Jeremy Bell debut EP: Boom Bap Built on a Homemade Tape Machine
A 2023 EP Where Analog Cassette Tape Warps Disco, Prog and Electronica
Most producers reach for a sampler or a laptop. Jeremy Bell reached for a strip of cassette tape and a pair of handheld wands instead. The Jeremy Bell debut EP has been out since February 2023, yet it still sounds like little else on a rap feed. It threads Boom Bap drums, Disco basslines and Experimental Electronic detail through The ScrubBoard, an instrument he built himself.
You can listen to our full playlist which contains the artist’s music, and know more about the artist’s work by scrolling down the page.
Bell’s ScrubBoard Turns Analog Cassette Tape Into a Playable Boom Bap Surface
The ScrubBoard is the reason Jeremy Bell’s debut sounds the way it does. Bell designed it as an analog, tape-based interface. A conveyor-belt tape loop runs across it, played by hand with two playhead wands. So he drags and scrubs the tape the way a DJ works a record. In turn, that folds turntablism and live looping into one motion. A phrase can be caught, reversed and smeared in real time, rather than locked to a grid.
That hands-on method leaves fingerprints all over the EP. A lot of Boom Bap leans on chopped vinyl. Bell, by contrast, pulls his grit from the tape itself. As a result, wow, flutter and hiss sit in the mix as part of the groove. The drums stay dusty and deliberate. Still, the material underneath them keeps shifting shape, which is what separates debut from a straight beat tape.
It also puts the performance back in the producer’s hands. Nothing here sounds copied and pasted. Instead, you can hear a person moving the tape, catching a loop a beat late or riding it a beat long. For an audience raised on scratch routines and finger drumming, that physical control is the real draw.
Where Boom Bap, Disco and Prog Rock Share One Groove
The genre list on Jeremy Bell’s debut reads like a crate-digger’s shelf. Boom Bap, Disco, Prog Rock and Experimental Electronic all share the space. Yet no single style runs the show. Disco surfaces in the elastic basslines and the four-on-the-floor pull. Meanwhile, Prog shows up when passages stretch and change rather than loop. Underneath it all, the Boom Bap backbone keeps everything nodding. So Bell treats those styles as raw feedstock for the ScrubBoard, reshaping them by hand.
That refusal to pick one lane is the point. As a result, the record moves from head-nod hip-hop to dancefloor pulse to longer instrumental passages. It never sounds like a compilation, because the same tape-warped signature runs through all of it. Funk and groove hold the seams together. In turn, they give the more experimental turns something solid to stand on.
For a hip-hop readership, the Boom Bap foundation is the way in. First, the drums and the dug-up samples speak the language. Then the Disco basslines and Prog structures widen what a beat can do. Bell keeps rap culture at the core. Even so, he lets the other genres push the arrangement outward, so the fusion reads as expansion, not novelty.
From Turntablism Roots to a Viral DJ Jazzy Jeff Demo
Bell’s approach sits in a clear tradition, even if the tool is his own. Fans of DJ Shadow will recognise the instinct. After all, Shadow built Endtroducing almost entirely from manipulated records. Likewise, listeners who follow Madlib through his Disco, Funk and psych detours will hear a similar appetite for splicing styles. So Bell earns a place in that lineage. He just keeps a tape machine, not a sampler, at the centre.
Part of the story happens away from the tracklist. Once, Bell demonstrated The ScrubBoard for the legendary DJ Jazzy Jeff. The clip then drew more than 250,000 views. As a result, it put the device in front of an audience that lives and breathes turntablism. That reach says as much about curiosity around his method as it does about the EP.
RapStar.News curator team: “We keep coming back to how Bell plays the tape itself as an instrument. The ScrubBoard makes debut feel hand-built at every level, and that human wobble is exactly what a lot of grid-locked beats are missing.”
Steady Coverage Keeps the Jeremy Bell debut EP in Rotation
The music has kept its own momentum well past release week. For instance, debut earned a dedicated review from Illustrate Magazine. It also landed in FV Music Blog‘s new-releases roundup. Meanwhile, wider coverage came from outlets like PopHits.Co and Underground Sounds. For a 2023 catalogue release, that steady interest marks a record that keeps finding new ears.
The Jeremy Bell debut EP is built for listeners who care how a record is made. So it is aimed at anyone drawn to experimental audio gear, DIY instruments and producers who chase a sound rather than a formula. Boom Bap heads get the drums. Meanwhile, Disco and Funk fans get the movement. Prog diggers, in turn, get the longer arrangements, all filtered through one homemade device.
In Bell’s own words, the aim was ambitious. “Creating debut with The ScrubBoard was about pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with sound, marrying analog warmth with digital precision,” he said. “I wanted to craft something truly original, a sound that felt both familiar and entirely new. The response since its release has been incredibly encouraging, affirming that there’s an audience eager for this kind of experimental fusion.”
Finally, you can stream debut on SoundCloud, pick it up on Bandcamp, Spotify, and watch The ScrubBoard in action on YouTube. You can also read the story behind the build on Bell’s official site. Keep up with him on Facebook for the latest on his homemade instruments.
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