I'm late to the draw on this one, I'll admit. If you follow electronic music closely you already know about Teengirl Fantasy's single Cheaters, heard the chattering, etc. For everyone who hasn't heard it (which was me until fiarly recently when I saw all the literature FACT Magazine has written on the song, including being their favorite song of 2010), it's a killer song and I also think a legitimately important song.
First listen to the source material of the main sample, the 1977 single by Love Committee "Cheaters Never Win." The vocals are already pretty damn impressive, not just the delivery but also the lyrics. But, this is a pop song. It's jangly, happy, and upbeat, but it has a dark gravity to it when you listen to the lyrics.
Now listen to Teengirl Fantasy's 2010 single "Cheaters."
Fucking brilliant. These guys take a relatively standard, momentous house beat and then take those vocals from "Cheaters Never Win" and turn them upside down. The result is that those vocals are in a completely new, epic context, rhythmically and tonally, and have much different things to say. Suddenly "they always get it" becomes mantra. The bridge reaches new heights of intensity. Something is telling me that this recording is really important. The obsession with warped soul/R&B samples in electronic music within the past couple years peaks here, folks. This is taking that shit to a whole new level. The "manipulation" is pretty minute. None of the high pitched stuff Burial pioneered and many other artists have experimented with. The pitch is slightly lowered and the sample is chopped up a tiny bit so it fits, but its mostly the same as it was before, just running free in a completely environment.
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