Bite Hard: The Music of De Wolfe Studio Sampler 1972-80

DJs, diggers, and collectors might be fine with plunking down triple digits for a library record with only a couple great cuts, but for the rest of us, the rush of compilations that accompanied library music’s rise to oddball renown in the ’90s showcases the best bits. Compiling the cream of the crop from UK firm Music De Wolfe is a massive undertaking, but Joel Martin (edit-version maestro behind Quiet Village and Velvet Season & the Hearts of Gold) and breakbeat producer Mark B bring out the kind of tracks that you could tag as the label’s big canon of breakbeat gold, with cuts by composers like Alan Hawkshaw, Nick Ingman, and Alan Parker hinting at a wealth of off-kilter made-for-TV funk ripe for the sampling.