Loops

Loops is a beatmaker and electronic artist born in 1992, associated with house, funky, techno, electronic and live performance. The project develops around live, rhythm-driven dance music and is described in relation to house, techno, breaks and breakbeat-influenced production.

Early development

Loops begins with drumming and rhythm. The artist starts playing drums at the age of six and is drawn to four-to-the-floor patterns and latin beats. Early exposure to live music at Pinkpop in the Netherlands has a strong effect, especially after hearing Moby headline with heavy bass, repeating samples and programmed beats. That experience leads to an early search for sequencing tools and home production.

The first setup is a very basic version of Magix Music Maker Deluxe, expanded with a drum computer, effects, soft synths, a sampler, turntables and a mixer. Live performance becomes part of the approach early on, including competition entries that use the mixer to solo and mute tracks during performance.

Production and live performance

Loops is scouted for a festival programme in 2003 after beginning to produce breaks and experimental drum and bass. At that stage the live act still uses Magix as a base, but adds scratches and live drums. The artist then moves further into production, using Reason, Logic Pro 7 and a professional laptop.

In early 2006, Loops releases a white label on the artist's own th4thd recordings. The release contains 10 tracks ranging across house, trip hop, breaks and drum and bass, and marks a turning point in the sound. From there the music shifts away from more break-heavy experimental work towards house. Interest in house then connects with techno, after exposure to Awakenings festival and a wider range of club-focused electronic music. The project also develops DJ skills and plays in clubs, including two of the illegal Diepgezonken parties.

Band formation and collaborations

Loops also develops through collaboration. Boris Acket and Sebastiaan meet through a live-performance booking in spring 2007, when a DJ set is changed shortly before the event and a second live player is needed. Sebastiaan has already learned piano from childhood, played with others at school, formed the instrumental band mauve with an old friend and a drummer, and recorded a demo EP with Australian musician John Zielman in summer 2006. In mauve, he works with post-rock, jazz, blues, indie and electric space sounds.

After the first performance together, Boris and Sebastiaan continue as a project and are later booked for a line-up in Amsterdam, which leads to interest from Outland Records. They are then invited to Bar27 for an online radio set, after which they join Squz Agency. Pete from Jason And The Argonauts starts Squz booking agency around this period.

Releases and style

A TAK EP is scheduled for release in 2008 on Outland Records Amsterdam. The project is described as “funky-jazz-soulful-minimalistic-boombastic-four-to-the-floor-breaky dance music” that is hard to get rid of, reflecting its mix of funk, jazz, soul, minimal, house and breakbeat energy.

Other act named Loops

Another group using the name Loops appears in the source material: a three-piece band from the suburbs of Barcelos in Portugal, with Carlos Marques on vocals and guitar, Leonel Miranda on bass and Filipe Alvarenga on drums. That group creates a shoegaze-influenced, monochrome sound, records a four-song promo in 2004 with Nuno Fernandes as guest, plays widely in northern Portugal, and records the EP no comments in 2006 with José Arantes and the Nikouala project.