"[He] did all the drum programming on our tracks".
(Drum programming, for instance, is no longer the heresy it seemed 15 years ago).
Pete Rock's drum programming had a really natural feel, like jazz; it sounds elegant but tough.
Unlike a lot of modern game shows, it was great - crazy Giorgio Moroder basslines, filtered horn sounds, tasty drum programming.
So there are lots of moments in my early work where it's like, "Check out my fancy drum programming, and check out this technique".
"Ritual" expands the sonic palette a bit, with more synthesizers and drum programming — we're edging into Tears for Fears territory now — but its dimensions are basically the same.
Produced mostly by Teddy Riley, the tracks are fiendishly intricate, loaded with scratching, multiple layers of drum programming, and shiny smashes of hyper-artificial brass.
To quote your grandma, he's brought the weather with him too: James trades in sunny Balearica, with florid, jazzy chords swooping through fat boogie drum programming.
(The album was produced by Cole Marsden Greif-Neill, a k a Cole MGN, Ms. Gonzalez's husband, who's also responsible for the drum programming and a lot of the synthesizers).
That's his subtly martial drum programming on "Animal Games," a post-breakup song that begins with this metaphorical jab: "Your heart is like a dough/You shape it how you want".
The frisky "Won't You Come Over" is enlivened by a chiming xylophone and incessant drumming, and its brooding companion piece, "Won't You Come Home," uses synthesizers and understated drum programming to enhance its sulky mood.
