SR Mix #72: Dro Carey [Trilogy Tapes/Hum & Buzz]

The internet’s got a lot to answer for. One consequence of it’s of access to media is becoming clearer as broadband becomes an ever more entrenched feature of modern life: a new generation of musicians are starting to take influence from across the board, with scant regard for genres or scenes. Sydney’s Dro Carey is a great example. His music draws from a host of sources – dubstep and UK bass sounds, classic house and techno, R’n’B, noise, jazz – and works them all into strange, asymmetric shapes.

Some feel immediately linked to the dancefloor, albeit abstracted, with upcoming Hum & Buzz release ‘Hungry Horse’ and recent track ‘Wreckshop Sugar’ stuttering with the same nervous energy that drives Night Slugs and Hessle Audio. Others, like the music from his recent Venus Knock EP, sound more in line with the warped lo-fi tape and synth experiments of travelers like Oneohtrix Point Never and Mordant Music. All are bound together by their twitchy, nervous energy, as though recorded live rather than sequenced, and all are presented as part of Carey’s complete online persona. His BRAIN-SO-SOFT Tumblr site places his tracks in the context of the music and art that influence them. Alongside his home-made videos and the prolific stream of sound constantly finding its way onto YouTube, the resulting sprawl is a subversion of social networking’s ability to summarise peoples’ entire lives for easy consumption, nigh on impossible to unpick or decode easily.

We caught up with Carey for a chat about his music making process, R’n’B’s current peak in popularity and how he became interested in UK dancefloor sounds despite living on the other side of the planet. In return, he’s recorded us a mix that offers a clue as to the diversity of his tastes, and how his music brings them together in jarring, but strangely coherent, ways.

SR: How long ago did you start making music?

Dro Carey: It was really when I was about thirteen or so, but I was actually doing scratch DJing, and was first inspired by hearing DJ Shadow. Then I wanted to do cutting up records and things, so that was the beginning, but I moved through a lot of different types of music. I played in free improv, noisy groups, a lot of different stuff – I’ve done ambient music too, there are some secret ambient releases under a different name.

When did the Dro Carey music start happening?

It was a couple of years ago when I thought of the name. It was just to do with hip-hop beats, basically, so that’s why it’s a marijuana pun. I was inspired by mixtapes where they have parodies of celebrity names, like Antwan Swisher and stuff like that, so it was Drew Carey to Dro Carey. It’s a fairly simplistic kind of thing. It was almost a bit of a joke because I was doing more experimental things at the time, and I thought this would be rap stuff, but I then just started working more with software rather than live instruments, and the electronic stuff still stayed as Dro Carey even when it veered away from straight-up rap stuff.

What sort of music inspires the stuff you’re making at the moment?

There’s definitely a lot of UK influence. I guess about a year ago I heard Shackleton for the first time and I hadn’t really listened to any UK electronic stuff, and then I just went through listening to everything on Hyperdub, a lot of grime, Joker, all the big dubstep names. It took a while to get into it actually, because I guess I wasn’t coming from any kind of club scene, and the interest I had wasn’t about that side of it. I’ve been going to more things recently because I’ve been getting to the stage of doing live sets myself, but really I didn’t come from a background like that, so it was more from listening to them in a personal space and it wasn’t about the heaviness of the bass.

Sonic interest, rather than functionality?

Definitely. And I’m still really interested in all the different strains of the UK stuff, I can’t quite separate all of those sub genres, but I profess to like garage, two-step, funky… I’ve listened to a number of old releases but probably, at the end of the day, there’s more of an American influence: techno and house, particularly Detroit artists. Classic stuff and more recent artists like Omar S, guys who are still going like Moodymann and Theo Parrish. Even the oldest acid stuff, definitely Model 500, Anthony ‘Shake’ Shakir…

So you came to the UK stuff with very little club context – is there much of a scene where you are?

Electro and electro house is particularly popular in Australia. There’s obviously interest in dubstep but on a particular level – it’s the early or mid 2000s in terms of UK stuff, the 12”s on Deep Medi, Loefah, Skream, big on the wobble but with a fairly basic sub. They’re definitely not fully aware of all the influences you’ve got coming into it now, especially with a label like Night Slugs. There are obviously some places that have nights with more interesting stuff, but it’s largely electro and nu-disco. It’s quite different, the scene here, really, and I guess it fits with the sunny weather and vibe. But that’s not what really resonated with me. It was usually the gloomy London and Detroit sounds.

Has there been much interest in your music where you are?

It’s usually been abroad – Japan, obviously the UK, the US, in New Zealand.

I suppose the internet allows people much further afield to swiftly find your music.

Yeah, you say that, but I was on a message board thread to promote a Canberra show, and they were all saying they didn’t know Dro Carey was Australian. So the problem can be that the internet makes you so mysterious that people might not even know you’re there!



You seem to be one of the first musicians (alongside people like Odd Future) really taking advantage of Tumblr to create an online space for your music and project a complete personality online.

My idea of how you put music online has changed from what it used to be. For past projects I’d make a MySpace page or stream them on Soundcloud, but I was actually inspired by the way hip-hop is promoted online, particularly by Lil B. The way he would deliver songs in their first appearance online would be a YouTube video. You just build an archive of things that people can gradually get into. That idea came from his stuff, and from not really worrying whether people were actually seeing it. The Tumblr is weird, it’s quite impersonal with a fairly stark design, but it just groups everything together and I post whatever images are interesting me. And then there’s Twitter and Facebook pages, so an assault from every angle.

What approach do you take when producing?

I would like to get some analogue equipment but right now it’s just a midi keyboard hooked into Reason. I take an approach whereby I sample everything and try to adapt those to form elements of the track. So it may not be a bass synth I’m sampling but I would make it into one, or it wouldn’t be a keyboard or percussion but I would make it sound like that. It’s really sample based, but not really loop-based, playing samples as if they were actually instruments. But I try to make sure that… Well, if things are still too recognisable I feel they haven’t really served the purpose of re-appropriation. Then again, I’ve got some fairly long vocal loops from R’n’B that people probably can pick up on sometimes. I guess the rules are different for acapellas, you can jack more of that.

I suppose it depends what you’re aiming to get across. There might be something specific in the vocal loop you’re interested in.

Yeah, you hear something in the vocal you want. But I do often try to modify them quite a bit.

That’s happening quite a lot at the moment, there are an awful lot more people referencing people like DJ Screw as an influence on the way they treat vocals.

That was a big influence on me before I’d ever heard of witch house. Admittedly, it may have only been for a few months before, but I’d heard of screw tapes before that.

It’s interesting the way that’s happened recently. There are an awful lot more people, perhaps vogueishly, referencing R’n’B, juke, chopped and screwed hip-hop and so on.

R’n’B didn’t used to be cool! It’s funny, because I’ve read quite a few reviews of the Venus Knock EP on Trilogy Tapes where people talk about an R’n’B influence. While I like R’n’B, on that record a lot of my tracks don’t sound like it. They’re quite harsh and gritty, where R’n’B is about really smooth, slick production. So I’m kind of surprised that people have mentioned that. But then it’s a reference point that’s quite in fashion at the moment.

Do you tend to have a specific aim for a track in mind when you start?

Yeah, but often I stop right in the middle and redo everything, and it ends up sounding totally different. There’s a track called ‘Much Coke,’ which is a bit sunny. The original one was much darker and I didn’t like how it was sounding. It was all in the same sitting, I just switched everything up, worked with the same samples but it totally changed from what I envisioned. It took on a new cocaine association, Miami kind of thing.



Intensity’s an interesting thing when you’re doing instrumental beats. I try to build up and strip down percussion over the course of a track and generally keep things quite quantized. But I’m not ever trying to make a particular format or genre, or even aim for a club track, but I do appreciate the linearity of those type of tracks. I admire an evolving techno track more than a one and a half minute, Los Angeles, jumping all over the place kind of thing. I do like that kind of stuff but I tend to like longer and perhaps more ‘compositional’ electronic music.

But there’s a certain similarity between your music and, say, a lot of the current LA beats stuff in the sense that it’s really grainy and gritty sounding…

I never really consciously seek to downgrade the quality of a sample. I’m not trying to do really lo-fi stuff. I put it through a lot of effects, but I guess the main device I use is changing the pitch or the speed. That brings out a lot of interesting textures.

There’s a turntable-based musician/sound artist called Philip Jeck who’s talked a lot in interviews about the process of slowing samples down – the fact that when everything’s slowed down you start to hear new things you didn’t even realise were in the original track. On a separate note, it’s quite interesting that you live in Sydney, where it’s a lot brighter and sunnier, but your music’s so much darker.

It is. As I was saying earlier, it’s drawing from totally different places. It’s darker and it’s more reflective of internal things – of me, rather than external influences.

You talked about playing in free-improv and noise groups earlier. Do you find that the process of being expressive when making electronic music different to that process when playing an instrument? Do you feel you have the same capacity for emotional expression when you’re making sequenced electronic music?

I think once you’ve got a foundation going, you’ve got a bit of a beat going, you like it and you start to jig around in your chair, nodding your head, dancing in your seat, you start to experiment on the keyboard playing live over it. That’s what I do – not going in and penciling in all the individual midi sequences, but maybe playing something live and then quantizing it afterwards. I get into a pretty similar zone as when I was playing jazz on piano and clarinet.

Shackleton’s always adamant that he avoids strictly quantizing and using loops, in favour of something that’s more spontaneous. I suppose that’s why his music sounds so human. That, and the fact that melody is so often implicit in his percussion rather than being made explicit through synths.

It reflects that point, that there’s almost a melodic thing going on with percussion that you wouldn’t actually call ‘tuned percussion’ in the technical sense, like a vibraphone. You’re using a kick or a snare, but technology allows you to turn it into tuned percussion.

How did you get involved with Ikonika for the Hum & Buzz release?

She was looking at YouTube actually. Sometimes I do videos for other artists’ tracks if I’m into them, and she was looking up Girl Unit and watched the video I’d made for ‘Shade On’. It was cool that Girl Unit, Jam City, Night Slugs, they welcomed the videos I made, they actually used them to promote the tracks. And then the artists followed me back on Twitter. It’s weird, because I put those up before there was a lot of buzz about that label – that’s from Girl Unit’s first EP. I really love that EP, ‘Wut’ is anthemic, but it’s not as interesting to me as that first EP.

But yeah, she saw that video on my channel, saw some of my tracks on there – tracks like ‘Venus Knock’, the synths on that one appealed to her. It’s interesting; I don’t think I would do anything as repetitive as that again, it’s a bit hypnotic. She started following me on Twitter, and then she asked if I could send any tracks I’d been working on, so I sent a zip file. She said she wanted to put out two of them, ‘Candy Red’ and ‘Hungry Horse’, on the third 12” from her new label Hum & Buzz. She’s been great. I’m also working on an album for them as well. She’s pretty harsh about it, she’s pretty much going to curate it! I had a bit of a session a few days ago where I did a load of tracks, which I thought could probably be the album, and I sent them through and she only wanted one [laughs]. I really appreciate that in the end though, because we’re in no rush and she’s trying to get the best possible music out of me. It’s great because I’m always doing tracks and I probably would have wanted to change them anyway!



And you’ve got more music coming out on Trilogy Tapes in the near future, right?

We’ve got about four more different records in the works. What basically happens is that I put something online and Will [Bankhead, Trilogy Tapes boss] gets in contact and says ‘this should be on the record.’ And I’ll possibly be doing a limited white label of R’n’B remixes as well, but I haven’t done one for a while. They’re the only things I’ve had negative feedback for. But I think even guys like Deadboy cop criticism for their remixes. I guess people out there hold the originals quite close to their heart, and they may not particularly understand what we’re doing to them.

There’s been a real fad for R’n’B refixes recently…

There’s this weird fascination with Cassy in particular. The Local Action record is good, I liked it, but I got this sense that there was a bit of a glut of R’n’B remixes so I stopped doing them for the moment. I’m working on remixing Diddy’s ‘Dirty Money’ - this is something I guarantee no-one thinks is cool! But it’s actually a really good album. The production on it’s incredible, though the rapping isn’t very good. I’m into the whole package of those tracks really. I’ve listened to The Dream’s albums a hell of a lot, I’m into the saccharine, sugary melodies, I like those as much as whatever interesting synths I might hear. I like to think I appreciate it as a genre, rather than some sort of cultural platter to pick from.

What are your plans for the future, beyond the album with Hum & Buzz? Do you have any plans for live shows?

Yeah, I definitely want to do more live shows. I want to do two kinds, one where I’m constructing tracks live, and also DJ sets. As I mentioned, I’m doing more limited vinyl runs for Trilogy Tapes, and I’ve also got one coming out on Ramp. It’s quite different, it’s probably a bit more polished sounding than the Venus Knock stuff, and I guess it’s more paying tribute to classic house and techno. I’ve also got a release coming out on a Sydney-based label called Templar. I start a lot of projects, and what tends to happen is that they get interrupted by people who want to release my tracks from those projects. I’m working on a remix album of Australian experimental artists, with material going back to the eighties and early nineties. I get a lot of ideas like that, do one or two tracks, then come back later at some point.

It’s weird, I’ve never done any promotion of any of this stuff myself. It’s always just been people coming to me. I never cease to be surprised.

::

DOWNLOAD: Dro Carey – Sonic Router Mix #72



Tracklist:

Missy Elliott – Ching-a-Ling
The Notorious B.I.G. – Nasty Girl feat. Diddy, Nelly, Jagged Edge and Avery Storm (Instrumental) [Prod. Jazze Pha]
Jozif – Jus You
Moodymann – Runaway
Blackstreet – Deep
Busy Signal – Jafrican Ting
Levon Vincent – Six Figures
Optimum – Light Year
X-103 – The Gardens
Urban Tribe – Program 1
Portable – Find Me
Max B – Techno Shit feat. French Montana
Bok Bok – Ripe Banana
Steel – Shake That
DJ Clap Pina – Bass GuaraChazz
Dro Carey – All Behind Wingless
Low Deep – Down Like That (Instrumental)
Missy Elliott – Hot Boyz Remix Acapella
Lloyd Banks – Fly Like The Wind Feat. Jim Jones (Instrumental) [Prod. Germ]
Abner Malaty – Spirals The Seer of Sound
Drake – Unforgettable Feat. Young Jeezy

Words: Rory Gibb

RECOMMENDED: Egyptrixx – Bible Eyes [Night Slugs]

Going a long way to justify the hype, Night Slugs had dancefloor anthems coming out of their ears last year. From an outsider’s perspective it was more than pretty impressive to consider that all these tunes - Girl Unit’s ‘IRL’ and ‘Whut,’ Mosca’s sprawling epic ‘Nike’ and ‘Square One,’ Jam City’s ‘Ecstacy Refix’ and Velour’s ‘Booty Slammer’ – stemmed from the same label. Refining that output they’re kicking off a new year with their first artist album - which follows fresh in the wake of their endlessly impressive Allstars Volume 1 compilation released late last year – produced by the most stylistically consistent artist to grace the label to date, Egyptrixx.

The Toronto native picks up where his The Only Way Up EP left off; his sound spreading itself thicker across the full length sized canvas. Having dabbled a lot with noise in various forms - playing in bands as well as being a classically trained pianist – all his experience seems to feed into his current manoeuvres within dance music. You can hear that noisy dissonance in the oozing syths but it’s paired with bright, slow burning melodies and it all manages to come together into one flowing cohesive structure. It’s a subtle, more melancholy vision that he presents across this album, opting for his own manner of depth rather than the outbursts of joy personified by other, more anthemic Night Slugs releases.

Finding a sonic cousin in Ikonika’s debut album, Contact Want Love Have, released on Hyperdub last year – they both share a hyper colour sense of fun and melody - Bible Eyes is a woozy exploration of sound. There are plenty of highlights: ‘Start From The Begining’, ‘Liberation Front’ and ‘Fuji Club’ all show off different facets of Egyptrixx’s sound; the opener is all seasick piano and spaced out percussion and brooding synth-scapes that wouldn’t feel to out of place alongside Oneohtrix Point Never or Knox-Om-Pax. One of the more dance floor leaning tracks ‘Liberation Front’ twists itself into more extreme shapes, while ‘Club Fuji’ is a hard hitting, sub-loaded but spaced out grime-like effort.

There’s a big lean toward the bastardized house direction on this album; the listener is often fed relentless 4x4 kicks broken up with rhythmic ticks and spaced out excursions into slow-mo colourful dubstep. And for the most part Bible Eyes gives off the air of a house album, or a more twisted take on one at least, but at times there’s almost a trance-like quality at work here too, like he decided to chop and screw stadium filling synths from Tiesto, transplanting them into underground 2011.

Competently displaying that both Night Slugs and Egyptrixx can step into the album format with ease – something that I wasn’t sure would be such a smooth transition – Bible Eyes is a fine album that wont bang you over the head with wall to wall bangers. It’ll ease you into a heat wave soaked colourful dimension that’s surprisingly comfortable. Deep and hypnotic without ever retreating up its own bass funnel, there’s still plenty of Night Slug’s trademark bite, it’s just presented across a very stringent sound palette by one of their most talented artists.

Words: James Balf
Out: Now

Links:
www.myspace.com/africaforyou
http://nightslugs.net

INTERVIEW: The Phantom [Senseless/Top Billin]

Another producer in the Polish contigent - whose hardcore, dancefloor aimed productions have breathed a little unexpected life into our ears on many occasions over the last few months - The Phantom, and his tunes have been rollocking around the globe in the record boxes of some of the most influential, tastemakers around. Sharing an affinity to the perplexingly infectious synthesized grooves of labels like Night Slugs and Hum + Buzz, The Phantom’s own rhythms centre around the 4x4 pulse, but come unique with a highly melodic slant.

Equipped with the rhythm and drive those shuffling, incessant snares provide his music hits heavy, but it’s the uplifting lean of his lead lines on tracks like ‘Girl’ and ‘Night Game’ that really stand out. With tracks and remixes for people like Jack Dixon and Supra1, popping up with ferocity and a debut EP for the Senseless imprint - out earlier this wee - we caught up with the producer to talk our way into grabbing the 63rd Sonic Router Mix…

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

The Phantom: Hi, Bartosz Kruczynski here. I'm a currently Warsaw, Poland based producer/DJ.

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

Studying the culture of early modern England! I'm writing my master's degree thesis on ritualistic laughter. Apart from that - sleeping a lot, watching obscure films, listening to weird experimental records.

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

I started putting together some ideas at the age of 15. All the tunes back then (made with a friend of mine) were sample-based, sort of early Coldcut or Big Apple Productions, despite being a fan of early XL Recordings rave records. At that time, I became influenced by the bootleg scene as well - Richard X/Girls On Top, Soulwax, Mark Vidler, Soundhog. All the early pioneers. Been making bootlegs for a couple of years now (I still produce them occasionally). Got back to writing my own music like a year ago.

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

Just a laptop and a pair of ears really...

How would you describe your music? I mean it shares a kinship with UK stables like Night Slugs and Hum & Buzz... Are those guys an influence for you?

Yes, they definitely are! I mean, thanks to Supra1, I was lucky enough to DJ alongside Bok Bok in Cracow, Poland like two years ago! And I was already a Faggatronix fan back then, as well as a a regular reader of Lower End Spasm (RIP). Club experiences are definitely a very important influence to me. The same with Ikonika playing at Unsound last year or, let's say, seeing Dam-Funk live. As for my music. I'm trying to keep it very raw and simple sounding, almost dated. It's also about the melodies, or particular chords rather than beats.



Where do you take inspiration from when making music? I mean it’s easy to hear the influence of more tribal drum patterns but outside of that...

If I had to choose any particular tracks sharing a similar sound these would be perhaps 'Desire' by Robert Hood or 'Strings' by Da Posse or some South African house music. Pop esthetics are important as well - I'd name Madonna's 'The Look Of Love' as an influence behind my own track - 'Night Game'. Apart from that - I'm using quite a lot of jazz chords.

You’ve turned ears with your remixes of people like Supra1 and Jack Dixon. Do you approach remixes differently to your original productions?

Yeah, to some extent. It is rather unconscious, but I always try to experiment a bit more when remixing, later incorporating the ideas (like new presets) into the original tracks.

What’s the scene like in your native Poland? There seems to be some really good producers putting out records at the moment... I mean we asked Sentel the same thing, but is the club side of it blossoming and is that affecting your profile do you think?

The scene is definitely growing strong here. Apart from Supra1, Zeppy Zep, Sentel, Sekta (releasing a new EP on Shifting Peaks soon) there are a couple of yet to be discovered producers like Rhythm Baboon, Venice Calypso or MCQ and Vanatoski. There's obviously also the tech-side - Catz N Dogz or Czubala. Lots of events here as well - almost everyone from the scene played in Poland - NB Funky, HH Banton, Crazy Cousinz, Untold, Kode9, Ikonika, Jackmaster, Bok Bok & Lvis, Girl Unit, Guido etc. All thanks to promoters like Unsound, Supra1, Sorry Ghettoblaster, BBQ or Gangsteppaz. As I said earlier - all the gigs definitely influence my music.

Are there any producers you rate the world should know about? I'm really into what Glamfranklin is doing,

I think signed to Hum & Buzz actually! Also the likes of Salva, Tri-Funk, Akhluts. I'm a big fan of Jam City as well.

How did you link with Senseless for you forthcoming EP? Did you choose the remixers yourself?

Senseless approached me over a year ago proposing the EP, despite me being completely unknown at that time. At first two completely other tunes were meant to be released. Decided to scrap them eventually tho. The remixers were chosen deliberately - already had quite a good contact with both Brenmar and Hackman (and Zeppy Zep obviously), loved their work so we offered them remixes.


The Phantom – The Phantom EP [Senseless Records]

What other projects have you got in the pipeline?

Working on a couple of remixes now, including Voltron (Discobelle Records) and French Fries (together with Zeppy Zep). Releasing an EP on Pets Recordings (Catz N Dogz label) and a single track on a Top Billin compilation. All early next year.

Tell us a little bit about the mix you’ve put together for us…

The mix includes a couple of new releases I'm really enjoying - 'The Alps' or the Brenmar remix (I think they are out already at this point), a demo by JTRP (Deep Teknologi Records), an African house anthem by DJ Bongz and 'Shivers' by Skalpel off their second LP.

Any words of wisdom, for our readers?

Don't eat the yellow snow.

::

DOWNLOAD: The Phantom – Sonic Router Mix #63



Tracklist:

Robert Hood – Clash – M Plant
Bateman – Tephra Riddim (Grevious Angel Remix) – Unreleased
Brenmar – You Make Me Say (Ikonika + Optimum Remix) – Forthcoming Discobelle Records
Braiden – The Alps – Doldrums
DJ Bongz – Underground Ft. Kgomotso – Huge Entertainment
JTRP – Shady – Unreleased
The Phantom – Night Game (Hackman Remix) – Forthcoming Senseless
Storm Queen – Look Right Through (Dub) – Environ
Untold – Come Follow Me – Soul Jazz
DJ Orgasmic – How Clap Low Trap (Joe x Ludacris) – Unreleased
Girl Unit – IRL (Bok Bok Remix) – Night Slugs
Jack Dixon – I Let You (The Phantom Remix) – Silverback
Ikonika – Simulacrum – Hyperdub
Skalpel – Shivers – Ninja Tune

The Phantom EP is out now on Senseless Records.

Link:
www.myspace.com/phantomghostwhowalks

INTERVIEW: Sentel [Concrete Cut]

Casting our ears back to the first dalliances with Polish outfits like BBQ (their blog, parties, promo mixes and giveaways) and labels like Concrete Cut we're completely in agreement with the recent XLR8R penned notion that, Poland is on fire in terms of fresh and interesting bass music of late. With artists like Zeppy Zep, The Phantom and now Sentel littering our inbox, conversations and radio show tracklists we're totally assured that Poland is doing it about now.

The duo of Sentel, aka Sylwia Kopys and Bartek Baran, hail from Krakow - a town you might have heard referenced in a tale of debauchery or a last ditch effort to lose a mind before committing to someone in matrimony. Keeping their four four kick drums prominent, together they make music that sits as easily between the flummoxing styles of producers like Brackles, Untold and the extended Night Slugs family. Enriched by the erratic, almost scattergun synth lines that incline up into themselves on 'Chapel 20' their style is encapsulated beautifully on their debut release, 'Chapel 20' b/w 'Widow' on the Concrete Cut imprint. Their sound is thick, almost toxic in its luminesence, with the stabbing leads pulling and nagging at your ear drums. In a similar way to the recent work of Egyptrixx: if a producer like Ikonika's world is plagued by hyperbolic shades of neon, Sentel's is swamped by woozy, pixel patterned shades; colliding in flashes.

Grabbing our 56th Sonic Router mix as we did it, we caught up with the duo, asking them to learn us a few things we could tell the wider world in return...

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


Sentel: We are Sylvia and Bart. We live in Krakow where we try to get by making beats, playing out, and spending too much time in clubs.

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


Bartek is attempting to figure out his life after an unsuccessful stint at uni, and Sylvia has just started hers at an old, respected university. In his free time Bartek works in computer graphics and Sylvia spins disco every night in a Ukrainian club.

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

From the beginning, when we first started playing house parties in our hometown (Kielce) we were sure that we wanted to, at some point, start making our own music. At the time we didn't really have any idea of how it would turn out in terms of style.

Bartek: I remember the first tune I finished. It was in 2008 and it was a remix of Blur's 'Boys & Girls'. It was so bad it was barely listenable...

How does the partnership work between you when making tunes?


Everything happens fairly naturally. One of us starts a project and then we work together with each others' ideas. Sometimes one of us stays up later at night and when we wake up the next day we work on the project together. You could say that we split the work 50/50 (Bart makes the beats, Sylvia buys the beer).

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


To be honest we only use a laptop with Ableton live. We do have a Akai mpk49 midi keyboard and an apc40 controller, but we use those pretty rarely. Until now we haven't even been able to get a hold of studio monitors or even a single fully functional pair of headphones. That might be partially responsible for the sound on our debut... haha.

Where do you take inspiration from when making music? I mean it’s easy to hear the influence of people like Scratcha DVA and Ikonika in your tunes but what do you think influences the music you make? I mean your myspace quotes black metal as an influence...


Of course you can't directly hear the influence of black metal in our music but I think that there is a certain aura and a kind of straightforwardness to our melodies that we can attribute to the sounds of Burzum, Xasthur or Bathory. You certainly shouldn't take that too seriously. In the same way we could say that the board game Magia i Miecz (Talisman in English) from our childhood is an inspiration, or the kids cartoon He-man.

What is truly inspirational for us is stuff from Werk Discs, Night Slugs, old deep house, acid house, Detroit techno, and rave tracks that you can find all over the internet.




Sentel – Chapel 20 [Concrete Cut]

What’s the scene like in your native Poland? There seems to be some really good producers putting out records at the moment... is the club side of it blossoming?

The scene isn't particularly big, but there are a few really great producers in it. We have to mention Zeppy Zep and The Phantom (check out the last track in our mix), Tomek Urbanowicz from Supra1, Vanatoski from Gangsteppaz, Tom Encore, Liquid Molly, the Concrete Cut crew, Sekta, DJ Spox, and the whole PL Funky crew. The scene is quite good now and we have a feeling that more and more good new producers appear in time. Keep your eyes on Poland, it might surprise you yet.

How did you link with the Concrete Cut crew for you first 12”? What can people expect from it if they’ve heard it? I mean RA commented on the frenetic energy of the thing... do you feel that’s a good description?


We had a few tracks up on the internet that Concrete Cut liked and they asked us if we'd like release something on their label. Simple story really. As for the single, we wanted it to be weird and aggressive, and totally different from the standard approach to UK funky. I think we achieved our goal.

The artwork for it is incredibly strong, kind of bleak but a throwback to the primitive platform games of the past... was that a conscious thing for you? To give it such an arcade feel...


Of course, it was intentional. Bartek was the proud owner of a Commodore 64, and he also played NES. Games like Contra, ShadowGate, Last Ninja left their mark in their own way and Bartek used that as a guide when he designed the artwork. Apparently you can hear the echoes of this kind of visual style in our music. Maybe it's a little cheesy, but it's certainly sincere.

What other projects have you got in the pipeline?

We plan to release our first vinyl this year, with Concrete Cut of course. We haven't DJed a lot recently and we'd like to change that. We're open for bookings! haha

Tell us a little bit about the mix you’ve put together for us…

We wanted the mix to be a little different. We didn't keep a steady tempo and the energy is spread out in an usual way. We wanted to tell some sort of story rather than it just being a standard selection of tunes. That's why we used a song from an old Polish children's film, Akademia Pana Kleska (Mr. Kleks' Academy), after some serious modifications of course. In general the majority of the tracks we used we edited in some way specifically for the mix. There's also a new track of ours there with a working title of 'Bones' and a second untitled track which will likely never be released, but we decided to use it here as a sort of exclusive.

Any words of wisdom, for our readers?



We're the last people who should be giving out any sort of wisdom. Hahaha

::

DOWNLOAD: Sentel – Sonic Router Mix #56



Tracklist:

01. Velour - Booty Slammer
02. Mele - Bombay
03. Marcus Price & Carli - Var E Näääken (Girl UNIT Remix)
04. Claude VonStroke - Who's Afraid of Detroit (Edited by Sentel)
05. Revenge of Philip Golarz - Theme From Ms.Kleks Academy (Edited by Sentel)
06. Aiku - Just Can't Sleep (Egyptrixx Remix)
07. Sentel - Untitled
08. Hanuman Feat Kanji Kinetic - Bola (Kanji Kinetic Remix)
09. Kanji Kinetic - Thrill Seeka (Kingdom Remix)
10. Sentel - Bones
11. Pirate Soundsystem - Dub N U (Bare Noize Remix)
12. Nightmare Feat Skepta & Lil Nasty - Badness (Edited By Sentel)
13. DVA - New World Order
14. Redinho - Boy Racer
15. Modeselektor - Art and Cash (Phono Remix)
16. Zinc - Nexx
17. Jam City - Let Me Bang Refix (Edited by Sentel)
18. Makongo - Angolan Kung Fu (Double Dutch Remix)
19. Zander Hardy - Signalling
20. Sentel - Widow
21. Style Of Eye & Slagsmålsklubben - Homeless (Canblaster Remix) (Edited By Sentel)
22. Micky Slim & Nom De Strip - Do It (Original Mix)
23. Bobmo - Bring It (Hot City Remix) (Edited by Sentel)
24. The Phantom - Nightgame (Zeppy Zep Remix)

Link:
www.myspace.com/itssentel
www.myspace.com/concretecut

Photo: http://trouble-lighting.blogspot.com

PRE-ORDER: Ikonika – DCKHDBTCH [Planet Mu]

Over the last couple of years, since the dazzling blast of Ikonika’s ‘Please’ first electrified listeners, the impact of the sort of hyperchromatic fare she’s renowned for putting together has dulled slightly. Its less due to any failings on her part – or on the part of many producers writing tracks within similar regions – than a sense of over familiarity, the deliciously new and alien feel of those early tracks gradually settling down to something approaching a formula. Having said that, out of the many synth driven mutations currently bursting out of dubstep’s cracked exoskeleton Ikonika’s sound retains an intangible brilliance that’s tough to isolate in many of her contemporaries. The muggy, lo-fi feel of her excellent Contact Love Want Have album was a welcome shot of gritty adrenaline, and this follow-up EP on Planet Mu retains many of its traits to much the same effect.

The DCKHDBTCH EP, then, is Ikonika doing what Ikonika does best. Hardly a complaint when what she does is so compulsive, though the tunes here largely fit with the languid flow of the first half of her album than the jet-propelled pace of the final few tracks. The title track will be instantly recognisable to anyone who’s been to see her play in the last year or so, though taken apart from the sheer pace and frenetic energy of her DJ sets it’s a considered move though purple-tinted territory. ‘Ingredients’ is cut from the same cloth, riding off a peculiar broken beat that never really goes anywhere, instead choosing to hang somewhere in space between head and floor. That’s perhaps the one criticism it’s possible to level at the EP – it’s a little tough to figure out where it’s supposed to take you – though as usual her ability to infuse even the most wispy tracks with a real sense of melancholy remains fully intact. Final track ‘Shouldn’t Be Here’ is its real gem then, all muted synth pads and distant vocals over a slow-mo house pulse. It points in an entirely new direction for her music, as it drifts into view and remains for what feels like an all too brief moment before disappearing again.

Words: Rory Gibb
Out: Today

Links:
www.myspace.com/ikonika

STREAM: Sonic Router x Hivemind.fm 08.08.2010

Sonic Router on Hivemind.fm
Hosted by Oli Marlow.
Bi-weekly/every 2nd & 4th Sunday of the month // 10pm -12am

STREAM: Sonic Router x Hivemind.fm 08.08.2010



Direct Download (Right Click/Save As) [Waiting on archive]

Tracklist:

1. Kontext - Sattva [forthcoming Immerse]
2. Simon/off - You Win You Loose [unreleased]
3. Julio Bashmore - Around [forthcoming Soul Motive]
4. Gold Panda - Back Home [Various Production]
5. Appleblim & Al Tourettes - Mr Swishy [forthcoming Aus Music]
6. Breach - Fatherless [Ramp Recordings]
7. Ikonika - Dckhdbtch [forthcoming Planet Mu]
8. Gella - Twinkle ft. Spyda (Baobinga & ID Remix) [Bass=Win]
9. Ill Blu - Bellion [Hyperdub]
10. Optimum - Max Power [forthcoming Planet Mu]
11. Helixir - Quiet Storm [forthcoming 7even]
12. The Hundred In The Hands - Pigeons (Blawan Remix) [Warp]
13. C.R.S.T. - Walking Tall (Roof Light 10 Mile Remix) [Car Crash Set]
14. Cloak & Dagger - Enso [unreleased]
15. Kidkut & Arkist - Vanilla Intimate [unreleased]
16. Jace Syntax - Jackin Around (WNCL Remix) [unreleased]
17. Optimum - Crash Riddim [forthcoming Planet Mu]
18. Shortstuff - Galaxy [forthcoming Ramp Recordings]
19. C.R.S.T. - The Bells (Distal Remix) [Car Crash Set]
20. Joe - Level Crossing [Hessle Audio]
21. Cloak & Dagger - Users Of Magic [unreleased]
22. Think - Mixed Signals ft. Hope [forthcoming Concrete Cut]
23. Synkro - Just Say [forthcoming Box Clever]
24. Pinch - The Boxer [forthcoming Tectonic]
25. Helixir - Space Travelling [forthcoming 7even]
26. Monky - Badman Nigirl [forthcoming Robox Neotech]
27. Mosca - Tilt Shift [forthcoming Fat City]

:: Demokracy - Sonic Router Mix::

Demokracy - Double Star/Intro
Slugabed – It’s When The Future Falls Plop On Your Head (forthcoming Ramp)
Zet. - Capsule Corporation (Dub)
Doshy ft. Raspel - Crtz [Robot Koch Remix] (Robox Neotech)
Dingy Disu - Poltergeist (Dub)
Demokracy - Shapeshifter (Dub)
Lakritze - Killswitch (forthcoming Robox Neotech)
Jammer - Better Than [Lorn Remix] (Big Dada)
Powell - Smack My Glitch Hop [Demokracy Remix] (forthcoming Robox Neotech)
Tobacco - Truck Sweat (Anticon)
Demokracy - Deadhead (forthcoming Robox Neotech)
Daedelus - Thanatopsis ft. Hrishikesh Hirway (Ninja Tune)
Emika - Drop The Other (Ninja Tune)
Dza - Eskimo [Demokracy Remix] (Dub)
Burial - Fostercare (Hyperdub)
Eleven Tigers - Memory Palace ft. Alice-Marie Archer (Dub)
Deadboy - Way That I Luv U (Well Rounded)
Bleubird - Hell Country (Endemik Music)
Demokracy - Zeroth Law (forthcoming Robox Neotech)
Roll Deep - When I’m ‘ere (Relentless)
Monky - Drunkerdz (forthcoming Robox Neotech)
Doshy - Sunset (CDR) + Lonely Ppl Outro.

Link:
http://hivemind.fm

PRE-ORDER: Egyptrixx - The Only Way Up EP [Night Slugs]

It seems pretty hard to deny that 2010 is looking set to be the year of the Night Slug. On top of Mosca’s stunning Square One EP and a pair of dancefloor-heavy white labels on their own label, Bok Bok & Bubbz’s mighty ‘Citizens Dub’ has made a recent appearance on Blunted Robots and since has become something of a crossover anthem. Such an unstoppable run of releases has ensured that Bok Bok and L-Vis 1990 have made a swift shift from largely unknown to figureheads for a new group of bassheads. Once again, it’s largely been down to the power of the internet, and the fact that the sort of tracks both produce are appealing to DJs far beyond the confines of London.

There certainly seems to be a wider movement towards funky-inspired soca beats across the board, at times even tacked onto the kind of buzzsaw elastic noize that made the whole fidget house thing so exhausting. The second track on Night Slugs’ second ‘proper’ release, The Only Way Up EP from Toronto’s Egyptrixx, is a frustrating example. Entitled ‘Everybody’s Bleeding’, it shifts gear from a carefully restrained opening segment to an entirely unsubtle, heavily filtered drop, and in doing so moves the label’s goalposts further than ever before from simple UK-centric sounds. It’s a shame that in this case the track feels as though it strips away the careful nuances of the best funky in favour of cheap thrills.

The rest of the EP fares far better. Kingdom’s remix of ‘Everybody’s Bleeding’ reintroduces the feminine pressure the original sorely lacks, imagining it as a militaristic sub-led stomp akin to some of Cooly G’s recent Dub Organizer music. The title track is a deliciously downbeat space-synth epic, and Ikonika’s remix keeps its melodic core entirely intact but rebuilds it as a slowly unfurling post-garage shuffle. Most interesting of all is Cubic Zirconia’s remix. Instead of merely rehashing ‘The Only Way Up’ into yet another dancefloor shape, the Brooklyn band use it as the foundation for an entirely different vocal-led song, Tiombe going all ‘Kool Thing’-era Kim Gordon over a tightly-wound punk-funk backdrop. There’s a palpable feeling that this branching out will prove to be merely the tip of the Night Slugs iceberg – even if the results aren’t always fantastic, it seems unlikely they’ll be any less than intriguing.

Words: Rory Gibb
Out: Now

Link:
www.myspace.com/africaforyou

PRE-ORDER: Ikonika - Idiot/Altered Natives Remix [Hyperdub]

Ikonika’s 'Contact, Love, Want, Have' album is a strikingly impressive vindication of the keen melodic sense displayed on her earlier releases. Even so, what’s so impressive about the album’s first single, 'Idiot,' is how seamlessly it reconciles the more lopsided aspects of a track like ‘Please’ with the kind of razor-sharp dancefloor material her DJ sets have brimmed with in the last year or so. Riding off an instantly recognisable and insanely catchy (seriously, I’ve spent the last two weeks wondering around shrieking it at people) bleep melody, it manages to pitch itself somewhere in the strange bass hinterlands where the most stripped-back and grimey London house meets the Megadrive-funk of Joker and Gemmy.

But even to reduce it to such a simplistic ‘Artist X meets Artist Y in the badly-lit back room of a dodgy basement club’ definition feels tantamount to sterilisation. Despite the ease at which it fits into its surroundings ‘Idiot’'s core melody is anything but straightforward, displaying a raw and distinctly human arrhythmia quite at odds with the delicately sequenced nature of so much dance music. Combined with a real sense of narrative movement – each successive cycle of the track sees a new layer of complementary counter-harmony added, building to a climax of slowly piroutetting bleeps more akin to Reich than Roska – the effect is dizzying and compulsively replayable. Watch the rewinds hit this beast hard.

The Altered Natives mix on the flip seems conscious of what it’s got to live up to, and it’s to his credit that he doesn’t attempt to mess with the original’s precarious chemistry. What we get instead is a precision rewiring of ‘Idiot'’s bottom end, streamlining Ikonika’s swagger-step mechanics for a driving house workout. Staying hypnotically swung throughout, incremental tonal shifts across its length reveal striking depths – it’s pretty strong testament to Altered Natives’ production skills that he’s put together a funky track that really needs to stay in the mix for its entire length to reveal its full power on a dancefloor. Along with Kyle Hall’s effortless fusion of Detroit and London styles on ‘Kaychunk,’ it points towards a bold fusion of styles that Hyperdub, as ever, continues to usher into wider consciousness.

Words: Rory Gibb
Out: 12th April



Link:
www.myspace.com/ikonika

DOWNLOAD: Martin Kemp - Accordant Mix

The younger brother of the Kemp clan, Martin, drops what I think is the third [?] (we were the first, but who's counting/gloating...?) in his line of mixes, ahead of the Accordant show on the 26th March at the Rhythm Factory, London.

The line up is pretty much flames with 4 Rootah favourites vying for your dollar bills... Ikonika, Martin Kemp, Hyetal and Greena (who duppied fabric when he played at the Apple Pips night) are all on the bill alongside ledge Sticky and local support.

DOWNLOAD: Martin Kemp - Accordant/Hyponik Mix

Tracklist:

01. Brackles and Martin Kemp - Untitled,
02. Donga and Blake - small hours (Geiomix)
03. Procedure - Sunshowers
04. Martin Kemp - Terr
05. Rishi Romaro - African Forest
06. Deep Teknologi - Anthem
07. Zinc ft Ms. Dynamite - Wile Out
08. Brackles - I Can’t Wait
09. United Sounds of London - Making Love
10. Martin Kemp - What You Got
11. Bok Bok - Citizens Dub feat. Bubbz



Facebook Event // £5 Tickets

Link:
www.myspace.com/themartinkemp

DOWNLOAD: Bruk - Hessle Audio Promo Mix

The Bruk DJs, Elgato and Bilal, just linked up a mix ahead of their appearance at fabric for the 4th Hessle Audio takeover which features Ikonika, Ramadanman, Pangaea and Ben UFO - names you'll be no doubt familiar with if you've glanced our way over the past year.

Catch Bruk on Sub.fm - they've taken over the old Ruffage slot on Thursdays between 8-10pm.

DOWNLOAD: Bruk - Hessle Audio Promo Mix



Tracklist:

The West District Allstars feat. Natasha Watts - Reach Up (Enzyme Black Stripped Dub)
Kid Majesty - Desfile De Los Santos
Tadow Productions - Rising Sun
Stephanie Mills - Free (Domu Stripped Down Remix)
Sony - Sugar Rush
DVA - Nasty Nasty Nasty (Roska Remix)
Xara - You Got Me
Crazy Cousinz - Sonar
Tonya Renee - About You (Karizma Boucha Remix)
DJ 2face - I Love You
Plastic Cash - Store Card
Ultramarine - Hooter (Carl Craig / Ver. 1.1)
Karizma - Necessary Madness
Argy - The Storm
Thommy Davis - Mars Needs Women

Links:
www.hessleaudio.com
www.fabriclondon.com

READ: Sonic Router on URB.com

This month's Sonic Router: Suburban Sine Wave Surfing URB.com column is now live-o.

Focussing on the forthcoming long players February has brought announcements of, it includes words on works from Ikonika, Vex'd, F, Kontext, Roska, Eleven Tigers and Clubroot.

READ: Sonic Router on URB.com

EVENT: Tactile w/ Ikonika

Tactile is relaunching, after a short hiatus at the end of 2009, at the Horse & Groom, Shoreditch, with Ikonika, Chris Box from Run Sounds and Paddy Freeform.

Friday, 22 January 2010
Time: 9pm - 4am
Venue: The Horse & Groom, 28 Curtain Road, Shoreditch, London, EC2
Cost: Free before 11, £5 thereafter/£4 with flyer/£3 guestlist

Facebook Event

And as if by divine intervention they Tactile residents have summoned a promotional mix:

DOWNLOAD: Tactile - House, Funky and more Fucking House

Tracklist:

Ultra Nate – Love Is the Only Drug
Soul Tourist – Fo Eva (Gruber & Nürnberg rmx) (Drumpoet Commuity)
Rene & Gaston – Pouah! (Ours Savant edit) (ARTLESS)
Scotty D – The Sound (white)
Perempay and Dee – Just Wanna Be Your Girl (white)
Aaron Carl – Oasis (Nick Holder vocal dub)
Chez Damier – Untitled B1 (KMS 049)
Delano Smith – The Explanation (Third Ear)
dOP – Blanche Neige (Circus Company)

Link:
www.myspace.com/tactilelondon

STREAM: Ikonika - Fenchurch Mix

Ahead of her full length album on Hyperdub and the slew of forthcoming remixes she's got listed on her myspace page, including mixes of Egyptrixx, DJ Madd and Illum Sphere, Ikonika has put together a mix for the clothing label Fenchurch.

STREAM: Ikonika - Fenchurch Mix

Tracklist available after the ^^^ jump.

Link:
www.myspace.com/ikonika
www.fenchurch.com

EVENT: See You Next Tuesday

The fundrasier for V Day, a global movement against violence toward women, featuring an all star cast of female bass music performers - Hyperdub's first ladies Ikonika and Cooly G alongside Fatima, Goldielocks and the veritable Diesel U Music lynchpin Lucy Pink - is tomorrow night at Cargo in London.

It's a FUNdraiser. NO excuses.

Facebook Event

Link:
http://www.vday.org/home

EVENT: Hyperdub Showcase @ Corsica Studios

LDN really is spoilt for choice with quality events in the next couple of weeks.

I vote Wigflex at The Southbank then this next Saturday.

Link:
www.myspace.com/hyperdub

PRE-ORDER: Ikonika - Smuck/We Could Be Ikons [Planet Mu]

Both the furious release schedule and gradual sonic re-shuffling of Planet Mu continues with Ikonika - one of the seemingly never ending list of artists dubbed as 'rising stars' - being coaxed away from Kode9's Hyperdub camp to deliver her latest 12".

'Smuck' essentially picks up where the brace of Hyperdub releases left off: Ikonika's somewhat melancholy sweeping synths are overlaiden by bleepy smatterings and then coupled with big beefy marching band kick drums and off-kilter snares that maintain a the common underlay whilst the foreground does much the opposite; continuously switching between competing synth lines. One can end up feeling a little woozy; as if travel sick from the brace of outer worldy visions and the battle to lock onto the awkward groove, but Ikonika's progression comes across as masterful, even though sometimes the pulsating under synths jar with the minor key riffs; if anything there are almost too many ideas explored here. Consequently the overall feel to 'Smuck' is slightly awkward; it often sounds out of key, yet it manages to snatch those momentary pulses of inspiration, uplifting the listen and sounding positively intergalactic.

If 'Smuck' was the journey through space, Ikonika's remix of Eero Johannes' beautifully named'We Could Be Skweeeroes' is the planetary landing and initial greeting of a bouncing, quirky intergalactic race (with a penchant for aquatic wind instruments and an overly enthusiatic variation of the morris dance). What it has over the A side is that retention of a main theme as she builds upon the riffs gradually and subtly, squeezing more squeak out the melody, over the taught steppy drums. 'We Could Be Ikons' somehow retains a unique, borderline cutesy property that makes the track feel like a Joker penned soundtrack to an 8 bit, roll play romp through bubblegum fields and pixelated lands.

Words: Murray Gray
Out: 26th October

Link:
www.myspace.com/ikonika

INTERVIEW: DJ Madd [Boka]

After first hearing a DJ Madd production on Rob Booth’s Electronic Explorations show an air of expectance ensued around his following releases, and for me his merger of talk box vocals, rolling hi hats and piano melodies on ‘Reasonz’ (released earlier this year on Boka Records) perfectly fused his stuttering drum patterns with pure ‘air moving’ bass weight and 8 bit medodics; his simplistic drum patterns all the while sharing a kinship with the current Bristol fraternity.

Hailing from Budapest Madd, is sitting on a stack of forthcoming releases so, being the knowledge hungry suckers we are, we figured it was about time the Madd shared some of them with you, the Sonic Router faithful.

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

DJ Madd: My name is Peter, I’ve been writing tunes as DJ Madd for a few years now. I was born and raised in Budapest, Hungary and have lived there all my life. I recently moved to England to be a bit closer to all the happenings and to have a bit of change in my lifestyle.

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

Music is pretty much all I do. I am far from making a living out of it but in my free time I usually work on some tuness, sounds or just sampling stuff. In the last 6-7 months I was working for an IT company to save up cash for the big move. Apart from that I really like old videogames. I have an old xbox at home which I bought just to setup all emulators I could find and fill it with old classic games. At one point I want to start buying older computers but that project is on the hold for now.

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

I was always interested in making music so it was natural for me to get into production. I started making tunes in tracker programs such as Digi Tracker and Fast Tracker and then tried a couple of software programs and ended up with the ones I am happy with. For the first few years I didn’t even use EQs just focused on the arrangement, the final mix down just started to get important in the last 2-3 years.

What’s your production set up like?

I am using Cubase with Kontakt and a couple of basic plugins and software synths. I don’t have any hardware unfortunately, just a midi keyboard and Behringer Truth monitors. This setup works for me so I doubt I will change it any time soon. Knowing your gear can make things so much easier.

Where do you take inspiration from while making music? How did you get into dubstep?

I was always a drum & bass head so that has to be one of the main inspirations. The Valve and the Full Cycle camp had a lot of impact on me and I still listen to those artists almost every week. I keep exploring dub/reggae as well and always find something that blows me away.



Where did the name DJ Madd come from?

When I went through my graffiti phase I needed a catchy name. We had a lot of graffiti groups with 3 letter names, so I didn’t want to use ‘mad’ and went for ‘madd’ instead. After that it kinda stuck and I used it for playing games, production and everything that needed a nickname. I wish it would have a more fun story behind it... haha..

Yeah I was hoping you were borderline mental... Tell us a little bit about Hungary and Budapest, what’s the dubstep scene like out there?

It’s small but the people are very into it. There is group of people who would go to every single dubstep happening and that’s what we need really. Unfortunately you still get the standard “too slow” comments but I can’t blame them because the sound systems are not always up for the job. At the moment we have 2 nights running: Dub Phase which is the only monthly gig and Test which is not regular and not strictly dubstep. Though in the last few months you can really see how it’s begun to grow rapidly, so I am hoping for the best!

I hear that you’re moving to Bristol soon, which we all know is a hub for dubstep talent… Who do you hope to run into?

Moving to Bristol was a very, very old dream of mine. In fact my very first DJ set was at a night called ‘Tribute to Bristol’ where the idea was to play music that came from there! I was known to go a bit overboard on the Dopedragon, Full Cycle records... It seems like the Bristol thing stayed with me in dubstep as well. Many people who I rate high live here, such as RSD or Joker just to name the most known ones.

Who else are you feeling musically at the moment?

Too many to list! Apart from the obvious top names my favourite producers at the moment include Von D, Kito, RSD, Zomby, Synkro, Ikonika and the list could really go on.

Tell us a little bit about your mix? What songs just had to go on there/exclusive tracks etc...

The mix is a selection of tunes I been listening to at home with a couple of my own added, so not a "club selection" I guess. It's always a bit difficult to cram in a few different styles but in the end I think It's better than going for one sound over and over.



Which one of your releases means the most to you and why?

At the moment it has to be the ‘Better with You EP’ on Boka. All of those tunes are exactly how I wanted them to turn out and I am especially happy that ‘Flex’d’ got onto vinyl. It had a very good feedback on myspace and I had no idea if it will ever get a release or not. I am also looking forward for ‘Someone’ and the Breakage remix on the flipside!

What else have you got coming up? (releases/dates etc etc)

I learned the best is not to say any exact dates for releases but the following tunes are confirmed for the next couple of months:

Someone/Breakage Rmx (Black Box)
Different Tingz/In You’re Eyes Dub (War)
Babylon (Subway)
Got me dancin' (Subway)
It’s Over/ U with Von D (Boka)
Why/Sound System with Matt-U (Tube 10)
Homeland/Koopa (3.5 Records)
Stranger (Boka)
Flex’d Rmx/Detroit Skank (Boka)
I Know It's You/Better With You Akira Kiteshi Rmx (Boka)

At the moment I am accepting gigs around England, peep my myspace for future gigs!

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

There is good music everywhere at the moment so I can't really pick one thing. Dubstep is on the roll and drum & bass seems to be back on track both on the jungle and the minimal sounds!

Have you got any words of wisdom for us?

Appreciating both Rusko and Martyn at the same time is not a crime.

::

DOWNLOAD: DJ Madd – Sonic Router Mix



Tracklist:

DJ Madd - So Far Away (Unsigned)
DJ Madd - Someone (Breakage remix) (forthcoming Black Box)
Kode 9 - 2 Far Gone (Hyperdub)
Hyetal - Gold or Soul (forthcoming Soul Motive)
Dj Madd - Blue Soul (Unsigned)
Ikonika - Space Ugly (Dub)
Headhunter & Matt U - The Chosen One – (Dub)
Phaeleh - Tachi – (Dub)
Gemmy - Rainbow Rd. (Planet Mu)
Von D - Chacha's Leggings (forthcoming Subbalcious)
Dj Madd - Got Me Dancin' (forthcoming Subway)
Simian Mobile Disco - Cruel Intensions [Joker Remix] (FREE DL via FADER)
Vaccine - Fever (Kito remix) (Dub)
DJ Madd - Better With You (Boka)
Skream – 0800 (Tempa)
Dj Madd - Flex'd [Ikonika remix] (forthcoming Boka)
RSD - Loving It (Dub)
Von D & Dj Madd – U (forthcoming Boka)

Link:
www.myspace.com/djmaddbeats

NEWS: Hyperdub Is 5

The full announcement is done. Rather than rephrase I bring you word seeded from Bleep:

"October will see the release of ‘5 Years of Low End Contagion’, a double CD marking Hyperdub’s five years of life as a record label. Honouring their past, present and future in equal measure, ‘5 Years of Low End Contagion’ is comprised of one disc of prior highlights, and one of freshly composed material contributed by Hyperdub artists and close friends. A series of five 12-inch EPs in special sleeves featuring a selection of the new tunes will be issued, one per week, leading up to the release of ‘5 Years of Low End Contagion’."

Which equals:

Hyperdub 5.1 EP - 12"Vinyl (HDB023) Released: 31/08/09
Kode9 & The Spaceape ft. ChaCha - ‘Time Patrol’
Black Chow – ‘Purple Smoke’
Flying Lotus – ‘Disco Balls’

Hyperdub 5.2 EP - 12"Vinyl (HDB024) Released: 07/09/09
Joker & Ginz – ‘Stash’
Zomby – ‘Tarantula’
Samiyam – ‘Roller Skates’

Hyperdub 5.3 EP - 12"Vinyl (HDB025) Released: 14/09/09
Quarta330 – ‘Bleeps From Outer Space’
LV – ‘Turn Away’

Hyperdub 5.4 EP - 12"Vinyl (HDB026) Released: 21/09/09
Martyn – ‘Mega Drive Generation’
LD – ‘Shake It’

Hyperdub 5.5 EP - 12"Vinyl (HDB027) Released: 28/09/09
Mala – ‘Level Nine’
Cooly G – ‘Weekend Fly’

5 Year Of Low End Contagion - 2x CD Compilation
CD#1 - A CD compilation including all the tracks featured on the 5 EP's. Plus several additional previously unreleased tracks.
CD#2 - A 16 track mix of hyperdub back catalogue, many of which have never been released on cd before.

Er.

Wow.

Audio previews on Bleep here: http://bleep.com/index.php?page=dynamic&module=hyperdub5

Link:
www.myspace.com/hyperdub

EVENT: Focus w/ Ikonika & Geiom

Ikonika and Geiom join Bristol regulars EFA and Pete Forsaken for a jam-a-lam at the Tube on the 26th... Bristol fam stand up.

Look out for EFA's EXCLUSIVE Sonic Router Mix coming shortly.

Link:
www.myspace.com/essentialfattyacid

DOWNLOAD: Ikonika - Vice Mini Mix

Another mix from Vice, another mix from Ikonika.

This one has a bunch of hyper-dub-plates on it, if you see what i did there...?

DOWNLOAD: Ikonika - Vice Mini Mix

Tracklist:

The-Dream feat. Lil Jon – Let Me See the booty (Def Jam)
Kode9 VS LD – Bad (Hyperdub)
Joker – Do It (Kapsize)
Madd – Flex’d (Dubplate)
Ikonika – Loser (Hyperdub dubplate)
El B – Lyrical Tempo (Tempa)
Unknown – Unknown (White)
Darkstar – Aidy’s Girl is a Computer (Hyperdub dubplate)
2000f & JKamata – You Don’t Know What Love Is (Hyperdub)
Ikonika – Millie (Hyperdub)
LD – Traumatic Times (Hyperdub)
Mujava – Township Funk (Ikonika remix) (Warp)
Gravious – Jupiter Jazz (Dubplate)
Computer Jay – Maintain – Ikonika remix (Ramp)
Ikonika – Sahara Michael (Hyperdub dubplate)
Ikonika & Optimum – Space Rock (Dubplate)

Links:
www.myspace.com/ikonika