TODDLA T

When Toddla T was asked if he fancied the label commissioning producers for a remix album of Watch Me Dance he had a much better idea. He asked two legends of the Sheffield underground music scene – Ross Orton and DJ Pipes to agitate, smash and rebuild his album in the manner of the scene that shaped his sound.

Toddla met Pipes when he was a wide eyed teenager working in a skate shop in Sheffield. Pipes a rough-handed bass hooligan was resident at Scuba and the infamous Kabal parties whilst masquerading as one third of the Desperate Soundsystem with Pulp’s – Cocker and Mackey. Orton and Pipes bonded with the young Master T over a shared love of Dancehall and subterranean bleeps.

A renowned designer as well as DJ – and instrumental in the Sheffield underground music scene for well over a decade – Toddla has described Pipes as his number one inspiration. Orton, meanwhile, in between working on the Toddla T records, was a member of Fat Truckers, the drummer for Jarvis Cocker and, as the Cavemen (with Steve Mackey of Pulp) wrote and produced MIA’s “Galang.” He has also remixed and produced everyone from The Kills and Kelis to Tinchy Stryder and The Arctic Monkeys.

Together the pair have taken Toddla’s record and agitated it with the essence of Sheffield bass culture – running from a dub reggae take on “Fly” through a bleep-tastic version of “Take It Back” and taking in everything in between – a true Steel City re-work of the original album that goes much further and has way more coherence than a series of unrelated remixes.