Native Instruments releases "Street Swarm" Maschine Expansion inspired by the sample hunters of 90s New York hip hop

Native Instruments has released Street Swarm, a new Maschine Expansion featuring the razor-sharp acoustic drums, sliced 70s cinemascapes, vintage funk instrumentation, and raw grooves that typified the sound of 90s New York hip hop. Street Swarm was specially designed to follow the approach of pioneers like Wu Tang Clan's RZA, who often searched for obscure samples from old movie soundtracks.

Here's what they say:

In early 90s New York, hip hop swarmed from the underground onto Main Street. Raw and unpolished, it crackled with boom-bap drums. Sonic textures from old soundtracks merged with funky bass lines and dusty pianos. Single-note psychedelic hits danced between disjointed vocal stabs.

With that in mind, Grammy-nominated sound designer and producer Snipe Young created a plethora of small musical scenes inspired by blaxploitation films of the 70s. These soundtracks – by renowned composers like Curtis Mayfield, Isaac Hayes, Sun Ra, and Herbie Hancock – contained funk and soul grooves sought after by the hip hop producers in 90s New York. Staying true to the genre, Snipe created intricately orchestrated samples chopped to emulate the SP-1200's loose editing. From romantic string interludes and triumphant horns, to sinister melodies, dirty bass phrases, and energetic drums, Street Swarm is full of undiscovered gems, waiting to be sliced and crunched in that classic style.

Street Swarm also includes bass guitar, electronic keyboard, horn and retro synth stabs and licks organized by key, so hip hop producers and musicians can play their own melodies. Producers who want to add texture and flare to their creations can also utilize the included FX macros to create something sonically different that matches their own style.

Street Swarm runs in the latest version of Maschine software on the entire Maschine hardware family, and is available exclusively at the NI Online Shop.

A compact version of Street Swarm is also available as an iMaschine 2 Expansion, for sketches on the go. Tracks can be exported to Maschine Studio, Maschine Jam, Maschine, and Maschine Mikro for completion.

Street Swarm is available now at the NI Online Shop for $49 / 49 € / £44 / ¥ 6,280 / AU$ 79 and runs in the Maschine 2 software.

The iMaschine 2 expansion is available at the iMaschine 2 in-app store for $0.99 / 0,99 € / £0.79 / ¥ 120 / AU$ 1.29.