Sometimes things form and merge iconically. The fusion of Dutch producer Martyn's music and the artwork of label artist Erosie seemed to be only the start for the 3024 label, with the two individual's vision working in perfect tandem, but now the whole production has gone one step further, with a fully functional website co-incided to drop at the same time as the tenth release on the label. Martyn's storming 'Shook Up' b/w 'Left Hander' marks the first thing you'll have heard from the producer in a while and it sees him come running out of the blocks with some huge, tuff ended house. An emphatic return if ever there was one; total undeniable proof of his mania enducing dancefloor prowess.
You can hear audio of both the tracks in one of our recent Hivemind fm shows here.
Go check: http://3024world.com, there you will find full and absorbing information on the outlook and aim of the label and amongst other things an exclusive recording of Martyn's set at this years Solar Festival in Holland, that we've linked to directly below.
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.'
The eighth release on Martyn’s 3024 label comes from Manchester beat technician Illum Sphere who has been responsible for some killer off-centre hip-hop instrumentals on Fat City Recordings and the Hoya:Hoya club night; joining the dots between the fringes of dubstep and hip-hop in fine style with the likes Martyn rubbing shoulders with Flying Lotus, Dam-Funk and Ikonika. It’s his second outing on 3024 after remixing Martyn’s beat-less surge ‘Brilliant Orange’ from what was essentially an instrumental segway on his fantastic album Great Lengths, but in Illum’s hands it was flipped and extended into a full, pulsing, emotional slab of atmospheric beat work. This platter carries on very much in that vein.
The crackle fest that is ‘Go Killum’ gets things off to a good start, fitting somewhere between Flying Lotus, Actress and Kyle Hall, bumpin’ with a skeletal yet warm soundsystem funk. The sound of being lost, driving around a city at night; as the light trails fly past, you feel apprehensive but at home in your motor, heaters on stereo turned right up.
The low-slung magic of ‘Technopolis’ isn’t too dissimilar to the Flying Lotus workout ‘Disco Balls’ from Hyperdub’s ‘5’ compilation: in that it’s got off-kilter slow and punchy house grooves and a funky as hell synth bass groove that has that warm tweaked-out buzz. It’s an altogether more spaced out affair, putting emphasis on the crackle, atmospheric pads and jazz-house subtleties whilst the drums get the head nodding as layers of sub bass squirm in all directions. The energetic synth surges of ‘Titan’ pick up the pace and bring a dose of euphoria to the platter as digital crickets chirp like sprites in a computer game night time scenario.
Post Red Bull Music Academy, London has been all too quiet. Parting, for me anyway, with Brainfeeder at fabric it was an intense month; packed with shows from DOOM at the Roundhouse, Jamie Vex'd, Mike Slott, Scuba and the unrelenting Untold at TBar and a rather special Deviation in the basement of Camp. As well as the headliners, resident DJ Benji B and Skream - dropping a disco set, there were sets that night from beat protege 00Genesis and Manchester's Illum Sphere.
Now any regular followers of us will know the work of Mr. Hunn excites us deeply, so it was a touch to finally catch him spinning, eventually chat him up; and learn of his impending release on Martyn's soon to be further blossoming 3024 label. We caught up with him once again - re-visiting old email transcripts to figure how it happened - and asked him a few questions in search of that all important update...
Sonic Router: I've spoken to a few participants since the end of term and the feeling definitely seems to be one of... hollowness... How are you finding life after the Academy?
Illum Sphere: I think we've all got depression haha. I really miss being in that environment and all the people there. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and 100% worthwhile, I can't thank the people in charge enough for letting me on.
So how did you link up with Martyn for the forthcoming 3024 12”?
Ummm... well, I did the remix for 'Brilliant Orange,' and we'd chatted about maybe doing something for 3024. Martyn was quite into this demo tune I had called 'Technopolis' which was a way off being finished. I then sent him 'Titan,' and he showed interest in signing that and a finished version of 'Technopolis,' before suggesting I do another nugget for it. So I did 'Go Killum,' and that was that really, from the initial interest to finalising was rather quick.
What can the world expect from it? Does it differ from the Fat City material in your opinion?
I think it shows a broader range. 'Titan' and 'Technopolis' are two very different tunes, sound very different to stuff I've done, yet sound like me, if that makes sense? 'Go Killum' is more like the Fat City stuff, but still definitely different, I think anyway...
Speaking of the Fat City stuff, when is the 2nd part of your LP dropping?
It's gonna come out fully first, in the summer. I'm gonna switch it around a bit, maybe ditching some of the stuff from the 'Long Live The Plan' EP, playing with the order a bit more and trying to include as much new stuff as possible...
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And to quote a subsequent and somewhat ominously relevant conversation with label boss Martyn: "Following up on the two remix 12"s that were released in January, I'm really happy we're able to put out Illum Sphere's EP. He's one of those new producers that effortlessly blends different styles and sounds."
And looking towards the future for the label he also divulged that: "after this release in May, we'll have Altered Natives for 3024-009 with 'The Bitch' and 'Crop Duster.' Then later in the year Deadboy will do a record on 3024 as well. So all in all: there's forthcoming bits from three people who aren't easily classifiable, but are busy developing their own sound."
01 Washed Out "Get Up" (Mexican Summer) 02 Lukid "Veto" (Werk) 03 King Midas Sound "Lost" (Hyperdub) 04 Rotating Assembly "Orchestra Hall" (Sound Signature) 05 Anthony Shakir "Shake it Up Dub (Remix)" (KMS) 06 Robert Owens "Bring Down the Walls" (Trax) 07 Lone "Once in a While" (Werk) 08 Jacob Korn "Grosskariert" (Permanent Vacation) 09 Joy Orbison "The Shrew Would Have Cushioned the Blow (Actress remix)" (Aus) 10 Prince "When Doves Cry" (Warner Bros) 11 Dez Williams "Abandoned Emotions" (Cheap) 12 DJ Duke "Future Blast" (Music For Your Ears) 13 Glass Domain "Interlock" (Clone) 14 Drexciya "Lost Vessel" (Tresor) 15 The Future "Daz" (Black Melody) 16 Aardvarck "Tulti" (Eat Concrete) 17 Motor City Drum Ensemble "Raw Cuts #5" (Faces) 18 Basic Soul Unit "Hopy Unity Vision" (New Kanada) 19 Adonis "No Way Back" (Trax) 20 K-Alexi "Vertigo" (Transmat) 21 J Dilla "Nothing Like This" (Stones Throw)
January's URB.com column just went live-o with discussion points ranging from Shortstuff & Hyetal to the new double pack Pangaea EP, Airhead & James Blake, Kuedo, Joy Orbison, Slugabed, Low Limit & Lando Kal, Martyn (and his forthcoming bunch of remixes) plus word on long players from Scuba and Starkey.
Its official, after those few leaked hints, Martyn is handling the landmark 50th CD for fabric's Saturday night mix series and yes, the tracklist features a smattering of producers you might expect if you've seen the man DJ lately.
Its truly an impeccable mix, spun together by one of dubstep's stand out artists in 2009. His sense of timing and mood is superb and the selection features several of the remixes forthcoming on his own 3024 label.
“I did the whole mix CD live just because I thought that was more honest than doing an Ableton DJ mix," he muses. "It is how I would play live - not everything on the CD is perfect, but it’s not meant to be. That goes for my DJ sets and for my music as well; there’s always little bits and pieces that could have been much better or more streamlined or whatever, but that’s the beauty of music to me. I wanted it to be raw and honest. As for the selection, I just wanted to try and make it as varied as possible and get people from all different corners of the globe together on one CD. The idea of it was to bring together all these sounds and vibes, something I would never be able to do on a studio album, just because I’m not able to make all that sort of music. It's amazing music though, I love it, so I want to play it to people.”
Tracklist:
01 - Hudson Mohawke – Joy Fantastic Feat. Olivier Daysoul - Warp 02 - Alec Wizz ‘Drummin’’ (Louis Benedetti Drumminpella) - Defected 03 - Nubian Mindz – Bossa Boogie – Rush Hour 04 - Maddslinky – Lost On Tenori Street – Biasphere 05 - Altered Natives - Rass Out – One Minute Music 06 - Zomby - Little Miss Naughty – Zomby Productions 07 - Uncle Bakongo - Afar – Roska Kicks & Snares 08 - Zomby - Light Cycle - Zomby Productions 09 - Deepgroove & Jamie Anderson – The Clock (Ben Klock’s Timepiece) - Rekids 10 - DJBone - We Control The Beat – Subject Detroit 11 - Detachments - Circles (Martyn's Round & Round Mix) – This Is Not An Exit 12 - Joy Orbison - Brkln Clln - Doldrums 13 - Cooly G - Feeling You - Dub Organizer 14 - Martyn Feat dBridge - These Words (Roska's Speechless Mix) - 3024 15 - Kode9 – Oozi - Hyperdub 16 - Roska - Without It - Roska Kicks & Snares 17 - Martyn – Friedrichstrasse - 3024 18 - Levon Vincent - Air Raid - Ovum 19 - Martyn Feat Spaceape - Is This Insanity? (Ben Klock Mix) - 3024 20 - Martyn - Seventy Four (Redshape Mix) - 3024 21 - Actress - Slowjam – Werk Discs 22 - Zomby - Mercury's Rainbow - Thriller 23 - 2562 – Flashback - Tectonic 24 - Martyn – Vancouver - 3024 25 - Jan Driver - Rat Alert – Made To Play 26 - Dorian Concept - Trilingual Dance Sexperience – Affine
Martyn has been making some of the most amazing music across numerous genres for some time but he really came to attention with his move to the dubstep tempo from his D’n’B roots with tracks like ‘Broken’ on Revolve:r, his sublime remix of TRG’s ‘Broken Heart’ on Hessle Audio and ‘Velvet,’ the debut 12” on his very own 3024 imprint. As a producer he’s carved an incredibly unique, rich sound of his own, that he’s been known to call ‘Martyn music’ on more than one occasion, and you really can see why when you listen to the stylistic textures and flow of this album.
On ‘Great Lengths’ Martyn spans many tempos and genres ranging from beat less atmospheric surges through to house and techno and within those areas it’s a little rare that you find a proper happy, ‘hands in the air’ style track at 140bpm but ‘Right?Star!’ could well be an underground summer anthem in the making with its uplifting chords, bubbling arpeggios, vocal snips and monstrous bass sounds. Even the slightly more acidic ‘Little Things’ has a similar catchy sunshine vibe to it.
Continuing the light theme the dBridge collaboration ‘These Words’ does it with a melancholic feel. It’s the first full vocal number on the album with fellow producer dBridge taking mic duties and really singing his falsetto heart out over moving chords, piano, deep bass and skippy drum patterns. The other vocal track included is the Spaceape laced ‘Is This Insanity?’ which also comes off glossy with his dub poetry adding a darkly paranoid depth to Martyn’s shiny productions.
Of course along with the light comes the dark, which comes in the form of ‘Vancouver.’ It sounds huge on the album and even though it’s been out for some time as a 12” it’s still as fresh as the day the master was cut. The darkside jacking techno beast that is ‘Elden St.’ and previously released ‘Natural Selection’ both have a very similar sound but with the latter being the more dubbed out, darker brother of the two with a massive dub bass, sublime chords and pitch shifted vocals.
‘Great Lengths’ is a cracking debut album and it shows where Martyn is at musically right now brilliantly. It really displays his skills and scope when it comes to production and in that sense it’s pretty much an immaculate listen. It may not win legions new fans from outside of the dance floor genres of techno, dubstep and d&b but it may well unite the ones that weren’t quite sure.
