INTERVIEW: Demokracy [Robox Neotech]

Twisting up genres with spectacular ease - both in their productions and in their mixes for sites like Monday Jazz - we’ve been intrigued by the Russian duo Demokracy since we were sent a couple of clips of Starkey dropping some of their tunes on his Sub FM show back in June. With an EP release forthcoming on Doshy’s Robox Neotech imprint - a package that fuses bastard hip hop with anything and everything from digitized squiggles to plump sawtooth bass lines - we got super excited after learning they shared our penchant for the classic Anticon era and Doseone’s manic wordplay, so we asked them to put together a mix.

The happy making thing is: these two near anonymous dudes from Siberia absolutely smacked it...

Sonic Router: Can you provide those who may not know you with a bit of background info?

Demokracy: We are Stas (aka Hmot) and Albert (aka Damscray). We write tunes together and live in the middle of nowhere.

Outside of music who are you? What do you do on the daily?

Well we work at the spheres you may call ‘creative’ but it’s too dull to talk about it. So we’re just two guys who like to play board games, drink beer, read sci-fi novels or something like that. To be honest we don’t like to talk much about ourselves.

How did you first get into making music? What was it that infected you to do so?

We’ve been involved into music production since a very long time ago but as for our Dmkrcy project, well… it was just curious to play with various sounds - you know, to share some ideas, thoughts and all that shit with each other. And though we have a very similar musical tastes our points of view are often diverse and it’s very infectious - brings a new challenge every single day.

What’s your production set up like? What’s your favourite bit of kit in the studio?

Oh it’s just a bunch of old crap including a couple of laptops, two b-stock turntables and some toys like midi-controllers, samplers, even a cute vintage Casio synthesizer. Also we have a mixer that looks like a Soviet nuclear bunker and it’s a bit creepy. We call it Stalin.

Where do you take inspiration from when making music?

Most of the inspiration comes from classic sci-fi novels and movies – each tune has its own background but it’s not very engrossing story to tell you about. And as we listen to an enormous amount of really divergent music – from retro movies’ soundtracks and psychedelic/kraut rock to jazz, death metal, hip hop, modern bass music and beyond – it helps too.

What’s the thinking behind the Demokracy moniker?

All we can say is that at the very beginning it was a bit longer but then our good friend advised us to shorten it so it’s hard to say that it has a deep philosophical meaning or something like that. Quite a poor story, yeah?


Demokracy – Wintermute

How would you describe your sound? I mean your mix for us jumps from Eleven Tigers to Doshy to Burial and Roll Deep. Would you say that your tastes are eclectic? Do you put that into your own music?

The main concept of our production is plain – the tune shouldn’t be too boring. We always try to use alot of various synths, beat patterns, all that sampled crap and just LOVE to switch between different genres or change the whole mood for at least 2-3 times per track. That’s why we don’t really like these shitloads of the dance music tunes having exactly the same loops repeat again and again and again and again. It might work at the dancefloor but it’s too lifeless. And we’re trying to adhere to the same rules when we mix.

Personally I love that you included Bleubird. Under rated imo. Plus the Anticon connect. That’s a big part of my music history right there. How did you discover dubstep?

Actually we met through Siberian underground hip-hop scene where every single person adores such MCs like Doseone, Bleubird, Buck65 or Sole – they’re really great and the lyrics are ridiculous (though we’ve had some problems with understanding a huge part of their bizzare word constructions because of our poor English, lol). And when the local scene successfully died we just switched to a totally different direction.

You come from Russia right? What’s the scene like for this kind of music out there? How do you keep up? Got any tips?

Russia’s got a number of genuinely good producers but most of them just have no reason to carry on production or the opportunity to breakthrough. The situation is pretty ugly because almost all of the peeps just don’t care or have an extremely poor musical taste and that’s why we have lots of miserable DJs playing pirate mp3s or shitty rappers on huge stadiums with 50.000 people attending while guys like Untold playing in empty venues. Our country is a joke.

Your got releases forthcoming on the Robox Neotech imprint. Can you shed a bit of light on the label? What’s the style, who runs it? How did you hook it up? Tell us what people can expect from your release too…

Well, Robox is a fresh label based in Berlin, Germany. It’s focused mainly on up-and-coming bass producers like Powell, NastyNasty or Zet and all the promos we heard for 2010-2011 are really sick. We were asked by Dominic (Doshy, who runs it) if we could do a release for Robox so here’s an EP coming later this year and it will consist of four tracks with remixes from our fam plus a very special guest. We’re happy with the result and very excited of how it will be acclaimed by the public.

What other projects have you got in the pipeline? What’s happening with you in the rest of 2010?

There also will be a digital single and heaps of remixes for our friends and fam. And we feel very good about having a track on sick compilation by Serbian label Svetlana Industries coming very soon – such guys like Teebs, 1000names and lots more are involved too. Actually we have a lot of plans but it’s too early to talk about it right now.

Any words of wisdom for our readers?

When the music’s over, turn off the lights.

::

DOWNLOAD: Demokracy – Sonic Router Mix #51



Tracklist:

Demokracy - Double Star/Intro
Slugabed – It’s When The Future Falls Plop On Your Head (forthcoming Ramp)
Zet. - Capsule Corporation (Dub)
Doshy ft. Raspel - Crtz [Robot Koch Remix] (Robox Neotech)
Dingy Disu - Poltergeist (Dub)
Demokracy - Shapeshifter (Dub)
Lakritze - Killswitch (forthcoming Robox Neotech)
Jammer - Better Than [Lorn Remix] (Big Dada)
Powell - Smack My Glitch Hop [Demokracy Remix] (forthcoming Robox Neotech)
Tobacco - Truck Sweat (Anticon)
Demokracy - Deadhead (forthcoming Robox Neotech)
Daedelus - Thanatopsis ft. Hrishikesh Hirway (Ninja Tune)
Emika - Drop The Other (Ninja Tune)
Dza - Eskimo [Demokracy Remix] (Dub)
Burial - Fostercare (Hyperdub)
Eleven Tigers - Memory Palace ft. Alice-Marie Archer (Dub)
Deadboy - Way That I Luv U (Well Rounded)
Bleubird - Hell Country (Endemik Music)
Demokracy - Zeroth Law (forthcoming Robox Neotech)
Roll Deep - When I’m ‘ere (Relentless)
Monky - Drunkerdz (forthcoming Robox Neotech)
Doshy - Sunset (CDR) + Lonely Ppl Outro

Link:
www.myspace.com/demokracyandhotdogs
soundcloud.com/demokracy

PRE-ORDER: Late - Phantom Papers [Immerse]

Over the last couple of years, the resurgence of garage beats in post-dubstep music (owed at least in part, I suppose, to Burial’s wake) has fuelled my own speculation as to just why they are capable of sounding so haunted. It seems like a strange fate, in a way, for beats normally associated with the sexy flex of turn-of-the-millennium two-step to be co-opted by a new generation of producers using them to denote loneliness and melancholy. I suppose the clue’s in their construction really; a two-step beat is already a skeleton of the past, with the excesses of earlier rave musics trimmed away to leave only the bare essentials needed to make bodies move. When further displaced from an obvious dancefloor context, the minute snags and slippages in the rhythm of a swung beat leave space for the mind to fill in those gaps with personal and shared memories.

Since Burial showed that the form could have real emotional resonance away from the floor, a whole host of producers have been following in similar footsteps by carving out distinct sounds. Scuba’s achingly sad ‘Negative’ might well be the best of them so far, but Finnish producer Late’s new double pack for Immerse, the Phantom Papers EP, offers yet another angle. His sound, especially on lead track ‘Losing You,’ is undoubtedly in debt to Burial, but it would be a mark of journalistic laziness to pin it down as mere copyism. Instead it’s filled with a dubbed out sense of space that’s more Berlin than London; the beat itself seems to hang in a void, sending ripples outward through its structure as it moves.

Elsewhere, the undulating, uber-percussive ‘Bittersweet’ sounds a little like a Hessle Audio track, if the label’s crisp ‘n’ dry aesthetic was shorn of its edges and heard through an underwater loudspeaker. ‘Under These Conditions’ has a similar aquatic feel, and proves to be the EP’s highlight, an opening vocal section holding back for the delayed payoff of a beautifully simple, canned synth melody. The title track, meanwhile, drops the tempo and crafts a beautifully delicate piece of hip-hop, its expansive reverb leaving it a wraith in a sea of sound. As an EP, Phantom Papers holds together admirably, fitting neatly into the Immerse label’s more considered aesthetic but also striking out in surprisingly affecting directions.

Words: Rory Gibb
Out: 28th June



Links:
www.myspace.com/llate
www.immerserecords.com

INTERVIEW: Clubroot [Lo Dubs]

Anonymity is a highly publicised thing within dubstep thanks to the Burial/Mercury Music Prize/Sun newspaper debacle that led to William Bevan giving the world his real name and a bleary picture to boot. Clubroot was similarly mysterious around the release of his debut self titled album on the Lo Dubs label, choosing to remain unmasked and similarly enigmatic; and much like Burial - a comparison that’s so patently obvious considering the shadowy nature of the producer and the music even Gordon Smart himself would’ve bumbled across it - Dan Richmond’s music chews static, soaked in litres of sampling and a vibrant old school drum aesthetic.

Springing out from his Electronic Explorations mix in July of last year, Richmond’s reported decade plus of production tinkering came to fruition; fusing the weight of industrial music concrete with speaker busting 2step and a keen ear for found sound sampling. Now standing on the verge of his second self titled album - hence forth referred to as S/T (II - MMX) - we caught up with him to get the skinny on the new album…

Sonic Router: Can you provide those who may not know you with a bit of background info?

Clubroot: Yeah, my names Dan Richmond, I’m 25 years old and I’m based in St Albans Hertfordshire. I’ve been making music for about 5 or 6 years now.

Outside of music who are you? What do you do on the daily?

During the day I work for the family business which is a Design & Build Company. I do all sorts of stuff, depending on what’s going on at the time. Its mainly just general labouring but it keeps me busy and it’s nicely varied.

How did you first get into making music? What was it that infected you to do produce?

I’m not quite sure what brought me to making music. I never really enjoyed school that much and some of my old teachers would probably have called me a bit of a disruptive day-dreamer. When I left school I enrolled on an Art & Design course at a local College, which was a bit of stop gap and mainly consisted of me and my friends doing very little work while listening to tape packs and chatting about recent vinyl purchases. It was a friend on the same course who mentioned a music tech course he was going to do after completing this course, and it sounding like it could be fun. At the time I was really getting into drum & bass and bits of UK garage & house, I was buying quite a lot of vinyl and hitting up the occasional rave at the weekends, so the thought of possibly being able to make the music I was enjoying so much seemed like a logical progression as there was little else in terms of dreams or aspirations.

What’s your production set up like?

It’s really nothing fancy. I’m running Logic 5.5 on my PC, I’ve got a pair of pretty basic monitors, a MIDI keyboard and a Microphone. I’ve recently purchased a Zoom H4n Handy Recorder, which is by far my favourite (and only!) bit of kit. It’s really opened up a whole new world of creativity being able to just get out and record some crazy musique concrete styled sounds. So yeah, that and a healthy sample library and some select VST’s.

Where do you take inspiration from when making music? I hear a bit of rave, jungle or hardcore in your music but filtered through the spaced out dubstep and garage sounds, have you been inspired by those early sounds?

Life… It may sound like a bit of a cliché answer but it’s true. I find that making music is the most intimate and calming way of expressing myself, often with content and emotions that I would never ever tell anyone else about. It’s purely a medium to get things off my chest and make something thought provoking and hopefully something moving. I love music that tugs at your heart strings and makes your hair stand on ends, and at the other end of the spectrum I love moody, dank and dusky sounds that bring out the petulant and sometimes irritable side of me. Its very much like a release of how I’m feeling at the time.

I always wished I had been born 10 years earlier so I could of experienced some of those magical raving years; the metamorphosis of UK rave culture from hardcore through to jungle, and then on to d&b. I feel there is a certain tinge of those uplifting old skool and hardcore vibes in my music, its kind of a nod to those sounds that came before me; the sounds which I missed. We use to got raving at places like Bagley’s in Kings Cross and the Sanctuary in Milton Keynes, and although there were hardcore and oldskool rooms and DJ’s, we were very much there for the d&b which was a much more approrariate and fitting sound to our rebellious and often angry teenage years of that time.

But yeah, jungle/d&b was my first and foremost love & inspiration, and it still is today to a certain extent. Although I don’t follow that scene much anymore I still draw a huge amount of inspirations from the tracks I use to love and listen too so much. Tunes like Ed Rush & Optical’s remix of ‘The Shining,’ or ‘Imagination’ by Dom & Roland for example, those were tracks that just had everything I wanted my productions to be. It’s that fine line between darkness and euphoria that just seems to work, and I try to incorporate that into my music as best I can.

How would you describe your sound?

Dreamy bass heavy space music around the 140 [bpm] mark.



There seems to be a sense of place and wide-open space in your music, is that something that inspires you?

Absolutely. I love to escape when I get the chance, and travelling is something I want to to do a lot more of. I like to find those sounds that fit an environment perfectly, you may not be where you want to be physically or visually but the music takes you there. I would like to think that my album takes people on a journey and transports them to somewhere completely different. Its all about escapism and fantasy. If you can listen to a piece of music and it removes you to another place then I think it’s done its job.

Your s/t debut album was a real slow burning gem, what was the idea behind it?

There was no special idea or concept behind it. I had a handful of tracks that I sent off to Jon AD at LoDubs and he suggested releasing an album. He was kind of the person who brought the track list and arrangement together, it just made sense and the tracks worked together.

And in turn does the S/T (II - MMX) follow on from the debut album thematically?

In a way yes. It’s very much developed since the debut in that it’s much more direct and there in front of you. There is some real contrast in this 2nd album and it’s quite up and down… hopefully there is a little something in there for everyone.

Who else in the scene are you feeling right now?

Yeah, I’m not brilliant at keeping my finger on the pulse in terms of what’s hot and what’s not. There are a few producers that I’m really feeling, mainly most of the guys featured in the mix.

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

It’s packed full of fresh dubs from a lot of the producers I’m grooving off. I’ve included a few new bits from myself which are a little different from some of the other stuff I’ve worked on up until now. You could say it’s quite a dark collection of tracks, at least at points anyway. It’s not hugely experimental but it’s what I think the scene needs more of. It’s also quite a nice example of the sort of set I would be likely to play out.

What else is coming up for you in 2010?

There’s not much else planned apart from this 2nd album and the EP to follow. I’ve got far too much ‘work in progress’ material that’s needs finishing, and then we’ll see what happens. I’m quite keen to work on a few more collaborations, and I’ve just finished working with Phaeleh on a new track called ‘Unharmed’ that’s knocking about.

I’m also finally taking the plunge on the gig side of things, with a signing to This Way Agency. I’m hoping to get that side of things rolling soon and get playing out.

Have you got any words of wisdom for our readers?

Stick to your guns, don’t be lead by the crowd & support the music you’re passionate about.

::

DOWNLOAD: Clubroot – Sonic Router Mix



Tracklist:

01. Kryptic Minds - 'Hybrid' (Forthcoming Osiris Music UK)
02. Clubroot - 'Stained Glass' (Dub)
03. Kryptic Minds & Youngsta - 'Cold Blooded' (Forthcoming Osiris Music UK)
04. Gat Decord - 'Passion' (DFRNT Remix) (Dub)
05. Clubroot - 'Whistles & Horns' (Dub)
06. Clubroot - 'Comedown' (Dub)
07. Phaeleh - 'Broken' (Dub)
08. Synkro - Distant Feeling' (Dub)
09. Clubroot - 'Solar Flares' (Dub)
10. Clubroot - 'Embryo' (Master 1 Mix) (Dub)
11. Actraiser - 'Tell Me' (Dub)
12. Clubroot - 'Eastern Promise' (Dub)
13. Vandera - 'Carbon 11' (Forthcoming Forecast 004)
14. Breakage Feat. Burial - 'Vial' (Digital Soundboy)
15. Clubroot - 'Recollections' (Dub)

Link:
www.myspace.com/clubroot
www.lodubs.com

PRE-ORDER: FaltyDL - Bravery EP [Planet Mu]

Drew Lustman’s ‘Love Is A Liability’ long-player stands unchallenged as one of the finest electronic releases of this year thus far, regardless of genre. His beats as FaltyDL tread a strangely instinctive line between pleasingly complex and downright awkward, yet somehow manage to avoid falling into the trap of losing their intrinsic sense of groove and danceability; hence the dizzying spirals and sudden twists of his debut album’s highlights, ‘To New York’ and ‘The Shape To Come,’ hold a melodic and rhythmic intricacy that sets them in as good stead for late-night headphone listens as for a packed floor. In fact, in the four months since its release ‘Love Is A Liability’ has more or less usurped Burial’s first record as my post-club journey home soundtrack.

Never one to rest on his laurels, during the next month or so the man’s got a new 12” to come on Ramp, ‘Party,’ as well as ‘Bravery,’ his follow-up proper on Planet Mu. Immediately striking is the divergent movement of the two releases – in ‘Party’ he’s further channeled the restless UK garage spirit of his earlier material into a melancholy dancefloor mover, but the other material is different somehow. The ‘Bravery’ EP is a far less immediate listen than its predecessor, stripped of its devotion to a straightforward skip and seemingly more interested in exploring the outer reaches of its parent genre. Opener ‘You Made Me Feel So Right’ is a case in point – the mournful vocal sample of the title rides over an entirely reversed two-step beat. It’s an uncomfortable and introspective listen, its down pitched voices and nocturnal ambience a million miles from a tune like ‘Human Meadow.’

Still, it feels as though detaching his music from the pressures of the floor has allowed Lustman the stylistic and melodic freedom to travel far beyond the self-set limits of ‘Love Is A Liability’ in search of deeper treasures. The expedition has unearthed some real gems - the title track in particular is heart stopping, an opening drunken swagger parting to allow room for a gorgeous sliced vocal breakdown, before a 4/4 kick suddenly sweeps it into space for a few blissful seconds. ‘Tronman’ sets a foreboding drone against escalating percussive aggression, and much of the record shares as much common ground with LA glitch-hop as with its more overt garage and dubstep influences. That said, it’s impossible to miss a warped cameo from Mary Anne Hobbs on ‘Mother Beam,’ no matter how much he messes with her distinctive voice.

In their latest issue, Wire’s main criticism of ‘Bravery’ was its supposed ‘bloodlessness’. I’m not entirely sure how they came to that conclusion. It’s not an easy listen, nor is it slavishly devoted to a single sound, but to call FaltyDL’s music bloodless is to deny the human heart that obviously beats at its core. Only a living being could have made music this brilliantly weird.

Words: Rory Gibb
Out: 12th October

Links
www.myspace.com/faltydl