Big Wheel - Keep On

Hear The Track Here

When I discovered that Big Wheel has only been known to me for just over a year, you could have knocked me dahn wiv a favver, guv. Damn, it seems like forever. I didn't say that out loud, did I? Having made his bones through electronica in general and drums and bass in part-ic-u-lar, obviously the Large Round Thing has decided to branch out a bit - in this case into breakbeats, with added funk no less. Now over this year, I have got to know and like Big Wheel's style and the highly recommended I gave to my first review track with him (Far Away in July 2006) has been added to considerably since then. So, trying out a new genre?

Yeahhhh, gimmie soma dat... Uh. Funky. Uh Uh funky,,,,

I've long been a fan of da funk and Big Wheel starts as he means to go on with a beat that sucks you in from the first, down and dirty. It doesn't let up much through it's six minutes of life so it'd best to have water to hand before you attempt to ride this beast down. It is so worthy of it though, as I discovered once I had played it for all its worth while deciphering the way in which it had been put together. Breakbeat is a kinda Frankenstein business, a bit of this, a bit of that, eye of dog, claw of eagle and all that but - when done with style and intelligence it becomes something special to behold.

That isn't to say that the Large Round Thing is the new Breakbeat Messiah but hey, this is very, very credible for a first effort. I love the cut up, sewn together scene anyway and Big Wheel takes to it with ease; from that insidious beat to the supercharged funk through the many, many layers the arrangement takes you through; Keep On is a jigsaw puzzle that works a treat as a coherent peice. It's that, for me, that marks this out as being special. I know how difficult this style is to master but Big Wheel's doing fine by it already. There's an infectious quality about the whole track that emerges fully after the third or fourth full play that had me nodding me head, tapping my feet and believe me that's not something you want to see. Better to grab a listen to this excellent peice of dance music (whatever the sub genre).

Keep. F-F-F-unk!! Highly Recommended.