’s tasting plate is his latest tune with long-time collaborator and live-in lover (actually, scratch that) tom real, entitled ‘machine’. it’s a slow-building growler, but when it drops at the end i start getting a bit yelly. in a good way. it’s out on passenger, and can be procured for the price of a red bull from beatport, or, for the price of a boutique beer, on vinyl from the passenger shop.

Tom Reel and Rogue Element – Machine

next up is his somewhat unlikely remix of english rocker group the broken family band’s tune ‘love your man, love your woman’, a heavy as hell stomper which has as much to do with the original as i do with mango. it can, and should, be picked up from trackitdown.

The Broken Family Band – Love Your Man, Love Your Woman

and finally, i’ve also thrown in his white label remix of the prodigy’s endlessly entertaining ‘girls’, which straightens the original out into a more straight up breaks number, but definitely still has its funk. dig in boys and girls.

The Prodigy – Girls (Rogue Element remix)

-luke