Horsepower Productions – To The Rescue (2004)

It is very rare to hear such a great and inspired album by any EDM act, even in the 21st century. This album is as good as it gets in the genre of Breakbeat. We have your classic Breakbeat sound, mixed with some Asian style influences for the most part. This could be considered a subgenre of Breakbeat. But even so, it is really just a great listen. Let’s dive in.

Golden Nugget samples an old cowboy film and is brilliantly effective for listening. It is simple, yet catchy. The bass riff and sounds on this one are headbanging for sure. Could you say the same about many musical acts today? The logical answer seems to be no. But this piece is fun and entertaining too. A nice, fresh start to the record.

Synbad follows, and sounds rather James Bond like in the intro. It has a very middle eastern melody throughout, along with some beats that are delicious. This is seriously great music, so fresh and inspired all the way through.

The atmospheric Voodoo Spell arrives afterwards and is rather dark and dense listening. It’s not dull though. It’s psychedelic and interesting nonetheless. Good stuff. It has a sitar in it too.

The following track Marseilles Connection is a great head rush sort of piece. It bursts into multitracked beats, subtle flute like sounds and shifts into differently organised sections. It’s really good to hear this sort of thing. It’s a great musically accomplished piece. It goes well over six minutes, but is just the right length for listening to.

The next piece, Special 131 follows and it is a futuristic instrumental piece. It’s a little dull to be fair and drags on a bit. But it is still fitting the album well, signalling a cohesive album regardless. It does have some good melodies though.

Galaxian follows, which is an improvement on the last piece. It’s quite catchy, in fact. The sample of a crying lady is somewhat annoying though. It’s still a good effort. One can’t help but think that this is EDM for home listening, not for partying.

Hand Of Death is fantastic. It samples some commentary about Chinese history to begin with, along with chanting and other great samples of fighting as well. It is a brilliant mixture of western music and Asian music. More pieces like these should be done in music history, it fits the early 21st century perfectly.

Up next is Classic Deluxe – Part II , and what a lush piece this is. It samples nature sounds, has brilliant melodies and bongo beats to match. It’s a really nice piece, worth the 11 minutes of listening that it goes on for. It’s epic.

The next piece up is totally brilliant. Sholay – Epic Mix by guest musicians High Plains Drifter and Goldspot Productions is just pure awesomeness. It is based on the Indian Bollywood film of the same name. The melody is so moving. By this point, this album is one of the best representations of the 21st century. This piece in particular is majestic.

On Tha Run – Horsepower Productions Remix is a good remix to finish the album off. It has some interesting sounds within this track, and ends the album nicely.

Not everybody digs Breakbeat or EDM. But, if you are looking for a new way to kick off the 21st century, give this a shot for musical taste. It is a true representation of what music nowadays should be about. An epic listen indeed.

8/10