Hype Williams – Untitled [Hippos In Tanks] RP Boo – Eraser [Planet Mu] DJ Roc – Fuck Dat [Planet Mu] DJ Roc – One Blood [Planet Mu] DJ Spinn – Fall Back [Planet Mu] DJ Rashad – Rashad [Planet Mu] DJ Spinn – Studio [Planet Mu] Hype Williams – Warlock [Hippos In Tanks] DJ Elmoe – Where My Ghost At? [Planet Mu] DJ Nate – Footwerk Homicide [Planet Mu] Darq E Freaker – Rhythm & Slags [Oil Gang] Waifer – Gunman Skank [Earth 616] General L.O.K. – Gama [Total Package] Intsra:mental – When I Dip [Non Plus+] Optimum – DS10 [Hum & Buzz] Addison Groove – Sexual [Swamp 81] DJ Rampage — Deep Inside (Ramaz Re-edit) [Night Slugs White] Jacques Greene – Another Girl [LuckyMe] Bee Mask – Canzoni dal Laboratorio del Silenzio Cosmico [Spectrum Spools] Burial – Stolen Dog [Hyperdub] FaltyDL – Hard [Swamp 81] Sugar Minott – Devil Is At Large [Dug Out] Ital Rockers – Ital’s Anthem [Basic] Blawan – Bohla [R&S] Steve Poindexter – Computer Madness [Muzique] Blawan – Lavender [R&S] Joy O – Jels [Hotflush] .19.454.18.5.25.5.18 – hg06# A [Horizontal Ground] Thomas Bangalter – Outrun [Roulé] Lil Silva – Pulse Vs. Flex [White] Champion – Lose Control [forthcoming Hardrive] Slackk – Synthetics [Forfront] Head High – It’s A Love Thing (Piano Invasion) [Power House] Altered Natives – In My House [Eye4Eye] T.Williams – Peoples Choice [PTN] Ossie – Terantular [Lightworks] Portable – The Ghetto Escapes [Karat] House Faze – Come… With… Me… [Final Cut] Jus-Ed – I’m Coming (Levon Vincent Remix) [Underground Quality] Lowtec – Looser [Non Plus+] Hype Williams – Mitsubishi [Hippos In Tanks] Jus-Ed – Let’s Groove [Underground Quality] Burial + Four Tet + Thom Yorke – Ego [Text] Round Two – New Day [Mean Street] Burial – Street Halo [Hyperdub] Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley – Jack My Body (Home Made Version) [DJ International] Omar-S – Strider’s World [FXHE] Luv Jam – Mature Oak [Phonica]
Toby Ridler’s combination of stark glacial melodic spikes and rolling drum play are indicative of someone who’s embroiled in their own world. Sure, ‘Closer’ – the A side of the first release on his freshly minted Cold World Industries label - shares a sample pack with Addison Groove and Pearson Sound, but is the cerebral swirl sitting behind the relative simplicity of the repetitive lead line that sets him apart from other producers. Like his last release, the Not Even backed Spectre EP, ‘Closer’ is more like grime - playing out like a hypermelodic devil mix that’s been peppered by an over enthusiastic finger drummer – and that rawness displayed is probably the most interesting thing about the Becoming Real project.
You could call it Eski influenced. You could call it juke influenced, but Ridler’s work stands apart - the over-riding elements at play here are the tapestries that the ice cold synthesizers weave in your mind. Like the densely layered work of El-P on Cannibal Ox’s game changing The Cold Vein album, ‘Antarctic City’ is more of a tumble down production, almost regimented by the kick drums and jarring snare drums that sit back from the headroom of the mix just enough to make you really concentrate on them. Its beguiling; almost anti dancefloor but completely pro trance (in terms of the faraway mindstate kind of spiritual trance), smothered in stark layers and snatched vocals, shifting up a gear into something danceable with a proper snare at around the 3 minute mark.
Jam City’s refix of ‘Closer’ re-positions the track for the darkest of dancefloors, with the Night Slug keeping the menace of the original but transporting the focus of it to the bassline whilst he ups the snare quota a million percent. That threat and sense of brooding is perfectly translated into a Jam City-house-tempo-roller. It’s the flag in the summit of Becoming Real’s third EP, a stark and brash marriage that’s tortured itself purely for its own benefit.
Glasgow-based Welshman Koreless is the latest name to pop out from Pictures Music’s always interesting roster of post-genre bass music, and it would be an understatement to say there’s a considerable hype brewing around the young producer. Maybe for good reason; his debut single for Pictures is the kind of coolheaded first salvo that barely conceals its ‘look how exciting I am factor’ through spare, focused atmosphere. Or maybe the lack thereof - one might say these tunes are core-less; and that person would be very sorry for that pun. Regardless, the two tunes here don’t consist of much - mainly staccato chords, pillows of sub-bass and tumbling vocal samples - and the atmosphere is intimidatingly austere.
Now, I’m the last person who wants to read juke and footwork into everything, but it’s difficult not to hear it in the jumpy pulse of these tunes, particularly ‘MTI.’ It and ‘4D’ are fascinating hybrids, but utterly transparent in their construction (really, you can see right through them). Yet Koreless betrays an ingenious sense of seamless fusion so insidious that it’s barely even detectable, but deeply ingrained in the coarse fabric of this music. ‘4D’ slips and trips on a precariously balanced and diced bass riff (hence the juke reference), but the vocal that struggles to stay afloat on the brittle organ tones. It’s relentlessly chopped and cycled, like it wandered off from some old garage tune and lost its way. ‘MTI’ taps a similar vein but in slightly more maximal fashion, floating on a cloud of filtered fuzz but retaining the same basic construction of fragile melodies and gasping vocals.
It might be tempting to dismiss something like this as trend-hopping or shallow appropriation, but you’d be missing the point entirely: there’s something organic and tight about Koreless’ music, an inchoate ideology forming that’s just as reduced and efficient as his music.
This month the Sonic Router column on theQuietus profiles Atlantan producer, promoter and Embassy Recordings label boss, Distal. A long time conspirator of ours, his tireless enthusiasm, astonishing commitment to pushing bass heavy sounds in his native territory and his frankly incredible hit rate when it comes to fresh music makes him one our super friends - a hallowed honour bestowed on but a few.
"I remember growing up in Atlanta where liking electronic music was kind of a rebellious movement from the norm. Atlanta has been 100% rap and hip hop since as far back as I can remember; there's never been room for techno!" Distal recalls coyly. "It's a double-edged sword really. On one side, the masses and popular musicians in America are finally into dance music and dubstep in particular, but at what cost?" - Oli Marlow
David Kennedy's work under the Pearson Sound and Ramadanman monikers has made a huge mark on the music community over this last year. From the very first Soul Jazz housed release of Pearson Sound material, 'Gambetta' b/w 'so Far Ago,' Kennedy displayed a keener interest in diversifying his track templates, ramping up his woodblock percussion with tracks like 'Wad' - released on his own co-run Hessle Audio label - and scoring dancefloor anthems with beats like the recent Swamp81 backed, 'Work Them.' His deviation from the conventional 'dubstep' template has already been greatly discussed, even on these super long, text loaded pages but at the time of posting he's currently toying with the public's very notion of his music.
Pouring ghetto house and juke influences into his music, bringing that constant bass thump and endlessly repeated vocal hooks, his newer material that club goers or Benji B's new BBC Radio 1 show have been privvy to, absolutely slays. There's that bass weight - a pure frequency slab that has always been present in everything he's ever released - but its really his swirling percussion and drum work that's making him stand thigh and tail above the competition. His new bits are punishing, totally bruising the well equipped soundsystems that he's wheeling them out on, so it gives us a great pleasure to be able to offer up an exclusive 320 from the man himself - yep you can download Ramadanman's brooding remix of Spark, and her track 'Revolving' which is forthcoming on 679.
"...I just don’t think there’s anything more righteous than a heavy brass section really."
Read the Sonic Router penned interview with Night Slug's prog monolith Mosca over on the fabric Blog and download his epic 80 minute mix, made in promotion of his upcoming date at fabric on the 6th August for Club Autonomic.
Blawan - Potchla Vee [Unreleased] Rubi Dan - Pelvic Floor (Acapella) [Unreleased] Mosca - Tilt Shift [Forthcoming Fat City] Deamonds - Tilt Shift Crooks [Unreleased] Keke Palmer - Super Jerkin' Equinoxx - Infantry Riddim (Version) T'Nez - Normal Day (Infantry Riddim) Kemikal - Hear Mi Nuh (Infantry Riddim) Navino - Put It On (Infantry Riddim) Terre Thaemlitz - Radio Freedom Ramadanman - Grab Somebody [Unreleased] G.O.D Limited – Bounce Kismet - Loose Screw [Unreleased] DJ Deekline & Red Polo - Let It Bump (Hydroz Remix) Menta - Sounds Of Da Future Braiden - The Alps [Forthcoming Doldrums] Seany B - Bass Release DJ Technics - Hoody Hood Rat Riva Starr – Maria Funkystepz - Leave With You [Unreleased] Dwongo Lab - 60 Seconds Pariah - Crossed Out Ramadanman & Midland - More Than You Know Alison Hinds - Roll It Gal (Acapella) Doc Daneeka - Hold On [Forthcoming Ramp] T Williams - Drumstrumental [Unreleased] Imran Khan – Amplifier Frankie Bones – Beware J2K Ft Roses Gabor - Don't Let It Go [Unreleased] Mosca - Brand New Polaroid Loefah - Fire Elements Jaimeson - Urban Hero Darqwan – Confused Tubby vs Footsie - Tiger Style Joe – Digest JME Ft Tempz - CD Is Dead (Acapella) Youngstar - The Formula TRC Ft Z.O & Bonez - Bang (DJ Q Remix) [Unreleased] General LOK - Elmo Riddem CRST - Dance (Mosca Remix) [Forthcoming No Hats No Hoods]
To his credit, it’s getting harder and harder to talk about David Kennedy’s music without sounding hyperbolic. Already this year he’s put out a steady stream of groundbreaking releases, each of which has effectively redesigned what was already a very malleable template into an entirely new form. Perhaps even more impressive – if just as unsurprising, given his record over the last couple of years – is the sheer level of quality control he manages to exercise over his music, as though it’s literally impossible for the guy to make a bad tune. In the last three months alone, his first Pearson Sound release in a while toyed with the same Autonomic ideas he first explored on his remix of Scuba’s ‘Tense’, to dramatic effect. The output of his usual Ramadanman alias, on the other hand, has shot literally through the roof: the drum machine blasts and delicate vocal chemistry of ‘Glut’, where juke’s battle-scarred 808s were put to the service of something far more intangible, jittery junglist stylings on his self-titled Hessle Audio EP, a Todd Edwards lovin’ collaboration with Midland, and a seemingly endless array of quality remixes.
So trying to trace a steady path through Kennedy’s maze is proving a little nightmarish, but on the evidence of his latest plate for Swamp81 it’s probably safest to say his optimum working state is one of perpetual change. The shifts are usually incremental – ‘Work Them’ is a not-so-distant relation of ‘Glut’, with a rapidly descending upper register drum hit that strafes the dancefloor, and ‘Fall Short’ possesses the same nervy, restless energy as the best tracks from his self-titled effort – but they are suggestive of a mind that operates in constant motion. ‘Work Them’ is the obvious big hitter on here. Appropriately for the following release on Swamp81, it’s the bigger, badder and smarter brother of Addison Groove’s ubiquitous ‘Footcrab’ (I always preferred ‘Dumbshit’ anyway), crafted with a careful sleight of hand that allows its monotonous groove to be both maddening and compulsive at once. Halfway across its length, Kennedy opens up the mix to a stunningly elegiac wash of harmony, thoroughly putting paid to the false notion that anthemic in any way equals unsubtle.
‘Fall Short’, though, is the superior cut on an already superior twelve. Like ‘A Couple More Years,’ the almost unbearable melancholy Burial is able to inject into his tracks fully permeates its skeletal percussive structure. It’s as though Kennedy’s built another ‘Work Them’, then proceeded to subtract every extraneous element and leave nothing but the barest essentials. The result, as with so much of his recent music – and that of the rest of the Hessle Audio stable – defies many of the notions of what ‘dubstep’ is, or ought to be. If you can even call it that anymore; in future, I have my suspicions that this sort of stripped-back, polyrhythmic bass sound may well be referred to simply as ‘Hessle music.’ As mentioned earlier, I’m cautious of sounding excessively hyperbolic by praising Ramadanman this highly at what is still a comparatively early stage in his career, but in five or ten years’ time, if people aren’t looking back to this twelve as a crucial step in the genre’s ongoing evolution, I’ll eat my own copy.
After a wee break, David ‘Ramadanman’ Kennedy has jumped back on the prolific wagon of late, releasing no fewer than three EPs on various labels. The first, his self-titled effort for his own Hessle Audio label, met with general acclaim when it emerged a couple of months ago: tracks like ‘I Beg You’ and ‘No Swing’ felt like a logical step upwards from his earliest productions. Still focusing heavily on the brittle, bone-dry percussion that’s swiftly become a Hessle trademark – witness the monochrome pressure of the label’s latest 12” from Blawan – they showed a leap forward in terms of structure and intricacy. Still, while ‘Tumble’ may have shared the same icy chill as Wiley’s early eski instrumentals, and ‘A Couple More Years’ wielded deftly sliced breaks to devastating effect, there were points where the EP’s clinical precision felt a little too austere to connect with fully.
This new plate on Hemlock, though, is the real deal. It’s certainly the best thing Kennedy’s put his name to since Pearson Sound’s underrated ‘PLSN,’ and lead track ‘Glut’ shares its rattling top-end and peculiar rhythmic sensibility. Its booming 808 kicks and claps place it alongside recent tracks by Addison Groove and Girl Unit in that strange grey area where Chicago juke’s influence is beginning to percolate through UK bass, a region which will doubtless soon open up to far wider exploration. Above all else though, ‘Glut’s gorgeous clipped female vocal and shimmering synth melody lend it a real human warmth. Alongside the build-and-release dynamic of ‘Tempest’, which winds like a spring before suddenly exploding in a burst of noise, it makes for a formidable one-two punch of a twelve.
Traversing genres, styles and tempos isn't really the newest thing for a DJ to do, but to completely enamour the listener, constantly keeping them guessing, even aching for the next blend at the same time as making them forget the origins of the mix is definitely an achievement. This is something Bristol duo The Kelly Twins have done impeccably well with their instalment in our ever growing mix series.
Fierce recommendation led us to book them for our 1st birthday party (conveniently placed on your calendar this Saturday night) so we persuaded them to answer a few of our queries and break convention in committing a mix to tape.
Sonic Router: Can you provide those who may not know you with a bit of background info?
Kelly Twins: We are Bristol based identical twins who play records together, we have the pleasure of getting to play the music we love in various different clubs for a variety of different nights. We have held down residencies for nights such as Byte and Best Before (RIP). We currently run our UFO parties on a monthly basis and have recently got involved with a night called Crazylegs, which we help to run alongside a crack team of like minded promoters.
Outside of music who are you? What do you do on the daily?
We are both students currently in our final year and work menial part time day jobs, when we can find time between work and uni we like to search youtube for obscure boogie records and 80s horror soundtracks.
How did you first get into DJing, what was it that infected you?
Our dad used to be involved with rave promotion back in the 90s so dance music was something that was always in the background growing up. We got our first set of decks when we were 14 and had our first residency when we were 16. Not long after, we went to Ibiza with some school mates, while we were there we went to Space to see Laurent Garnier do a 3hr set. He played everything from techno to jazz, by the end he was even dropping Squarepusher and Dillinja tunes. To play those sort of records at what was predominantly house club, was a brave move and we really respected that. That night completely changed our view of DJing and what a DJ can do, it inspired us to take more risks when we play and a more eclectic approach is something that we have adhered to ever since.
How would you describe what you play to someone checking you for the first time?
One half of us wants to play really camp electro funk, freestyle, acid house and italo disco records, while the other half wants to play grimey gutter beats such as hip hop, ghettotech and dubstep. So most of the time we play a combination of the both. If we genuinely like something then we will play it, irrespective of musical genre.
What/who is currently floating you boat musically?
We have been getting into a lot of really slow 4/4 type stuff at the moment, producers like Om Unit, Funkineven and Illum Sphere. Also Been listening to quite a lot of commercial RnB instrumentals, quite often the vocals in these tunes detract from how good the beats are. Producers such as The Dream and Pharrell are proper next level. As always we like to delve back in time and seek out forgotten gems, Kerrier District has had a massive revival at the Kelly Twins HQ as have Anthony Shake Shakir, Ron Hardy and anything on Dance Mania
You guys run the UFO nights in Bristol. Tell us a bit about the history of it, what goes down at one of your parties?
UFO was first started by our good friend Mitch down in Plymouth about 12 years ago, it was one of the very few nights in Plymouth brave enough to go against the usual hard house/ happy hardcore flavour and try to do something a little different. It ran sporadically for many years and become somewhat of an institution, a night where regardless of who the guest was you were guaranteed to hear good forward thinking music. After being involved with UFO for a while, we decided to give it a go in Bristol when we moved here about 5 years ago, and thats what we did. At first we popped up with the occasional one off party, putting on peeps like Rustie, Hudson Mohawke and Joker amongst others. But now we run UFO monthly at the Dojo Lounge and we will have been running it there for a year in Feb. So far we have had guests like Tim Wright, Actress, Andy Blake, Hot City, Funkineven and we have some exciting stuff in the pipeline. We are often asked what sort of night UFO is? Our answer to that is we are about good music, whether it be old school or next level, being played by a big guest or a local dj. As long as its good, thats all that matters to us.
What events have you got coming up?
We have the UFO 1st birthday on the 26th of Feb with AGT Rave Cru then we have Om Unit, T.V.O plus others lined up for the next couple of months as well as a few collabs with other nights. We have a Crazylegs party coming up on the 12th Feb with Ikonika, Pangaea, Mosca and Martin Kemp, which we are very excited about. it's going to be ridiculous!
Tell us a bit about the mix you put together for us…
Its quite difficult to condense what we do into a short space of time so we tend not to do mixes that often, with this mix in particular we were determined to take it across the board musically and switch up the tempo a bit. We didnt like the idea of it being too rehearsed or after edited, so we recorded it in one take on 2 turntables and 1 cdj and thats it. We wanted it to be a true representation of what we do and we feel as though we have achieved that. Tracks wise, the Dream – Rockin that shit had to be in there. Its such a positive tune and the perfect way to start a mix, its a statement of intent. Also the SBTRKT mix of Fantastic Mr Fox was a no brainer, any track that sounds like its raining multicoloured 8bit on you definitely gets the thumbs up from us. We have exclusives from Kaiser, who is doing big things this year and a name you will be hearing a lot more of . Plus LuckyMe cohort Dema sent us a remix especially for the mix.
You’re playing at our 1st birthday party on Saturday, what can ravers expect from your set?
The unexpected with a side order of lazer bass.
And lastly, have you got any wisdom for the internet users?
If a Nigerian prince emails you asking if he can store 100,000 in your account, then it is a scam.
Also we would like to dedicate this mix to the memory of our mum and dad, they were our biggest supporters and inspiration. Everything we do is in honour of them.
Catch the Kelly Twins alongside Brackles, Jack Sparrow, Shortstuff and Gemmy at Lakota in Bristol this saturday night:
Jimi Tenor - Paint The Stars (Hudson Mohawke version). The Dream - Rockin that shit (Instrumental) Tiago - Babel Fish Dizz1 - Frazzled Harmonic 313 - Call to Arms Illum Sphere - Incoming Mux Mool - Death 9000 (Machinedrum remix) Peter Digital Orchestra - Born In MattB - Cars go Boom (Lunice Remix) Hovatron - Lets get wet Robot Koch - Love and the Machine Rustie - Bad Science Eprom - 64 Bytes Royal T - Beat Fighter (Bok Bok Remix) Coon Daddy & DJ Godfather - See u no mo DJ Guy - The Runner Untitled - Dopeman (Dema RKGB Refixx) DJ Funk - Happy Feet Geiom & Shortstuff - No Hand Signals Joy Orbison - The shrew would have cushioned the blow Hyetal - Pixel Rainbow Sequence Kaiser - What would Martin do? Fantastic Mr Fox - Sketches (SBTRKT Remix) Apparat - Interupt
