Operating as Lazer Sword, Lando Kal and Low Limit have to date released a trio of singles and an album on the Innovative Leisure imprint. Having both made a name for themselves as singular entities with a smattering of beats on compilations like Beat Dimensions and a split 12” that minted the Numbers imprint the duo were focusing a little deeper on their joint project last year, working to create a synthesized haze of beat music on their debut eponymous album. With a selection of fifteen tracks that trickle up from a hip hop pace to a slow mo house tempo, it got a little overlooked back in November in our opinion. Beats like ‘Owl Tats’ and ‘Web Swag’ still bang - with their sound rooted in everything from southern hip hop to dubstep - and ‘Def Work’ should move any bass centric dancefloor that’s lucky enough to see it.
Everything included on the album seems like it’s been digitized specifically to give it a Tron like futurism, it’s all blossoming whirs and little intricate beat shuffles, but far be it from us to just give you a textual summation, we’re giving you the opportunity to grab a copy of it – and a borrowers mansion full of other prizes – courtesy of our family over at Earnest Endeavours.
Ahead of their date at the EE February throwdown next Wednesday – which also features sets from Cali based Edwardianist, Daedelus, Philly grime nutball Starkey and the first lady of Brainfeeder, TOKiMONSTA – we’ve been chosen as an outlet for you to grab two copies of the Lazer Sword album (on CD as well as on vinyl, that’s why we said 2), a copy of the ‘Batman’ 12”, the first single from the album which features remixes by Rustie and Nguzunguzu, a copy of the ‘Shot in the Night’ 7” - a slice of blue vinyl that isn’t on the album – a Lazer Sword t shirtand2 tickets to the EE event itself so you can see them rock the secret venue in tandem and maybe even buy them a soft drink and tell them that you really like their glasses.
To scoop the swag just email us the answer to the below question by next Tuesday (22/02).
Q: Lazer Sword’s first 12” for Innovative Leisure was called what?
a) Gucci Sweatshirt b) Gucci Network c) Gucci Footwork
The winner will be notified by email. Please make sure you can attend the event before entering.
The 4th edition of our podcast, the one that we make for Bleep.com, just went live.
Having missed January, we had a bit more stock to choose from, so we've collated music from brilliant producers like Pavan, Breton, Instra:mental, Roedilus, Julio Bashmore, Pearson Sound, Lunice (pictured), Jam City and Shackleton in this February themed edition.
1. Pavan - Afrika [Harmonia] 2. Pixelord - Fish Touch [Error Broadcast] 3. Breton - Hours Away [Hemlock] 4. Wbeeza - Manual Mode [Third Ear] 5. Roedilus - Regenwurm [Bureau B] 6. Instra:mental - Detuned Heart [Autonomic] 7. Morgan Zarante - Hookid [Hyperdub] 8. Lunice - Purp Walk [Lucky Me] 9. Ad Bourke - 100 [Cininite] 10. Julio Bashmore - Battle For Middle You [PMR] 11. Jam City - Magic Drops [Night Slugs] 12. MIA - It Takes A Muscle (Pearson Sound Remix) [XL] 13. Jacques Greene - Holdin' On [Lucky Me] 14. SBTRKT - Hide or Seek [Young Turks] 15. Girl Unit - IRL (Bok Bok Remix) [Night Slugs] 16. Shackleton - Man On A String Pt 1 & 2 [Woe to the Sceptic Heart] 17. Instra:mental - Voyeur [Disfigured Dubz] 18. Arkist - Out Of The Sun [Deca Rhythm] 19. Orphan101 - Disemble [Apple Pips] 20. Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie XX - NY Is Killing Me [XL]
Nepotize this: Earnest Endeavours are a transatlantic crew loosely based in London. Stretching over the Atlantic the core has secondary bases in New York and Los Angleles. They launched their conjoined aesthetic a few months back in fine fashion with the debut London performance of Nosaj Thing’s AV show and the first performance from Free The Robots (you can watch video footage of the event here).
Ahead of their second event, a double header featuring a gallery show from Kutmah – a DJ, producer and artist who whilst incarcerated regarding immigration issues made works of art armed with nothing but a short pencil and prison ID card – and an aftershow party featuring Kutmah, Dorian Concept, Teebs, the reason for this post: Jams and more (for more info on the party, which is tonight btw, go to the facebook event here), EE have unleashed their very first mixtape.
In their own words:
“Earnest Endeavours are proud to present the first audio outing on the label. An Earnest Endeavours mixtape, curated & mixed by the Patchwork Pirates. A Heart-Breaking Work Of Swagger & G Ness arose from a shared love of beats, bass and rap. Mixed by Patchwork Pirates in LDN, laced by Jams F. Kennedy in NYC and engineered by Bobby Evans in LA. The limited edition CD is packaged in a hand screen-printed heavyweight recycled board sleeve with full inlay. Start as you mean to go on…”
What you get, is a impeccably segued selection of drum heavy beats and some super fine lyrical ammunition delivered in Jams’ trademark drawl. The punch of the project is the new Widows material - the group Jams and Bobby Evans (both formerly of rap outfit Brother Reade) formed from performances with just two drum kits and a couple of microphones. Its completely stripped back and in the vein of Foot Village its pure, pounding skin laced with some gratuitously loveable emceeing.
“Rap, since the beginning, has never been a sound. It was always a method. It never requires more than two steps. 1: Listen to the wildest new music where there are people there to hear it. 2: Interject vocally."Jams F. Kennedy
01. Intro – Jams F. Kennedy 02. Drama – Widows 03. Jams vs. Gemmy – Jams F. Kennedy 04. Don’t Start None (Boom Bip Remix) – Widows 05. Jams vs. Hudson Mohawke – Jams F. Kennedy 06. Find Your Way – Superisk 07. Jams vs. Guido – Jams F. Kennedy 08. Issey Miyake – Salva 09. Move – devonwho 10. Jams vs. Dizz1 – Jams F. Kennedy 11. LAX – Widows 12. Jams vs. Bobby Valentino – Jams F. Kennedy 13. Live & Direct – The Works feat. Jams F. Kennedy 14. Jams vs. B Bravo – Jams F. Kennedy 15. Us – Nosaj Thing 16. Room Temperature Liquid Plastic – Mushen 17. Jams vs. B Bravo – Jams F. Kennedy 18. Oil Fields – Mono/Poly 19. Orchid – Widows 20. Jams vs. Juice Aleem vs. Si Begg – Jams F. Kennedy 21. Orion’s Belt Buckle – Free The Robots 22. Mahjongg – Charles Trees 23. Jams vs. Flying Lotus – Jams F. Kennedy 24. Why Like This? – Teebs 25. Unsigned Hype – Widows 26. Glut – Ramadanman 27. Step 2 Funk – DVA 28. 7.62 – Widows 29. Outro – Jams F. Kennedy
For more info on the gallery show go here. For more info on the aftershow party go here.
Dro Carey is a young Australian producer who is undoubtedly one to keep an eye on this year - his blend of haunted hip-hop is really on point. His debut 12”, the Venus Knock EP, is a super limited affair for The Trilogy Tapes so get in quick if you like physical product, if you miss it, don’t fret. Theres already talk from Ikonika of picking him up for a release on her and Optimum’s Hum & Buzz label. The EP shows Carey flexing his muscles and knocking out some seriously twisted mutations – imagine a heavier variant of the ghostly R&B of How To Dress Well or Hype Williams playing off the computer funk of Actress or 10-20 and the twisting bass heavy drum machine/sample workouts of DJ Rashad then you’ll be somewhere close.
Starting with a strong opener, the brooding ‘Get Rid Of This Guy,’ Carey takes rolling 808 drum patterns and plays them off a menacing sluggish synth tone. Along with the infectious chopped vocal motifs it’s a real winner. Quick on its heels is the booming title track; whose bass punch hits holes in your chest, as the angry buzz swoops into earshot through a post-industrial haze it all becomes a little bit more sinister.
Flip the wax over for the slow motion smudge of ‘Dead Keys’, which feels like its come fresh off the set of a horror film with a scene set in a Chicago house club, the vocal hits twisted in and out of shape against the creeping backdrop. While the closer ‘Glitter Variables’ sounds like a submarine in trouble sampled and chopped into the form of a lost Dance Mania record.
The Poisonous Gases camp from America just upped a new compilation to their bandcamp page. Entitled Skweee Cruise the 18 track collection listens like a veritable whose who of synthetic electronic funk, with outstanding contributions from Myor label boss Coco Bryce, our good buddy Boss Kite, the incredible Slow Hand Motem, the innovator himself Daniel Savio and... um... yours truly - with a tongue-in-beat I made some time ago for Slugabed called, 'Greg Says...'
Available digitally for under $10 US dollars the album is also seeing a physical release across 2 x 12"s which you can pre-order now for $19. The LP version promises to be shipped on or around the 21st January.
Round 2 of your Sonic Router x Bleep.com Podcast is now live.
Featuring a look back at the best of this month's releases from an SR perspective it contains brand newisms from producers like Tokimonsta, Fantastic Mr Fox, SBTRKT, 2562 and Daniel Savio. Stream supreme on Soundcloud, kop the direct download or subscribe to the whole podcast feed - which features other noteworthy shows from Allez Allez, Bleep themselves and Alex Wilson.
Finish producer Desto’s music came as something of a revelation to us. Succintly pushed through Dusk & Blackdown’s radio show, his own fusion of sonics at the dubstep tempo stood out, with his debut release for Ramp Recordings, ‘Disappearing Reappearing Ink,’ pushing that same kind of amped up glitch and offbeat percussion patterning that fellow Ramp artists like Zomby and Shortstuff also did. But it was the central motif of that single's B-side, ‘Broken Memory,' with that juttering synth that dances atop the sub low reverberations, that pushed Desto as far into the elctronic hip hop arena as much as dubstep – something that a lot of artists have positively strived to do since.
With a Noppa release, preceeding his Ramp single, at the turn of this year showcasing a sound that was more conventionally dubstep, Desto was hinting at the diversity of his productions; playing more for the atmospheric side of the club with tracks like ‘Dark Matter’ aiming squarely at the big rigs and beats like ‘Cold VIP’ commanding audience participation with its thick garage influenced skip. Having proved himself adept at both styles and cementing his intentions with a mix for Blackdown’s blog back in September of 2009, he got in touch to inform us of a few projects - including upcoming releases on Ramp again and the blossoming Channel Zero imprint – so we took the opportunity to snag a moment in his company, irking out our 58th Sonic Router mix and learning a little something about his processes as we went.
SR: Can you provide those who may not know you with a bit of background info?
Desto: I’m a producer and DJ from Helsinki, Finland. Been making music for ages but started releasing stuff when dubstep came along. This year I’ve released 12”s on Ramp Recordings and Noppa. I co-run two dubstep and related bass music club nights, Slam It and Theory out here with Dead-O of Clouds and Tes La Rok and host a bi-weekly radio show on Basso Radio (FM) with Tes.
Outside of music who are you guys? What do you do on the daily?
Music takes up the majority of my time really. I do freelance work in other fields in order to sustain my independence as an artist, I feel very strongly about keeping financial issues from influencing free creativity in the studio and in music in general.
How did you first get into making music? What was it that infected you to do so?
I got hold of Scream Tracker 3 in ’93. I was just a kid and had nobody to teach me how to use it but in late ’93 I managed to make a track on it. The software was nothing like the DAWs you have nowadays, it was 8-bit sample based, 16 channels, no mouse control, no effects. But it was what a kid could get for free in those days to make music on a PC. And working with those limitations was so much fun discovering techniques to work around them. As for what drove me towards making electronic music is difficult to say really but it always came very naturally. I was classically trained as a pianist for 10 years but I was always drawn to electronic music since I was a child listening to Kraftwerk casettes. I always wanted a synth as a kid but never got one so Freudians might have a thing or two to say about that.
What’s your production set up like? What’s your favourite bit of kit in the studio?
I use Cubase SX3, Tannoy Reveals and a 10” Reveal sub which I seldom use though, I do most of my monitoring on my Beyerdynamic DT-880 headphones. And my neighbours love me for it. I’m not too fond of VSTi’s, I make most of my sounds on my synths and Commodore 64 plus some effect boxes as well as mics. I like recording audio and treating sound as samples. It’s a lot of fun. VSTi sounds can be a big turnoff although used right they can obviously be useful too but the majority of stuff out there is done with them so I don’t feel I need to contribute into making more of that sound. These are just personal preferences, in the end it’s not about what you make music with but what you get out of your setup.
How would you describe your sound? I mean it’s as much fluorescent like skweee as it is rooted in big drum kind of Joker/Starkey style productions...
I go about doing my music by for example taking a proto-dubstep approach to rhythm and fuse it with my influences and techniques to come up with something that could be an alternative future for what went on in ’02 or ’04. Or take a now-cliché element like wobble bass and come up with something that has a similar effect but in a completely different way. I’m very interested in the psychology of rhythm perception and the element that changes how we hear a rhythm for one way to the other. Not talking about drum patterns alone but entire tracks. The switches that we have built into us that make us experience rhythm in a certain way and how that switch happens by the change of a single element such as the length of a bass note in a track.
I haven’t listened to much skweee although some of the guys are my friends. I guess with skweee as well as Joker and Starkey things, the similarity in sound is down to similar influences, hiphop, soul and all the afro-American musics, computer games and so on. And the bpm is similar.
Would you say the above are an inspiration when making music? What else is an inspiration for you?
They all make great music and when I first heard Joker coming out with the purple sound it was instantly appealing to me. It definitely made me feel there should be more stuff like that out there. I draw from all my musical influences from Kraftwerk to Vangelis to early hardcore to 90s hiphop beats like RZAs work on Tical to DJ Premier and Jay Dilla to jungle to 90s Warp Records to Commodore 64 game music.
Hearing dubstep rhythms in ’06 was a big influence, Digital Mystikz, Loefah, Benga and Skream tunes in Youngsta’s sets got me back into electronic music and production after having been a bit tired of it for a number of years. Also witnessing the family vibes at DMZ and FWD>> and the genuine interest in music was inspiring. I have to mention the electronic hiphop movement too, the likes of the LuckyMe family as well as Dizz1, DéBruit, Rustie and others have made inspiring music. With the risk of sounding clichéd my part of town, Vallila and its residents inspire me. There’s an energy about the place. Last year I had to stay elsewhere for two months and getting back made me realize how much this environment is a part of my music too.
Where do you see your sound developing?
This is a difficult question as it presumes that an artist has a clear view of what he or she is about to create next. I just want to keep on exploring music through my production and continue to be able to not predict what the next tune will sound like. I find I get writers block if I know exactly what I’d have to do.
I think the first time a lot of people got up on you was with the mix you did for Blackdown around the time of your RAMP release... How did those come about? Did you yourself see the spike in interest when it went live?
I sent ‘Disappearing Reappearing Ink’ to Tom@Ramp and it just went from there really… We’d hooked up with Blackdown earlier, he had spotted me on myspace and asked for beats for his and Dusk’s Rinse show. So month after month they kept playing the beats and eventually asked for a mix & interview which I was happy to do as Blackdown’s writings had inspired me and given context to dubstep before I had the chance to visit DMZ and FWD>>. The mix definitely reached a lot of people, so much thanks to Blackdown for letting me do it.
What’s the scene like in Helsinki? I mean we’ve spoken to Non Person before to talk about it and he name checked you as a player in it; but would be great to get your angle...
The Helsinki dubstep scene is vibrant and audiences and producers here are very open to different sounds and flavours without the need to do ‘mandatory’ wobbles, strict halfstep rhythms and overdone compression on tracks - although all of this has a place and a time too. With our own nights we like to keep the sound diverse. Production-wise Finland has risen to new levels this year with new up-n-comers like Teeth, Jkrl, Kfka, Mikael, Koala, Vesicle and others pushing new sounds while the regulars like Clouds and Tes La Rok have been steadily delivering great sounds. I feel lucky to be a part of our Helsinki scene.
Are there any producers you rate that the world should know about? Any peeps not getting the props you think they deserve?
There’s a lot of undiscovered talent about like always, but I think it’s also up to them to get their music out there if that’s what they want. I don’t see anything wrong in doing music without any intention to take it further than your hard drive having done so for 15 years myself. But nobody is going to do nothing for you, come to your doorstep to request for your music unless you’re very very lucky, so you shouldn’t be scared of putting in a little work yourself to earn your stripes.
Desto - Can't Take It/Aquanaut [forthcoming Channel Zero]
In your pitch to us you say your working on projects with “Jimi Tenor as well as solo, got releases coming out on Noppa (Ice Cold) and Ramp (Glass Clouds/Stay Strong) and Channel Zero (Can't Take It/Aquanaut).” In your own words can you tell us what other projects have you got in the pipeline?
Well, that sums a lot of it up nicely. I have a feeling Desto will go live next year, I haven’t done electronic live performances since the few ones I had with an electronic project I was doing around ’98 but it intrigues me now. I’d have to scrape up the money for a few more pieces of equipment and I’d be all set. What I’d like to do is leave the computer at home and go all out hardware just because it’s fun, unpredictable and an electronic live without a laptop would be something that I’d definitely go out to see myself.
Tell us a little bit about the mix you’ve put together for us…
When I play out I play about 50/50 of my own exclusive stuff and music that I’m feeling from other producers. I like to drop in a few old bits and try and connect them into new stuff in a fresh way. There should be a number of my tunes on there that people haven’t heard yet and the recently released bits from the likes of Ramadanman, Hypno, Bok Bok and Mensah were just too good not to be put into the mix.
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.
Matt Cutler’s debut album as Lone introduced him to the record buying public in fine style, documenting the sound of a surf infused summer on a fantasy isle; and the Lemurian album was the first insight a lot of people got into his world of choppy synths and heated drum patterns. His sophomore effort, Ecastacy & Friends was snapped up by Actress for his Werk Disc’s imprint, an act that proved Cutler’s super stylistic productions had legs outside of the journalist imposed confines of the ‘wonky’ boom.
Having just announced details of his new label, Magic Wire – home to a new breed of Lone productions aimed a little closer to the dancefloor, pumping constantly with classic drum machine breaks whilst swathed in his unique approach to samples and melodies on his first 10”, ‘Pineapple Crush’ b/w ‘Angel Brain’ - Sonic Router caught up with him to get the low down on where he’s at right now, what his plans are with the label and a little more besides...
Sonic Router: What’s the ethos behind the Magic Wire label? More of an outlet for you to do non hip hop stuff or…?
Lone: At the moment it's just an easy way to get as much of my music out as possible, just because I’ve got so much on the go. I'm not consciously using it as an outlet for any other style or genre, it's just that I’m well into writing more club friendly music at the moment. I'll probably put out some more hip hop stuff at some point, but for now we're gonna put out my house tracks and just kinda see where that takes us.
Have you got releases slated from other artists?
Not right now… It’s just an outlet for my new shit at the moment, but I’d love to sign a bunch of other artists further down the line. I've got loads of people in mind actually; I guess it's just a case of whether they're tied to other labels or if they actually wanna work on some shit. Definitely wanna put a Keaver & Brause record out at some point 'cause I know he's working on a bunch of stuff that would be perfect...
Who’s doing the artwork for it?
My long time friend and collaborator Andy Hemsely; he did the first couple of Lone sleeves and works under the name The Fresh Prints. I've got a strong idea of how I want things to look so it's real easy to just explain to him what I see in my head and he just comes out with stuff that's actually better. He's really busy though, so I’ve got to constantly think of new ways to bribe him into doing new shit... I think he's down for most ideas though.
The first release has your signature synth work stamped all over it, are you approaching these new tempos of tracks differently to the stuff that came out on Werk?
I guess so, but I really don't think too much into it like that. I always work as instinctively as possible, so it's a case of just being bored of working within a hip hop tempo at the moment. I've been doing hip hop beats since I was like, 16 (?) and I’ve always been into early house and techno so I’m just having loads of fun discovering loads of old records and getting totally inspired.
Playing shows has influenced me a lot recently too... I used to be all about making music for home listening, or to soundtrack certain surroundings, but spending so much time at parties has rubbed off a lot. Like, how things sound in a club, and a reaction from a crowd has certainly influenced the tempo. I think whatever my 'signature' sound is, in terms of the synths or atmosphere or whatever is something beyond my control to be honest...
Were you inspired by the reaction Ecstacy & Friends got?
I really tried to not read much about that album, 'cause when the first album came out I was pretty naive and read loads of shit which kinda messed me up; even the positive stuff was unhealthy because when I was working on that first record I wasn’t signed to any label so I had no outside opinions or influence from anyone other than friends. After that, I kinda had people’s expectations (however limited that was) in the back of my head while I was working, which made the whole process a lot harder. Obviously though, it's always nice to hear from people that they liked it or whatever, and it really does mean a lot... I just didn’t want to get too involved, if you know what I mean?
Totally. When something is so personal, to have someone shit all over it hurts. It sounds like your taking different reference points from your previous material – would you say that’s a fair point? That your style is consciously morphing into something a bit more club orientated?
Yeah definitely. My stuff's still heavily based on nostalgia. It's almost as if 'Lemurian' was inspired by sounds I was hearing from the late 70's and early 80's through movies and TV - and hip hop; 'Ecstasy & Friends' was weird pop music I was hearing when I was in my pre-teens and what I’m doing now is inspired by the first music I actively took an interest in, hardcore and house.
What else have you got coming up?
The 'Once In A While' and 'Raptured' 12" for Werk will be out real soon, and I’ve just finished the second Magic Wire release which will be an EP to hopefully come out around October…
‘Pineapple Crush’ b/w ‘ Angel Brain’ will be out on Magic Wire soon. For audio clips go here.
Without trying to dumb down the language we're somewhat passionate about (insert pun about hard ons and alliteration here) at Sonic Router; Machinedrum is the shit. As half of Sepalcure he's made an awesome EP for Scuba's Hotflush imprint, he tore it out of the Lucky Me stage at Sonar to the delight of everyone who wasn't packed into the main hanger watching Chemical Brothers...
...and he just dropped a free-mix of Jimmy Edgar's 'Hot Raw Sex' - a tune thats been doing the rounds on the internet for a while now.
Summer 2010 is proving to be a fertile hotbed of awesomeness and its been made easy to enthuse about things now that the sun is blessing everything with its UV loaded rays. Tunes are coming thicker and quicker and there's a multitude of great producers from across the spectrum of the bass music void whose work is steadily piquing our interest. At the forefront of this last few weeks has been two tunes from Leeds based producer Jamie Grind, included on his debut release which takes the form of a split 12" with Irish funky producer Gon for Spatial's Infrasonics label.
'If You Want' is a perfect example of using drum shuffles, that repetitive Scuba style synth stab and choppy vocals, but its in the woefully aborted synth progressions of it that it really blossoms, veering from colourful warbling to a distorted splash; and in a similar way the flip side, 'Balloon,' uses a careering lead line behind those lush Martyn pianos. On the strength of these tunes its obvious that Grind's is a step that positively uplifts; a feel good bump that suits this sudden heat wave gloriously.
The inclusion of the afore mentioned tunes on Spatial's FACT mix, coupled with a mix he did for ItsAlllAbout.com and the track he just dropped for free over at XLR8R last week, 'Keep Wondering,' spiked immediate interest, resulting in a bout of AIM cold calling and an eventual satisfying pang of relief when he agreed to drop us an exclusive mix; number 48 in our ongoing series.
Sonic Router: Can you provide those who may not know you with a bit of background info?
Jamie Grind: I’m Jamie Grind, I’ve just released my first record on the Infrasonics Label, hopefully the first of many! When I’m not eating king prawn curries you will usually find me in a poorly lit room in the centre of Leeds making beats and wondering what happened to my youth!
Outside of music who are you? What do you do on the daily?
I’m a web designer - I’ve been working at a company here in Leeds for the past 3 years or so. My job takes up most of my time so I try and fit in music whenever possible.
How did you first get into making music? What was it that infected you to do so?
Since my mid-teens I’ve been involved with music in some form, I’ve been a vocalist in various bands, I’ve been a hip hop MC and I’ve experimented a bit with other forms of electronic music but it’s only in the past year or so I think I’ve finally found my feet. I was always more into the vocal side of music and production just kinda passed me by, it wasn’t until a couple of years ago I actually decided to give it a shot and it turns out I actually quite enjoy sitting in isolation for hours on end listening to looped drum hits!
What’s your production set up like? What’s your favourite bit of kit in the studio?
I run Logic 8 on an Imac; my set up is fairly basic though, I could use an upgrade to be honest. I’ve currently only got some very average Wharfdale speakers, a MIDI keyboard and a Yamaha MW12 Mixing desk.. but it works OK for now. Next venture for me will be to get some decent monitors and an analogue synth of some form…
Where do you take inspiration from when making music?
Because I have a full time job most of my ideas come to me during the day when my mind is at its most active, so I might have a sudden idea for a tune and then have to wait 8 hours til I get home to finally put it into practice, by that time I’m pretty tired and can’t be arsed. I find I’m at my most creative first thing in the morning, so weekends give me chance clock in at my second job… making bangers blaaad!
How would you describe your sound?
I wouldn’t say future garage – I think that term sounds pretty corny to be honest… Genres seem to mean less and less to me these days, when I make a tune I’m not trying to achieve a certain sound I’m just combining elements of different styles of music I enjoy, which usually sounds pretty garage-esque to be fair, at least percussively anyway.
And how did you get into this current flux of dubstep?
I remember hearing stuff by Pinch and Loefah and thinking it was the heaviest shit I’d ever heard! At the time, the hip hop nights I used to go to gradually turned into dubstep nights as it got more popular. Later on, people like 2562, Geiom, Ramadanman, Kode9 & Martyn seemed to be making interesting music which was loosely dubstep with elements of garage, hip hop and house and probably had a lot to do with me wanting to start producing the type of music I do.
Leeds seems to be on it right now, with Midland, Stray and people like Blawan all making the dope shit. What’s the scene like up there?
I’m not sure there’s much of a scene to be honest, now Ruffage has closed its doors the only decent monthly club night in Leeds is Tropical; which is sick, but most other ‘dubstep’ nights are just mid-range wobble wankery so don’t really interest me – There’s a bunch of people up here making sick music though, good to see them getting the recognition they deserve. On top of the people you mentioned there’s also Skips, Hackman, Gatto Viola and Jera doing their thing up here aswell.
Jamie Grind - Balloon
Your first release on Infrasonics is out now. What’s the deal, what can we expect from the release?
It’s a split with Gon from Ireland, I’m half Irish so we’ve got that shit in our blood already! I’m glad to be on the Infrasonics squad, they’re all absolute badmen producers, Spatial, xxxy, Hot City, Ike Release… I’m glad my first release is with this lot. On my side of the 12”, ‘If You Want’ is one for the clubs and ‘Balloon’ is on a bit of a more upbeat wonky-synth tip.
What other projects have you got in the pipeline? What’s happening with you in the rest of 2010? Gigs, releases, personal growth etc?
Next thing I’ve got coming out is a 4 track EP on Fortified Audio, expect to see that emerging in the following months. I’m looking to start playing gigs when I can, so hopefully I’ll get on that soon.
George Fitzgerald - Fernweh Ramadanman - Glut Hot City - Another Girl Dubbel Dutch - Throwback Sony - Sugar Rush Terror Danjah - Code Morse Guido - Mad Sax Ike Release - I'm Gone Todd Edwards - Who You Are (Salvador Edit Remix) Sweet Female Attitude - Flowers (Sunship Edit) Jamie Grind - Bad Attitude (And You Know It) Shortstuff - Tripped Up Jamie Grind - Footwork VVV - Back To Life DJ Rashad - In Da Club Before Eleven O' Clock Nastee Boi Feat. E Man - Mussy Mad (Witty Boy Remix) Blawan - Fram Spatial - 100402 Jamie Grind & Hackman - Saw The Light Mista Men - Automatic Groove Jammer - Champz And Weed (Ft. Diesal, C. Gritz & Blacks) TRG - Broken Heart (Martyn's DCM Remix)
Infra12003 featuring Jamie’s ‘I Want You’ & ‘Balloon’ is in all decent retailers now. Its backed with two tracks, ‘Chaka Mad’ and ‘Riddance’ from Gon.
Since our first encounter with Doc Daneeka back at the tail end of last year thanks to his inclusion of the Elevator Music Vol. 1 compilation with the positively tribal 'Drums In The Deep,' the Leeds based producer has gone from strength to strength to strength, with global publications like XLR8R and FACT becoming more than a little smitten with his production and remix work.
Following his recent Kelis 'Milkshake' bootleg, audio of which is available on our Hivemind.fm show (archived here), we've been bestowed with something of a coo, thanks largely to Manchester's Illum Sphere - a man also experiencing somewhat of a boost in profile thanks to his recent 12" on Martyn's 3024 label. Basically, Illum commissioned a slew of remixes of his most recent Fat City release, Long Live The Plan, and he's kindly decided to give us dibs on the freebie Doc Daneeka re-rub of 'Psycho.'
Brighton based label Hit & Hope, just launched, going live with a new website, a great lil 5 track press sampler (pictured above and visualised below) and a free download from Naive Machine. Sharing that big low end rattle we've always been big fans of the Brightonian producer twists snatches of bollywood films around 8 bit stabs and a loping hip hop drum line, making 'Sept I Share' a great introduction to the sound and direction of the label.
The debut Naive Machine single is destined for shops and that on the 19th July.
With his Astro:dynamics project now up running and available exclusively at Boomkat and on his Bandcamp profile, compiler, curator and featured producer Rekordah has leaked a couple of jams taken from the album into cyberspace. Namely his contribution 'Candy Flossin' (via XLR8R) and Lower's 'Heartbroken' (via FACT). In case you missed it, DL these here tasters and check out the in depth interview we published with him a while back. You can also virtua-hop over to http://astrodynamics.bandcamp.com for further listening and purchasing options...
Jay Scarlett is basically... the dude. His tireless work curating the Beat Dimensions compilations has had a massive impact on the musical direction of many producers, and made a lot of ears prick up and understand that this new wave of beat music has legs far beyond the first Flying Lotus record. The man himself has put together a new promo mix in honour of the Creative Control Coalition night, which launches at The New Empowering Church in Hackney on Saturday 19th June, so any London bods not making the trip to Barcelona's Sonar festival should take note.
Featuring acts like Jay, Om Unit, Morgan Zarate, Subeena and Amalgamation of Soundz tickets are a ten sheet and come with a free copy of the CCC compilation which you can stream at the link below.
Gumpf:
The Creative Control Coalition (CCC) is a new, innovative not-for-profit organisation dedicated to representing, connecting and supporting independent creative organisations and individuals in order to encourage and nurture collaborative work for the benefit of all involved.
The shared mission of the coalition is to work together and grow stronger in order to keep on loving what we do so that we can keep on doing what we love. Artists and labels who make up the CCC are concerned with creating, promoting and selling their work but have made an informed decision to do this independently of the confines and compromises that relinquishing creative control of their work would inevitably bring.
1. Colonel Red - 'Inside is light' (unreleased) 2. Simon S - 'A Free Soul' (previously released on vinyl only) 3. Chima Anya feat. Soweto Kinch - 'A New Day' 4. Jay Scarlett Ft Reggie B - 'Cartoon Characters' 5. Miki Grems - 'My Name is Michael' (produced by Son of Kick) 6. Kay Suzuki feat. Duchy - 'Move On' 7. Dave de Rose - Dreams 8. Morgan Zarate - 'Satin White'
To provide the world with another reason to be and to draw a little attention to the release of his 3D 7" single on Galleta Records, Niño, has kindly offered up a free download of his 'X' track. With the normal edition harbouring three original works: 'X,' 'Y,' 'Z' which display Niño's quick bursts of funk heavy slump stylings in beautiful fashion the special edition EP contains two remixes from Coco Bryce and Mwelsee, whose work has been absolutely flooding our office time with joy.
Coming from the same vein as Coco's recent Tropical Heat compilation we rated so highly a month or so back, Niño's latest release for Galleta, marks him out as someone who's got the groove dripping out of his both his stuttering drum machines and his synthesizers.
If you’ve been listening to the recent Sonic Router radio shows on Hivemind.fm you’ll have noticed a bunch of tracks - work by the likes of George Fitzgerald, Hypno - credited as forthcoming on Brownswood Electr*c. Well, the goose is cooked, crackly on the outside and suitably juicy across the innards and we’re happy to be able to reveal the info... It’s a new compilation put together by Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood label as somewhat of an ode to the bass led continuum you’ll find playlisted on his BBC Radio 1 show. One of the collections most charming indulgences is its breadth; refusing to stick to a template and joining the metaphorical dots between styles, languages and producers like 16Bit, Rockwell and Leathertte it’s a substantial and informative listen, collating work by some of last year’s breakout stars (Mount Kimbie and Mosca), producers on the rise (Eliphino, Rockwell, Clueless) and Sonic Router favourites (devonwho, B Bravo, Pearson Sound and Hypno).
Ahead of the compilations release on the 28th June, we grabbed five with the CD’s compiler, one third of London DJ clique Patchwork Pirates and Brownswood demigod, Alex Stevenson.
Sonic Router: So... Brownswood Electr*c yeah? Whats the deal? Obviously Gilles has embraced a lot of this newer music championing people like Mount Kimbie, JoyOrb etc of late, so what’s the inspiration behind the compilation?
Alex Stevenson: You know how it goes, all you need to make electronic music these days is a scraggedy computer, some free software and a good idea. Unfortunately 95% of the bedroom producers out there are lacking the latter component, but there’s still a very healthy movement of free-thinking artists operating just under the radar and making really great music. What’s more, the boundaries between so-called “hip-hop”, “house”, “techno”, “dubstep” and “drum & bass” have never been so blurred. There’s a lot of cross-fertilisation and hybridisation (haha – can’t believe I said hybridisation – is that a word?) But that’s the key isn’t it? It’s at these crossings, junctions and awkward intersections where the most inspiring and stirring sound clashes occur… and those are the joints that grab Gilles’ attention. As you rightly point out, Gilles supports this “sound” heavily in his radio shows and DJ sets (I think he calls it something slightly comical like “future motion beats”) and so I suggested that he do a compilation of his favourite tracks, to which he responded: “Good idea… you know more about it though, so why don’t you do it.” So I did.
And similarly, what’s the thinking behind the selection of producers...? Is it all people Gilles has supported played etc?
There’s a nice blend of established artists and hitherto undiscovered talent on the CD I think and yes, Gilles has supported practically all of the featured artists at some point in the last year. We wanted to represent the full rainbow spectrum of electronic goodness so it was important to nod to that low-slung hip hop vibe, the burgeoning “funky” sound, house/techno, dubstep in its myriad forms and, of course, drum & bass. Ramadanman aka Pearson Sound has consistently been one of Gilles’ favourite producers over the past couple of years so it made perfect sense to include ‘Wad’ – one of his finest moments to date in our opinion. We wanted to try to bring something new to the table though; I think people expect that from Gilles and Brownswood, so for many folks this will be the first time that they hear Eliphino, B.Bravo, George Fitzgerald, Clueless or KiEnRa.
Brownswood has a strong presence in the compilation sphere, with five Bubblers compilations to date. What do you think makes this one different from those that have come before?
The Brownswood Bubblers compilations are really just an indulgence for Gilles to highlight some of his favourite new, obscure or unfairly overlooked music from the Worldwide underground on a jazz/hip-hop/soul tip. Basically stuff that he’s been playing a lot on his radio shows. The latest volume features everyone from globetrotting boogie monster Dam-Funk to Tobago’s calypso queen Calypso Rose via Daru & Rena, Analog Monsta, Trilogy and fLako. With Bubblers and Brownswood Electr*c the notion of giving folks some new shit that they haven’t heard before is exactly the same, it’s just that with Electr*c we’re focusing on a particular area of dance music that we’ve been really excited about of late.
Where do you think Electr*c fits, given that it’s not 100% dubstep focused? Like do you think the fact that it isn’t, is a major strength?
Yep – I think that the fact that Brownswood Electr*c isn’t focused solely on dubstep is a distinct advantage. Like I mentioned before, it was a conscious decision to reflect the spectrum of styles and tempos represented in Gilles’ radio shows and I hope that that inclusive attitude will be embraced by the music buying public.
We just want to share our excitement for this inventive spirit and fusion with fans of electronic music in general… folks who want to scratch the surface and see what’s hiding underneath.
There are some awesome pieces of music included, (Hypno, Rockwell, Pearson Sound, George Fitzgerald stand up), yet everyone seems on the precipice level if you get me, like on the edge of bigger things. Was it a conscious thing to keep it a bit more underground?
Yep, definitely. I think folks expect that new, new shit from us and I wanted to keep things as fresh as possible. Rockwell – alongside dBridge and Instra:mental – has really re-ignited my interest in drum & bass in the past year. I nearly pooped my pants when I first heard that ‘Underpass’ track, then he dropped a great EP on Critical and did a killer remix of Jose James for us too. Hypno is one of those dudes seemingly sitting on the fringes of UK funky, dubstep and techno – he featured on Elevator Music and has an EP coming on new Ramp sub-label PTN. ‘Over The Top’ is a banger, plain and simple. George Fitzgerald is coming through quickly too, he’s got forthcoming 12”s for Doldrums and Hotflush – ‘Painted Jezebel’ is exclusive to Electr*c though. SHAZAM!
What are some of your highlights from the CD...? Are there plans to do more?
Let’s not forget the likes of Clueless (a Norwegian chap who makes 2-step reminiscent of classic El-B productions), KiEnRa (the criminally underrated Estonian beathead) and Lazer Sword’s Low Limit (bringing his techno game). Personally, Letherette’s neatly julienned ‘Blad’ is a highlight. But it’s ALL good. There’s no filler here – we gave it 110% - hahaha!
As for plans to do more – I guess if we manage to shift more than 7 copies and folks seem to be down with it, then the bosses will be up for another chapter. We’ll have to wait and see. I sincerely hope so, there was so much good shit, we could have done a double CD!
Full Tracklist:
01. B. Bravo – Computa Love 02. devonwho – Whispers 03. Eliphino – Let Me Love You Forever 04. Pearson Sound – Wad 05. Mosca – Square One 06. Shlohmo – Antigravity (Low Limit Remix) 07. Letherette – Blad 08. KiEnRa – BB Thing 09. 16bit – ADSL 10. Hypno – Over The Top 11. George Fitzgerald – Painted Jezebel 12. Clueless – Lady In Red (Club Edit) 13. Von D – Berlin Call (Alps Edit) 14. Rockwell – Underpass 15. Mount Kimbie – Serged
Brownswood Electr*c drops on 28th June on CD/download supported by a 12” featuring two cuts from B. Bravo and Eliphino.
"Themed around the title's subject matter the album is a small but natural departure from Francis' previous work, the musical backdrops to his fierce syllable deliveries are crafted completely by a live band rather than a motley crew of producers. While his previous methods worked gloriously in kick heavy effect across his previous long players, the music on Li(f)e seems to represent Francis' growth as a human being, sounding both organic and effortlessly emotive. After hints at such a transition with skits and tracks like 'Jah Didn't Kill Johnny' or 'My Name is Strange', where Francis explored the performance aspect of a live band, the idea has come full circle."
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