Todd Edwards grew up in New Jersey and became involved in the house music scene around 1992. He was influenced by Marc Kinchen, an early 90s producer who became known for creating remixes of tracks like "Push The Feeling On" by the Nightcrawlers where he would splice and dice the track's vocals in rhythmic fashion.
Taking this theory a step further, Edwards developed entire songs around rhythmically chopping up brief vocal samples over bass-heavy house percussion. He quickly gained attention and began releasing music on the legendary New York-based label Nervous.
In the UK, London producers used the cut and paste style Todd Edwards had created to give birth to the speed garage scene, which later morphed into two step.
As is true with a lot of old school house music, there was a strong spiritual element in Edwards' work as well, as in this well known track "Saved My Life." Edwards' sound ended up being hugely influential not just in America but in other parts of the world. In France, artists such as Daft Punk credited Edwards as an influence, so much that they recruited him for their "Face 2 Face" track on "Discovery."
Another French house band, St. Germain, commisioned Edwards to remix their track "Alabama Blues" - which became a minor house music classic on its own.
In Canada, Montreal's Akufen was clearly influenced by Edwards and took his chopped-up house approach one step further with the experimental house masterpiece "My Way." More recently, Edwards remixed one of the newer French house artists, Surkin.
