STEPPIN’ TONES: Tuned In & Spaced Out LP

And you thought it was just Rory Hoy who was obsessed with the music de jour of the late 90s. Enter Bristol producer Steppin’ Tones – equally as ‘mad for’ the genre made huge by The Chemical Brothers, Monkey Mafia, Fatboy Slim and a host of others more than a quarter of a century ago with new twelve-tracker Tuned In & Spaced Out. It’s not the first time the Bristol producer has graced the virtual pages of MB though. That would have been about eight years ago with his 60s influenced banger &0s Beach Break – later to make an appearance on his 2019 album The Feeling Is Mutant which is a rather nifty collection of cuts capturing the sound of ’99 itself.

But time passes. Well – alright – it sort of doesn’t when you’re a fiend for particular era of music. But you can still show growth in your approach to your favourite sound, right? Take this LP for example, which unlike its predecessor features a collaboration. And that collaborator would be…Rory Hoy! Well, honestly – who else you gonna call? Yes, the biggest of beatsters in 2025 makes his presence felt with more than a nod and a Wink (see what I did there?) on the acid squelchy groove of opener Tuning In. The likes of Josh Wink and the Crystal Method also get a nod on the middle section of C’est Le Booty Break though the Beastie Boys vocal snippets and a sixties sample on this are less in their vein. You may, however, remember that sixties samples were every bit as much a big beat staple as acid squelches, fat drum breaks and hip-hop phrases and they’re all over this from second track Hold Your Paws through Tailor Made and Planet La La to the northern soul vibes of Jump On That Kryptonite. Elsewhere, meanwhile, Bash Three Sounds is big beat disco, em>Midnight Rhumba is what a hugely influential early big beat compilation might have termed ‘amyl house’ and closer Lynx Beavers blows the whole joint up, ensuring things go out with the most Monkey Mafia-esque of bangs.
(Out now HERE)

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