I am so honored and stoked to write a feature on Ben Samples on glitch.fm. In my opinion, Samples is the best young gun on the glitch hop scene at the moment and an unrivalled producer of heavy bombs which make my head swing like crazy to the hammer beat, lazer synths and ultra-crunky bassline. I have been his devout fan since the early days of Glitch Hop Forum. He is churning tracks with a speed of automated factory assembly line. Alas in his case, the quantity comes with quality. I am really impressed with the way his skills develop, you would not believe listening to his crispy sounding tunes that he has seriously started producing glitch hop less than a year ago!! In case of Sample’s style, industrial and robotic associations seem natural, he pitches and distorts synths and basslines to the max creating vibrant, powerful and banging ‘metallic’ sound, yet never forgets about good melody line and proper build-up.

Listen to his latest EP Intercontinental Ballistic Lazer to prove my words. You can grab it from bandcamp for free but I suggest you support Ben with some donation as he deserves this for providing us with unique listening pleasure. BTW, where the **** are record label owners – grab Samples before he goes to competition filling their sacks with greenery (wink, wink). These six tracks of Intercontinental Ballistic Lazer are the dopest glitch hop I’ve heard in a while. Rock’n’roll of the digital era!

This album was designed to be an instrumental album highlighting the lazer bass sound, which is defined by Ben Samples as heavy-basslines that rip through the ceiling and crash back down to the floor. This is achieved by the use of massive, full sounding sawtooth synthesizers mixed with a heavy combination of portamento and pitch modification. The glitch-hop roots of Samples keep most tracks in the midtempo range, with the exception being the last track. Starting from Underscore with kinda old 16th century piano clashed with heavy, crunky bassline which is a great showcase of Sample’s skills. Moving then to Portal, a classic glitch hop tune with wild voice samples and totally twisted bleeps, beeps and tempo shifts. Then arriving at Blakka – the absolute highlight of this 6-piece EP. A very innocent intro and beautiful 'Let’s get down tonight' phrase leads to sick and intense, angry shout ‘Blakka Blakka’ repeated over and over again. Crude energy with a touch of frail sensitivity, built on super crunky bassline and glitched synths. I call such multi-layered compositions “bass meditations”. Touching and raw at the same time, a perfect combination. Fly, whompy and bouncing lazer bomb from Samples takes the listener to Dolla, another highlight of EP, with amazing beat and extremely ear-catching synths. The journey ends with CrateV, a melodic and glitchy combination of IDM, which rounds out EP.

Ben Samples is one half of the live remix project Fresh2Death that is based out of Boulder, CO. His style covers the most crunk glitch-hop, complete with bass-heavy remixes of your favorite club anthems and hip hop. His DJ career started in 2006 when he picked up a weekly variety radio show for CU Boulder's KVCU. His show covered many styles and genres, but after 2 years the radio show ended so Samples could pursue more live events. Since 2008, Samples has played hundreds of shows in the Denver/Boulder area, including sharing the stage with such notable acts as: Lazer Sword, Mimosa, Megasoid, Ana Sia, Big Gigantic, Eliot Lipp, and Savoy.

Ben Samples on Soundcloud
Ben Samples crew – Denver Bass Squadron

Ben Samples Intercontinental Ballistic Lazer – download for free on Bandcamp

Check another release by Ben Samples: Inappropriate on Bandcamp. Purchase the entire album for a mere 5USD and get bonus tracks and acapellas. Quality guaranteed as usual.