Thursday, March 28, 2024

Reese piece


 "Rumblizm: In Praise of the Reese Bass" - an ode to one of the classic rave sounds, originally unleashed by Kevin Saunderson for the Reese track "Just Want Another Chance". 

By Matt M at Lost Tempo 

"While it is comparatively simple to reproduce, the Reese bass sounds less like the product of an instrument than that of a cataclysm. The wave forms seem unstable. The vibrations are not so much heard as felt, the aftermath of a distant earthquake. Even on airpods, you feel it. But it is meant to be felt through a sound system in a club...."








The Reese Weapon - the Casio CZ-5000 synth

                                                                        

"Just Want Another Chance" pops up in Futuromania as it happens, in a piece on acid house:

"On Reese’s ‘Just Want Another Chance’, Detroit producer Kevin Saunderson sets a guttural, Stephen Mallinder-style monologue of desire over the spookiest of Residents synth-drones – an ectoplasmic bassline much slower than the drum track."  

The original 12-inch, which I picked up in New York in early '88 - in a record shop that was half rap, half house -  has three slightly different versions:  all with the same title, undifferentiated by any  subtitle. 





On the flip there's five raw "Rhythm Tracks", almost like grimestrumental "MC tools" but presumably designed as DJ tools.






At the time of Reese, there was no such thing as "Reese Bass"  - it was just one spooky track in a swarm of sinister acid house tunes.

It became "Reese Bass" when it was revived by the junglists, specifically the Man like Ray Keith


I wonder if he sampled it or recreated in on the Casio CZ-5000?

But I don't remember the phrase "Reese Bass" being talked of reverently until this DJ Trace remix of the T-Power track.





Then it propagated and for a while it seemed like you could hear it everywhere. 


Matt follows its half-lives in 2step and dubstep and beyond. 

He also points to this piece by John Hull on the history of the Reese bass. 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Postscript 3/29

Anonymous in comments points to this other Kevin Saunderson use of Reese bass type sounds - an odd lonesome moan-whine!



And another KS track with a wild but different bass-sound



Matt M points to this interview with Ray Keith about Reese and "Terrorist"  - made in Nookie's
 mum' s pantry, in just four hours. Borrows from Kevin Sanderson, but apparently the ambition was to do some on a par with "Strings of Life",



Interview conducted by Zinc. Hark at Ray's Father Christmas beard!


Reese bass later a preset on this synth, the Korg Prophecy, which went on the market in 1995.

2 comments:

Matt M said...

Pretty sure Ray Keith sampled it. Great interview between RK and Zinc here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wxbLLDkHIo&t=322s

So he sampled Reese. Other people sampled him (and were probably sampled in turn). And it was a preset on a Korg Prophecy keyboard

RK's patriarchal beard is an added plus.

SIMON REYNOLDS said...

cool suggestions there Anonymous, I will add them to the piece

also the Ray Keith interview, cheers Matt