While successful sample CDs are rarely regarded as "hits" by the public at large, within the producer community certain titles are definitely remembered as classics - after all, who hasn't lifted a sample or two from collections like L.A. Riot, Drum Crazy, Liquid Grooves or Methods of Mayhem? Included in theat rarified sphere is E-Lab's 2003 Smokers Delight, a packed collection of smoky trip-hop loops and one-shots that perfectly nailed the aura of dusky new-millenium downtempo music. Ambient horn squiggles, lush Rhodes chords, crunchy beats and loads of distinctive scratches and turntable vocal snippets made Smokers Delight (the name was borrowed from a 1995 Nightmares On Wax album) a favorite of commercial music composers and bohemian hip-hop heads alike, showing up in countless TV spots and film scores.



Equipped Music's new Smokers Relight Deux certainly updates the musical zeitgeist to a 2007 perspective, but it also owes much to the original's post-Nineties lounge aesthetics. The similarities end there: For starters, Relight blows away the original in terms of sheer volume: while Delight clocked in at under 600MB, Relight's two DVD, 7GB soundest includes 5012 24-bit WAV loops and samples, 1163 24-bit REX2 loops and multi-Rex files (formatted to work in Spectrasonics' Stylus RMX), as well as a 2GB refill for Reason 3 with 4755 24-bit Rex2, multi-Rex and WAV samples. Fans of the original will instantly recognize the browser layout: separate folders for "Music Loops and Chords," "MPC Loops & Vinyl Breaks" and other categories, collated into 80, 90 and 100 BPM folders.



The Reason refill includes Combinator, Redrum, NN-XT and even effect patches, but even if you stick to Acidized WAVs, you'll still find obscene amounts of cool Wurli and Rhodes loops on Relight, as well as tambourines, congas, shakers, and other percussion. While the bass loops suffered from a notable lack of gusto (too much weed, perhaps?), we really enjoyed the vibe of the wacky collection of Organ Beatbox patterns, Lo-Fi grooves and Dub drum loops. What's more, Relight's several folders of horn loops include trumpet, tenor sax and flute riffs, with clearly indicated key information (Cm, Dm, etc). Even just as a source of single drum hits, Relight is a serious treasure trove: the snare drum folder alone has over 300 different snares, and there are no less than 385 discrete kick drum hits. Put that in your drum sampler and smoke it..