The debut edition of Trap Magazine should be lining the shelves, or floors, of your local fashion and record outlets now (if you live in one of the larger, luckier metropolitan cities, that is).
Put together by a likeminded crew of writers and designers its a fresh bi-monthly look at the wider bass music scene in a super handy, ultra glossy A5 sizing. Including words on Toddla T & Redlight (pictured above) it also features an article by yours truly on Deadboy, as well as well rounded pieces on D Double E, Break and this year's Outlook Festival amongst others.
If you see it, pick it up. The Deadboy piece - with its big boy photography by Steve Braiden -looks wicked:
...plus, it's free.
For those a little less technophobic you can also read it online - via this weeny widget or at the link above it...
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.
In celebration of this ^^^ event at Plan B next Friday, the Numbers/Well Rounded signed pulseless child, Deadboy, just put together a mix featuring a bunch of freaky deeky bits from people like D1, Cosmin TRG, DJ Naughty, Altered Natives and Kromestar...
Following up ‘The Golden Handshake’ EP from Low Limit and Lando Kal, collectively known as LazerSword, and the anthemic ‘IfUWantMe’ from Deadboy, the freshly minted Numbers imprint are serving up the ‘Bare Blips’ EP from London resident, Redinho, next month. Anyone who caught his bombastic live show at the label launch at Plastic People late last year can testify that Red's squashed syrup of low end frequencies and hip hop swagger is frankly, intense. Micro produced and with a strong focus on intensity the full EP is a glory to behold; flickering from the thump of the eponymous track to the flutter of the aptly named ‘Pitter Patter,’ Red explores ideas quickly, seemingly mastering each mood with ease.
Ahead of his slot at the Numbers fabric takeover this Friday, he passed us a minimix of the forthcoming EP and being that he’s one of the nicest dudes you ever shall meet, we shot him a few quizzical probes for dramatic effect.
Sonic Router: Can you provide those who may not know you with a bit of background info?
Redinho: I’m about to drop my debut EP, ‘Bare Blips,’ on Numbers.
Outside of music who are you? What do you do on the daily?
Tom Calvert aka Red. On the daily, I’m a professional nine to five avoider.
How did you first get into making music? What was it that infected you to do produce?
I spent a lot of time making music with my two brothers. I started playing drums, and my brothers got a guitar and bass. It’s weird because my parents aren’t musical in the slightest. I remember making recordings right from the start using a village tape recorder with a built in microphone ‘hole.’ We would set the drum kit up in one corner of the room, and place the tape recorder in the opposite corner, and my brother would “rap” as I played the drums. That way, if he rapped loudly (i.e. screamed), some sort of mix balance was achieved between the drums and the vocals on the recording.
Even more elaborate recording techniques were invented to combat our lack of equipment until we managed to borrow a multi track tape recorder. I used to rinse that thing until it was literally burning hot. Looking back on it, it was always recording that I loved. I didn’t really practice playing instruments; I just practiced writing and recording. I would make loads of tracks where I played everything from the drums, guitars, bass to vocals. Without realising it, I was producing, and it was something that I naturally loved to do and haven’t ever been able to stop doing since.
What’s your production set up like?
Laptop, vinyl, plus a few toys and whatever else I’ve managed to “borrow” from people.
Where do you take inspiration from when making music?
Gigs of all sorts leave a lasting impression on me. Also there’s just so much good music out there - past and present.
How would you describe your sound?
Some have described ‘Bare Blips’ as a fusion of electronic, beats and grime. I’m happy with that. The newer stuff I’m making has a different feel to it, maybe a more glorious vibe harmonically, but you can still hear those reference points in it.
What draws you to the mentally contorted, hip hop sound?
I’d say hip hop is essentially 'funk' music; I’ve always liked funk music, or music with a strong beat.
Your first release is out imminently on Numbers right? Can you tell us a bit about that...?
The ‘Bare Blips’ EP will be out on Numbers very soon. I made most of it in a week. I tuned into one of those autopilot zones. I just wanted to make something that excited and entertained me.
What else have you got coming up? (releases, gigs/plug the fabric show etc etc)
I’m playing live at fabric on this Friday in the Numbers room alongside Rustie, Martyn and Jackmaster. I'm also playing a Numbers thing in Glasgow on the 17th April with Deadboy.
Release wise, there's ‘Bare Blips’ v. soon, then I’ve got a track with Riz MC, and some more Redinho stuff to follow.
1. Bad Autopsy – Beam Beamer 2. Groove Chronicles – First Time 3. Sunship – Try Me Out 4. Bump & Flex – Long Time Coming (Big Up version) 5. Jinder – Youth Blood (Bok Bok remix) 6. Elektric Red – Drank in my Cup 7. Funkystepz – Touch On Me 8. Deadboy – Easy 9. Matt Jam Lamont – Feel My Love 10. Bakongo – Baga 11. Adonis – No Way Back 12. Buraka Som Sistema – Restless (Julio Bashmore remix) 13. Ultrasound – The Hard Way 14. Zinc feat. Ms Dynamite – Wile Out 15. Mosca – Square One 16. Ke$ha – Tik Tok (Untold remix dub) 17. Groove Chronicles – Blakjack 18. Dexplicit - Karma
Running a little bit later than usual on this one. As the title of the post pertains to, here be a winter mix from Oneman, he who is doing the 11th CD in Rinse mix series.
South East Soul - Lust Four Tet - Love Cry (Joy Orbison Remix) Deadboy - Heartbreaker Dusk + Blackdown - Dasaflex Blackpocket - U're A Sta (Martyn Remix) Point B - Fossils Shackleton - Blood On My Hands Peverelist - Roll With The Punches Digital Mystikz - I Wait Skream - Sweetz Kissy Sellout - This Kiss (Synkro Remix) FaltyDL - Lay Bisweed - You're In Love Burial - Etched Headplate Kamikaze - Ghetto Kyote Desto - Skyline Shackleton - Naked Burial - Endorphin
Scottish uber crew, and thrower of Off Sonar '09's stand out party, Numbers, are launching their new and improved collective (the joined forces of the Stuff, Wireblock and Dress 2 Sweat labels) at Plastic People next Thursday.
Performing on the night will be:
Dorian Concept - live (Kindred Spirits / Affine) Redinho - live (Numbers) Deadboy - DJ (Numbers) Jackmaster b2b Ben UFO - DJ (Numbers / Hessle Audio)
