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Top 10 Samples of 2014: Staff Picks

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Following on from our recent rundown of WhoSampled’s most popular samples of 2014, we’ve highlighted some of our personal favorite tracks and sample flips of 2014 selected by the WhoSampled team

r77889_2014422_213128249518Percussions’ KHLHI sample of Syreeta’s Keep Him Like He Is

Four Tet kept himself fairly quiet release-wise this year following 2013’s Beautiful Rewind and production duties for Omar Souleyman and Neneh Cherry instead shifting the focus to his own label Text Records. Releasing several 12s under the alias Percussions this not so subtly named track ‘KHLHI’ was our pick of the bunch combining bouncy house elements with a choppy loop drifting in-and-out the track as it develops.

r14512_201459_52119255995Bok Bok’s Howard sample of Howard Johnson’s Let This Dream Be Real

Bok Bok continued to push the sound of London’s Night Slugs label forward in 2014 by incorporating classic electro-funk elements into his signature hyper-real, grime influenced sound palette on the Your Charizmatic Self EP. Another nod to the sample source in the track title, this instrumental piece slices up warm synth licks from Howard Johnson‘s ‘Let This Dream Be Real’ and juxtaposes them with cold concrete reverbs, gun shell samples and Pulse X style bass stabs with incredible results.

r91560_2014515_174930804750Fatima’s Do It Better sample of 100% Pure Poison’s Puppet on a Chain

A real highlight from the album Yellow Memories, London soulstress Fatima teamed up with Floating Points to recreate 100% Pure Poison‘s ‘Puppet on a Chain‘ – an interesting source incredibly well repurposed.

r46368_2014928_4959358722Flying Lotus’s Turtles sample of Ennio Morricone’s Piume Di Cristallo

As Flying Lotus‘ career has advanced, his music has drifted away from it’s humble beginnings of neck-snapping, sample-heavy instrumental hip-hop and deeper into the free jazz and experimental electronica that his early work only hinted at. FlyLo bucks that trend on ‘Turtles’ from this year’s critically acclaimed ‘You’re Dead’, which utilises the title theme to 1970 Italian film ‘The Bird with the Crystal Plumage’ as its melodic jump-off. During a play-by-play commentary on the album on twitter, Lotus opined “Such a big Ennio Morricone sample. I thought it would be more trouble to keep it than it was worth. I’m glad I did because I really do like it”.

r21472_2014314_144940494525Freddie Gibbs and Madlib feat. Danny Brown’s High sample of Freda Payne’s I Get High (On Your Memory)

Freddie Gibbs and Madlib‘s Piñata provided a highly-rated and fan favourite Hip-Hop album in a year that lacked high profile sampled based contenders, a fact evidenced by the fact this LP received more staff nominations than any other. Not only sampling the oft-used chorus, Madlib integrates a lovely guitar-led interpolation of Freda Payne’s vocal hook into the verse of this track.

r102860_2014823_153139421039Ariana Grande feat. Childish Gambino’s Break Your Heart Right Back sample of Diana Ross’ I’m Coming Out

Ariana Grande‘s My Everything stood out amongst her pop contemporaries as offering something a little more than just infectious melodies and catchy hooks, with production work coming from electronic producers like Cashmere Cat, Zedd, and Key Wane but this Pop Wansel produced track with actor/rapper Childish Gambino came through with a killer sample on the hook.

r120541_20141020_2534762619Logic’s Gang Related sample of Sepalcure’s Carrot Man

Taken from Logic’s much hyped ‘Under Pressure’ LP, Gang Related stands out as one of the album’s more cinematic cuts, a liberal pitched down sample of Sepalcure‘s haunting ‘Carrot Man’ providing the back drop to a tale of sinister nighttime events. Occasional appearances of a pitched down sample of KRS-One‘s ‘Buck, buck, buck, buck, booyakasha’ lifted from 1993’s ‘Mad Crew’ provide a topical lyrical reference whilst a brief news report style interlude mid way through the track wouldn’t sound out of place on any number of early 90s skit-laden hip hop LPs.

r30199_201462_20021799952Die Antwoord’s Ugly Boy sample of Aphex Twin’s Ageispolis

It’s perhaps no coincidence that in a year when Aphex reappeared on the scene and once again hot property, this quirky pop-rap hit chose to borrow from one of Richard James’ early classics. This was a fairly devisive choice on the list, the sample not transformative, but undoubtedly well placed.

r60124_201443_18239689608Joyce Muniz feat. Bam’s Back in the Days sample of Kraftwerk’s It’s More Fun to Compute

Joyce Muniz and Bam come together to revamp Kraftwerk’s brilliant 1981 electronic exploration ‘It’s More Fun To Compute‘ laying down a drum track and bassline under the iconic synth riffs. Not a lot is being changed here but this loop is so enduring it really doesn’t require heavy processing, some catchy spoken word vocals and a minor tweaking are all that’s needed making this track sound just as fresh as ever.

r102119_2014915_155028845729Mac Miller’s Diablo sample of Duke Ellington and John Coltrane’s In a Sentimental Mood

Mac Miller takes it back to more traditional boom bap territory with a well executed sample of Ellington & Coltrane‘s beautiful ‘In a Sentimental Mood’. No marks for originality it has to be said, Asheru and Kweli having utilized the sample in almost identical manner a decade plus prior, but Miller’s a solid lyricist and as a result this track is hard to flaw.



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