DOWNLOAD: Professor Ojo - Schemes And Plans [Bedroom Research]

Newcastle’s not exactly renowned for being a hotspot for wonky. It’s the first sentence that popped out when I started drafting this article, but in saying something as closed minded as that statement, you might get thinking about where the movement’s epicentre actually stemmed from. Was it really LA? Amsterdam? London? Glasgow? You can muse about it all day, but the fact is no one will ever actually care where you’re from if you can make speakers do that sexy overdrive thing where the tweeters pummel the air into your open palm at an alarming rate.

And this is something that Schemes And Plans, the debut release (which is being given away for nothing) from Professor Ojo, does in troves. In a recent interview with the Basement Hum blog, Ojo discussed the album project and his processes - something we've paraphrased here for your information.

“I just like the idea of quite unnatural sounds put together in a bit of an organic way,” he reveals when asked about his non linear sequencing. "I probably sequence in the simplest way possible - everything's just played in live from either the MPD pads or my keyboard. I never quantize anything. I think a lot of the looseness is a result of trying to get shit done as quickly as possible.”

“The tracks on the album vary between 2 or 3 years old and brand new,” he continues. “I think when I'm producing I've got a certain vibe in mind and it's quite specific, so even though they weren't necessarily made in the same time period I probably approached them with the same mindset if that makes sense? I do tend to work on a few beats at a time so they may end up sharing certain qualities, depending on my mood etc.”

Put simply Schemes And Plans is a great introduction to a unique beat talent – one thats been bandied about between SR contributors for a while now – and this 11 track collection is totally worth the ZIP space in your temporary files folder.

ALBUM DOWNLOAD: Professor Ojo – Schemes And Plans [Bedroom Research]

Preview snippets here:



Link:
www.myspace.com/ojobeats

INTERVIEW: Crackazat [Astro:Dynamics]

The name Crackazat first came up in conversation with Rekordah. A Bristol native Cracka had a remix on the 7” that Rekordah put out on the Spanish Lo Fi Funk label, refixing ‘Cherry Coke’ into a slow mo house haze of pulsing synthesizers. One that incidentally perfectly soundtracks a wandering mind pumped full of 500mg co-codamol tablets. Also featuring on the Astro:Dynamics album, his name cropped up again on ‘Party In The Clouds,’ where he displayed a unique talent for supplementing his beats with the kind of knowing boogie and production panache you’d expect from a seasoned vet.

Straddling the slower tempos with an skewed and accomplished pomp he's a young talent and a player whose output we’re watching out for with a close very close eye and he just put together our 54th Sonic Router Mix.

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

Crackazat: I'm a producer, arranger and musician. I grew up in Bristol. I moved to London in 2007 to study jazz at university. Now I teach, play and compose electronic and acoustic music.

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

Outside of producing, I work as a bassist and I compose for my own ensembles. I teach instrumentally and run music workshops.

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

I started tap dancing to jazz when I was very young. When I was 14, I started making music on guitar, and recording on my computer. My brother played drums, and we started a band. Shortly after, I started making beats on my PC.

Through music, I can be myself and deliver my messages.


Crackazat – Loop De Loop

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

I use a mixture of synths, samples, and live recordings. My favourite bit of kit in the studio, is the simple ability to record and loop ideas. I like the idea of composing with loops, and building on an idea; using layers; it’s like being your own audience. Acting and reacting, almost simultaneously.

Where do you take inspiration from when making music? What influences what you make?

I take inspiration when I'm listening to others. I listen to who they are, and what they are saying. If I'm moved by the experience, if it resonates with me, I take inspiration from it.

You had a beat on the awesome Astro:Dynamics compilation and you remixed Rekordah on his 7” for Lo Fi Funk. Without limiting you to this ‘beats’ context, what can people expect from your music? To me there’s a bit more of a boogie element to it…

Absolutely. House, funk, soul, boogie, samba, jazz…. It’s all in there. I guess this beat/electronic movement has opened up the platform for electronic musicians; especially now that everyone has a computer and a music program. Everyone’s including all their influences, all their character.

As for myself, yes, I am particularly fond of the boogie funk.

What other projects have you got in the pipeline?

My next release will be an EP, which I am releasing with Rekordah on his Astro:Dynamics Label. We are both very excited about it.

Tell us a little bit about the mix you turned in for us…

I certainly enjoyed making the mix. It explores various downtempo musics and mellow funk. As well some new ones of mine, I've included some unreleased material from two great producers, Type Sun and Linkling.

Any words of wisdom, for our readers?

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the mix.

::

DOWNLOAD: Crackazat – Sonic Router Mix #54



Tracklist:

1. Erroll Garner – Stormy Weather
2. Koushik – Morning Comes
3. Skalpel – So Far
4. Lukid – Saddlebags
5. Super Smoky Soul – Compromise (Original Mix)
6. Flako – Hump
7. Sam Irl & Dorian Concept - Untitled One
8. Moo – Spacetravelin'
9. Slope Ft Capitol A – In The Mix
10. Crackazat Ft Evergreen – Flight
11. The Clonious – Emora
12. Louis Bordeaux – Ecstasy
13. Mr Beatnick ft Ahu – I Know All The Bitches (Bullion rmx)
14. Type Sun – Untitled (album draft)
15. Iinkling – Hiliya
16. Crackazat – Hermeto (Tribute Groove)

Link:
www.myspace.com/crackazatmusic
http://astrodynamics.tumblr.com

DOWNLOAD: Astro:dynamics MP3s from Rekordah and Lower

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...

DOWNLOAD: Lower - Heartbroken



DOWNLOAD: Rekordah - Candy Flossin'

Link:
http://astrodynamics.bandcamp.com

DOWNLOAD: Kidlogic - Randy Barracuda Retrospective Mix

In honour of their 1st birthday celebrations on 20th May, Brighton based club night Donky Pitch, have bestowed on us the honour of hosting the second piece of exclusive content - the first being a Fulgeance mix featured exclusively on Rhythm Incursions - in promotion of their first anniversary. The DP guys have tried their utmost to bring the sound of skweee to the South of England, placing it in a 'beats' context, booking skweee pioneers and UK beatheads alike whilst fully supporting UK artists like SR chums Rekordah and Slugabed.

Having run for a full 12 months now, we've been very vocal in our support of the DP family, co-hosting TOKiMONSTA's Sonic Donky mix when she came over to grace Brighton's pebbles last year and surprising DP resident and UK skweee producer, Boss Kite, with our use of his interview answers to form one of the most enjoyable editions of our Quietus column to date. And the reason for our continued support?

Skweee.

Having stumbled across the sound of Scandinavian synthetic computer funk through people like Randy Barracuda or Rigas Den Andre and on compilations like the Ramp/Flogsta Danshall released Skweee Tooth or Harmönia's International Skweee Volume One it became somewhat of an borderline obsession, infecting both home productions and writing schedules. It's all about tunes like this...



Anyway - point is, they're a year old, and - being that we know a little of what it means to put all your energies into something for an extended period of time - we'd like to take this opportunity to officially say: happy birthday! Its just a testament to their attitude and friendly demeanour that they've allowed us to say it with an exclusive retrospective mix of skweee pioneer Randy Barracuda, put together by Kidlogic, so we sought them out to say their piece...

Sonic Router: What's been Donky Pitch's highlights this past year?

Donky Pitch: There are a few…definitely the ‘We Call It Skweee’ screening. We packed the venue on a Tuesday night. It was great to see 70+ people reach that on a cold winter night. Debruit’s set in February was awesome, we’ve never been in a club so jam packed with such a great atmosphere. He slayed it. And being asked to play the Skwee-a-thon in Helsinki on May 16th is pretty dam cool. We’re the only UK crew on a line up that features artists from Finland, Norway, France, USA, Spain amongst others...

Randy is the Tits. What does it mean to you guys to have him come over? What's so special about him?

We’ve been representing the skweee sound all year, but Randy is different to anyone we’ve booked before. He’s one of the originators, a true pioneer. From his early tracks to his newest single he has always been on point. We’re wet with excitement at the thought of his live show; Ross ‘Boss Kite’ almost puked when we told him.

Whats in store for the bday?

This is our biggest and funnest line up to date. We’ve been after both Barracuda and Fulgeance since day one and were seriously happy when we confirmed them both. It also brings together all the local producers and DJs that have ‘pitched’ in over the year to make all our parties so damn fun. We’ve printed up some T-Shirts and other Donky goodies to giveaway. Expect some drunken fools throwing badges into the crowd at 2am.

::



Donky Pitch turns One at The Volks in Brighton on Thurs 20th May 2010 with Fulgeance, Randy Barracuda, Slugabed, Rekordah, Ghost Mutt and Boss Kite.

::



DOWNLOAD: Kidlogic - Randy Barracuda Retrospective Mix



Tracklist:

1. Ketamine Strut
2. Black Vaseline (Featuring Mesak)
3. Love Axe/Heavy Metal (Featuring Michael Black Electro)
4. Duck Butter
5. Adult Games (Featuring Mesak & Michael Black Electro)
6. The High
7. Skweee Like A Pig
8. Rick James Is Dead
9. Overnight Romancin'
10. Group Sexxx (Imatran Voima)
11. Streisand Effect

Links:
www.myspace.com/donkypitch
www.myspace.com/kidlogic
www.myspace.com/randybarracudaofimatranvoima

Photo: Sanja Milosevic

INTERVIEW: Rekordah Talks Astro:Dynamics

Without Bristol/London based beat maker Rekordah’s contribution to our mix series way back when I’m pretty sure Sonic Router would never have launched into the blogosphere the way that we did (sidenote: we’re fully aware that the ripple permeating our tiny corner of the internet doesn’t shout as loud as some strongholds but still, we’re outwardly proud of what we’ve put together over the past 15 months). His willingness to give something up to us gave us hope that there were artists out there willing to take the splash on an unknown blogspot page and he inspired us to aim higher in a way…So it’s a glorious feeling deep in our guts for us to be able to bring you news and the inside scoop on a project helmed by the first ever ‘Sonic Router Mix Giver.’

Astro:Dynamics is a compilation of 16 beats curated by Rekordah that features a veritable whos who in modern UK ‘beats.’ Names like Lukid – whose first two albums on Werk Discs pre-empted a whole heap of great music in their own right - Lucky Me’s Mike Slott and The Blessings sit in perfect harmony with Stoke Newington’s Subeena and SR’s new favourite obsession, Coco Bryce, alongside an old one in the form of Slugabed. Theres beats from established talents like Bnjmn (aka Jackhigh) and new names like Professor Ojo and Crackazat plus skweee tinged productions from Metske and Slow Hand Motem.

Designed less as a compilation of UK strains and more of a unifier for discordant strains of music that share similar sound sets, its Rekordah’s enthusiasm and passion for the music having put together the whole thing himself that really shines, making great use of material new and old. And given his position in the scene – as one of the most skewed beat makers out there - it’s inevitable that a compilation helmed by him would be packed full of “good friends and fantastic talents.”

We caught up with him, told him not to even dream of holding back and this is what we were left with… along with the dropped jaws and raised neck hairs.

Sonic Router: So… why the name Astro:Dynamics?

Rekordah: I’m in my last year of my degree right now, and around the time when I started working on this project was also writing my thesis. The thesis was based around an analysis of instrumental hip-hop and beats stuff within the context of Afrofuturism, particularly drawing on Kodwo Eshun’s ‘More Brilliant Than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction’ as a frame of reference.

I got quite heavily into writing this thesis – looking in depth at the modern instrumental beats stuff as a form of hip-hop that allows for an erosion of the tension between the concepts of roots and futures in the music of what Paul Gilroy calls the ‘Black Atlantic’ – with the instrumental and electronic aspects providing that faceless, post-human element infamous with techno and the like, whilst the swung and unquantized element allows for a human, almost ultra-human, poly-rhythmic foundation to be present also. I also ended up drawing close comparisons between Eshun’s analysis of the late 60s to early 70s psychedelic jazz period – and the establishment of what Eshun calls a “post-jazz universe” – and the modern instrumental beats stuff, putting the case forward for this so called post-Dilla period as a formation of a post-hip hop universe, so to speak.

Anyway, before I end up writing another thesis here I’ll try and get back to the point. Basically… after surrounding myself with all this theory I knew I wanted to link these concepts into this project somehow. In ‘More Brilliant…’ Eshun creates this fantastic and really unique imagery to illustrate his theories by playing with words a lot, very frequently stringing together rather elaborate terms himself, and a lot of the time breaking words in two to form new meanings. So anyway, astro:dynamics is my own attempt at this sort of wordplay – with the ‘astro’ segment representing the stars and the concept of space and future, and the ‘dynamics’ representing sound and music.

I guess it was just a roundabout way of calling it ‘Sound of the Stars’ to be honest, if that makes sense…?

Were you inspired by the Beat Dimensions series? In that you were creating something that would stand as a snapshot of the scene? What drove you to put it together?

Definitely, the first Beat Dimensions compilation was massively inspiring for me – not just in putting together this release, but also in making me want to start getting more serious and focused with my own music as well. To be honest, I think before the first Beat Dimensions compilation came out I really had no idea that sort of vibe had gotten so wide spread.

In fact, before the Beat Dimensions compilation had come out it was another compilation that came out the year before that was really inspiring me – entitled The Sound of L.A. and featuring cuts from Kutmah, Ras G, Flying Lotus, Ammoncontact, Black Monk, Young Jazz Rebels (one of many Madlib alias’), Dntel, Sa-Ra and a few more. Before that I was, like many other guys involved beats stuff now, just listening to wall-to-wall Madlib, Dilla and Ammoncontact stuff. When I heard The Sound of L.A. it really hit the nail on the head of what I was looking for in music at that point, and it helped me to discover a bunch of great artists that I had never heard of before.

But before the Beat Dimensions compilation I was pretty naively convinced that this sort of stuff was pretty much solely confined to L.A. and Detroit. When it dropped it was a kind of WTF!? moment. Here were all these artists from all over the fucking world basically, and it really opened my eyes to it all. Then of course the next stop was the ‘Beatnicks’ Vol. 1 and 2 releases on Up My Alley which opened my eyes to even more new artists. That’s when my interest really went into overdrive to be honest; those Rustie tracks were just not of this planet, and the Jackhigh, Powell, and fLako tracks were really fantastic too – it just really hit me then how much really wild creativity was going on with this stuff, there was a complete disregard for imitation or tradition.

The All City 7x7 series also… it really just set in stone how special this music was, and how insanely eclectic the different sounds and influences coming from all the different artists on that series were. But the whole package with that series was amazing – the artwork, the concept, everything. And just in general I think the compilation format really has a particular potency with this sort of stuff. There’s just something about it that seems right, you know? It’s almost like so much of hip-hop (and dubstep now too) can be so inward-looking and insular, so focused on that one sound – yet the way in which the Beat Dimensions, Beatnicks, and 7x7 compilations gathered together all this internationally diverse and eclectic music it kind of forced you to open your arms and mind to it, and it not only allowed you to be introduced to each respective artist but to a whole group of artists with their own unique palettes, and I think that’s a really beautiful thing. It really is a reflection of how much variety there is to take in. I like listening to individual artist releases too but there is a different way in which you mentally (and I suppose physically) approach a compilation, it is a lot more based around discovery and variety. I suppose I don’t see it as a snapshot of a scene so much as a bringing together of individual outlooks and unique perspectives.

In terms of what drove me to put the compilation together; well it was actually another university project. I had my major project to do and I knew I wanted to put together a compilation from the off. I guess I put it down to the amount of inspiration I gained from the aforementioned compilations that made me want to try my hand at it. The project itself consisted of compiling and signing tracks, sourcing manufacture and distribution, and getting it to retail. I put a lot of thought into the track-listing and artists, and did my best to put together something that was cohesive and made sense, but I also wanted to make each track to stand out from the others and to be its own entity if you see what I mean. I also didn’t want it to particularly represent a scene of sorts nor did I want it to be specifically beats either – I wanted it to have that discovery factor to it as well, and for people to be surprised and intrigued by the music from whichever angle they were coming from. After all, that’s what music is all about in my opinion.



What was it about all the people (and the beats) involved that you gelled with?

Well on one hand I wanted to bring together many of the good people and artists I’ve met and/or worked with (either via the internet or physically) over the past couple of years or so. It’s another aspect of what makes music so great to me, getting to meet really nice like-minded people and getting creative with them or just generally shooting the shit, you know? I’ve been really blown away many really nice people there are making music, there really is hardly any of the egos that you might expect from people. I mean, first and foremost I’m a music-lover, I only ever wanted to start making music because I felt so inspired by listening to such great music, so it really is a fantastic thing to connect with people who I respect and whose music I love. So I guess on the whole the compilation is a sort of tribute to making those connections and friendships via music, and also a tribute to the music for making it possible – I know that must sound corny, but fuck it, it’s the truth.

On the other hand, at the same time as getting music from some more established names on there I did make quite a conscious effort to get some artists who are a little bit slept on onto the track-list. Take Clause Four for example, a friend of mine for a while; his record for DC Recordings back in 2007 was really one of the greatest releases of that period in my opinion, and he’s been making some amazing stuff since, yet he doesn’t get enough love for it – hopefully this release and his recent stuff on Jahtari will help to change that. Professor Ojo is another guy who has been making consistently great stuff for a while now also, and his beat on this compilation is really dope too – hopefully more people will wake up and check him out also.

I also wanted to bring in some more Bristol-based artists too, being my hometown, and that’s represented via the tracks from Crackazat and Lower. Crackazat is a guy who I think I have kind of half-known personally for years and years – a friend of friends and all that, remember the face but never got to know properly. Anyway he is making some really great music at the moment – multi-instrumentalist who’s studying Jazz and making some really nice beats on the side – we are going get to work on a solo release from him in the future and you should watch out for a remix of his on Affine Records soon too.

A lot of the people are UK based right? How did you go about extracting beats from people?

Yeah, all artists are UK based – with the exception of Slow Hand Motem (who is based in Canada) and Coco Bryce (who is based in Holland). The artists were mostly people who I have met over the past couple of years; via gigs, through correspondence online or just out and about in London or Bristol. The bulk of the artists actually fit in to that last category, so naturally the list of included artists ended up being quite UK focused. Looking back at this it wasn’t by any means a deliberate thing, but I do think it’s quite nice to have something that gives a good representation of artists that are doing their thing in the UK right now. That’s not to devalue Motem and Coco’s presence on the compilation by any means, but I will say that I have lots of admiration and perhaps a little national pride in the amount of great artists that are coming through the UK at the moment – and I think the track-list shows a good cross-section of what makes the variety in the UK so rich at present.

Whist I certainly put a lot of work into getting the track-list 100% right and exactly how I wanted, the process for gathering tracks was really quite informal and casual – this was helped by the fact that I see a fair few of the included artists pretty regularly, so it was naturally pretty casual. Also, being a university project, I had deadlines to meet – so this meant that the track-list was compiled rather quickly. When I say quickly, I don’t mean it was rushed at all – and it was at least a good 2 ½ months worth of work getting everything together and cemented in terms of gathering the tracks and finalizing the track-list – but it meant that the way in which I approached constructing the track-list, and the way in which I approached the artists themselves, was probably quite different to how the majority of labels would go about signing tracks for a new release.

I tend to find that quite a few labels, if not most nowadays, seem to want the newest tracks from artists for their releases. I suppose this is understandable in many ways, but it does mean that a lot of truly fantastic music doesn’t make it out there. Because of the deadlines I had to meet with university it meant that I didn’t have the option to have artists work on all-new material for it, so it ended up being the case that a lot of the tracks featured on the compilation came out of the vaults so to speak. – pretty much all of the tracks were already finished and complete when I signed them. Lukid’s track in particular is really quite old, sort of pre-Onandon stuff like the ‘Everybody Make Happy’ track you featured a while ago. And the Slugabed track came from a big pile of tracks he sent me in late 2008, it’s been my favorite beat of his ever since. I’m really happy to have the opportunity to bring these older tracks to a wider audience instead of having them lost and forgotten.

Like I said I can understand why labels would want to grab the new shit, and similarly I can see why artists themselves wouldn’t necessarily want their old stuff being unearthed as they may well be exploring new territories, and the old stuff perhaps doesn’t fit with the angle they are going for in the present day. But I’ve always seemed to be one of those guys who whatever music it is has always been about the earlier stuff, you know? I think it’s also quite interesting to once in a while take a look back at the older stuff, and to look at the contrast between that and the present. It’s also intriguing to see how people react to the older bits when they haven’t got the context and assume it’s new.

That’s not to say that all the tracks on the compilation are all old. Because of the deadlines I had to meet, my process for building up the track-list in the initial stage was mostly a case of trawling through people’s myspace or soundcloud players searching for potential tracks. The deadlines didn’t allow for much time to ask for artists to submit tracks – you what musicians are like with punctuality (I’m probably one of worst to be honest) – so essentially in a good proportion of cases I came to the artist asking for a specific track which I had decided on before even approaching the artists. Bit of a risky process perhaps, because it could’ve easily gone back to square one if the tracks I had chosen prior to contacting the artists weren’t available for whatever reason. Luckily, besides a couple of little hiccups it was plain sailing.

Its coming on CD first and then vinyl after right? Have you decided which cuts will be making wax?

In all honesty I really am having a very hard time deciding which tracks should see vinyl. The plan is to do an EP and perhaps a couple of limited edition 7”s. I’d really love to have all the tracks see vinyl but that’d be mighty costly and I’m afraid I just don’t have the finances to support doing that… I do have a good idea of what will make vinyl at the moment but I also want to see what the feedback and demand is like before the final decision is made. So if there’s anybody out there who has a particular craving for a particular track or tracks to make vinyl then give me a shout!

Any plans for a launch party?

None as yet. We did actually have a sort of pseudo-launch back in January, but it was more of a low-key drinks and records affair and obviously it wasn’t a release party as we were quite far off from a release date at that point. But I’ll be sure to sort one out soon, watch this space.

What else is coming up for you release/gig wise?

Release wise, the brilliant Tropical Heat compilation on MYOR has just dropped which I’m very happy to be a part of – such good tracks on there. I’m also working on a track for a compilation LP that will be coming out on the fantastic Lo Fi Funk label out of Spain – there is sure to be some outstanding music on there and the label it’s self is set for big things too, really great guys running that and they have got some great releases coming up so keep an eye on them. I’ve kind of been laying a bit low in terms of my own music at the moment because I am so busy nowadays what with finishing off my degree and working full-time – am I trying to kill myself?! But once university is out of the way I’m planning on settling down a bit and getting to work on a EP or Mini LP of some description, so hopefully that won’t be too far off.

In terms of gigs there is the Donky Pitch 1st Birthday Party coming up in Brighton with sets from myself, Boss Kite, Ghost Mutt, Slugabed, Randy Barracuda and Fulgeance on May 20th so make sure to try and make it down to that. It’s a brilliant party ran by some great guys. I played their first party and have attended every show they’ve done since, so that’s a testament to how much fun times there are to be had down there.

Astro:Dynamics will be released mid June 2010, distributed by Cargo Records. Further releases are slated to follow after the compilation also...

Full Astro:Dynamics CD tracklisting:

1. Lukid – Pleurisy
2. Jay Prada – Nina’s Strut
3. Tapes – Oberheimer
4. Slow Hand Motëm – Love is the New Evil
5. Clause Four – Daze
6. Mike Slott – Music’s Fun
7. Coco Bryce – The Cliche
8. Slugabed – Clunk Clunk
9. Crackazat – Party in the Clouds
10. Bnjmn – It’s Not a Joint
11. Rekordah – Candy Flossin’
12. Professor Ojo – Focus
13. Metske – Isotopic
14. Subeena – Rakeeh
15. Lower – Heartbroken
16. The Blessings – Lungebob

Artwork by SiriusBerlin.

Catch Rekordah at Donky Pitch’s 1st Birthday on Thursday 20th May at The Volks in Brighton.



Facebook Event

Link:
www.myspace.com/rekorder87

RECOMMENDED: V/A – Tropical Heat Vol. 1 [Myor]

If you’ve visited this page more than once over the last year and however many months its been running you’d have probably noted that there are a couple of pivotal moments in terms of ‘wonky’ that are constantly referred to. Be it the two Up My Alley Beatnicks 12”s (number 3 is reportedly mastered and imminent by the way…), Rustie’s Jagz The Smack EP or either of the Beat Dimensions compilations, we like to give a lot of thanks to the curators for introducing us to a wealth of talent that is now blossoming; people like 1000Names, 00Genesis, Jackhigh and fLako... Or basically the backbone of some of the most interesting ‘beats’ we’ve heard in 2010.

Tropical Heat Vol. 1 comes from the mind and passion of one Coco Bryce - someone we were ecstatic to get interviewed on here recently - and his fledgling Myor imprint. As the ‘Volume’ signifier in the name suggests Tropical Heat is the first in a series of 12” compilations; and featuring 6 producers it wields tracks from Coco himself, the first ever Sonic Router mix giver: Rekordah, Slugabed, Nino, Harmonia signed skwee producer Mesak and Saccage & Insence. With each producer bringing their own particular brand of warped hip hop to the table whether its rooted in skweee or simply in boom bap and madcap quantization, its hard to pick stand outs though personal highlights come in the form of Nino’s funk laden ‘Ready To Rock,’ Sluga’s swampy hysterics on the somewhat contemplative ‘Here You Are’ and Rekordah’s straight banging drum work on EP opener ‘Sometimes.’

The compilation pretty much induces the same kind of excitement that those early Beatnicks 12”s did in me and its unquantifiably reassuring to learn that there are people out there still willing to invest in a physical product for this kind of music. Hopefully the sign of more to come, this collection comes highly recommended.

Words: Oli Marlow
Out: Now

DOWNLOAD: V/A - Tropical Heat Vol 1 - Snippets



Link:
http://20shotsequence.blogspot.com/

DOWNLOAD: Samoyed - Down With Everything Mix

With all this writing, linking and posting about regular mix series I'm starting to feel like a parrot - minus the dressing in bright colours shit, I'm a closet goth and proud of it, whut? - I'm constantly repeating myself for the sake of a cheap laugh... but shit... people like Ballers/Lucky Me, XLR8R and FACT are always coming with a gully selection that it's becoming real hard not to impart some of my obvious passion for their audio/internet skills onto you.

With that said, this next Ballers Mix comes from Samoyed, a man who runs Flask Records and shares his production moniker with a suitably fluffy breed of Siberian dog. The tracklist is packed full of dope people and includes exclusive business from Lukid and Rekordah with a specialist wandering eye over some pearls from the forthcoming Flask catalogue.

DOWNLOAD: Samoyed - Down With Everything Mix

Tracklist:

Mweslee - Variations Pour CX Pallas (nod navigators)
Rekordah - Green Check (unreleased)
Caural feat. Diverse - Blacktops & Plains (Choclate Ind)
DAK - Wego (Leaving)
Architeq - Mind Games (Samoyed remix) (Tirk)
Radiq - Rude Boy Anthem (Logistic)
Samoyed - fir (demo)
Carlos Nino and Miguel Atwood Ferguson - All For Love (Extended) (Alpha Pup)
Samoyed - Slump (unreleased)
The Poacher and The Ghillie - Herself (forthcoming on Flask)
Comfort Fit - Superposition (Remix) (Tokyo Dawn)
Stoopz and Breeze - Mercury Morris (Butter Made)
Fingers inc. - Mystery of Love (instrumental) (DJ int)
Telepathe - In Your Line (Rupture & Shadetek remix) (Dutty Artz)
Lukid - Eye Begins to See (unreleased)
Kentphonic - Hiya Kaya (Stalwart)
Kenny Dope - Sown Bwoy (Dope Wax)
Manitoba - Dundas, Ontario (Remix) (Leaf)
Groove Chronicles - Stone Cold (DPR)
8Bitch - In the Moog for Love (unreleased)
Mast - Bullocks Running (forthcoming on Flask)

Link:
www.myspace.com/samoyed

EVENT: Tapes EP Launch @ Gramaphone

"To celebrate the release of his longingly anticipated Jahtari vinyl debut, Tapes is throwing a Monday night bass bash with D.J. and Live performances from a host of eclectic friends and family of the label. Expect a barrage of 8-bit Danchall, Disco Obscurities, Synth Charged Hip-hop and Full Rave Assault!!!"

Set Times:
8.00: International Observer (Live)
9.00: Tapes (Cassette DJ Set)
10.00: Rekordah
11.00: Clause Four
12.00: Clench

Link:
hwww.myspace.com/tapeshifi
www.jahtari.org

EVENT: Pollen's 1st Birthday @ The Croft, Bristol

All up in the South West this forthcoming Bank Holiday weekend?

Go celebrate with Pollen as they commemorate their 1st birthday with an astonishing line up at The Croft in Bristol.

Room 1: Pollen

Architeq [LIVE/Tirk]
Peverelist [Punch Drunk]
Slugabed [Ramp/Stuff/Pollen]
Tapes [LIVE/Jahtar/C8]
Rekordah [LIVE/Pollen/Senseless/C8]
EFA [Pollen/Focus]

Bespoke visuals courtesy of Tiago [LuckyMe].

Room 2: Beat Convention [LIVE]

Invisible Think
DJ Rogue
Awkward
Type Sun
Le Mart
Ben One

The Croft
£5 Adv Inc Booking Fee // MOTD.
Extra sound provided by: www.urban-scrumping.co.uk

The next Pollen releases will be:

POL12002: XXXY - Rain / XXXY Rain [Jack Sparrow Remix]
POL7001: Rekordah - Bedroom Suite / Burger Sauce

Link:
www.pollenaudio.co.uk

INTERVIEW: EFA [Pollen]

After receiving our first ever exclusive mix from Rekordah and the ensuing banter and file exchanges that followed, I suddenly got all excited by the thought of the Pollen collective and what they were pushing. Whilst Rekordah’s beats were bordering on the ridiculous and completely un-quantizable end of the hip hop spectrum there was this whole super-pitched skwee influenced music fleeing from the headphone port by people like Brackles and Shortstuff.

EFA got in touch shortly after my initial interest spike, plying his label wares and offering his skilled hands and connections to showcase a few of his label’s and his friends unreleased material. Taking him up on the offer was decidedly fruitful as his complex mix of Brackles’ ‘LHC’ and Untold’s ‘Anaconda’ will undoubtedly prove. Oh... and he was kind (and patient) enough to answer some questions for us too. Soak it up and learn something.

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

EFA: I’ve been DJ’ing various types of music including Jungle, House, Hip-Hop & Dubstep for last 11 years around my hometown of Nottingham and where I’ve recently flung my hat in Bristol. I used to be in an electronic band called Sounds of Science with my schoolmate Curtis Whitefinger who now plays guitar music and I dabble in production when I get chance.

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

I’m Daz and to earn a crust I fix computers. I enjoy good beer, good food, country walks & trying to be ethical. I’m also addicted to chilli, love the way it smells, tastes…

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

As a kid I showed a passing interest in the keyboard & guitar so ended up with a couple of them. I fell in love with Jungle at an early age and after getting a copy of Octamed for the Amiga started to dabble in beatmaking. It wasn’t until I was in a band playing keyboard for a bit that I started to take it seriously eventually starting a production partnership.

What’s the big idea behind the EFA moniker?

The big idea was to start a band with my old production partner in Nottingham called “Essential Fatty Acid” - we were gonna do Dub & Funk live with some added electronics. Alas this never happened so I teefed the name to DJ & Produce under – I’d previously used my initials Dr. G.

Whats your production set up like? Has it changed a lot since day dot?

I first started making beats properly in 1998 on a Roland MC303 I borrowed off a guy I used to produce with after showing signs I could do something with it. It was a great learning tool as you had synthesis, effects & midi all in 1 box and all you had to go on was your ears, no meters etc.

After the battery died losing the 30 or so tracks I’d done, the band split up and it was returned to its rightful owner, I didn’t get a computer until about 2005 when I built my own purely for music under the guidance of a friend (It was this which got me into the work I do as well). I then scoured the internet looking for the software that would suit me best and opted for Cakewalks Project 5 and later Sonar which you could rewire the former into.

After bashing out some reasonable sounding beats including a remix of Luke Vibert for a Future Music competition (which was actually won by Aphex Twin after he entered for a laugh and they passed the prize to the runner up) I decided to switch up to Cubase SX3 as it was far easier to use VST’s. Staples include Battery 2, Absynth (anything Native Instruments' good TBH) & Novation Bass Station – I also have a Novation KS Rack synth that I’m currently working into my set up. I monitor on Yamaha MSP5’s with a Tapco SW10 Sub and midi with a battered Edirol PCR 50 that’s too complicated for me to use its advance features.



You’ve been running Pollen the club night for quite some time. Can you give us a brief history?

The 1st time I played Dubstep in a club was at a night called Misst who made me their resident. As the night grew I started to see a divide between the bangers & the deeper, broken stuff which I wanted to push more of. I started Pollen in August 07 at a little out of town venue called Moog in Nottingham which used to host Electronica events until it was sold to some people who used it as more of a Disco/House party bar (legend has it Aphex Twin once played there!).

It’s a great space and I really wanted to bring some modern inventive sounds back and thought it could work there. Aside from the Dubstep I had been listening to a lot of Dub, Electronica and the forward thinking Hip-Hop of Madlib, Dilla, Prefuse 73 & Dabrye etc so I wanted the night to start off with that and move in to the 140 beats. We launched with Geiom headlining and had Gravious, Kion, Hizatron & Russian Linesman play the night amongst others. I pretty much did everything including lugging a Sub into the venue and causing a few noise complaints but it was good experience, I even managed to broadcast a few of them on streamizm.com.

When I moved to Bristol in Feb 08 all aspects of the Dubstep sound were covered so continuing the night as it was seemed pointless. After a meeting with Luke [Rekordah] at a PB Wolf show we decided to start a night focusing on the ever growing continuum of experimental beats and agreed on launching this under the Pollen brand. We did a Lone Album launch to test the water and then our 1st Pollen proper with Mike Slott headlining in November. We’ve since had Actress, Bullion, Lukid, Clause Four, Metske & Slugabed play and will be celebrating our 1st birthday on August 29th with a big lineup at The Croft, Bristol so watch this space!

How did Pollen evolve into a label?

I was being sent so many amazing unsigned tracks that I played at Pollen [Notts] and on radio and Brackles had given me a CD of ‘Broken Harp’ and another Shortstuff bit. I had an idea for the artwork after a workmate sent me some of his photography so it was just a case of working out the logistics. I just felt that what I was doing with the night could translate into a label.
I had moved to Bristol by the time I had my 1st P&D offer for the label in March 08 and then the Geiomix came along from out of nowhere a few months later. After some good advice from Geiom I released the record through a different distributor and despite some manufacturing issues & delays we got it out this April.

[Pollen] Brackles & Shortstuff - Broken Harp -Geiomix [Clip] by Pollen

[Pollen] Brackles & Shortstuff - Broken Harp [Clip] by Pollen

What are you plans for it? Got any new releases coming up you wanna shout about?

Well since Luke was involved in the night it made sense to have him on board with the label too, especially as I was interested in his beats. We will be putting out our 1st 7” as soon as possible with Rekordah’s ‘Bedroom Suite’ B/W ‘Burger Sauce’ and the next 12” is going to be XXXY – ‘Rain’ B/W a Jack Sparrow Remix. The plan is to put out equal measures of forward thinking Dancefloor & Hip-Hop beats, expect stuff from the likes of Slugabed, Gravious & Ekelon in the near future.

You’ve even got a Pollen show on Dubstep.fm, what’s it like playing out over the airwaves? What sounds are you pushing out to the masses?

It’s a good place to test new music and have instant feedback in the chat and the infrastructure they have in place is amazing, they can accommodate hundreds of listeners at a very high resolution. I try to have as many guests as possible and turn it into a sociable thing, these days I push new and old music starting with the Hip-Hop and into Dubstep and the fringes of what that’s become along with Dark Garage and some UK Funky. I tend to do the shows less these days but there will always be one in the works.

Tell us a little about the mix you have done for us, what tracks just had to be in there?

I wanted to showcase a few forthcoming Pollen bits, the rest is just new & old stuff I’m feeling chosen mostly on the fly which is how I prefer to do most of my DJ sets.

What is the thing that is most exciting you at the moment in the bass music scene?

The inventive use of beats and the slowing of the 140 tempo are producing some amazing music at the moment from the likes of Peverelist, the Hessle crew, Brackles, Shortstuff and many others. I was a little reluctant towards the UK Funky movement at 1st but have started to see its potential for producing both inventive music and chart crossover’s.

The Wigflex boys up in Notts are set to clean up this year crossing Techno & Bass together to devastating effect with a dash of Skweee, watch out for the next Wigflex EP and a Hizatron release on Berkane Sol! The Bristol based Purple Trinity continues to push the boundaries of production and is set to go into orbit this year. Hopefully Rustie will continue to churn out the likes of his Kapsize release which I still cannot take out my bag!

When is the next Pollen night and who’s playing?

The lineup for the 1st birthday is still in the work’s... however I am involved in a thing called Focus @ The Tube, Bristol promoting forward thinking, innovative dance music in all its forms.

Have you got anything else you want to tell us, words of wisdom for our readers?

Don’t watch too much TV and avoid comments sections of news stories and You Tube, they’ll just lower your opinion of humanity!

::

DOWNLOAD: EFA - Sonic Router Mix



Tracklist:

Mike Slott - Home - EFA's I'm At Home Re-edit feat. Andreya Triana
Slugabed - Once a Philosopher (Forthcoming Pollen)
Rekordah - Bedroom Suite (Forthcoming Pollen)
Hyetal - PRS - Peverelist Remix (Forthcoming RDCTN)
Shortstuff - Stuff (Forthcoming Ramp)
Geiom & Spamchop - Cave Rave (Berkane Sol - White)
EFA & SOBR - Wet Queef (Dub)
NB Funky - Rhythm Box (Its Funky)
Lil SIlva - Funky Pulse (White)
Jammin - Tonka - Menta Remix (Bingo)
Roni Size & Reprazent - Dirty Beats - Wookie Remix (Talkin Loud)
Unknown - Unknown (Dub)
XXXY - Rain - Jack Sparrow Remix (Forthcoming Pollen)
Apathesis - Hindsight (Dub)
Geiom - No More Tears (Berkane Sol)
Brackles - LHC (Forthcoming Planet Mu)
Untold - Anaconda (Hessle Audio)
Ekelon - Fiesta Del Foc - F Remix (Forthcoming Pollen)
Mount Kimbie - Maybes (Hot Flush)

Links:
www.myspace.com/essentialfattyacid
www.myspace.com/clubpollen

EVENT: Donky Pitch w/ Gemmy & Slugabed

This one's for the Brighton based brehs and gals... essential to see all 3 headliners if you live by the sea.

Link:
www.myspace.com/donkypitch

INTERVIEW: Rekordah [Pollen]

Rekordah aka Luke Owen makes hip hop music. He first came to our attention with his mix on High Rise Clothing’s blog a few months back and being the keen innovators (ahem: idea stealers) that we are we asked him to whip up us our own little exclusive and give him some space to vent.

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

Rekordah: No problem. My name is Luke and I make beats under the name Rekordah. I'm originally from Bristol but have been studying in London for the past couple of years. I've been making beats for a while now but I feel like I only just found my feet recently and it's going really well - been getting some really good feedback from some of my favourite artists.

I co-run Pollen with EFA, we put on nights in Bristol to push this sound and have had Mike Slott, Lone, Slugabed, Bullion and Metske come down. We also run the Pollen record label and have got some really exciting shit in the pipeline.

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

I'm a lazy student! Haha. Just studying really, can't say I do much more other than catching up on sleep and making beats. It's a hard life

How did you get into recording music?

I learnt the Saxophone at school and also got into using sequencers on the computers at school. From there I went to college to study Music Technology and have been producing music ever since.

What’s your set up like?

My setup is extremely basic, just my laptop and a pair of headphones most of the time. Infact I only just got a pair of monitors a few months ago - and to be honest I rarely use them, just for mixing down really. You could put it down to laziness and lack of disposable income but I genuinely like keeping it simple, it keeps the process informal - just working on raw ideas rather than spending ages tweaking basic elements.

Do you have any regular processes you go through when making music?

Nah not really. Its weird I never seem to do anything worthwhile when I put my mind to it, the stuff I’m most happy with seems to be all made when I've just sat down and thrown some ideas together without thinking about it. In fact ‘Bedroom Suite’ was mostly done on the train and I found that to be really inspiring for some reason. Maybe I should do that more often…

Musical influences (to me anyway) are always so vast asking someone to name one is like sacrilege to my entire record collection. Can you name 3 artists/albums/whatevs that have most influenced your production to date?

Oooo, that's a hard one. Hmmmmm, there are indeed too many to choose from. To be honest it changes all the time and I’m getting a lot of inspiration from people like Rustie, HudMo, Slugabed, Bullion, Mike Slott, Mweslee, Dorian Concept. But off the top of my head, I’d have to say Dilla, Fugazi and David Axelrod

Did J Dilla change your life?

J who? Hahah just kidding. Yeah for sure, definitely.

So… ‘Wonky’… its been dis-credited as it’s own genre term and yeah its wanky and shortsighted but (in your opinion) does it convey the slanted and stuttering aspect of the music? What would you call it?

Yeah sure, it definitely describes an element in the music fairly well. It’s just that its usage seems to imply that it’s the prime element. I think that’s what people find frustrating, there’s so much substance and variety in the music and to reduce it to "Wonky" is just incredibly lazy and shallow.

To me it's Hip-Hop and everybody else I’ve met who are on this tip feel the same - I don't think anybody active in this sound feels that "Wonky" is a helpful tag. Nor is a tag even needed in my opinion.

What’s coming up for you in ’09? Any releases in the pipeline?

Yeah there’s various bits and pieces in the pipeline, and I should be putting out some music myself in the not too distant future. It's gonna be a really exciting year for me I think… I'm playing all over the place at the moment and it's really surreal.

You can catch Rekordah at Pollen @ The Tube in Bristol on the 5th March with Lukid and Red Rack'Em.

DOWNLOAD: Rekordah - Sonic Router Mix



Tracklist:

Professor Ojo x Rekordah - Ganaaa
Rekordah - Candy Flossin'
Pudge x Front 2 Blaq - Pudge2BlaQ
Slugabed - Breadcrumbs and Butterbeans
Rekordah - Bedroom Suite
OlivierDaySoul - Soul4u
Rekordah - Cherry Coke
Take - Tuesday Never Comes
Black Milk - Three+Sum

Link:
www.myspace.com/rekorder87