THE STORY BEHIND: Sugalumps EP
I've decided to start a new section for this blog named "The Story Behind" which is meant to detail how and why some of my own musical work was made, along with various interesting bits and anecdotes from the production process. To start this section off, I have decided to write about my first EP Sugalumps, which is turning a year old next week.
INTRODUCTION:
The entire EP was produced on ProTracker 2.3, a music program from January 1993 built for the Amiga (a series of computers that became popular with musicians and creatives in the late 80s and early 90s) and ProTracker is known for its limitations - 4 channels of mono 8 bit audio, only 31 samples are allowed and there are barely any mixing controls provided. To add, it also relies entirely on different counting systems and complex commands.
I wanted to make an EP using ProTracker to challenge myself, as I had been making music for two to three years using various music programs such as BandLab, GarageBand and FL Studio and I wanted to do something a little more unique for my first body of released work.
So, I began learning ProTracker in March 2023 - and after a few months of tinkering and making stupidly awful music - I got my head down and recorded Sugalumps between June and August of that year.
SAMPLES AND SOUNDS:
During the production of Sugalumps, I was listening to a lot of heavy jungle and rave records from 1992-1995 and also a lot of ProTracker music files (called MODs) from various musicians in the scene. Most of the samples used in Sugalumps were taken directly from these MODs. often giving off a gritty, raw sound which none of my other collections of work emit as frequently.
This is why the sample list is so big for Sugalumps - the amount of scavenging I did for sounds from MODs was very evident. The first track F303 (a quick happy hardcore jam made specifically to give the EP a little more bounce) has eight samples - all of them have a raw, gritty and slightly uncompromising sound - nothing on that track sounds polished or of a studio quality. This is because I wanted to make the EP very authentic.
However, that didn't mean I limited myself either.
At the same time, I was collecting a lot of cheap vinyl from local record stores to mix and play around with. I bought all of my wax at that time blindly - seeing as most shops I went to never had listening decks, I often resorted to going to certain areas to find bargain bin house, breaks, hip hop and sample material.
One of the tunes I bought blindly was a white label by a relatively unknown house producer called West 1, and it was called Let The World Know. After seeing it a few times, I gave in and bought it for about £2 along with various other 12 inch singles.
When I got home - I was pleasantly surprised and when spinning it I found a sweet piano sample about two and a half minutes in. This would become the main melody for the EP's final track Hit Em'.
Here's what I turned it into...
So, yeah! That's one of the main secrets about how Hit Em' was made. I'm still incredibly proud of the track and I also am proud of the amount of replay ability it has (I even did a sweet jungle remix of it back in December 2023)
The other majorly prevalent sample in Sugalumps is in the EP's third track "Nine Five Two Five" - the iconic prison warden sample that appears several times in the track.
Those that know their hip hop well will know it is a sample from the opening to Ice Cube's incredible 1992 album The Predator - an album which at the time was on consistent rotation for me. It is originally from American film American Me, however I directly ripped the dialogue from the opening to the Predator, so I personally credit that.
(Also, Ice Cube is still one of my favourite rappers ever. No questions asked.)
That's all of the samples, folks.
As always, much respect and credit to the original artists!
OTHER THINGS AND ODDITIES:
As with most of my work, there are strange things and odd trinkets that usually don't see the light of day. This can range from early cover art, to unfinished work to random stories. In this case, there are two pieces of work which are unfinished - both of them are MOD files and they were both made during the production of Sugalumps.
One of them was called Home Taping Kills (a play on words of the campaign the BFI did in the 80s to try and combat music piracy) and I ultimately ditched the track in the end after doing about a minute of it. Besides, it was only a simple drum loop and some bleepy noises taken from various jungle tracks by musician Celsius.
The second piece of work was just named Ambiendt - it was a temporary name for something that just never made the cut. It was a looping pattern of a simple warm pad and some drums. I got busy with other tracks, particularly Nine Five Two Five and Hit Em'.
TRIVIA:
OK, here are some of the deep cuts - the things that until now, no one else is aware of (apart from close friends and, possibly others if you looked really closely!)
- Hit Em' was the first fully completed track on the EP - it was completed in mid-July.
- Sugalumps was supposed to be an album - when I had completed Hit Em', it was supposed to be the first track in a ten track album called The Amiga Project LP which I ditched in favor of an EP.
- Nine Five Two Five was originally called Ain't No One Talkin'.
- I finished Chicago Fires the night before the EP was released (August 7th) after I pulled it out of development limbo (it was never meant to be finished!)
- Chicago Fires was started in mid June, after I produced YEOW! (another single of mine, also produced on ProTracker)
- I made two versions of the cover art - on the SoundCloud version, you can faintly see a stock image of ProTracker running at the bottom of the cover. This is absent on Bandcamp.
- I released Sugalumps on YouTube twelve days after it was initially released on streaming services.
Here is the cover art - you should be able to notice a difference.
Bandcamp
SoundCloud
CONCLUSION:
So, that is it, everyone! Now you know the ins and outs of my first EP. I hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I've enjoyed writing it. It was great to look back on such great memories of such a great time for me.
Thanks for reading,
Hackurr
PS - You can find the EP here!
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