With a new EP out on Terabyte records, German crew Depth Range (aka Kid Kun, HP.Ritch & ReDraft) are showcasing their experimental blend of D&B once again. Drawing influence from juke, hip-hop, halftime and footwork, the resulting sound is pretty damn exciting. We caught up with the guys to find out more about the Amazia EP, their approach to production and throwing parties in their homeland.
DNB Dojo: Amazia is a really intense way to start the EP. When you start working on a body of material like this, do you have an understanding of how you want it to pan out? Or do you make a lot of tracks and stitch them together?
Depth Range: To be honest when making these tracks we were not entirely focused on putting them together on one EP as they are quite different in energy levels and style. Amazia was a track that started out with twisting up an array of different bass samples. This turned really fast into the idea of an harmonic halftime banger.
DD: Awake was picked up by Om Unit some time ago in his Metalheadz podcast, a great look for you guys. Did you ever think about trying to land this on Cosmic Bridge?
DR: Hah, we’d be lying if we say that this idea didn’t cross our minds! Of course it was a massive surprise and huge honour for us that Jim likes our tune and even finds it worthy to go in a podcast for this most prestigious label. But on the other hand the tracks on the Amazia EP stand a bit aside from the style that Jim usually represents on his Cosmic Bridge imprint. They are a bit more upfront and wonky. Only Awake stands out as a rather deep and “bridgeeske” roller (shout out to Danny Scrilla for that illustrious term). We’ll see what happens in the future, things have to come naturally.
DD: Face First represents a more jukey vibe. Do some members of the Depth Range crew prefer different styles ahead of others? How do you decide what direction to take a track in?
DR: As we’re four producers in Depth Range we usually just try to keep it fun and then see where we end up with it. The path is the goal you know (I’ll have to put a coin into the crew piggy bank for that). We usually either sit in the studio together or send around a started project and let the others add ideas to it. That often leads to a few different versions floating about in our Dropbox, which is also quite handy for live situations as you already have some kind of “VIP version” at hand (p.s. keep them peeled for the Monday Mood VIP!)
DD: Leave Now is probably closer to hip-hop than D&B…can I also clock a Vampire Weekend sample in there? What’s your attitude to sampling on the whole?
DR: When working on a tempo like 80/160 BPM you have the luxury to be able to include influences from a huge width of genres. Like hip-hop, dub, reggae as well as jungle, drum and bass, footwork and many more. Hence this kind of sound has the ability to “speak” to a lot of people. This is also what we experience at our own events and what we really love about this worldwide ‘microscene’ that we are a small part of. An old-school hip-hop head can basically stumble into one of our nights and might find himself jamming out to dub-influenced wonky halftime beats, right next to an old-school junglist who has been there in 1996. We love this ‘potential for unity’. Sampling is one instrument to achieve that.
DD: We’ve all had that Monday Mood – was it a particularly heavy weekend before you started the tune? What’s the story behind this one?
DR: When Monday kicks in! It’s always the same you know, who likes Mondays? No one! Everybody knows the typical Monday meme’s ‘Monday coming at you like…’ and someone is kicking a ball straight in your face. That typical ‘switch’ moment when you realise, yeah it must be that one day of the week. Mondays make everybody mad. So that deep bass tune is a result of a 6h session on a ‘usual’ Monday. But do you know what’s even worse? Smonday.
DD: One for the production geeks – what’s your biggest production tip you could offer?
DR: Find your own balance between creativity, fun and productiveness. For everything else there’s Youtube and grumpy people in DOA threads.
DD: You guys aren’t just producers, you run parties in your native Germany too. Do you consider yourselves as promoters first and producers second, or the other way around?
DR: Um, that’s a tuff one.. We consider ourselves as friends who share and express their love for music in different ways. As the style we run is really niche for Germany (probably even in general), promoting events here is always quite an up-and-down thing. Being able to make music together really compensates for that because it gives us some kind of independence from all the uncertainties in this scene. Also, parties come and go and so does music and releases. Friendship outlasts.
DD: What can we expect from you in 2018?
DR: We’re currently pinning down a few projects with some talented people we’re very happy to call friends. One will be a collab between Stunna, Calculon and us which is going to see the light of day on Shoot Recordings soon, so keep an eye out for us 🙂
The Amazia EP is out now at all good digital outlets; check it out below.