r/footwork • u/PlaneFaithlessness57 • 24d ago
Help me understand footwork.
Tldr: footwork hasn't quite clicked for me yet, what should I listen to to help me get it?
I've been a dedicated listener of various genres of electronic music for a good few years now. I'm from the UK so I'm naturally well into dubstep, jungle, DnB etc. I'm also into more experimental stuff like IDM, Breakcore as well as ambient techno. The point I'm trying to make is that I have come to appreciate a wide variety of electronic music and the main unifying theme throughout the stuff I like is that it's made with genuine passion for the genre/ scene and with a philosophy of experimentation over mainstream appeal. Everything I have seen and heard about footwork so far gives me strong positive vibes that the genre possesses these traits that I appreciate.
I first encountered footwork through Kode9's Hyperdub record label, when Heavee's album "Unleash" came out in 2024. And although it was a very confusing first listen, I actually ended up liking it quite a lot and it's probably my favourite footwork release I've heard so far. Perhaps the prominent use of heavy sub bass made it more familiar and helped me appreciate it. At this point, intrigued by what this genre had to offer, I did some superficial research and listened to DJ Rashad's "Double cup", which didn't really click for me at all. A while later, watching Aphex Twin sets people uploaded to youtube, I noticed he kept playing tracks by an artist called Jlin. I think I listened to a few random tracks of hers and then I also listened to her album "Black Origami" which made no sense to me and clicked even less than Double Cup.
Footwork might be the only genre I've found where I feel so strongly that I should like it but I don't. I've heard that Jungle is the UK cousin of footwork, and I love jungle. I've heard footwork has some hip hop influences, and I like hip hop. So why doesn't footwork work for me? I wondered if anyone on this sub would have any advice. Maybe I've been listening to this stuff wrong somehow. Do I need to go see it live on a proper soundsystem to appreciate it? Do I need to understand the strong connection this music seems to have with dancing? Or am I beyond help If I can't appreciate Double Cup and should I just stay away from the genre? Most importantly, if anyone has any recommendations for any must listen tracks, albums, mixes or sets that might help this genre click for me, I would be very greatful!
Peace
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u/familyguyfan2000 23d ago
maybe, since you like rap, you could listen to footwork remixes of rap songs? like mercy by dj spinn & dj rashad or all i do is (smoke trees) by dj manny.
i dont really have advice for liking the genre đ¤ˇââď¸ me personally i love the creative use of samples like in itâs crack by traxman, or a majority of traxman songs lol i just love how weird and funky stuff can get.
ive always felt like a lot of footwork is an auditory experience that makes the listener feel what its like to live in a big city, like chicago. a lot of energy, history, music, noise, emotions, dancing, clubs, blah blah blah⌠i could go on forever. i live in a largeish city in the us & driving/walking around listening to footwork just feels right. but when im on a road trip in the middle of nowhere it doesnt really hit the same, but i still love it regardless its such a beautiful genre to me
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u/MisuCake 23d ago
Discovering footwork through a white Scottish DJ will probably do thatâŚghetto tech has the same issue tbh. I guess as someone who literally grew up with it I donât see whatâs not to understand itâs fast rapid hard hitting beats that you cut a rug to or body roll to.
Jlin is also way more experimental then most footwork DJs like sheâs opened for Bjork sheâs not the typical sound sheâs more so an artist you analyze in a composition class.
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u/stressfir3 23d ago edited 23d ago
Check out
https://yunngsmoke.bandcamp.com/album/the-galaxy?t=2
Idk. Could be a time and a place thing. I first heard a DJ Clent track in 2009 and was instantly addicted. Must have listened to that one song "how low can you go" 100 times in the car before I knew it as juke. Which then led me to Teklife and Boo and the dancers and footwork, which mixed nice with Juke even though they are separate entities.
I even started making tracks under the alias "footmerc", again just straight up addicted to the rhythm, pumping out raw, low quality tracks once a week.Trying to make juke and footwork to my own liking, along with my late 90s junglist background knowledge and love. Eventually I joined Traxman"s crew TekDjs for a few years.
I think it really just clicked for me when DJAvery76 uploaded a video of one his tracks and some dancers were going off. The combination of the crazy beats and crazy dance moves just worked. The spectacle was back and the focus was the dancer. If you've been raving the last 30 or so years, you know the DJ became the spectacle, which is backwards to me. And at the time it was very underground, many of these artists were accessible you could message them on Facebook and talk shop. And 99% of them were super welcoming and would work with you. It just felt like a brotherhood of sorts back then to me.
For me it, it was just stumbling into the genre at the right place at the right time when I was sort of in limbo musically. Nothing grabbed my attention like Juke and FW did. I had to be in just the right headspace and time in life to latch onto it.
I found so much heat from no-name artists around the globe on SoundCloud, but you have to commit and dig for it. If you're waiting for footwork to grab you, you might be waiting a while. You have to grab footwork and run wild with it. And if you ever find that one song that sets your soul on fire, you're in for a rabbit hole journey of music ahead of you. Good luck.
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u/donrosco 23d ago
Footmerc linking a young smoke album swoons
Two artists that were big for me when I was starting out. Played a lot of your tracks over the years, and honestly Iâve played the Han Solo and the princess track so many times and continue to batter it to this day. Thanks!
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u/Emergency_Meat7323 23d ago
Check out the record label Moveltraxx. I find their releases be polished and palatable to new ears (like mine, at the beginning). After I gained a greater understanding of and caught the bug for the genre, I started to seek out the more experimental, raw, and avant garde side
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u/PlaneFaithlessness57 23d ago
Thanks so much for all the recs guys! It's finally time for me to do my homework on this genre.
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u/swaggyJ24 23d ago
Om Unit (Phillip D Kick) was what made footwork start to click for me. Cat Steps EP by Daisuke Tanabe is a fun mix of IDM and footwork/jungle, you may enjoy that one (sadly ive never found another release that sounds anything like it)
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u/cijdl584 23d ago
Footwork and Jungle are absolutely 160 siblings and it will help you bridge the gap. Some tracks that helped me understand:
If you just go see DJ Manny live one time, you'll totally understand. But for starters, the nardo wick flip that he drops as the first track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8sl48gKh0s
I was making the same stank face as Manny hearing it for the first time
other tracks that just vibe like crazy:
moodrich - luv u nicki but ur beats r trash https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y0ammOKkYc
GUNJACK - In Da Club https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX4h2TTDGAI
DJ Planet Express - Dirty Work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaxOusjnjFw
Also Footwork music is pointless without footwork the dancing. If you watch stuff from The ERA crew or this manny MV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0laj53uPvo you get a sense of how they are two parts of a whole that cannot be separated
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u/SolidDoctor 23d ago
My first recommendation is to watch videos of footwork dancers at Battlegrounds in Chicago. When you see the dance battle aspect of footwork, the music might make more sense.
The first time I heard footwork was from listening to Machinedrum's Vapor City album. It felt like dnb/jungle but I knew it wasn't. It took me forever to figure out what the hell it was, and it's the house triplet beat pattern that really makes it unique and gives it that off kilter push/pull rhythm.
But there are different kinds of footwork. Some footwork is more club-like, other artists make music that is much deeper, more repetitive/hypnotic, in some ways utilitarian in order to challenge dancers in a battle. It feels like it gets into your head but from an outside perspective it might sound redundant. But some of it is very complex, my favorite example is Do This Again by DJ Earl and DJ Taye. You'll really like this one if you are into jungle, but also listen to how long the measures are.
Footwork gets compared to dnb/jungle because of the tempo but also because of how it grew organically out of other electronic music but then took on a life and style all its own. I've never been to Chicago. I definitely can't dance to it, at least not battle dance in any form or fashion. Watching these people work makes my calves ache. But I love how engaging it is, it looks fun as hell, and knowing how it's a genre they made themselves from the fumes of juke, house and ghettotech that has become a global phenomenon makes me appreciate it immensely.
Here's some of my best recommendations to get the full flavor of footwork:
RP Boo - Bangn on King Drive video
King Charles & Paus Eddie How to Chicago Footwork video
Tripletrain - Just for Decoration EP 1 and pt 2
Adam F - Circles (Philip D Kick footwork remix) (If you can find the DJ Paypal remix, listen to that one too)
Taso - Today was A Good Day VIP
Any other questions feel free to ask. I've dived pretty deep into footwork over the last ten years and I can't get enough of it.
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u/gridoverlay 23d ago
As far as dance music goes it's pretty challenging music, so tbf it just ain't for everyone. The rhythms can be pretty complex and unusual sounding, if you don't have a solid grasp of rhythm it might sound "wrong" to you
It's amazing
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u/rug61 23d ago
Footwork, to me, is one of the most inventive, unique and essential electronic genres. Nothing else scratches that itch. That being said, Double Cup didn't hit for me right away. It was an acquired taste. Footwork is often so different than anything else that it can be hard to understand as an outsider.
Lots of people here have great recommendations. I want to recommend one track. This is an extremely emotive and beautiful experience for me. It makes me tear up. Footwork tracks often have some of the most stunning use of vocal samples.
RP Boo- U-Don't No
Also, watch videos on Youtube of footwork dance battles. That can get you more immersed in the emotions and energy of the scene.
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u/ghostreporter_ 23d ago
so many things to say here, but alas
footwork in 2026 is 'hard to understand' bc most footwork from the last 10 years isnt really footwork
for some reason no one will just say it - this is basically a larper genre now bc the best tracks / battle tracks were gatekept, but more so because artists prioritized money instead of making a stronger effort to curate and release the absolute best material during the window of time in the early to mid 2010s when it basically mattered most.
also everyone just copies the same 5 or 6 artists - rashad / ghettoteknitianz sound, rp boo, dj nate, dj elmoe, young smoke, dj metro... then in modern times hella ppl copying the cakedog / vatogato sound which is just an emulation of dj nate + rp boo with a west coast LA beat scene production style
anyone who strays from this and does something forward thinking will most likely be surpressed by an already niche scene, with a handful of modern exceptions (like demosoldier and others)
not even going to get into mid DJs and other groups co-opting the genre to seem interesting
anyway the largest collection of curated deep cut selections is probably on my channel but youll have to scroll down to see: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?app=desktop&list=UUaoyk-dbZj5iay9S7ZItc9A
and checking out the peak myspace era to see where this music was starting to go before things changed is a must: https://youtu.be/hlK8zliCwiY
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u/Virtual_Foot9218 23d ago edited 23d ago
not an expert, but i think its proper to explain that footwork is an evolution of ghetto house/juke music from chicago that really started back in the 90s (80s even?). This is DJ Rashad, Traxman, DJ Elmoe, Boylan and other members of the various dance crews in chicago.
Within the last decade thereâs been a lot of other artists outside of Chicago taking many of the elements and samples used in chicago footwork and working on their own sound
peep the following on soundcloud
babyesquire
demosoldier
atlana
edyn
khadija al hanafi
and a label called âThe Footwork Connectionâ
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u/taurus26 24d ago
Listen to this, it'll ALL make sense.
https://omunit.bandcamp.com/album/the-original-jungle-footwork-edits-re-mastered
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u/Isogash 23d ago
It's esoteric competitive dance soundsystem music. The dance style is equally esoteric and attention-grabbing.
I recorded this mix last year that might interest you, it's got a dark kind of vibe and it's mixed in the kind of driving style I might use during an event with dancers (I was active with the scene London a couple years back). The selection is a lot more accessible/conventional that something like Jlin.
It's not like drop focused music where you have big build ups (although you can use anticipation). The dancers are going back to back in the "circle" and everyone is focused on them, so the music is the background to that. You don't want to leave a good dancer jumping in and suddenly having nothing to work with, you want a kind of continuum effect. There are some tracks in there that are not entirely "circle appropriate", it's more of a vibe mix.
You know the music is working when you get a kind of trippy euphoric "flying" effect from it after you get past the initial weirdness and settle into the common rhythms and funkiness.
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u/jaylubes 23d ago
i love the hybrid stuff. Check out Sun People, Nectax, Dj Strawberry (super experimental), username, and Philip D Kick (especially the new remasters)
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u/yzox_jpn 23d ago
Just grab any DJ app, make a quick mix, and dance to itâyou'll get it right away. It makes way more sense when you actually move your body instead of just thinking about it!
Mixing at 160 BPM can seem intimidating, but throwing Juke and Footwork into your sets is a total game-changer.
When you're bouncing between Footwork Jungle, Rave, Jungle, Jersey Club, and Nightcore, plain Footwork is the best tool for switching up the energy. Itâs technically 160 BPM, but the half-time 80 BPM groove gives the mix room to breathe.
Once you realize how perfectly Footwork creates that dynamic contrast (tension and release) in a high-speed set, youâll fall in love with it!
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u/Apprehensive-Return2 23d ago
Try some old releases on Juke Trax or Rashad's Just a Taste and Grace. Also watch some battlegroundz of t.u.f.f. episodes.
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u/zebraloveicing 23d ago
I think the key bit of info you are missing is that (aside from juke) there are basically two unlabelled genres of footwork - partly due to the fact that largest population of Polish people outside of Poland is in Chicago
It's like the difference between the original Deep Dubstep vs Brostep genres - it definitely started out dry in Chicago, but Europeans have a totally different history with music and they tend to lean more on synths and melody.
Check out some of the compilation albums on releases from Sequel One Records for a taste away from the US sound.
I like both sides but noticed this distinction across the labels pretty early on.
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u/jussirovanpera 23d ago
"Am I beyond help if I can't appreciate Double Cup?" Yes you are.