Todd Edwards (born December 9, 1972) is a garage/house producer from Bloomfield, New Jersey recognized as a major influence on the mid-1990s UK garage scene through his inventive use of sampling.
The most defining trait of Edwards' music is his extensive use of microsampling — taking miniscule samples and rearranging them to create an entirely new melody. While this technique was used by house producer Marc Kinchen before him (you may know him for his ever-popular remix of "Push the Feeling On" by Nightcrawlers), Todd took it to another level.
Rather than use small samples from one song, he would take samples from many songs to create a unique and fresh sound. This method of sampling was unheard of before Todd started making music — the dominant method used by sampling experts before him like The Dust Brothers and The Bomb Squad was to create new songs by cobbling together longer samples from other songs.
Beginning on 111 East Records, he released the single "Get Carried Away" under the name "The Todd Edwards Project" in 1992. This song was very much unlike anything he had made since, as it's more like a regular dance track, and doesn't contain his signature sample chopping style he is famous for today. A year later, he released another single, called "Guide My Soul" on the New York-based label, Nervous, this time as "The Messenger". This one was closer to his usual sampling style.
A year after that, he released the single "The Praise", now as "The Sample Choir". The same year, he made many tracks for i! Records, a then new New Jersey-based label. One of them, "Saved My Life", became a huge club hit, and gave him his place in the world of Electronic Music.
He has made remixes for a large pool of artists, such as St. Germain, Daft Punknote , Justice (as Sunshine Brothers), The Superman Lovers, Beyoncé, Kraftwerk and Enya.
He has also dabbled in other genres, such as smooth jazz
(under the name Clever), funk, and disco.
He is also a Christian, which greatly influences his music.
Discography
- Prima Edizione (1999)
- Nervous Innovator Series Vol 4/5 (2000)
- Full On (Volume 1) (2001)
- Full On (Volume 2) (2003)
- New Trend Sounds (2004)
- New Trend Sounds (Classics, Remixes & Beyond) (2004)
- Odyssey (2006)
- Full On (Volume 3) (2007)
Tropes that apply to Todd Edwards or his music:
- Auto-Tune: Used either for his own vocals or his remixes (to match the singer's vocals with his track). Often used very heavily in the former's case. However, as "If You Want" demonstrates, he's a perfectly fine singer without it.
- Disco: "I Doubted You" is done in this style.
- Epic Rocking: "You Came to Me", clocking in at ten minutes. He also has several tracks that run over six minutes,
- I Have Many Names: The Sunshine Brothers, The Sample Choir, Clever, The Messenger, and The Todd Edwards Project are all aliases under which he has released tracks.
- Looped Lyrics: Sometimes, if there are any.
- Sampling: He's one of the (many) Trope Codifiers. Specifically, he codified the use of microsampling, which has been utilized by artists such as Daft Punk, Pogo, and Skrillex. As a result, much of his samples tend to be unidentifiable due to their short length.
- Among the samples people have managed to track down are Kate Bush in "I Hear Him" ("The Man With the Child In His Eyes"), The Who in "Be a Friend" ("Who Are You"), and The Bee Gees in "Face My Heaven" ("Until").
- Signature Style: Over the years, he has made the technique of cutting up small samples his own. And when he can, he'll put in Christian messages using the samples.
- Speedy Techno Remake: Of "Help Me, Rhonda" by The Beach Boys, using the instrumental to his song "No Place Like London".
- Subliminal Seduction: Being a devout Christian, he'll sometimes either sing about God or make songs about God using vocal samples to convey the message, but other times, he'll insert Christian messages in his songs (usually via Manipulative Editing). Aside from this:
- In his dub mix of St. Germain's "Alabama Blues", you can hear the words "Jesus loves you" throughout the song.
- "Incidental" has the words "I follow God" and "I surrender".
- Finally, his dub mix of Lonyo's "In Ayia Napa" has the lyrics, "Perfect paradise... it's Jesus. Where all the people go to Jesus, Jesus."
- His dub mix of Phoenix's "If I Ever Feel Better" is pretty blatant about this.
Somebody took my place. (Now I'm saved by grace.)
Jesus took my place. (Now I'm saved by grace.)
Now don't you know, there's love surrounding you
Now don't you know, this love never ends.
