Rob Made “It’s Like That, Yeah!”
Highly lauded as a premier pusher of the G-house and nu-disco genres, Robin Tabor is pulling his own (and then some) through a stupendous solo career, as well as from his tone-setting Sleazy Deep imprint. The Londoner, better known as Rob Made, turned out a new three-tracker this week on the newly formed Altus Project label, and it savors of an old-school style brushed up with Made’s modern club demeanor.
As the second offering from the imprint of Lee M Kelsall, Sean Roman and Thee Cool Cats, the Aciiid EP sees Tabor testing the waters of tech house while still jumpin’ off with his G’ed-up maker’s mark. The second cut—“It’s Like That, Yeah!”—is a mean mover. It borrows the self-assertive vocal sample, chops it up to great effect, and strategically tosses it in the way of blasted basslines that mob out with staccato rave chords and screechin’ stabs. Rob Made knows what’s good, and you’ll be sure to hit up the stream below if you do, too.
Available now via Altus Project.
Were you impulsive on this track, or did you have a sketch in mind before you started?
A bit of both, but probably more impulsive; it came together really quickly once I found the right sample, as I had a sketch of what I wanted in my head. I do what I generally do when in the studio: look at what’s been working the floor in my sets and my latest favorite tracks I’d been playing. Steve Lawler’s “House Record” really hit a nerve with me, as I grew up on early acid house and old-school hardcore. Being a ‘90s kid, I was looking for some samples for a similar repetitive vocal, and the Wee Papa Girl rappers came up. So I slapped that down, chopped up the intro vocals, laid it out on the sampler, which just worked with the 808s, 909s that were always gonna be the staple drums for the track. I even went in using the Novation Bass Station for the bass, as this was used a lot back in day. But as I wanted to update the sound, I kept everything really clean, and for the bass I went a bit portamento to wonk it out, playing the cutoff and octaves off each other on the smaller fill notes to get those zapping builds for tension.
Do you think advances in computer technology and gear have affected your creativity?
Give me a few weeks, and I’ll answer that. I’ve been stuck on Logic 8 (happily) for years now; I love it and am really happy currently with my workflow. But I’ve just literally finished building my new home studio and added Komplete 10 Ultimate, Maschine 2 and the S49 Komplete Kontrol setup. Apparently, these are amazing for speeding up workflow, yet right now I feel a little bit daunted not knowing or having used Maschine before—but can’t wait to get stuck in. I think technology moving forward is generally for the best; but still, look at some of the best house music ever written, made with so little. When you have too much, you can get lost; and I think the less you have, the more creative you must be with it.
Creatively, how did the work on this track stack up to previous studio sessions? Was this more challenging to complete than others?
Not at all. I think every time I make a new track, I’m trying to do it with less channels. Less is always more—let the arrangement and automation do the hard work.
Have you played this one out in any of your sets? If so, what was the response?
I’ve been dropping it in all my sets for some time now, getting huge reactions from the crowd in UK, Brazil, USA and Canada! Using old samples and classic-sounding riffs, stabs and drums that people are so in tune with—you know it will always work wherever you are.
What’s your favorite sound/synth/effect/etc. used here?
For me, it’s the classic stabs (hardcore style on the drops). Just recently, I found a great classic stabs set for EXS-24, and it’s got some of the biggest and best chords, hits, strings from back in the day. So once you tweak them, they sound on-point. But the vocals, again, do work soooo well.
Follow Rob Made on Facebook | Twitter | SoundCloud
Follow Altus Project on Facebook | Twitter | SoundCloud
