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SR Mix #76: Outboxx [Immerse]

Bristol’s Immerse Records were one of the first people to really support this site, with their label boss Kidkut providing one of our first mixes and with their output. Having released a texturally brilliant album by Kontext called Dissociate, along with a steady stream of great 12”s last year (from people like XI, Arkist, Late, Simon/off and Cloak & Dagger) their first release of 2011 comes from Outboxx, a pairing of Bristolian producers pushing a decidedly more house tempoed groove.

Jacob Martin (who also produces as Hodge - his excellent ‘Conjecture’ is out now digitally through Pollen) and Matt Lambert’s debut 12” under the moniker, ‘Kate Libby’s’ b/w ‘Bertie’s Groove,’ feels live, as if it was somewhat improvised during a particularly fruitful session. ‘Bertie’s Groove’ is overly infectious, the lush chord and bass progression splintering off into shards of pure sunshine, whilst ‘Kate Libby’s’ is more stripped back, powered by the constant shuffle of the handclap. Outboxx’s is purist house music; a little ponderous, produced with a sheen and built with a steady injection of musicality – something that doesn’t surprise when the duo’s partnership is broken down into specific roles.

With news of their second single being signed to Well Rounded’s house music offshoot, Well Rounded Housing Project, we caught up with the guys to peddle our snapshot Q&A and grab our 76th Sonic Router Mix - an extended session though likeminded grooves.

SR: Can you provide those who may not know you with a bit of background info? Whats the Ouboxx project all about?

Jake: It’s just us jamming, having some fun and making some music!

It’s more straight up house music. Is that something you’ve always been interested in? Are you influenced by certain producers or tracks?

Jake: Yeah we are. Loads of them. We’re generally influenced by music that sounds kinda raw and crackly… lots of 80s funk, garage and house music...

You are a duo. How does the partnership work in the studio?

Matt : I’m on the keys...

Jake: I’m on the computer making the beats, the partnership works well – it’s fun. We basically just jam...

I know you producer other stuff under different names but how did you first get into making this kind of music? What was it that infected you to do so?

Jake : When we make music we don’t really have an idea or direction at first, just jam for a while and see what happens. We both are really into a wide range of music and what we are making is a result of that.

Matt : I’ve played keys for more than 10 years on and off and been in a few funk bands and am interested to keep up that side of things as well but I’m getting more and more into electronic/dance music by the day. I’m influenced by people like Benji B, Gilles Peterson – People that generally play good music.

What’s your production set up like?

Jake: The set up is Matt’s Nord, some AKG mics, a R-09hr and Cubase. The hand held recorder is really important as it enables us to use field recordings; the voice in Kate Libby’s is a recording of shouting at a fireworks display. The keys on the tracks are all audio, no midi, we generally try and just get one takes from Matt to give the music a natural feel.



You’re Bristol based. The city has a shining reputation for dubstep/bass music in general, how is the house scene down there? Is it something you go out to a lot?

Jake: It seems the genres are really blending in Bristol, currently when going out you end up hearing a mix of genres which is what we love. There’s always something exciting going on in Bristol, for example this weekend we went down and saw 2562 play in the Idle Hands record store which was amazing, such a great, intimate atmosphere.

Immerse has often represented more of a dancefloor edge, but with releases like the Kontext album, it put itself into slower, more introspective territories. What’s it like to have your first tune out with them?

Jake: Its real cool, Adam Kidkut is a great guy and its nice putting out our first tune through friends in Bristol…. that just kinda makes sense to us. Immerse has some really exciting stuff emerging from less established producers, definitely a label to watch.

And the follow up is on the Well Rounded Housing Project. Can you tell us a bit about that?

Jake: The follow up is two tunes rooted in house music but also a slower hip hop track (‘Brighten My Day’) with Naomi Jeremy which kinda rounds off the release nicely for us. Its great being able to put out what we want with no restrictions on style, Donga is real open minded like that.

Anything else forthcoming?
Jake: Not as of yet, we have a few tunes that we have only just finished so time will tell I guess...

Tell us a little bit about the mix you’ve put together for us…

Jake: The mix is just tunes we are loving at the moment, it ran over an hour and it could have gone on for a lot longer. The mix starts out with some of the slower hip hop stuff we are really feeling and moves into house music. The Behling & Simpson and Portrait guys are ones to watch out for, loving their music... the new Appleblim & October Schmorgasbord release is a killer collaboration. Oh and had to put in the Andy Mac and Kidkut + Arkist tracks. Big big tunes!

Any words of wisdom, for our readers?

Matt : Jakes alright really.

Jake : Don’t try and take a photo with Matt. Ever.

::

DOWNLOAD: Outboxx – Sonic Router Mix #76



Tracklist:

Outboxx - Brighten my day (forthcoming Well Rounded Housing Project)
Sesped - Bastards (forthcoming Pollen)
Deft - Blade Runner Blues (unreleased)
Rob Hindle - Buenos Aires 2am read by Jonathan Tafler (LateNightTales)
Grooveman Spot - Going On (Jazzy Sport)
Portrait - Moving on (forthcoming Well Rounded Housing Project)
Anthony Shakir - Detroit State (Space Dimension Controller Remix) (Rush Hour)
Outboxx - Kate Libby (Immerse)
Chez Damier - Soul Minimal (Mojuba)
Outboxx - Bertie's Groove (Immerse)
Behling and simpson - Politics (unreleased)
Kidkut + Arkist - One Year Later (forthcoming Hot Flush
October & Appleblim - NY Fizzzzzz (forthcoming Smorgasbord)
Kowton - She Don't Jack (Idle Hands)
Andy Mac - Asteroid (forthcoming Punch Drunk)
Gerry Read - Untitled (forthcoming Fourth Wave)
Bakey Ustl - A Tender Place (Unthank)
Vessel - Glitter (unreleased)
Mean Poppa Lean - Personality (Leon remix) (forthcoming Well Rounded Housing Project)
Outboxx -Falling Apart ft Naomi Jeremy (unreleased)
Domu - Save it ft Face (Tru Thoughts)

RECOMMENDED: Mono/Poly – Manifestations EP [Brainfeeder]

Manifestations is the debut release for the Californian producer, Mono/Poly, on Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder label. Long hinted at, it follows a slew of varying releases from artists like Jeremiah Jae, Taylor McFerrin and Austin Peralta, the EP marks something of a return for Brainfeeder to those clunky, unpredictable hip hop instrumentals FlyLo specialises in with tracks like ‘Forest Dark’ severely bringing the crush.

The first thing Mono/Poly’s released since his Paramatma album was released on USB by Tastefull Licks, Manifestations accentuates on the themes that made that album and tracks like the Fat City backed ‘Oil Fields’ or ‘Red & Yellow Toys’ so essential. Adept at both hazy synthesized sunsets, and facemelting bass growls he’s a producer for whom subtlety plays a bit part on tracks like ‘Punch The Troll In The Neck’ - which hits in a similarly scruffy way to the work of Free The Robots - but then he’s all about the interplaying nuances on tracks like the enigmatic ‘Glow.’

When we spoke to him back in November 2009, Mono/Poly admitted that his music is “everything from hip hop, drum & bass, fusion, dubstep, electro and more” and it’s a sentiment that this EP only further illustrates. ‘Glow’ for example, stutters through synth progressions, framed by clipped hip hop drums before an almighty bass line, freewheels out of nowhere, nailing the track to the low end frequencies and a track like ‘Needs Deodorant’ blazes keynote electrified boogie and the kind of scything bass synths Skream employs, simultaneously.

Put simply Mono/Poly makes you realise that a lot of other peoples beats are either unimaginative or well... just a bit shit; and Manifestations, in all its super compressed glory, is a great synopsis of his work - one part a colourful, textural explosion and one part brown tone, thunderous-bass-drop club music.

Words: Oli Marlow // Out: Now

COMPETITION: Win Instra:mental Albums & Launch Party Tickets

This Saturday Instra:mental launch their debut album, the long awaited Resolution 653 at a secret location in London. Joined by Detroit's own Urban Tribe leader DJ Stingray, Instra:mental's Autonomic compatriot and Exit Records boss man dBridge and Workshop's Kassem Mosse the night will unite the diverse strains of Instra:mental's musical universe in one club.

To celebrate, the promoters, Black Atlantic, have armed us with three copies of the album and 3 pairs of tickets to giveaway. To be in the running email us with the answer to the below question by Thursday.

Q: Instra:mental's label is called what?

a) NoFuss~
b) NonPus$
c) NonPlus+

Please Note: Winners will be announced on Thursday and notified by email. Please ensure you can attend the event upon entry, the venue will be announced on the FB event shortly.

DOWNLOAD: V/A - Truancy One

Free compilations are a blessed thing, though they’re often an awkward balance to get right. Aligning something new and fresh with the genuinely impressive can be hard, and it’s not really been done that well since the first Echodub compilation, Anechoic Chamber, came out back in late 2008. And whilst that compilation was an exploration in the deeper, oceanic side of where techno and dubstep were brutally and lavishly mating with gusto, it explored the possibilities that pairing offered perfectly. In an age when you could very feasibly download a compilation’s worth of material in an hour from Hype Machine, its reassuring to know people are still working on creating well thought out collections.

The Truants blog are a bunch of such culprits. As an independent magazine focusing on electronic and rap music, started in early 2010 by two writers based in Amsterdam, they’ve achieved an impressive archive of editorial in a short time; and as a select group of tastemakers they’ve just released their first ‘pay what you want’ compilation, Truancy One, of which the proceeds go to the Libya & Region Appeal. Featuring 14 artists from all across the globe – established producers like Teeth, NGUZUNGUZU sit next to blossoming beat makers like Brey, Brenmar and Mele who in turn compliment new names like Glass Actors, Square Mode and Tanka - it embodies their musical ethos as a blog that writes consistently about DJs a producers from all over the world.

In an attempt to shed a bit of light on the quality of the music, which focuses more on house influenced grooves, we caught up with Immy Soraya from Truants...

SR: What made you want to put together a free compilation? What are you gaining from it?

IS: The idea of releasing a compilation has been running in the back of our minds for a couple of months but it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that we started approaching the artists on Truancy One. We initially wanted to release it through a couple of digital retailers but figured a free release would be a good move. You could say it was a fairly impulsive project, but I think it’s a good thing to not hold back tracks from the audience especially since it’s so easy to release tracks digitally nowadays.

What I personally gain from it is getting the name of my platform Truants and its new label Truancy Records out there, and it makes me incredibly happy to read positive feedback on the compilation too. We offered an option to donate to the Red Cross Libya & Region Appeal and seeing the donations slowly but surely come in is extremely good for my karma, haha.

What does it represent?

The entire vibe of the compilation embodies our ethos as a platform, in the sense that it represents good music from both familiar artists and up and coming ones that people should look out for. The reason why we chose to put out a compilation rather than giving away single tracks is because we feel that this way, it stays with our readers for a longer time as it carries more weight and impact.

How did you pick the artists?

Most artists are involved with our platform in a way and we’ve approached musicians that we admired specifically for the project too. Some were suggested by producers we were already working with, and a couple of them ended up in my inbox one way or another.

What are your personal highlights?

The opening track ‘Steady Moving’ by the Montréal duo Grown Folk is a big one for me personally. Amazing vibe! I’m really stoked with ‘Some’ by the Helsinki producer Teeth too - his EP ‘Shawty’ is dropping on 502 Recordings soon - it sounds amazing on a big sound system. A special shout-out to Brey, aka Die Barbie Musik Kollektiv as well, who literally dedicated his contribution to us by naming it ‘Tru4ncy,’ a bit of a dark and grime-y tune with amazing percussion. I’ve listened to these three most times probably but I love all the fourteen tracks on there, really. We only put tracks on there we truly loved so I approve of them all, and I’m extremely grateful towards everyone who participated.

Are there plans to do more?

Definitely! We wanted to wait and see how the reception would be for the first edition but the feedback is overwhelming! If we can work it out and if our engineer doesn’t end up hating us, we’ll try to release a free compilation every other month. In the periods between the compilations we’ll be putting out actual releases by artists we’ve featured and will be featuring, but these will be properly released so we’re not turning the label into a giveaway central.

::

DOWNLOAD/DONATE: V/A – Truancy One



Truancy One – Full Tracklisting:

1. Grown Folk – Steady Moving
2. Teeth – Some
3. NGUZUNGUZU – Story Riddim
4. Darling Farah – Varsity
5. Brenmar – Boy U Got Me
6. Glass Actor – What I Couldn’t Do
7. LOL Boys & Teki Latex – Modern
8. Chaos In The CBD – Ima Do It Right
9. Melé – Pyrex Vision
10. Tanka – Short Sighted
11. Femme En Fourure – Femdom
12. ITFW – Surgeon
13. Square Mode – One Way
14. Brey – Tru4ncy