The Beatdown

Queen's own Joey Beltram will always be known as the producer of his 1990 release "Energy Flash," a song considered by many to be the quintessential track of rave's developmental years. In spite of the international acclaim and recognition "Energy Flash" has received, it is not Beltram's most influential release. That title is reserved for his collaboration with Mundo Muzique on 1991's seminal release "Mentasm." This early techno masterpiece is considered by most to be the first song employing what is known to this day as the "hoover sound" or "mentasm riff," a churning, vacuum-like synth pattern that sounds something akin to a Tron light cycle being sucked into a black hole. The mentasm riff wormed its way into EDM's collective genome and has since been mutated, used, reused, sliced, diced and pureed in literally tens of thousands of records of various genres, making it quite possibly the most sampled record in the history of electronic dance music and subsequently making Joey Beltram one of the most revered and celebrated EDM producers in history. And now you know the rest of the story.