RECOMMENDED: Becoming Real – Closer/Antarctic City [Cold World Industries]

Toby Ridler’s combination of stark glacial melodic spikes and rolling drum play are indicative of someone who’s embroiled in their own world. Sure, ‘Closer’ – the A side of the first release on his freshly minted Cold World Industries label - shares a sample pack with Addison Groove and Pearson Sound, but is the cerebral swirl sitting behind the relative simplicity of the repetitive lead line that sets him apart from other producers. Like his last release, the Not Even backed Spectre EP, ‘Closer’ is more like grime - playing out like a hypermelodic devil mix that’s been peppered by an over enthusiastic finger drummer – and that rawness displayed is probably the most interesting thing about the Becoming Real project.

You could call it Eski influenced. You could call it juke influenced, but Ridler’s work stands apart - the over-riding elements at play here are the tapestries that the ice cold synthesizers weave in your mind. Like the densely layered work of El-P on Cannibal Ox’s game changing The Cold Vein album, ‘Antarctic City’ is more of a tumble down production, almost regimented by the kick drums and jarring snare drums that sit back from the headroom of the mix just enough to make you really concentrate on them. Its beguiling; almost anti dancefloor but completely pro trance (in terms of the faraway mindstate kind of spiritual trance), smothered in stark layers and snatched vocals, shifting up a gear into something danceable with a proper snare at around the 3 minute mark.

Jam City’s refix of ‘Closer’ re-positions the track for the darkest of dancefloors, with the Night Slug keeping the menace of the original but transporting the focus of it to the bassline whilst he ups the snare quota a million percent. That threat and sense of brooding is perfectly translated into a Jam City-house-tempo-roller. It’s the flag in the summit of Becoming Real’s third EP, a stark and brash marriage that’s tortured itself purely for its own benefit.

Words: Oli Marlow // Out: Now

INTERVIEW: Royal T [Butterz]

Grime has been finding its feet again recently. Whilst the pop charts have been under an onslaught of 4x4 electro house beats with emcees riding the pulse, the underground roughness has always been there, bubbling under the surface and exploding out in peaks. Making some incredibly notable noise right about now a new wave of producers are coming through and taking back the scene; sounding fierce and releasing physical product. It’s all pretty refreshing to see the coverage the resurgence is getting with players like Butterz crew Elijah & Skilliam leading the charge from the regular slots on Rinse FM.

Releasing music on the Butterz imprint is Southampton based producer, Royal T. He caught a lot of people’s attention last year with his beat ‘1UP’ on No Hats No Hoods, a track that samples Nintendo’s pixelated flagbearer Mario, had a top quality vocal by P Money and even got spat on by Dizzee Rascal live on radio. After releasing a couple of other soundsystem heaters like ‘Beat Fighter’ and his ‘Hot Ones Remix’ he’s about to roll out the Orangeade EP on Butterz.

Bringing the rave back to grime T is taking his sound back to the dancefloor rather than the mixtape, putting down his gaming controllers and making some hyped-up-funk-infused grime beats that hit hard. With other remixes floating around for the likes of TRC and Wiley, that have a serious flex to them, building heavily on the garage vibe, he’s proving that he’s no one trick pony, showing he’s adept at tackling different approaches with vigour.

We caught up with Royal T, grabbing the chance to premiere his new ‘Special Stage Mix’ (aka Sonic Router Mix #65) as we did it...

Tell us a little about yourself, where are you from what do you get up to on the daily?

I'm Mark Taylor, also known as Royal-T and I’m a Grime producer from Southampton, England. I can't swim, I’ve never watched a Star Wars or Lord of the rings film in my life, I love my football, my beer and I will kick your arse at FIFA if need be.

What got you into grime in the first place?

This question's always hard for me to answer because I always struggle to think of a definitive moment. I feel like I’ve been listening to grime all my life. My earliest memories of listening to it was from stealing random garage and Sidewinder tape packs from my brother’s bedroom when he was out - also I was one of the first people in my primary school class to have the first So Solid Crew album, I walked into the playground thinking I was some gangster. I took the typical garage into grime journey of listening before really understanding what grime even was. I was always that 'go to guy' for all the grime music at school on our Nokia's sending random tunes through bluetooth.

How did you get into making music, did you jump right into grime beats or have you dabbled elsewhere?

My Uncle gave my brother and me a copy of Fruity Loops 3 when we first got our computer. I've never been musically trained or anything, I didn't take up music for my GCSEs so I've basically orchestrated everything I’ve ever made just from ear. I've been making grime beats ever since I started. There's been times in the past where I might have experimented with tempo or styles but even those tunes had that grime influence.

What’s your production set-up like?

I just make and mix down tunes in my bedroom. The process from bedroom into bedroom/studio started from when I got a part time job. I saved up to buy some big monitor speakers, a MacBook, some decks and everything else and that's all I’ve been doing since. I installed Windows on my MacBook and use that side just for Fruity Loops. My Dad and me constructed some little workspace for myself with everything I need on it. I bought a double bed recently and now I practically have no walking space in my room at all. It's all good though, it's for the music but I no longer have any space for activities (step-brother’s joke).

How do you go about laying a track down?

Most of the time I have an idea or an influence in my head already, so I’ll try to put that into Fruity like putting ideas from pen to paper and then just go from there. It's just like finishing a painting by colouring over a drawing I’ve made. The time it takes for me to finish a track varies but it means I can come back to the project a few days later with completely fresh ideas. On the new Fruity you can see how long you've spent on a project and most my projects average out at about 8 hours when finished now. That does includes all the time for mix downs and for all the time I’m not even making the tune and just browsing the internet or playing Football Manager with Fruity Loops open.

Where are you getting your inspiration from right now?

I'm only really going through old CDs I’ve found in my house at the moment, like loads of old school garage compilations, Oxide and Neutrino's first album and a lot of Mike Skinner's material. My mum even came and sat down with me the other day when I was making a tune, telling me the bits she did and didn't like. She's my greatest critic; she'll tell me if she doesn't like a song I’m making. A good indication of knowing whether she likes a tune or not is that if she ain't dancing to the beat when she comes in the room, hoovering or cleaning, it's probably not that good.



You’re really bringing back that skippy ravey grime vibe with a load of your tracks, there are some garage influences creeping in, some nice 8-bar switch ups and some tough twisted drops. Is it something that you thought was missing when you first started making beats?

Yeah in the last couple of years I felt that there really was a lack of danceable or club standard grime tunes about, it’s just iPod music for teenagers - nothing really musically stood out and everything was about the MC and his mixtape. To breakthrough as a producer it used to be all about how many vocals you could rack up. Due to my location this was nearly impossible for me because I could hardly meet MCs or be introduced to anyone as I literally came in the scene on my ones. The only people who would listen to me and my music were DJs. So I was making music for them to play and I adapted my sound to something no one else really was making at the time. I took a bit of a shortcut but it paid off eventually.

Your new EP, Orangeade, is out right now; tell us a bit about those tracks...

‘Orangeade’ is just me having complete fun with grime without having to parade it as dubstep or ‘trap music’ in disguise. I just made the grime I think we all used to and still do love to hear. I made ‘1UP,’ ‘Hot Ones,’ my ‘Air Bubble Remix’ [original by Terror Danjah] all with the same vibe. It was my sort of statement to the scene about us nearly forgetting our sound. ‘Orangeade’ came about because Teddy mentioned on Twitter that 'the best grime tune around at the moment is Gucci Mane's ‘Lemonade’ instrumental.' I just thought 'eff this' and ‘Orangeade’ was born.

Your remix of TRC’s ‘Oo Aa Ee’ is too much, what made you go for that garage flex? It’s a pretty interesting meeting of minds when a bassline producer makes a grime beat then a grime producer flips it into a garage track...

Thank you. Well, DOK made a really good grime remix so me making another grime remix wasn't really going to achieve anything. At that time I’d been making loads of garage drum patterns, messing around with swing and thin cut drums. Now, going on with what I was saying about the grime sound progression, I notice that people are starting to clock and re use the 2-step formula which I’m completely happy with, but I’m just enjoying doing the complete opposite every time. I like to think people attach music to memories so I want to make tracks that not only make you nod your head, but take you on a little journey at the same time.

You’ve had some bangers with the OGz (P Money, Blacks, Little Dee, etc), ‘Hot Ones’ and ‘1 Up’ where big ones for me. You’ve got some good chemistry together. What’s it like working with them and have you got more in the works with those guys?

I've been in contact with Blacks for a while now. He was the first well known MC to really listen to what I had to offer musically and he stuck by me. My first time having anything played on Logan Sama's show was a Blacks vocal. I had only spoken to P Money once or twice before he vocalled ‘1UP’ and I’m so pleased to see him go further, he deserves it. We both have the same ideas and focus on how we want our songs to sound like. We have tons of tunes on the way. Otherwise there are plenty of sets you can download with him spitting on my tracks.

What other MCs are you feeling right now?

Someone who has stood out for me recently is Merky Ace. I think he's sick. We have a tune together pending release which should be about soon. He should have a huge year I hope, along with Kozzie and the rest of the MCs that have had a buzz in 2010 and I always look forward to hearing any new MIK material too. I always carry his vocals in my DJing playlists.



Talk to us about Butterz, how did you get involved, what tracks got their attention and what’s it like working with those guys? There seems to be a cool community vibe to it all with producers hooking up for collaborations and remixes all the time.

The first time I ever got any sort of radio play with my music was around 2 to 3 years ago on a University Radio Station by two students who go by the names of… you guessed it, Elijah and Skilliam. They played my old ‘World War 4 Remix’ that I made ages ago. Elijah was the first person I sent ‘1UP’ to and he aired it on radio before anyone else did so I actually owe a lot to them both for their support. I think he still has that e-mail somewhere. We've stayed in contact the whole time exchanging ideas and just working really so it was only right somewhere down the line that we were bound to have some sort of project together. The funny thing is even after a nice 2010 we haven't even got started!

You’ve remixed Yasmin’s ‘On My Own’, it’s got to be one of the first commercial grime remixes to appear in god knows how long. How did that come about and what was it like messing with that kind of music compared to what you’re normally used to?

I was really proud to see the reaction it got by the people on twitter, soundcloud and everywhere as there were some cool names on the other remixes but my track achieved more hits in two days than any of the other remixes did in something like a month. It was great to finally work on a track with a female vocalist officially as I’ve always been too lazy to write tracks with vocalists before. The great thing is I didn't have to change my sound to get it heard. I kept it true to my sound and how I would have liked to make it and its bloody great to see it get recognition from other audiences.

There is a sick mix you’ve done of Wiley’s ‘It’s Wiley’ floating about right now that’s sounding large. You’ve got that garage rhythm going on and a load of cheeky bits that flip old Wiley signifiers back into the mix. How did that all come together?

Elijah got into contact with Prodigal, who did the original, about getting a remix sorted by me and I was a lucky git and got the acapella. I actually started the tune on Christmas day too. Unfortunately Father Christmas didn't bring me anything to keep me occupied that day and there's only so much enjoyment I could get out of Shower Gel and Deodorant combos. I really wanted to push the boundaries again and almost make it a tribute to Wiley and the Eski era. I was listening to a lot of old Wiley sets and the famous Wiley ‘Grimetapes’ collection in preparation where he was spitting on a lot of beats you wouldn't normally hear him on, like some nice old school dark garage, 4x4 and early grime stuff and it had been a while since I’d heard him on anything like that so i thought 'why not?'. It's really set the pace for 2011 for me.

What releases have you got on the horizon?

I've got the ‘Orangeade’ vinyls floating about now and the digital version will be due around the end of January. The Yasmin remix will be getting a release with the original single and the Wiley remix will be getting a full vinyl release scheduled for early February hopefully. Then onto the next few months I have some unreleased Butterz material to unleash and I have a couple of tracks with P Money and Blacks on my hard drive begging to be heard. I cannot wait for everyone to hear them.

Any words of wisdom, for our readers?

Stay focused on what you want to achieve and do whatever it takes to get to your goal. If you want to be able to move forward, sometimes, the simplest way to take the first step is by changing your whole outlook. As soon as you're able to accept that you may not always be right, you'll already be on the right track.

Oh and Nando's is overrated, don't believe the hype.

::

DOWNLOAD: Royal T – Sonic Router Mix #65



Tracklist:

0. Sonic 2 - Emerald Hill Zone
1. Royal-T - Chaos Emerald
2. JME - Shut Up And Dance
3. Royal-T - Shut The Funk Up
4. Royal-T - Bounce
5. Spooky - Spartan (DOK Remix)
6. TRC - Oo Aa Ee (Royal-T Remix)
7. S-X - Woooo Riddim (DJ Q Remix)
8. S-X - Woooo Riddim (Royal-T Remix)
9. D Double E - Bad To The Bone
10. Oxide - Nuff Of Dem Watch Me (Instrumental)
11. Wiley - It’s Wiley (Royal-T Remix)
12. Royal-T - Orangeade VIP
13. Swindle - Mood Swings
14. Yasmin - On My Own (Royal-T Remix)
15. Mr Slash - 1999
16. Royal-T - Royal Rumble
17. The Streets - Skills On Toast

Words: James Balf
Photo: Rob Vanderman

Links:
www.myspace.com/royaltbeats
www.twitter.com/royaltmusic

RECOMMENDED: Royal T – Orangeade EP [Butterz]

With a few strong 12”s already under his belt, including the ‘1UP’ 12” on No Hats No Hoods, Royal T seems to be making all the right moves; ‘Beat Fighter’ and his ‘Hot Ones’ remix have barely left the bag since they dropped. His latest offering, ‘Orangeade,’ has dropped on Butterz, an instrumental grime label run by Rinse FM DJs Elijah & Skilliam. They’ve had a hell of a run lately with beats from TRC and DOK, plus the much called for hard body release of the sublime ‘Wooo Riddim’ by SX, so it’s no surprise that the title track is a forthright, rhythmically skippy grime weapon that bangs hard with enough intensity to keep dance floors alight. Atmospheric pads and synth whines shuffle in and out of the bumpy beats and big bass tones to great effect on the title track; it oozes that typically British vein of hyper-funk that people like Terror Danjah excel in.

‘Whistle Song’ sounds reminiscent of Beatie Boys’ ‘Alive,’ it’s melody makes you want to sing “dip dip dive, so-socialise, open up your ears and clean out your eyes” but it’s probably more like what would happen if Daft Punk drank to many pitchers of orangeade and whipped out on talk-box whilst on a three day tour of Bow, E3. Loosely translated that makes it a banger.

The return of the ‘Devil Mix’ concept is a welcome one, especially when it’s done as well as it is on ‘Music Please’. In the hands of the likes of Zomby, Untold and more recently Logos the beat less version, a more restrained and twisted instrumental - pioneered by Wiley - is an inspired creation. Royal T coins it in here, morphing the hyped up synth leads into a pent up hypnotic gem that just keeps on brooding.

Words: James Balf
Out: Now, direct from Butterz


Royal T – Orangeade featuring OGz (P Money, Lil Dee and Blacks)

Links:
www.butterz.co.uk
http://royaltmusic.tumblr.com

STREAM: Sonic Router x Hivemind.fm 14.11.2010

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 14.11.2010

Tracklist:

1. Harmonious Bec - In The Bright Oval [Monotreme]
2. Shobaleader One - Abstract Lover [Warp]
3. The Phantom - Night Game (Zeppy Zep Remix) [forthcoming Senseless)
4. Simon/off - Resistance & Resilience [unreleased]
5. Becoming Real ft. Trim - Like Me [Not Even]
6. Icicle - Anything [Tempa]
7. Mumdance ft. Trim & Jammer - Tarahtid [forthcoming No Hats No Hoods]
8. Blackout - Blackout [Blackout]
9. Fantastic Mr Fox - Over [Black Acre]
10. mlr - Governor [unreleased]
11. Desto - Broken Memory [Ramp]
12. Mite - Keelo [unreleased]
13. Moldy - No Means To Smoke It [forthcoming Embassy]
14. Martyn - Hear Me (Vocal Version) [unreleased]
15. Nocturnal Sunshine - Broke [forthcoming LMD Skunkworks]
16. Jack Dixon - Low Tide [unreleased]
17. ptr1 - Comatose [Concrete Cut]
18. Mistamen - What You Do To Me (C.R.S.T. Remix) [forthcoming Greenmoney]
19. Scuba - On Deck (FaltyDL Remix) [forthcoming Hotflush]
20. Cubic Zirconia - Josephine (Egyptrixx Remix) [forthcoming Lucky Me]
21. The Phantom - Girl [forthcoming Senseless]
22. GuGu - Rock A Bye Baby [forthcoming DVA]
23. SBTRKT - The Unspoken [forthcoming Monkeytown]
24. Hizatron - Executive Ball Scratcher [Wigflex]
25. Taylor - CMB [forthcoming Super]
26. Knowing Looks - Abandoned Skip [forthcoming WNCL]
27. Martyn - Left Hander [forthcoming 3024]
28. Dreadsquad w/ Lady Chann - Money Ah Dem God (The Phantom Remix) [???]
29. Unknown - Unknown [Unknown]
30. Martyn x Mike Slott - All Nights [forthcoming All City]
31. Piece of Shh - Diablo Riddim (Zomby Remix) [forthcoming Svetlana]
32. ptr1 - Above The Structures [Concrete Cut]
33. Eliphino - L F [forthcoming somethinksounds]
34. Cosmin TRG - Space Station Love Affair [forthcoming Monkeytown]
35. Airhead - Paper Street (Nick Hoppner Remix) [forthcoming Brainmath???]
36. Ikonika - Idiot (Funkineven Remix) [Hyperdub]
37. West Norwood Cassette Library - Blonde on Blonde (Pearson Sound Remix) [forthcoming TEAL]
38. Scuba - So You Think You're Special (Joe Remix) [forthcoming Hotflush]
39. MJ Cole & Wiley - From The Drop [forthcoming Prolific]
40. Ratcatcher - Chlorophyll [unreleased]
41. Hypno - Sunkin [forthcoming Ramp]
42. Braiden - The Alps [forthcoming Doldrums]

Direct Download (Right Click/Save As)

Link:
http://hivemind.fm/

RECOMMENDED: Maxmillion Dunbar – Cool Water [Ramp Recordings]

Ramp are really flexing their muscles of late. Unsatisfied with only being one ‘buy on sight’ label they’ve had to spread out into three with both BRAiNMATH and PTN leeching off Tom Kerridge’s veins, and making waves of their own with the former being enigmatically understated and the other pushing hyper colour UK funky hybrids. With both now starting to find their feet its become easy to forget the mothership that is: Ramp Recordings.

Working in a reverse process to Numbers, who morphed three labels into one, Ramp has bled across three platforms. It seems there really is no concrete formula when you’re running a label... all of which brings us to Maximillion Dunbar, an artist who represents how Ramp felt before it fractured, and Cool Water vibes off that hip hop energy the label really birthed itself with, when releasing records by people like Count Bass D, Flying Lotus & Declaime and Computer Jay.

Dunbar really hits his stride when he reaches for the boogie, that no-man’s-land between house and hip hop. Tracks like the acid house drum workout ‘Rhythm Track For Rashied Ali’ or ‘Girls Dream’ and ‘Pretty Please’ meet in that middle ground between the two, a place where labels like Ramp and Eglo have really flourished. Its a place where retro drum machines, catchy samples and analogue synths bump heads in some sort of slow-mo funk and waggle dance an area where early house and heavy handed boom bap collide, but you know, about 30 years later...

You can stand Maxmillion next to the likes of Funkineven and Arp 101 on one side, and - this is where the flip is really felt - Aphex Twin in ambient mode on the other. ‘Lemon and Lime’ feels like a laid back variant on classic Aphex track ‘Film,’ it’s airy melodies playing off that camera click, machine funk drum patterns in a track that oozes a lethargic beauty. The catchiest flute loop since... well PTN unleashed ‘Fatherless’ is found on ‘Original Soundtrack Flutes’, a track that gets a lo-fi bump going while it plays about in a eastern panpipe-fashion and then ‘Breathe What You Say’ goes all new-wave vocoder, beatless synth fun. Both ‘Sno Mega’ and ‘Way Down’ really feel like they where built in a boogie neverland where Wiley and disco-funk met with those crystalline synths stabbing like icicles as the slinky electro grooves slow enough to get the head nodding.

Words: James Balf
Out: Now

Links:
www.myspace.com/youngbeautifulnatural
www.myspace.com/ramprecordings
http://ramprecordings.com
http://futuretimes.org

RECOMMENDED: Jam City – Night Slugs White Label [White]

It’s easy to end up with a spot of tunnel vision when you’re locked to the constant shifting of sounds and styles going on in a scene, so when I say Jam City’s anthemic refix of Endgames’ ‘Ecstasy’ is hotly anticipated, it’s hard to really gauge whether that excitement spreads beyond the borders of the usual Night Slugs/UK bass followers. Still, it ought to – while the track’s been doing the rounds on dubplate for what feels like an age now, it’s just as good as it was when it first started appearing in mixes from Bok Bok, Greena and the rest of the London crew.

The first thing that strikes when needle hits wax is just how stripped-back and lo-fi Jam City’s production sounds. It was initially tempting to write off its canned feel as a product of the low bitrate mixes it appeared in, but placed alongside the highly buffed sheen of everything else coming out at the moment, ‘Ecstasy Refix’ stands out as a maverick and entirely successful experiment. It helps that its percussion is perfectly pitched - 808 hits rattle around the mix, seemingly in a hundred different places at once. Played off against the hypnotic repetition of its maddeningly catchy central motif the overall effect is one of stasis, of having to run flat out just to stay in the same place. If that sounds like strange praise, it’s probably not quite doing justice to the jittery, adrenal feel of the whole thing, or its compulsively twitchy charm.

On the flipside, JC offers another pair of reimaginings: a venomous house refix of DJ Deeon’s ‘Let Me Bang’, replete with an insistent drum hook – clearly an emerging trademark – and an odd but very interesting Wiley-styled ‘Devil Mix’ of DJ Bone’s ‘Shut The Lights Off’. Considering the unrelenting nature of Bone’s own productions, its spaced out eski-stylings come as a surprise, but a welcome one. Once again it relies on a central hook around which to hang incremental change – in this case an abrasive, grinding sub – and burns itself out over four airy minutes, and rounds out a 12" that may well be the best Night Slugs have yet put out there. It's certainly their finest white label so far, and to be honest if you haven't managed to snag a copy by now it might well already be too late. Still, it's well worth the effort to track down.

Words: Rory Gibb
Out: Now

Link:
www.myspace.com/jamcitytrax

COMPETITON: FWD>> & Rinse: Rinse 16th Birthday @ fabric

The importance of pirate radio stations in London has been frequently documented, with the impact of these small pockets of fiercely original producers and DJs pushing their own sounds out over the vast expanse of the city; sitting pretty between frequencies on your FM dial. Rinse FM is without doubt the most influential former pirate station to broadcast in London; starting 16 years ago as a primarily jungle station its constantly provided an outlet for British underground music, housing legendary shows that featured appearances from people like Skream, Tinchy Stryder, Dizzee Rascal and Wiley – whose Ustream binge has kept us locked to our screens for most of today even though he’s done very little –giving them and a whole host of other incredible DJs and shows a global audience when the station harness the power of the internet and began broadcasting online.

As should be common knowledge by now, earlier this year Rinse was awarded an FM license, something the station have been pushing for since mid 2007 - something Dan Hancox described more eloquently than I ever could in a piece for the Guardian newspaper - so it comes as something of a double celebration that the station’s 16th Birthday party is happening next Friday at fabric in London, with something of an epic lineup – just peep the flyer below.

Rinse have been giving away an exclusive mp3 every day over at the site with the promise of delivering a full 16 tracks before the event itself on Friday 10th September. So far producers like Roska, Bok Bok, Zinc, ScratchaDVA and more have dropped peaches for nothing, just the price of a couple of cursor clicks. You can go here for a handy run down of the downloads or keep an eye on Rinse’s twitter for up to the second updates.

So... in celebration of the FM broadcast license and their 16th anniversary – which the internet tells me should be celebrated with the giving of silver holloware or the gemstone peridot - we’ve been given the honour of giving away two pairs of tickets to the event, with one lucky winner obtaining the bonus prize of an exclusive ‘I Am 16’ t-shirt (pictured here).

To be in the running simply email us the answer to the following question by the end of play next Wednesday.

Q: Who mixed the latest Rinse compilation, Rinse 12?

Please note: The winner will be notified by email on Thursday. Please make sure you can attend the event before entering.



Links:
http://rinse.fm
http://ilovefwd.com
www.fabriclondon.com

INTERVIEW: Offshore [Stuff/Big Dada]

In some ways it’s a testament to the quality of music encapsulated on the short lived Stuff Records label, that Offshore caught our ear last year with his somewhat understated eponymous 12". His music fits with the jitterbug boom bap of Rustie whilst harnessing that electronic lilt that aligns him with so many of the current low end conscious dubstep crop.

Pouring elements of grime into his productions in the same manner as someone like say, Joker, he's on the edge of something really special; sparring of his cheap drum machine percussion and curating a sound that is utterly infused with his own personality – sampling his own voice or those of friends to give his work a humanized humour that mirrors the ridiculousness found in some of his melodic pitches.

We caught up with him after a stock pile of emails revealed he was down with what we do and would be kind enough to drop us an exclusive mix – which turned out to be one of the most low down and swaggered out installments we have had to date.

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

Offshore: I'm from Aberdeen, moved to london about 6 years ago

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

I run a design studio with Oscar, called Oscar & Ewan; our new site up very soon at www.oscarandewan.co.uk.

Your design agency did the album art for Roots Manuva’s ‘Slime & Reason’ album right? How did you link that?

I interned at Big Dada about 5 years ago - I was a fan of the label and wanted to get an insight into how it worked. After a while we got to pitch for the Wiley, ‘Playtime is Over’ artwork, which we got and went down well. Then we did the 10 Years of Big Dada comp, and ‘Slime and Reason’ came after that.

What other design projects are you handling?

We do quite a range; we're doing a lot of print work for a classical music competition at the moment. We just finished Bonobo's new album and hopefully there’ll be something soon with a real live elephant, but elephants rights are getting in the way. We don't want to exploit the fattys.

How did you first get into making music? What was it that infected you to do produce? What’s your production set up like?

I've always been quite motivated with both music and art from when I was younger. I played guitar, which was a focus for quite a few years. I played in a moderately heavy band in Aberdeen when we were little teens, then towards the end of our career I was getting into Aphex and Autechre stuff, so I started jazzing around in fruityloops. I came to hi phop through the back door really - things like Anti-Pop Consortium led to El-P to Wu Tang and Madlib… and I was then turning to making more hip hop based stuff. When I came to London I was exposed to grime and dubstep, which have both been inspirational in their sound, speed and weight, but I think of hip hop as the main strain.

It’s over the past few years I’ve moved to Logic and got quite a bit of help from Clause Four with mixing and sound. I use a mac, programmes, a few plugins, a few soft synths. I want to keep making music as easy and convenient as possible.



Where do you take inspiration from while making music? How did you get into it? How would you describe your sound?

There's a lot of great stuff coming out which is really inspiring. It feels like an exciting time to be making music. Currently - production wise - people like Terror Danjah, Rustie, Loops Haunt, Bok Bok, Salem, and Cassie - Official Girl. Outside of the electronic stuff I've been listening to ‘Microcastle’ by Deerhunter a lot, and the grungy, stoner rock stuff of my youth like ‘The Circus Leaves Town’ by Kyuss, and ‘Bleach’ by Nirvana. Generally, I think my stuff is slow, heavy and sometimes cheeky. I see it as a coming together of a lot of my current influences and those from over the years.

In terms of inspiration when making music... sometimes I have a strong idea that I can base a song around. Generally I just make as much as possible and see what comes out, and then coax it out into a 'song'. I aim songs in a certain direction, and bring out certain moods depending on my moods. Then I go back the next day and dash them, because I’m in a different mood…

You’re a Scot living in London. What drove you to make the move? How do the regions differ musically? I mean with Numbers/Lucky Me it’s very healthy up there...

It was the end of school, a good friend decided to go to London, I hadn't really considered it as an option until then, but after some basic research, I was game for trying out the deep end. I'm from Aberdeen which isn't as booming as Glasgow in terms of scene, but there are some great DJs who get decent people up there. Giles Walker being the main one I know. He had Joker up recently, and he's had Bok Bok & Manara up. I can't really give you a proper insight as I haven't been around there and going out recently. There’s always been a strong live music scene, and the crowds are renowned for being up for it.

I think the Numbers and Lucky Me crews are brilliant - they are passionate about what they do, and they do it right.

You’ve had a 12” on the (no longer with us) Stuff Records, a release on disBoot and a couple of remixes for Big Dada affiliated artists. What else have you got coming up? Can you confirm and elaborate upon the projects your working on for Big Dada?

Yes, I'm working on stuff for Big Dada, that’s really the focus at the moment... probably EP > LP. I'm stockpiling and working on a load of stuff and then I'll farm it out.

I’ve got a mix for EE coming up soon.

Tell us about the mix you’ve done for us, what tracks just had to be included?

The Salem ones mainly. They've got an amazing tone. Low Deep – ‘Jedi,’ Wiley – ‘Crash Bandicoot,’ Nasty Nasty... there's a Non Person beat briefly that’s got a lovely spacey sound, and makes a nice launch pad for ‘Snake Eater.’ I think it’s out soon on Channel Zero.

It’s not jam packed with exclusives, just stuff I've been enjoying over the last while.

Have you got any words of wisdom for our readers?

Here's some wisdom:



::

DOWNLOAD: Offshore – Sonic Router Mix



Tracklist:

Trim – Money Up Front (Instrumental)
Gucci Mane - Round one (Salem Remix)
Offshore - Summer Hits
Wonder - Chi Flute
Salem - Frost
Offshore - Girly
Purple Ribbon All-Stars Feat. Big Boi - Kryptonite (Acapella)
Dexplicit - machine man
Ikonika - Sahara Michael
Wiley - Crash Bandicoot Freestyle
Low Deep - Jedi
Nasty Nasty - Damn Girl
Non Person - ? - forthcoming Channel Zero
Joker - Snake Eater
JME - Ju Ju Man
BD1982 - Space Boots (Slugabed Remix)
Nasty Nasty - No Names
Plasticman - Aqua Riddem (Remix)
Rustie - Tempered
Santogold - Shuv It ft. Three 6 Mafia

Link:
www.myspace.com/offshorebeat

DOWNLOAD: Kode 9 - Sinogrime Minimix

Lower End Spasm are laying host to a minimix of grime instrumentals done by Kode 9 a few years back, that is based around the loose theme of 'a momentary glitch in the supposedly predictable sonic geography of London dance music,' a micro genre dubbed sinogrime.

"I did this mix a few years ago that was just Jammer and Wiley and Target - of just half an hour of these Chinese-style plinky-plonk sounds…" explains Kode 9, "it was a bit sloppy, but it is fucking amazing music. Those guys were just on taking an aspect of hip-hop and blending it with really quite jarring, brash melodies."

For the rest of the article go here, its wicked.

Out to Arthur for the tip off.

DOWNLOAD: Kode 9 - Sinogrime Minimix

No tracklist.

Link:
www.myspace.com/kode9

Photo: Georgie Cook

EVENT: FWD>> + Rinse @ Matter

FWD>> + Rinse are taking to North Greenwich for the second time, bringing the oodles of future bass masic they duly represent to matter, inside the 02 dome. If the vibrancy, atmosphere, classic performances and sheer number of ravers was anything to go by at the July event, this one should be marked a DO NOT MISS for all LDN based SR readers.

Performers on the night include: Skream & Benga (2 hour set), Heartless Crew, Wiley, Oneman, Headhunter, Ramadanman, Cooly G, Floating Points. The full line up can be found, along with links to buy tickets, at the matter site.



We've kindly been given a pair of tickets to give away. To be in with a shot email us your answer to the below question.

Q: Whats the name of the Wiley album that was released on Big Dada?

A: Treddin' On Thin Ice
B: Playtime is Over
3: Race Against Time

The winner will be announced the week of the event.
Please make sure you can attend before entering the competition.

Links:
http://rinse.fm
http://ilovefwd.com