Horsepower Productions are an English
electronic music
Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...
duo, initially a larger musical collective who released experimental
garage recordings, and helped pioneer the
dubstep
Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken ...
genre.
Lineup
The group was initially composed of Benny Ill (born Ben Garner), Jay King, Lev Jnr, Nasis and four other members.
The eight were closely associated with the influential
drum & bass
Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated as DnB, D&B, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterised by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-bass lines, samples, and synthesizers. The genre ...
record label
"Big Three" music labels
A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...
No U Turn, and its
UK garage
UK garage, abbreviated as UKG, is a genre of electronic dance music which originated in England in the early to mid-1990s. The genre was most clearly inspired by garage house and jungle production methods, but also incorporates elements from ...
-oriented sister label Turn U On.
Garner has since collaborated on the seminal "Fat Larry's Skank" track, which has been remixed and re-versioned many times by producers including
Kode9
Steve Goodman, known as Kode9 (born 1973) is a Scottish electronic music artist, DJ, and founder of the Hyperdub record label. He was one of the founding members of the early dubstep scene with his late collaborator The Spaceape. He has releas ...
,
as well as collaborating with
Hatcha
Terry Leonard, better known as DJ Hatcha or simply Hatcha, is a South London producer and DJ notable for his seminal work in the musical genre dubstep. He had a regular show on the prominent pirate radio station Rinse FM in the early 2000s, bef ...
on a number of tracks,
DJing at FWD>>, and releasing more straightforward
dub as part of the duo Bill & Ben.
After a five-year hiatus, Garner returned to Horsepower with new collaborator Jay King, with a 12" single, "Kingstep/Damn It" in 2009 and an LP in November 2010 entitled ''Quest for the Sonic Bounty'', both on Tempa.
Sound
Early Horsepower releases were resolutely
UK garage
UK garage, abbreviated as UKG, is a genre of electronic dance music which originated in England in the early to mid-1990s. The genre was most clearly inspired by garage house and jungle production methods, but also incorporates elements from ...
in sound, but the mainly instrumental,
dub versions which were often
B-side
The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...
s of these releases proved to be extremely influential; stripped-down,
minimal re-versions, with the emphasis on
shuffled
Shuffling is a technique used to randomize a deck of playing cards, introducing an element of chance into card games. Various shuffling methods exist, each with its own characteristics and potential for manipulation.
One of the simplest shuff ...
, intricate, crisp percussion and
subbass.
Meanwhile, Horsepower Productions'
12-inches and other similarly minded music experimenting with the garage archetype were staples in
Croydon
Croydon is a large town in South London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a Districts of England, local government district of Greater London; it is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater Lond ...
's Big Apple Records, a
record shop
A record shop or record store is a retail outlet that sells Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music. Per the name, in the late 19th century and the early 20th century, record shops only sold gramophone records. But over the course of t ...
staffed and frequented by many artists later to become extremely influential in the dubstep and
grime
Grime may refer to:
* Dirt, in the form of black, ingrained dust
Music
* Grime music, a genre of music
* ''Grime'' (album), a 2001 album by Iniquity
* "Grime", a 2023 song by Macklemore from ''Ben''
* "Grime", a 2024 song by Kittie from ''Fire
...
genres. In 2002, as interest in the dubstep genre grew, Horsepower Productions released ''In Fine Style'',
a collection of earlier 12" releases on
compact disc
The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...
accompanied by six new tracks in a double twelve-inch pack. The LP has been described as the "origin" or "birth" of dubstep.
The duo's influence was acknowledged by the inclusion of several Horsepower Productions tracks on Tempa's 2006 ''Roots of Dubstep'' compilation.
Critical reception
Music historian
Simon Reynolds
Simon Reynolds (born 19 June 1963) is an English music journalist and author who began his career at ''Melody Maker'' in the mid-1980s. He subsequently worked as a freelancer and published a number of books on music and popular culture.
Reynold ...
described Horsepower Productions as "pioneers" and their style as "sort of a minimalist move within UK garage almost bringing it more in line with
techno
Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...
aesthetic. Stripped-down, subtle. The buzzword would be deep."
The magazine ''
Uncut'' also compared the track "The Swindle" on the album ''In Fine Style'' to early techno, praising the track's "immense vistas of space that owe more to
Juan Atkins
Juan Atkins (born September 12, 1962), also known as Model 500 and Infiniti, is an American record producer and DJ from Detroit, Michigan. ''Mixmag'' has described him as "the original pioneer of Detroit techno." He has been a member of the Belle ...
than
Lee Perry."
Belinda Rowse for ''Juno Daily'', praised ''Quest for the Sonic Bounty'', stating that it "reaffirms once again that Horsepower are one of the most important and genre defining acts of our generation. A must have album." Rowse described how "a moody malaise seems to hover in the background throughout the album which is strangely enthralling."
Discography
Studio albums
*''In Fine Style'' (2002)
*''To the Rescue'' (2004)
*''Quest for the Sonic Bounty'' (2010)
*''The Lost Tapes EP'' (2011)
*"Crooks, Crime & Corruption" (2016)
Singles
*"When You Hold Me"/"Let's Dance" (2000)
EMPA001*"Gorgon Sound"/"Triple 7" (2000)
EMPA002*"One You Need" (2001)
NU 001*"Vigilante"/"What We Do" (Remix) (2001)
EMPA003*"Electro Bass" (2002)
NU 002*"Fist of Fury"/"To the Beat Y'all" (2002)
EMPA005*"Smokin'" (PC Edit)/"The Swindle" (2002)
EMPA006*"Kingstep"/"Damn It" (2009)
EMPA042*"Justify"/"Good Ole Dayz" (2011)
EMPA059
References
{{Authority control
English electronic music duos
British electronic dance music duos
UK garage duos
Dubstep music groups
Musical groups established in 2000