Hitmakerchinx - Shades & Monsters: FDM Classics (2017)

The Total Freedom-endorsed Hitmakerchinx FDM package lands double heavy on Night Slugs X Fade To Mind’s first cooperative release since DAT Oven’s Icy Lake back in 2014, dispensing the Brooklyn-based producer’s mighty 17 track payload of FDM, or Flex Dance Music - the soundtrack to unfeasibly dextrous Flex dance-offs in New York and elsewhere - as demonstrated by Rafael Chinx Martin on the promo video for Andy Stott’s Butterflies!

“This material was created as a soundtrack for high energy dance battles. Hitmakerchinx explains:

“This is a collection of the music that started everything for me. It means a lot as we’re effectively releasing my past. Night Slugs and Fade to Mind are the reason that I DJ FDM, they perceived my sound in a new way and they’re responsible for bringing my music into a club environment. I’ve learnt to love my old material again, thanks to Bok Bok who has fuelled this project to completion.”

Brooklyn born, Los Angeles-based Hitmakerchinx is a producer, DJ and dancer and a pioneer of Flex Dance Music aka FDM. A sound rooted in performance, FDM is a genre born of a fierce dance battle community based in Brooklyn. Put simply, FDM is to dancehall as EDM is to pop - raw riddims with chopped up vocals, piercing laser bleeps and heavy, aggressive drums. The nature of the style - chopped up loops and samples – means FDM can remix anything. Hitmakerchinx got involved with flexing through a love of reggae and an aptitude for dancing back in 2004. Although he’d been producing since age 13, it was in 2009 when a fellow dancer inspired him to start making music tailored for flex battles. The following year, his track ‘Earthquake’ was featured in the fifth Step Up movie and caught the attention of Fade to Mind’s Total Freedom. Since then, Hitmakerchinx has been producing, soundtracking flex performances, and dancing on stage with Rihanna as part of her ANTI tour, often to his own official remixes.

Featuring productions from 2010 to 2017, ‘Shades & Monsters: FDM Classics’ showcases the depth and diversity of Hitmakerchinx. Rumbling dread basslines contrast with pitched up Desi vocals, disembodied acoustic guitars, trance synths and a decidedly emo sampling tendency. For Night Slugs and Fade To Mind, it adds up to club perfection.”

Tracklist:

01. Hitmakerchinx - Fear Dem
02. Hitmakerchinx - Bun A Fire
03. Hitmakerchinx - Different
04. Hitmakerchinx - Like Me
05. Hitmakerchinx - Are You Hitmakerchinx
06. Hitmakerchinx featuring Doctor - Ancient Nah
07. Hitmakerchinx - Ancient Culture (Like Water)
08. Hitmakerchinx - Black Dalia
09. Hitmakerchinx - Dirty Violin
10. Hitmakerchinx - No Matter What Dey Say
11. Hitmakerchinx - Mind Control
12. Hitmakerchinx - I Wake
13. Hitmakerchinx - Boo
14. Hitmakerchinx featuring Kat Dahlia - Warning Riddim
15. Hitmakerchinx - It Wasn't Me
16. Hitmakerchinx - The Fortune
17. Hitmakerchinx - Earthquake