Under the moniker of The Range James Hinton is engaging in something like crate digging of the digital age. Instead of combing through dusty vinyl-archives for long forgotten grooves of soul and funk, he is clicking his way through hobby musicians’ youtube-videos in order to find suitable samples for his tracks. With »Potential«, his first record for Domino, The Range is giving us an idea of how much singing potential is hiding in the depths of the video platform. The producer from Brooklyn found most of the material for his amalgam between jungle, footwork and dubstep, electro-pop, instrumental hip hop and grime in Great Britain, considering that most of his guest-vocalists have a British accent. On the one hand, these vocal snippets help bringing the mere electronic background down to earth; on the other hand, they are giving each of the eleven tracks its very own aura between club and bedroom. As a whole, »Potential« might not sound as exciting and new as this production approach might suggest, but it sure delivers a positive attitude towards the digital possibilities of making music. Of course, The Range did not need to share the profits of this record with his newly found youtube-friends as official collaborators – but it’s a clear signal of his integrity and his self-concept as a digital crate digger.
Potential
