EVENT: Dusk & Blackdown present Margins Music LIVE

Dusk & Blackdown’s Margins Music was a concept album of sorts. Based around the different sounds of today’s multicultural London the duo infused their heavily dubstep and grime centric productions with sonic snatches of the non stereotypical London; the micro cultures that exist on the outskirts and in the underbelly of the city. The result highlighted the duo’s ear for melody as much as their passion for new and interesting bass weight and starred emcees Trim, Durrty Goodz and the vocal stylings of Farrah.

If you follow Blackdown’s blog or read his Pitchfork column regularly you’ll know that he’s not really one to sit still or conform to concentric opinions of what underground UK dance music should be like. So much so that he and Dusk are re-interpreting their debut album live on a mini tour of the UK throughout June.

Ahead of the launch night, 5th June at South London’s Albany, we caught up with Blackdown to find out exactly what a ‘live’ performance will entail and to sneak a quick peek at what his Keysound label has forthcoming.

Sonic Router: What are the plans for the live setup? Grander ideas than an Ableton set with a midi keyboard cook off I presume?

Blackdown: The plan is to make something that really works live, that can evolve and change in real time, without sacrificing the physical impact of everything we worked to create in the studio for our DJ sets. The plan is to make something that works visually as it does sonically, so we've enlisted Jonathan Howells who built our video (below) to build something powerful and cinematic. Equally we've enlisted Durrty Goodz, who's got more stage presence than the rest of us put together and Farrah and the other musicians will be performing their parts. Yes we'll be using Ableton but in a way that allows us the freedom to remix on the fly, instrument by instrument, part by part, but also keep the sonic impact of our studio production - especially the drums. We anticipate it will roll like a DJ set - no song breaks - just building and building on the fly. We want to keep it intense, rolling and physical.



Will it be interpretations of the Margins Music album or new material?

Both. The project began as a being centred on Margins Music but in all honesty, for our sake alone, we needed to keep it as fresh and upfront as our DJ sets, so we'll be performing some of our remixes (Geeneus, Scratcha DVA, a Bollywood classic etc) as well as lots of new material. It's about 60/40% right now. Certainly there will be a significant number of new tracks, in new styles and tempos, that most people won't have heard.

What else is coming from you guys musically? I mean Keysound is on it at the mo. Any original productions waiting on the hard drive?

There's always beats on the hard drive, though most of them are being added to the live set right now too... In terms of Keysound the next release after Skream's is the LV 38 EP in May. Up after that is LHF EP1: Enter in Silence... late May, early June. LHF will be supporting us on all the tour dates with a bag of upfront material, alongside other Keysound DJs.



An exclusive dub mix by LV of the 5 tracks from their forthcoming '38 EP' ft Josh Idehen, out in May on Keysound Recordings.

You can catch the Dusk & Blackdown live show on the following dates at the following venues:

5th June @ The Albany
Douglas Way, Deptford, London SE8 4AG
thealbany.org.uk / 020 8692 4446 / £12 advance from ticketweb.co.uk / Doors 8pm

8th June @ Brighton Dome
12a Pavilion Buildings, Castle Square, Brighton, BN1 1EE
brightondome.org / 01273 709 709 / £TBA / Doors 8pm

11th June @ Band on the Wall
25 Swan Street, The Northern Quarter, Manchester, M4 5JZ
bandonthewall.org / 08452 500 500 / £10 / Doors 9pm

16th June @ South Street
21 South Street, Reading RG1 4QU
readingarts.com / 0118 960 6060 / £TBA / Doors 8pm

11th Sept @ Kendal Brewery
Highgate, Kendal, Cumbria, LA9 4HE
breweryarts.co.uk / 01539 725133/ £TBA / Doors 8pm



Link:
www.myspace.com/keysoundrecordings