Ben Samples

Putting a modern twist on classic-rock jukebox favorites, Ben Samples displays a healthy application of glitch on Sex Drugs & Bass Vol. 2, offering everything a club’s sound system needs to get the party going, throwback style. Throwing up a middle finger to the bar crowd that begs DJs to play ’80s anthems, Samples tweaks tracks like “Sweet Emotion,” “Renegade,” and “I Love Rock and Roll” with twisted glitch and staccato drops. The real haymaker comes on “Mama Said”; here the integrity of the song remains perfectly intact while the tune itself is made over with gut-punching bass and distortion. With a little help from Papa Skunk on Mötley Crüe’s “Dr. Feelgood,” Samples has updated a playlist that we’ve all rocked out to at one point or another. It’s about time someone grabbed the ’80s by the balls and twisted them into a finely reworked, perfectly contemporized mix.