There are few people in the house music world whose opinion doesn’t get noticed more than that of Defected’s Simon Dunmore. The man himself probably likes that fact – and given he is potentially one of the last house music barons, it’s not surprising when the scene takes notice when he speaks.
Yesterday, he made his opinion clear on the new Beyoncé Knowles record “Break My Soul”. In short, he thinks it’s “a great song” and that people should just stop complaining…
We at Ears To The House think he’s talking nonsense, bluntly. Firstly, pop musicians making house music is highly questionable. With one or two notable exceptions, it’s rich people latching onto a trend to make themselves richer – in a scene where many of the original house heads die broke with families having to organise GoFundMe pages to pay for their funerals, it’s actually borderline offensive.
It might be less crass if the artist was to make a wholehearted effort to embrace house music, by working with talent from the genre to create something special. They could then use their success to bring attention to the genre more widely – but they won’t.
Instead, Beyoncé has produced this dross. It sounds plastic and cheap – and in a clear sign of a shameless cash-in, it features the Korg M1. Must it be left yet again to Ears To The House to point out that other synths have been created since 1988 – and that the aforementioned Korg M1 has a whole heap of other presets on it?
Clearly, Dunmore is entitled to his own opinion on this matter. But would he sign a record like this onto Defected or any of their sub-labels? We strongly suspect not – and he tellingly swerved making a comment when someone asked him this very question.
Then again, perhaps politics is behind Dunmore’s lavish praise of the song. Defected manage a number of artists these days – and one of their artists being given the opportunity to remix a Beyoncé Knowles record would provide him with the type of publicity money simply couldn’t buy…
