Electronic musician and producer RP Boo was already in his 40s when his debut album, Legacy, dropped in 2013, preceded by more than a decade of singles which helped establish Chicago’s footwork genre. Legacy Volume 2 continues the curation of his output from that period, gathering previously unreleased tracks recorded between 2002 and 2007.
Rather than using digital software, Boo constructs his music entirely with old-fashioned equipment: a Roland drum machine and Akai MPC sampler. Some of the samples are immediately recognizable: “UnderD-Stat” bites the theme from the ’60s animated TV series Underdog, while “Heavy Heat” uses the same horns, originally taken from Ifukube Akira’s theme from Godzilla vs. Mothra, as Pharoahe Monch’s 1999 classic “Simon Says.”
Central to Boo’s process is his merging of samples in dense and abrasive ways, with individual sounds having an exponential effect. Instead of sticking to a steady rhythm during each track, Boo loops vocal samples until they take on a mechanical menace. Structuring a song like this without it turning into a mass of noise requires virtuoso technique, which Boo has in spades.
Especially of note, Boo channels James Brown’s legacy of treating every instrument like a drum, which is given a sci-fi edge on certain tracks, like the foreboding “Eraser.” That track is relatively spare, combining snippets of a woman singing, “Live or let die,” and men saying, “Fuck that, burn ‘em all,” with a fairly slow beat punctuated by quick drum fills.
Footwork’s lack of melody and unusual juxtapositions can make the genre exciting in short bursts but grating at album length. But Boo’s feel for constructing a track without the usual reliance on hooks and verse-chorus-verse structure, or even just creating loops with rhythmic variation, holds up throughout Legacy Volume 2. As songs progress, their samples are chopped up ever more tightly, with drums and voices wrapped into sharp coils.
Many of Boo’s ideas seem counterintuitive, but they work because they clash. He often layers two different styles on top of each other or pairs sweetly sung vocals with a dark electronic soundscape. Voices, dialogue, and fragments of guitar and horns are juxtaposed in a way that suggests they’re in conversation with one another. Boo turns footwork’s roots—hip-hop, house, IDM, and drum ‘n’ bass—and spins them into something that sounds like a totally new language.
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