BRKCHK’s latest work for Free Love Digi’s fld.Study sister-label rather piqued our interest here at the Dojo, exploring as it does the mellower end of D&B without falling into obvious liquid tropes. With that in mind, it seemed only right to pick the man’s brains for some insight into his take on the 170BPM sound.
Terabyte Records have been moving from strength to strength since their inception two years ago, with support coming from some big names in the scene and some excellent tunes gracing their catalogue. The latest release is no different, and sees the label revisiting their previous tunes for some new remixes from a host of artists old and new. We caught up with Terabyte co-founder Auzi for his thoughts on the release and the label’s ethos.
Recent times have been busy for Evol Intent; between their solo aliases, touring, giving away tasty freebies and some big collabs with the likes of Noisia, it’s been a great year for the stateside trio. We thought it was high time for a chat, and Gigantor kindly agreed! Read on for his thoughts on free music, the “EDM” bubble and more.
The ever prolific Ukrainian producer Fade has had a pretty big year with a slew of releases across a bunch of labels. His latest venture sees him releasing a full album of collaborations on his own Faded Music imprint, and the quality remains as high as ever. We thought it was high time we caught the man for a quick Q&A, so read on for Fade’s thoughts on all things D&B.
DNB Dojo: It’s been a pretty busy year for you with releases on DSCI4, 117, Avantgarde, Grindhou5e, and of course your own Faded Music imprint. Have you got any particular highlights? How do you decide what music to send out to other labels and what gets released on your own?
Fade: Yes, I have been producing a lot of music lately and I’m happy to see it released. The main reason for creating Faded Music is that I had so much good unreleased music, that hadn’t got attention from other labels. So if I really feeling track and it’s not been signed anywhere I put it out on Faded Music.
DD: The collaboration LP you’re dropping soon features a massive array of different artists, some better known than others. How did the different tunes come about? Who was your favourite producer to collaborate with?
F: That was idea to collect together artists that I find interesting with different tunes, different moods. All that stuff has been produced in different times, but I can say that we worked on this compilation for around a year and I am really happy with the results.
I think my favourite collab partner is Peter NC-17. Making collabs with him is always fun. We just finished one track and are working on a couple more.
DD: On the subject of collaborations, if you could pick any artist living or dead to work with, who would it be?
F: Hard to say…if I had to choose someone from current bass scene it would definitely be Noisia. From other music I’d pick Cypress Hill.
DD: Living in Ukraine the recent political turmoil must have been difficult. Is it hard to make music under those circumstances, or do you draw inspiration from what’s going on around you?
F: I’d not say that it’s difficult. Let’s say true. War between Ukraine and Russia is really horrible, a few hundred kilometres away every day people are dying. This year is the hardest in the history of our country. And for sure it’s hard to think about music, but when you are living in such a stressful situation for more than half a year, you start to learn how to abstract and music is one of the ways to not dip into depression.
DD: What’s on the agenda for the rest of 2014?
F: I have got some releases coming on labels such as DSCI4, Beta Recordings, Different and Alphacut.
DD: Any shout outs?
F: I wanna say big ups to those artists who been involved to this project. Abiotic, Nitri, Heavy1, NotioN, Fathom Audio, Meth, 2SHY, Dess. Thanks to James for PR works, my wife Julia for amazing artwork. And all listeners for supporting our label!
You can check out clips of the LP below; watch out for it dropping at all good digital stores from July 28th.
Scene stalwart Digital brings his wares to Horizons Music with an EP of tasty new leftfield rhythms. Figjam kicks things off with big reese bass swells set over a drum line that starts slow with nothing but kicks and hats on the intro before dropping into a syncopated frenzy of processed breaks a few bars after the drop.
Waiting heads for deep territory with a simple yet hypnotic melody layered over warm sub and a crisp, stepper’s break, with soft synthetic strings adding character. Therapy proceeds to drop things down into dubby half-time territory with varied percussion and hordes of atmosphere. Finally the Slowjam mix of Figjam rounds things off by turning the title track into a 140BPM workout drenched in delay and reverb.
To find out a bit more about the EP we caught up with Digital for a quick chat. Read on for his thoughts on track names, the D&B scene and the best studio snacks!
After the excellent release he put out recently on Translation, we’ve been keeping our ear to the ground for word of more material from the Arizona-based producer. The man has been hard at work in the studio on his debut album and it’s an interesting beast, blending influences from across the electronic spectrum and beyond to create a unique take on the 170 sound.
With the label celebrating it’s 25th release we thought it was high time we caught up with E-Motion head honcho Slime for a wee chat. He’s also been kind enough to record an exclusive mix for DnB Dojo which you can find at the bottom, so read on for thoughts and beats aplenty!
DnB Dojo: E-Motion has now been running for nearly 3 years and has reached its 25th release, no mean feat! What do you think the label’s biggest achievement has been so far?
Slime: I think for some it would signing that one big artist or successfully running their own label night, but for me it’s just simply getting support from some of the biggest players in the scene. It seems like I spend most my life downloading and listening to drum and bass mixes and when I hear someone, especially someone who’s considered a veteran within the scene playing our tracks, it certainly puts a smile on my face.
DD: Some of the label’s recent releases have come from as far afield as Brazil, Israel and the USA. Was there a deliberate decision to try and seek out tunes from further afield or is it just a case of being sent great tunes?
S: No, as you say it’s just luck of the draw to have worldwide artists sending me demos. I think it’s great that drum and bass spans right across the world and I am more than happy to release tracks regardless of where they are from. If someone from, let’s say Uranus sent me a demo and I liked it, I would sign that too!
DD: Cruel question though this might be, what’s your favourite tune from the E-Motion catalogue so far? I keep going back to Lisp – Kimura, love that tune!
S: Erm well that is a hard one. Obviously I like every tune we have put on, but one that stands out for me, as it does for a lot of our fans, is Colossus – Under The Weather. That’s a definite firm favourite and even though it was our second release I still draw for it to this day!
DD: So far the label’s output has been digital only, do you have any plans to put out physical releases?
S: I think as a digital label the dream of going vinyl is always there. I have been very close to putting out a couple of our releases on vinyl but have been advised otherwise by more established friends within the scene. It’s still early days though, so who knows what the future will bring!
DD: What’s in store for E-Motion in 2014?
S: As it stands we are just going with the flow and will be continuing to do what we have been for the last 25 releases. I have wicked demos land in my inbox on a weekly basis so we are not short for releases. We have forthcoming bits from Zere, Jam Thieves, Vigorous & DMT to name a few, so there’s no doubt we will be keeping busy right into 2015.
E-Motion’s latest single from US producer Zere is out now at all good digital stores! Check out Slime’s guest mix below and grab yourself a free download from Dropbox.
1. Greyscale & Spillage – Special One
2. LSB feat Sophia Wardman – If You’re Here
3. Facing Jinx – Dependant
4. David Boomah – Where Do We Go From Here (Calibre Remix)
5. Mako, DLR, Villem & Ant TC1 – Hungry For Atmosphere
6. Lynx – Disco Dodo
7. Sam Binga feat Redders – Lef Dem
8. Binary – Etched
9. Zere – Interval
10. Aries, Gold Dubs, Bevan, Andy Sim feat Lion Art – Chem Trails
11. Habitat – Holdin’ It Down
12. Zere – Outsource 1
3. M-Soul & S27 – The Grief
14. Binary – Polaris
15. Lavance – Escape
16. Etherwood – Spoken (S.P.Y Remix)
17. Cybin – Departure
18. Seba – Science Fiction
19. Habitat – Can They Hear Me
20. Ravager – Runaway (Livewire Remix)
21. DMT – Crushed Ice
22. Virtue Feat Bonnie Rabson – Moment
23. Jam Thieves – Cannibal
24. Bipolar – Like This
25. Brains – We Are One (Chris Su Remix)
26. Melinki and Phenz – Electric Love
27. Virtue Feat Impact MC – Finest Days (Livewire Remix)
28. Duoscience – Dawn
29. Pennygiles – I Remember
30. Vigorous – More Than You’ll Ever Know
When the debut single from brand new Melbourne crew Plasma Collaborative landed in the inbox we were suitably impressed by not just the tunes but the presentation and ethos of the outfit. To find out more we caught up with Safire about the collective’s ideas and their plans for world domination over the coming year.
DNB Dojo: Plasma Collaborative is clearly a group with many talents and many ambitions, can you tell us a bit about how the collective came together and who does what?
Safire: Plasma Collaborative is a creative platform that allows artists & musicians to express their creative works to the world. We wanted to create something new that isn’t afraid to takes risks in a new environment. We are a group of friends – artists, musicians, audio heads, fashion designers etc. from Melbourne.
The project is driven by Safire & Finna. We’ve been orchestrating tours and events in Australia for almost a decade. Through our events company BBA we’ve been lucky to develop relationships with a lot of great people and has been one of the major factors we’ve been able to get a project like this off the ground, having the global support we do. Our two closest partners are Morph & Tobias J. We’ve always seen so much talent around us and needed a way to bring it all together, so we decided to form the collaborative as this would give us a way to expose our works to the world. The concept was to create a collective made up of various components…A (Record label), Apparel (Products hand made in Australia & locally produced), Digital Media Production (Music Videos, Audio Tutorials, Sample Packs etc.) and a studio facility based in Melbourne. This kind of platform would give us freedom to work within our creative sector…now that it exists the scope is endless moving forward.
DD: The teasers of the first single are sounding enticing, and you’ve netted some big names for a new collective. How did the single come together?
S: We always had an intention for Plasma Audio’s inception to be one of very high standard. We’ve worked with Icicle quite a lot over the years through promoting events in Australia and couldn’t think of a better artist to help us kick off our label, he is very aware & aligned with our direction & intentions. We knew we’d get exactly what wanted, so I hit him up regarding a remix and he suggested I send over something over. Myself, Amoss & Gusto had just finished up a tune which had lyrics referring to ‘Plasma’ and the ‘4th state of matter’ so it made sense for Icey to remix 4th State!
DD: Can we expect some home grown singles from Australian producers in the future?
S: Yes definitely, if the quality is there then for sure. Plasma Audio isn’t necessarily about representing music from the south pacific though. There have been a few labels pop up over the years that have had the concept of exposing music from from a continent that isn’t quite as active in the drum and bass world as some but that isn’t not our focus to be honest. We want to represent production that aligns with our concept & vision regardless of where its from…we just want to have a certain standard representing our sound and through the relationships we’ve developed over the years we’re lucky enough to have access to artists from around the globe from our inception.
DD: You’ve already notched up some fantastic videos for The Upbeats and Subtitles Music. Do you feel the music video is underused or under-represented in the D&B scene?
S: Definitely, I think music videos and media production is very important nowadays. In my opinion is shows extra effort has been put toward a label’s productions. I feel it’s important to show that you’re doing these kinds of things if you want to set yourself apart from the rest in some way. The music videos were created by one of our artists ‘Tobias J who represents his own media production company Defnative. A lot of the credit goes out to him for all the video productions on the Plasma website. He is a talent and expect to see a lot of work from him popping up throughout various audio and visual scenes throughout the world.
DD: What’s in the pipeline for 2014?
S: We’re currently wrapping up music for 002, and 003. 002 will be another 12″ from artists we’ve worked in the past through BBA. We’re looking at doing an EP for 003 which will feature artists from around the globe. It might not be the case with every single release, but for some of them we plan to include a range of artistic products relative to the release such as limited edition vinyl sleeve, art prints & t-shirts etc.
We have a new range of apparel coming including new t-shirt designs, a jacket and various other apparel products. We’ve also aligned with various audio companies around the globe such as hardware and software developers. We’ll be demo-ing some of their products and making production videos giving insight to new products from boutique analogue equipment to our own audio sample packs including a Plasma Audio Virus TI Soundset & even our own acoustic treatment products. We’re lucky to have a wide range of talent & artists working with us to cover a huge range of fields giving us the opportunity to immerse in various fields.
Music will be at the forefront of our agenda although apparel, digital media, studio work & various other creative avenues will no doubt be providing us with plenty to do over the years to come!
Check out the new Plasma Collab single from Amoss, Safire, Gamma and Icicle below and watch out for the release dropping next month.
Anglo-Dutch duo June Miller have been going from strength to strength over the last few years, from strong beginnings on releases for Horizons and Inneractive, through tunes for Commercial Suicide and out into their recent signing to Andy C’s RAM Records. They’re kicking off 2014 with a bang with a brand new 12″, so we caught up with them for a quick Q&A about the release, their studio dynamic and their plans for the coming year.
DNB Dojo: The new 12″ is sounding sick! Upfront dancefloor business on the A-side and dark funk on the flip. Can you tell us a bit about how the tunes came together?
June Miller: Thank you! Empathy is all about the bassline and pads. We wanted something with a big bassline but still uplifting. We’ve been looking for vocalists but in the end we decided to just do it ourselves. 🙂 We wrote Operation Ivy a long time ago and recently gave it an update. It’s one of those tunes we enjoy making because of all the small details going on.
DD: Operation Ivy sounds like a reference to the punk band, especially with the bass sound you’ve employed. Is that part of the JM musical heritage? Any other influences you’d like to tell us about?
JM: Yes, that’s exactly what we’re referencing 🙂 We’ve played in punk bands when we were younger and we still like to listen to punk music. I think all the music we listen to is somehow incorporated into our own music. It might not be that obvious all the time but, for example, the energy and dynamics in punk rock is really important for us and we always try to make our music intense and energetic as well. It’s the same for playing live – it’s sort of a way to get all our energy out.
DD: You’ve moved from strength to strength over the last couple of years with releases on RAM, without a doubt one of the biggest labels in the game. How does it feel to be up there with legends like Andy C? Do you find it comes with any extra pressure?
JM: Well, we’re always trying to reinvent ourselves, trying to improve our own music, so being on RAM doesn’t really change the way we approach music. I think our strength is our versatility and that keeps things interesting and unpredictable. When we signed to RAM, it felt perfect for us because RAM, as well as Andy C, is a great example of the whole spectrum of drum and bass. We don’t have to pigeonhole ourselves.
DD: What’s the June Miller dynamic in the studio? Do you have set roles when writing tunes, or is it pretty fluid?
JM: We don’t really have a specific role. Usually one of us comes up with a rough idea for a tune and then we get together and make decisions about where we want to take it. We haven’t got the time to do everything together, so whenever we’re both in the studio we’ll be working on making creative choices in a tune. You don’t wanna sit in a studio together tweaking a snare for four hours. 🙂
DD: Anything in the pipeline for 2014 that you’d like to tell us about?
JM: We’ve just started working on ideas for an album which is quite fun but that’s just in the early stages. Right now we’re concentrating on making singles. We’ve finished two tunes with Nymfo and did some deeper stuff as well.
Check out the brand new Empathy/Operation Ivy 12″ below and watch out for the release dropping on vinyl and digital from January 12th.
Toronto’s NC-17 has racked up quite the rep with a string of releases for the likes of Viper, DSCI4 and Renegade Hardware, showing a versatility of style and the sort of attention to detail that elevates D&B producers above their peers.
His latest EP for Mainframe Recordings continues that trend with a diverse array of tracks and some nice collaborations. Ahead of the release we caught up with him to find out about his hookups with Ray Uptown, his favourite techstep tunes and the Toronto scene.
DNB Dojo: The title track from your EP features some really slick vocals from Ray Uptown, how did that collaboration come about?
NC-17: To be honest I don’t really remember how we hooked up. I know I had heard some of his work in the past and I thought his material was very interesting & unique especially from his leftfield approach. I know we linked up on Facebook and talked about potentially working on something together in the future. A few months had rolled by and I received a message on Facebook Chat from Ray letting me know he was headed to the studio. Luckily I took that day off work and was working on something that I had laying round for ages which was a leftfield minimal Hip- Hop influenced DnB track. I had been trying to finish it for a while but I always felt it was lacking the vocals that the track truly deserved. So I sent him the WAV & the rest is history!
I let Ray know my that my Hip-Hop influences growing up were mainly the West Coast sound, especially from artists like MC Eight, Ice Cube, Spice 1, Ghetto Boyz, Easy E, Too $hort and others from the early to mid 90’s. I let him know exactly what I was after. Then literally 2 hours after sending him the WAV he had a clip of what he had done and I was in love. Literally he hit a home run out of the park! Once I finished it I felt it was it was a perfect fit for Mainframe for the EP I was working on. When I sent it to Disaszt he fell in love with it and we both felt that ‘Sex, Drugs, Lies, Alcohol & Video Tape’ was a perfect title for the EP.
Ray Uptown is a seriously talented vocalist and it was a pleasure for me to work with him. We also just finished two other tracks, one which is forthcoming on a major label which I can’t talk about just yet.
DD: Sleaze Disease sounds like a nod to the old school techstep sound of late 90s Virus releases. What’s your favourite record from that era?
NC: The late 90’s & early 2000’s are easily my favourite time period for the techstep sound in Drum n Bass. I think mainly because back then tracks had a lot more soul & funk. I feel a lot of today’s tech step is missing that. If I had to pick one record that captures that era perfect it would be Funktion by Ed Rush & Optical. I think that record captures the true essence of that era & it gives me chills every time I hear it. Also, it would be a crime if I didn’t mention the Matrix Sleepwalker LP. From the first track to the last its pure brilliance, definitely the soundtrack to any Jedi!
DD: How’s the Toronto scene these days? I understand there’s quite a thriving ragga jungle scene in the city, does that crossover with the more modern D&B scene or is it quite segregated?
NC: The Toronto scene can be up & down. There’s no doubt the promoters out here love their old school, which makes it really hard for artists to get work, especially some of the newer producers/DJs coming up. But I must say it is slowly getting better, especially compared to a few years back. More promoters are starting to think progressively, even though some promoters cherish and will never let the past go, no matter what. But, to be honest, we have so many great promoters now that this is less of a problem than before.
I also want to add that, at the moment, Toronto has been producing a lot of great artists such a Marcus Visionary, Rene La Vice, Nusense, Stranjah, Artifice, Statistic & many others.
DD: NC-17 used to be a duo but I believe it’s down to just Peter these days, how and when did that come about? Do you miss the partnership?
NC: Yeah, we actually haven’t been together as a group for quite a while now. I started the group in 2005 and had a few releases on various labels and Korosiv was part of another group and jumped ship to NC-17 in 2007. To be honest, from 2007 to 2009 we worked very well together, but after a while both of our tastes in music started changing and it became a struggle for both him and I. Every year we would work less frequently together and our musical differences just took their toll on both of us. For a very long time, at least for me, it didn’t feel like a group. Both of our sounds were totally different to a point where very little music was getting done together. Not to mention that both of us were also at different points in our lives. We kept holding each other back creatively so we decided it was best not work together. Being in a group is very much like a marriage and some times it just doesn’t work out for whatever reason.
I don’t miss the partnership because now I am free to make whatever I want to make without having to have someone else’s approval on everything I do. Partnerships are great when both artists are on the same page creatively, but when it’s the opposite it can be a creative nightmare. Since being solo I have been able to make five times the amount of music I was making before. There’s no room for being lazy because it’s all on you!
DD: What’s been your highlight of 2013?
NC: The highlight of my year was my time spent working hard in the studio. There is so much in the pipeline I can’t wait to announce all of it.
DD: Any Christmas tips from the NC-17 household?
NC: Stay safe and remember to always to help the less fortunate. Christmas is a time where I find people don’t stop to think of people who are in way worse positions than us, so if there is anyone reading this, even if its some thing little like buying some one a sandwich or donating to the Salvation Army, please help people who are going through a tough time through the holiday season.
Check out the clips of the Sex, Drugs, Lies, Alcohol & Video Tape EP and watch out for the release dropping on Mainframe Recordings from December 16th.