Inflect

Bass music blog cataloguing the new wave in uptempo music influenced by Footwork, Drum 'n' Bass, Hip Hop, and everything in between.

[inflect-uk-blog]

Dispatch Signee Gamma Discusses his Latest Zion EP, Production Tips, Influences and More.

Dispatch, headed by Ant TC1, has long been establshed as at the forefront of driving unique yet dancefloor orientated drum n bass. Who could question the A&R skills of one at the front of such an enterprise, besides Metalheadz and Outlook and Dimensions festivals. If it's coming out of Dispatch, it's bound to be exciting.Their newest release comes from Gamma, one of the Hungarian Spinline trio, formed in 2003, and who have since seen releases on labels such as RAM, SGN:LTD and of course Dispatch. Gamma has struck out on his own with this first solo EP, the "Zion" EP, released in digital formats and on hand stamped, signed white label vinyl.

The "Zion" EP, showcases Gamma's skill at bringing in tight and precise engineering, with diverse and exciting fringe influences, into the uptempo drum n bass formula. Beginning with title track "Zion", listeners are plunged deep and thick into warm, enveloping bass growls and flickers, driven by military like snare rolls almost reminsicent of trap, and sucking half step grooves. Elevated by dub sirens and melodic arepeggiated blips, this is a hard one to pin down, much to our delight, the influences varied, but the emphasis on the driving dancefloor sub weight. The collabration with Dispatch favourite Hydro, "3 Days" continues this schizoid formula of uplifting pads, etheric vocals and focused, morphing sub patterns, with a stuttered rhythm, and inflection introduced via singing rides whilst "Streetheadz" ups the urgency, a tight roller with sub and mid level punch clinging to it's racing beat driven framework. Digital bonus tracks "Empathy Control" and "Midnight Heat" close on equally technically elevated terms, intricate and warm yet gutteral and heavy.

There's no question Gamma's "Zion" EP firmly continues yet diversifies his already established work with Spinline. We got together with Mark Gamma to ask him a few questions on his production past, present and future.

Hi Mark, could you please introduce yourself for our readers?

My name is Mark Gulacsi. I was born in Romania and then I moved to Hungary with my parents when I was 6 – I had a long journey here; I started to make music. When I was around 11, I started making hip hop and jungle beats – I’ve still got some of them, they’re actually sick :) Then I met Andris and Norbi and we started Spinline and also organising gigs with the lads in my home town Eger, where I grew up. We build a good scene in that part of Hungary and its still running and we had loads of releases with Spinline in the past. I can assure you, there is more to come both from Gamma and from Spinline!

As a member of the trio Spinline you've seen releases on labels such as SGN:LTD, RAM, and of course Dispatch among others. Can you give us abit of background behind Spinline, how you came together, what it was like working together, and if you still plan to release together?

I met Andris in a party in Eger, then we met again in Budapest and spoke a lot about music and sheeit – then we started to make some beats and we realized that we were good :) Then we sent some tunes to Norbi; when were kids, he was one of the biggest dnb djs in Hungary at that time. He offered us a studio session in his amazing studio in Cegléd (his home town) and I spent most of my time there instead of school... We are planning to release some new beats soon!

What prompted you to start your solo project Gamma, and how you feel Gamma will differ musically from Spinline?

I came to England to try my luck with Andris (Spinline) but after he went back to Hungary I decided to start my on solo production, of course it wasn't easy in the beginning I worked a lot and I had to improve my english as well. Im sure You can pick some similar sounds and ideas in both project's but obviously I developed my sound in the last few years so its definitely different in a way.

You've not long moved from Hungary to London. Why did you decide to move and how do you find the music scenes compare between Hungary and the UK? Are you enjoying being in London?

I moved to London 5 years ago and I'm still loving it! its the best choice I made in my life! I'm missing the Hungarian scene of course Budapest is amazing I advise to everyone to try it! The main reason that I moved to England is to try my luck with music, I was a kid when I came here and I feel I grown up here I had to take care my self learn English so I needed a few years to get comfortable and it feels really good that I'm chilled now making beats doing what I always wanted. It’s a strong drum and bass scene in both city's of course and London gonna be the a leader alway's but Budapest is not that "industrial" if you know what I mean, it has a different atmosphere.

You've mentioned a variety of influences to your music production beyond drum n bass, and have mentioned experimenting with dubstep, techno and trap. What is it you find appealing about these styles, how do they influence your production, and what do you think of current evolutions in drum n bass seeing producers incorporating a wider range of styles?

Drum and Bass is my tempo but I’ve always had problem with authority, so I’m always going to be a bit different. I like to use other influences to "colour" my vibe; the main concept is to be on the edge.

Can you name some artists from within drum n bass and from other genres, even non-electronic, that inspire you?

Kemal, Ed Rush and Optical, Digital and Spirit, Universal Project, Amit, Steve Reich, Air, Apex Twin, Icicle, Rockwell, Alix Perez, Mr. Carmack, The Chemical Brothers, Orbital, Calibre, Massive Attack, Abstract Elements, Break, Dlr, the Metalheadz sound, Stimming, Kollective Turmstraße and the list goes on...

It's been mentioned on the Spinline profile that you were helped along the way by advice from other producers, including Chris.SU, SKC, Mindscape and Tactile Collective. What has been the best piece of advice relating to production that you would pass on to other producers? Any tips and tricks you can share?

I learned a lot from Norbi (Spinline) he was a part of Tactile so we saw all the tricks and secret technics for the bass and the drums, I learned a lot from Icicle as well he is an amazing sound engineer, "best advice" ? Keep that 50 hz mono pls, use compressor's and eq's:), and don't spend to much time with a sound use your time in a clever way meaning if something is good is good, if its crap its crap you have to learn to let it go...

What is your studio set up at the moment?

Got some old school SN10s and a mac but Im upgrading my speekers for some DNAudio's the most important thing in a there, always got some borrowed synth's, midi's, controller's laying around but mostly software's Im using.

What's your most memorable gig experience?

I played in Pescara, Italy – a small town with an amazing music scene and vibe. Also, Outlook Festival (Moat stage) and Sziget Festival, Budapest.

Can you tell us abit about the "Zion" EP?

Its a great selection and thank good that we delayed the release with Ant cause we find "Zion" the main track so its really mixed up in styles but somehow they still connected, you must know that I make loads of tunes just to try new sounds and ideas so sometimes its hard to me to find the the really good ones and Ant has really good skills for that. I hope people gonna feel my vibes!

Title track "Zion" is an incredible fusion of styles, how did that come together?

Don't know how, it just happened. It started as a roller believe it or not and I just switched the drum pattern to try how would it sound and I got that tune:) Then I added some of my special deephouse vocochord arpeggiators on the top....

The EP features a collaboration with Hydro, "3 Days". You have collaborated with Hydro before, how did you guys meet, and what's your preferred approach to collaborations?

We had Dave (Hydro) playing in my town in Hungary and then he spent 4 weeks with us in the studio, the rest is history. I love to work with Dave; he’s always filled with deep ideas. The most important thing is to have different perspectives...

Can you tell us of any future projects and gigs in the pipeline?

Some new Spinline is definitely coming this year and some new Gamma on Plasma Audio, Demand, and more for Dispatch! I’ve got some gigs in England, hopefully Belgium and France and I have a gig in Budapest as well!

The "Zion" EP is available to buy now in digital formats and on hand stamped and signed white label via the Dispatch store. Bristol heads be sure to catch Dispatch representing at the Black Swan this Saturday, for DLR's "Seeing Sounds" album launch.

Follow Gamma on Facebook and Soundcloud.

[inflect-uk-blog]

From 170BPM to 140BPM Skeptical Continues to Bring the Heat Via Exit Records

Straying from his usual uptempo patch with tracks on dubstep staple labels Tempa and Artikal in the past year, Skeptical has shown his ability to fuse movement and energy into the weighty and minimal, through his signature precision and sonic craftsmanship, irregardless of tempo. His latest outing on Exit Records celebrated this with a duo of releases, Exit053, the "Imperial" EP showcasing his uptempo work, and Exit054, released on limited 10" vinyl only, dipping into the 140bpm depths with tracks "Something in the Sound" and "Talk the Talk"

A celebration of Skeptical's impeccable attention to detail, the uptempo "Imperial" EP begins in it's title track with a beat that is at once relentless and forceful as at drives forward, conversely with a gentle crisp aesthetic that is respectful and complementary to the soft atmosphere it inhabits. One woven by a haunting, etheric flute line, whispering melocholy beneath. Second track "Playground Chat Back" moves into more tense airs. A snappy stepper with anxious synth drillings and funky yet pained childlike yelps, its suspense is accentuated by background metallic grindings and whirrings. Tension is relieved ever so slightly in "Instant Reflex" with a jittery, rhythmic clatter of varied percussion and three dimensional growls all leaping and vying for attention in the mix. The highlight of the EP comes for us in final track "Delusions of Grandeur", in which a bold, meditative half step beat and punctuating vocal chops play a juddering opposition to it's smooth centrifugal, swirling techy synth.

One of the joys of Skeptical's 140bpm work is that the spacious dubstep formula gives room for his intricate sonic workings to breathe and move more freely. This sonic space is one that the best of dubstep releases have utilised since it's beginnings, and that Skeptical has a clear appreciation for and skill with. Both tracks on Exit054 are a stunning example of this. "Something in the Sound" with the characteristic dubstep snare, reverberant tail drifting off into the distance, alludes to deep, dark tunnels. Within these a pulsing bass and mid growl flickers lurk, whilst slight tweaks to rhythm and subtle atmospheres add to a morphing, fluid groove. "Talk the Talk" takes on the straighter half step powerful plod, again with slight flickering off beat hats being all that is needed to switch up the groove. Taking center stage, the warbling sub bassline is guaranteed to pulse and tremble bodies over a system.This is dubstep in all its glory, hinting, with deep sub tones and echoeing cavities, at why the best way to hear this sound has always been in dark, underground spaces, like the now sadly closed Plastic People, birthplace of FWD>>. Spaces in which crowds are united by the fizz of visceral sonic vibrations, a room enveloped in bass, an array of minute details that are escalated by the space around them, to the point that crowds are totally immersed and focused in the sound. When hearing the energy and life in releases such as this over a good soundsystem, dubstep is a far shot from death.

Skeptical and Exit Records are continuing as ever to boldly push beyond genre boundaries to demonstrate creative skill is best exercised freely, an exciting mantra that means we are ever enthused to see what comes next.

Skeptical - Imperial EP

  Skeptical Imperial EP is available now in vinyl and digital formats via the Exit Records store. If you were lucky enough to bag a copy "Something in the Sound" and "Talk the Talk" were available on a limited 10" vinyl via tthe System Sound store, having quickly sold out. Be sure to follow Exit Records and System Sound to avoid future disappointment!

[inflect-uk-blog]

Fanu Presents Latest Lightless Release with Coleco Remix

Fanu has ever stuck by his long standing passion for erratic and evolving rhythms since his first forays into drum n bass in the early 2000s. From his energetic breakbeat workouts in stand out drum n bass tracks such as the critically acclaimed Siren Song, through his crunchy hip hop productions as FatGyver, up to his modern day drum n bass experiments blending breaks and 808s inspired in part by the fresh influx of new rhythms such as footwork, his productions exude funk, a veritable mishmash of styles that have always stayed true to style and shied far away from standardisation.

His latest uptempo offering from his own label imprint Lightless label, following on from it’s fast selling predecessor, Lightless007 features three tracks, “Bad Dreams” and “Da Movement” followed by a remix from Bristol-based head of pioneering Inflect Audio, Coleco. Out now on vinyl and in digital formats, Lightless007 is an energetic, funky yet melodic journey through a twisting and shifting rhythmic landscape.

The release starts on “Bad Dreams”, the idea for the track initially coming on a break away in the Finnish countryside, where the luscious soundscapes of soaring strings and stunning vocal harmonies allude to the beauty of the inspiring surrounds. Open calm is then fractured by a launch into a full scale celebration of skittering breaks and tonal hand drums. Fanu sculpts breakbeat phrases so fluid in movement, exciting in the dance, with the occasional punctuation of heavy hip hop rhythms and an underlayer of a deep morphing bassline adding a delightful contrasting weight.

"Da Movement" is the darker horse of the release, bringing in Fanu’s sample hunting mania. It launches with attitude riddled vocal samples, layered over slightly discordant chimes and eery stretched vocals, running through on a heavy yet organic half steppers beat, infused with elements of hip hop, drum n bass and playful 808s to a growling mid line and rumbling sub. It’s guaranteed to get the stomp on on the dance floor whilst simultaneously making for involved home listening.

Coleco’s remix of “Bad Dreams” strips the original back to a soft, contemplative half step flow. Echoing claps bounce like skimming stones across a tranquil lake of synthesis whilst reminiscing chord structures, both joyous and melancholic, with a soft tape distortion, border on the stylings of Boards of Canada. If the original is the excitement of the party, the remix is the gentle reflection of the after party at sunrise.

Lightless 007 is available now on vinyl and in digital formats via Fanu's Bandcamp page and all good stores.

[inflect-uk-blog]

Sam Binga Gives the Lowdown on his Latest Critical Music EP "Nuh Chat"

Bristols Sam Simpson, aka Sam Binga, has a long and varied musical background, under a multitude of alias having drawn influences from all over the musical spectrum and reflected them skilfully in uniquely fused productions. Everything from electro, dubstep, breakbeat, dancehall, trap, drum n bass and more battles it out in the Binga sonic melting pot, or "anything that thumps" as Fabric stated regarding his previous Baobinga alias. His newest EP for Critical Music, the "Nuh Chat" EP, demonstrates that variety more than ever for his latest Sam Binga alias, as such becoming one of our favourites so far. Sam Binga gave us abit of insight into the creative process involved.

Lead track "Tek Nuh Chat", returns to that winning formula of heavy, swaggering half step beat, with an erratic Redders playing jolly havoc over the whole, following on from dancefloor hits "AYO" and "Lef Dem". As Sam puts it "Tek Nuh Chat - Another Binga Big Kick Banga! loads of crunchy weird sounds in the beat, and then a big square wave bass comes in and duppies the place."

Redders characteristic yet versatile verses and vocal licks have been likened by Sam to the singjay style, a style forged by vocalists-come-DJ's in the dancehalls of Jamaica. A style designed for the dance, it's totally uplifting and seems to prompt some of the most playful of reactions we've ever seen on dancefloors. Having been already familiar with Redders vocal work with Bristol's Central Spillz, it was his work with Redlight that finalised Sam's decision to collaborate with him.

Moving on, "Elastic" begins on bold, ecstatic, trance-like pads, leaving listeners totally unprepared for the wonky, pitch bending bleeps that follow. As it morphs between minimal wonky verses and full on beatific swells, all on the back of a swaggering half step beat, it's a unique journey that feels like a very urban interpretation of beauty. Originally starting life according to Sam Binga as a 140bpm vocal destined piece, aiming for a big hook and equally melodic chorus, it received praise from Wiley before going on to become the 160bpm footwork inspired track it is today. 

Third track on the EP "Steppin" see's a fitting collaboration with equally genre defying Deft, given the Redders treatment. "Deft added loads of interesting detail that I would never have got round to and did some really interesting stuff with the structure. I think for a lot of people this could well have been the A, but cos it was at that slightly odd 165 bpm tempo I wasn't sure. Working on another video for it at the mo."

Taking another stylistic turn, we have "Chasic", an "attempt to mix Rhythm & Sound dub techno with some of the classic jungle signifiers (bouncing 808 bass, classic breaks), but with a halfstep twist." Despite the fact that he "originally thought it wasn't that great and I'd forgotten how to write good music", he "sent it to Kas and he loved it, and I gradually came to love it too."

We're glad as it's one of our highlights of the EP. The beauty in "Chasic" is surely the movement through subtle shifts in breakbeat engineering. Sam states that he "really worked on lo fi-ing up the beat by running it through an old desk etc..and there's layers of hiss and noise from there as well". The result is truly satisfying as the track morphs from crisp, rustling beats through to pounding, low half step thuds.

Finally the EP is rounded off by a brutal, techy Amen roller remix of "Lef Dem", punctuated by yelping hardcore synth work, bound to please the harder drum n bass heads.

The "Nuh Chat" EP is available now via the Critical Music store, in digital formats and on limited blue vinyl.

"Nuh Chat" EP

[inflect-uk-blog]

INFLECTMIX 010: Graphs

Graphs is one of those artists that stuck out from the moment we first heard his productions, labelling him as one to watch from the early days of the Inflect site. Having been first drawn to his track "Catabasis" on the August 2013 Ground Mass compilation, it was clear his music had a unique blend, mixing the frenetic sounds of footwork, with the sparcity of dubstep and the technicality and atmospheres of neuro drum n bass.

Having released tracks via Ground Mass Music which he later went on to join in driving with originator Mark Kloud, Dynamix Records and LowRise Sounds, an online community in which he also took an active role, Graphs' sound quickly caught the attention of many in the hybridising uptempo electronic scene, including an idol of his, Om Unit.

In the week before the release of his first vinyl release, the "Posthuman" EP on Om Unit's Cosmic Bridge, the culmination of years spent refining, challenging and developing his own fresh sound, we loaded up the caffeine for a late night chat with Graphs. Discussing the development and origins of his sound, the ideas behind "Posthuman", his journey through electronic music in America, and the changes he has seen on the way.

An early fan of electronic music in the US, Graphs has seen the music develop from small pockets of activity, to full blown commercialisation, an experience he's found pro's and con's in.

"I got in abit before jungle, mostly in the rave era. Guys like Orbital, Moby, The Prodigy (pre-Jilted Generation). Those were a natural progression to Jungle and later to Drum and Bass."

"It's weird now though. I first knew something had changed when one of my teenage cousins saw me post a clip of a dubstep track on Facebook around 2010 or 2011 and wrote me back excitedly "you like dubstep?!" I was confused. When did this suddenly catch on? It turns out, they were thinking of Rusko and Skrillex, but it was still evidence that suddenly it was normal, even cool, to be into electronic music here in the US. I'm happy that we've gotten here. Even though I'm not an EDM person, I think its prevalence has opened Americans to the breadth of other options in the electronic music sphere. I really like where that could take us."

As Graphs hunted electronic music with a passion, it was no surprise that a move to Chicago played a seminal role in his musical development. The latest international phenomenon to come out of Chicago, the hyperkinetic rhythms of footwork, is one close to his heart, and it's incorporation into his music a reminiscent look back at a city he called home.

"I moved [to Chicago] in 2008 and started hearing about Footwork here and there, and started to become interested as a result but I never got out to experience it firsthand. I was cooped up working on my research like 24/7. I think I went to two concerts the whole 4 years I was there. In retrospect, it was a real shame. I loved Chicago and I didn't really get to experience it to the fullest."

"I didn't really want to move either. When we did, I got really homesick for Chicago. I've lived all over the place: Providence, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, Raleigh, Chicago, and Boston. I've never loved a city like that. I started making Footwork when I got here to Boston because it reminded me of something that was in Chicago that I couldn't have here."

When discussing Chicago footwork it's difficult not to recognise the hybridisation being seen between that and other genres, including drum n bass, hip hop, dubstep and jungle. Graphs himself makes an interesting blend of such elements, and we were interested to hear his thoughts on these developments.

"I do feel like the fact that Footwork has been absorbed into the electronic music canon is amazing. The UK has pretty much been dominating the game as far as infusing new ideas into dance music for at least the past decade. The US has been doing a good job of ruining those ideas the past few years, but we finally contributed something fresh."

"It's energized the underground here, too. It's different when the guys who make the music you love live right up the street from you, or come to your town regularly for shows. It feels like we're participating in something, rather than faking it or doing our bastardized version of it. Something global, like the World Cup."

"I think that [hybrid music] gets mixed reviews among the purists in Footwork because it's a fine line between recontextualization and gentrification. Nobody wants to see Festival BroFootwork, and so people are hesitant. On the other side, I think it's sort of viewed as a hipster insurgency among some of the core Drum and Bass. We're being different to make some sort of negative statement about everyone else or to appear "deep" or edgy. That kind of hurts actually. I love Drum and Bass. I grew up on it."

“ It's a fine line between recontextualization and gentrification. Nobody wants to see Festival BroFootwork. ”

Drum n Bass was where Graphs started his productions, around 1999 he began playing around with a friend's old version of Fruity Loops driven by the sound of neurofunk. Since then he has dabbled with ambient, trip hop, dubstep, with a musical taste extending beyond to Post Rock and Drone. This eclectic taste, and with a tendency to draw in new aswell as old influences into a melting pot, has Graphs telling his own history, right up to the present through his music.

"In the early days of Neurofunk, I lived and breathed that sound. It was all I cared about. Part of why I started feeding those sounds into my work was because I missed that sound and how I felt about the music back then. It was like bottled anxiety, and that was me back then. Konflict, Stakka and Skynet, Ed Rush and Optical, Matrix, I missed how that music made me feel and how much a part of that scene I felt like I was."

"But I love this new sound. It's open territory and it feels great to explore it without knowing the rules. It's very freeing."

Whilst exploring a variety of genres and moving around the US, Graphs was also studying ferverantly, clocking up a total of three engineering degrees that saw him settling into a career as a scientist involved in artificial intelligence. We wondered how such technical knowledge might contribute to an electronic artists output?

"I'm a nerd, down to my core. Part of what really drew me to production after I developed an initial interest was the fact that I was already familiar with some of the concepts. I was getting my Mechanical Engineering degree when I started producing. I understood DSP and knew a lot about the physics of sound, and the mathematical principles behind most of the technology. It just felt like the most beautiful possible application of these kinds of knowledge. It felt like bending the fabric of existence. I still feel that way about sound design. I love it. It's easy to get lost in. I'm still fascinated by the technology. I have been a musician all my life, but discovering synthesis and production in general seemed to stretch the possibilities beyond what I had ever imagined."

“ A great piece of music is intuitive…The more you try to craft and polish that experience, the more you risk draining it of character and life. ”

Despite his technological skill, Graphs explained that he soon found that the answer to creativity lay beyond this.

"I have to shut myself off at times, though. I could just make patches for days, but then I'd never write any songs. That's the hard thing as well. It's possible to overdo it, whereas a great piece of music is intuitive. You feel it immediately. You get it immediately. The more you try to craft and polish that experience, the more you risk draining it of character and life."

"I try to balance that. I like complexity and precision and great sound quality, but I dislike perfection and perfectionism. EDM is perfect and that's what I don't like about it. It's got the worst aspects of pop music and electronic music rolled into it. But I like flaws. I like loose beats. I like too much reverb. It feels human. I really like emphasizing the contrast between those two extremes.And a great track loses nothing from a little bit of imperfection. I think the drive to make flawlessly engineered music is a pathology. Which probably sounds weird coming from someone like me."

"I think that's what unites a lot of the folks who are drawn to footwork and jungle. It's not just that they're novel, or that (in the case of Jungle) they remind people of simpler times. I think it's that they're very human, very immediate. The edges aren't filed off. You can hear the artist's voice in them."

"It seems part of a larger response to the commoditization of music in general. You see a lot of people opting for low-fi media, analog technology and techniques, etc. almost for the same reason that you enjoy going to your local coffee shop over Starbucks. There's a human echo in the process. There are flaws and no two experiences are the same."

So as the use of his musical tools had developed, Graphs found himself needing to develop his own approach to using them, one that he felt first started coming together when he produced an earlier track, "Scylla".

"When I wrote Scylla I was sort of frustrated with myself. I knew how my tools worked and I could make them do what I wanted. I could write a tune that had all of the pieces in the right place so to speak but I didn't hear myself in them, I felt like anyone could have written them. They were generic. Yep, that's a dubstep tune. I was copying people and trying really hard to fit in. I was looking over the shoulder of guys like Sleeper and District and thinking if I just cracked the code I could send someone like Chestplate a demo and everything would be grand. I finally worked up the courage to send some of my tracks out and they all got rejected."

"So I firebombed my entire process. I started from scratch and decided to stop looking over the fence and just write something. Clear my head, not think about who I was trying to sound like, who I was trying to send the track to, or any other bins to put the track in before I had even written a note."

"I got the idea from Chuck Close actually. I saw him speak at the Art Institute in Chicago. He talked about purging your idols, about how he didn't make anything worthwhile until he cleared them out of his studio so they wouldn't haunt him."

"It was a great experiment. I think it's very healthy to question your assumptions and your habits as an artist. You tend to find things that you just do because you always have. When you forbid yourself from doing those things, even temporarily, the results can be very interesting."

Coming into this musical melting pot, besides taking tips from painter Chuck Close, was a vast blend of influences from beyond the musical spectrum.

"I love film and literature. I read a lot and watch a lot of boring, cerebral art flicks. I love Thomas Pynchon and I'm a huge fan of Darren Aronofsky's films too. All of them are about how madness and obsession are a matter of perspective."

With confidence in his own music being an issue, Graphs soon found himself encouragement via an online community of producers, label owners, fans and more via the Facebook group LowRise Sounds. 

"When I started to close in on my current sound, I really had no idea what other people were doing. I knew what I knew about deep dubstep, about drum and bass, and about footwork, but I wasn't going to shows at all. I was cooped up in a lab at Northwestern and then in my studio here in Boston."

"When I met up with the LowRise folks, it was a revelation. I found this community that was hungry for new and interesting sounds with some of the same elements I loved. They were tolerant of imperfection, too. A lot of us in this community developed in those conditions. We could make things that were weird and hard to peg and the community supported that. It was a little bit competitive, but all in fun. We were just trying to make things to impress our friends. It was the best thing any developing producer could ask for.I probably wouldn't be here if it weren't for that atmosphere. I might still be thinking I could do a really great impression of Wayfarer and maybe someone would listen to it."

"I think technology has made the world smaller, which makes geography less of a barrier in what defines a "local" scene. LowRise is like that. It feels like a place, and one that's in my back yard, but people there are from over the world. I think that's a beautiful thing.On the other hand, that's a best case kind of situation, and probably a rare one. I think there's also danger of that sort of geographical barrier dissolving and creating monocultures. I think our differences make us interesting, and one of the risks inherent in technology bringing us closer is that it erases them."

Amongst this online community was Mark Kloud, a fellow producer and label owner for Ground Mass Music, the label which put out some of Graphs earliest releases, which he soon joined in helping to run with a shared vision for open mindedness and human differences in music.

"I sent Mark an email with an introduction to me and what my history was and gave him a link to Scylla. We hit it off immediately and ended up talking pretty much nonstop all summer. He laid out his plans for Ground Mass, including moving from compilations to solo EPs, his vision for what he wanted Ground Mass to represent, to value, and to push in terms of the sound and the art. He had a grand vision."

 "I had some ideas about who I wanted to send Scylla to for consideration, but here was someone who was just starting something. It was a risk, but I believed in that vision he had shared. I wanted to not only give him tracks, but I wanted to help that vision happen. So I told him to sign me up and to let me help him get things moving, if he was comfortable with that."

"He brought me on and we eventually launched the solo EP series. We wanted to make Ground Mass into a platform for lesser-known artists and developing sounds that were rooted in more mature genres, but speculative and hybrid in nature. We get and we release a lot of Footwork and Jungle hybrids, and we love the stuff we get, but we're actually open to most anything."

"People are sometimes hesitant about that second part. Our pitch when reaching out to new artists is simple. We like you, send us anything. We put it in their court and so far everyone has come back with something that knocked our expectations out of the park."

“ I think our differences make us interesting, and one of the risks inherent in technology bringing us closer is that it erases them. ”

It was via his "Scylla" release on Ground Mass that Graphs soon found himself in contact with Om Unit, working closely for a year to put together his most refined and developed release to date, the "Posthuman" EP on Cosmic Bridge. "Posthuman" argueably brings together his whole artistic journey to date. Perfectionism versus the rough and loose, technical versus intuitive, reminiscent of the past combined with looking forward, it is the balancing of technology against humanising traits born out of a fascination in Artificial Intelligence, a search for the soul in the machine, as Graphs himself reflects.

"It all started with Kurzweil. I read Age of Spiritual machines when I was in undergrad and it changed my life. It introduced me, and probably a whole generation of computer nerds, to the notion of the technological Singularity and this whole philosophy attached to the value of what lies beyond is the foundation of Posthumanism. it's why I decided to switch to computer science and why I decided to pursue AI.

"On the other hand, in Drum and Bass, particularly in all of this Neurofunk I was listening to at the time, there are echoes of future shock, almost a simultaneous fascination with and paralyzing fear of some possible Matrix-like dystopian endgame. But now, years later, I don't know if I buy either view. We live in the future and it's bros in neon tank tops Instagramming their pumpkin spice lattes. I think both parts of me are disappointed."

"I expected to be either a cyborg or huddled in a cave fending off robotic spiders by now. Neither of them happened. The future is blander than I hoped. But at the same time, I thought, what if that's us? What if the future passes us by because we chose that somehow. What if the singularity happens and we're on the wrong side of it. We get left behind."

"I think underlying it all is my own reflection on the arc of my life. When I read Kurzweil all of those years ago and started down the path toward doing AI research, I felt like I had a taken on a greater cause. Now I'm not so sure. So the album title is sort of a tongue-in-cheek stab at my younger self. A reflection on who am now as a result."

  So, on this journey, has Graphs found himself being able to fully integrate the soul into the electronic?

"I can't decide. Sometimes I feel like I'm trying to and sometimes I'm trying to make a point of its absence. Almost like I'm wavering back and forth between trying to build a proof of concept to win that argument and just going in the completely opposite direction and building something completely rigid, cold, and mechanical."

"I try not to bring this into the studio with me, but it's what I think about in between. I think it's an artifact of an ongoing set of internal conflicts that I'm trying to work out through my music.I'm working with a set of themes and seeing how they interact."

"Posthuman isn't a summary or a final definitive position, it's more like a reflection of those themes and my process of working through them. I don't want to put a stamp on any of my work as saying "this is the answer to some question I had about <whatever>". No question worth asking is worked out that easily. And I may be wrong too."

"Posthuman" EP is out now on vinyl and in digital formats on Cosmic Bridge, available via the Cosmic Bridge Bandcamp and all good stores.

In the meantime, Graphs has put together an electic mix for us, here's what he had to say about it.

"For the mix, I wanted to share a diverse snapshot of the people that I'm listening to in the 130-170 BPM range. I kind of had to start with that Mr. Mitch track. His new album is amazing. I touched on a few different styles and tried to give a glimpse of the great stuff that my friends are making right now. I didn't want to make it too much about me. I played a few cuts off Posthuman, as well as a new bit from myself and Tone Ra."

As for shout outs.

"I want to give a shoutout to my LowRise, Ground Mass, Cosmic Bridge, and Lifted Contingency families. You guys have been a constant source of inspiration, encouragement, and support. Massive respect to Jim Om Unit for believing in me and for your wisdom, support, and general awesomeness. Most importantly, to my wife Ciara, who has stood by me every step of the way, and who has taken me seriously even when I didn't deserve to be. None of this would have happened without you all. I am truly grateful."

InflectMix 010 Graphs

Tracklist:

Mr. Mitch - Don't Leave Murlo - Into Mist DARK0 - Amethyst Bok Bok - Look (Dub) Skepta - That's Not Me (Remix) Ruff Sqwad - Together She's Drunk - Sluty Chrissy Murderbot - What Should I Do (Slick Shoota remix) Dexta - Mukky Riddim Sinistarr - h3xx Nonfuture - Acid Werk (PZG Remix) Tone Ra - Tired BSN Posse - Got Me Travi$ Scott ft. 2 Chainz - Upper Echelon (Slick Shoota Remix) Seafloor - Let Me Go Deft - Vapid (Pt. 2) Graphs - Posthuman EAN - Flow Graphs - Broken Legs Neuropol - Eye Don't Know Mark Kloud - Morning Darkness Om Unit - Bardo Realms Itoa - Top Deck (Moresounds Redub) Subtle - Hybrids Danny Scrilla - The Rift Dub Phizix - Bounce House of Black Lanterns - Club Music Subvitals & Akrophobia - The Cure Graphs x Tone Ra - Chopper

Find Graphs on Facebook, Soundcloud and Twitter.

[inflect-uk-blog]

INFLECTMIX 009: TMSV

When it comes to juggling creative endeavours and the daily grind, few have inspired us more with their dedication than our next Inflect Mix artist. With an incredibly busy schedule studying for a Masters in International Law, Utrecht's TMSV has balanced this with forging his own forward thinking, unique styles of music, a blend of ever evolving influences that include Jungle and Drum n Bass, Dubstep, Reggae, Hip Hop, Grime, House Techno and more. For his mix for Inflect he has chosen to rove beyond the realms of 140BPM, bringing us an exciting premiere of a blend of tracks that excite him from within the 85/95BPM tempo range.

First coming to attention with his stunning sub deep and intricate percussive dubstep, seeing releases on Tube 10 Recordings, Bristol's Black Box and Box Clever since 2010, TMSV's backcatalogue has been ever diversifying, remoulding and exciting since. 

It is no surprise that he came to the attention of J:Kenzo, with his Artikal imprint one that continues to push at the outer boundaries of dubstep with exciting originality. The recent Artikal Compilation being a great example of this, it included TMSV's "Scorpion" featuring shuddering bass and centifugal swung hand drums and Thelem's remix of TMSV's "The Cosmonaut" with it's skittering trap like beats and buzzing, full synthline. Amongst these were such atmospheric, weighty stompers as J:Kenzo's "Straight Defeat" featuring Collinjah on vocals, and Thelem's "Foul Play" with it's excitable arpeggios and walls of synthesis that throw dancefloors into dissaray. 

Not content to draw from one genre, his discography also includes continuing deviations, such as his remix of Reggae track "Show Babylon" for Reggae Roast brought warm rolling percussion alongside true appreciation for the Reggae sound. His free collaboration track with Danny Scrilla "Tread Lightly" and his "1988" EP, self released earlier this year, showcased a luscious blend of heavy 85bpm rhythms, rich 80s style synthesis and deep atmospheres, as featured within his guestmix.

With a self professed dedication to keep his music ever evolving creatively, and a natural tendency to shy away from repeating patterns or homogenisation, one seen right down to his ever fluid rhythms, it's certain that TMSV is set to surprise and delight with ever new sounds on the horizon. We had a chat with him about what is inspiring him now and how he see's his sound heading forward.

Hi Tomas, On the new Artikal compilation you've and Thelem did a remix exchange. When you got his remix of 'Cosmonaut' back, was it what you anticipated, or something completely different? How did you approach remixing Thelem's 'Shottaz'?

My last couple of 140 tunes have been very triplet-heavy. I wanted to keep the vibe of the tune intact - to make a version that wouldn’t take away from the original. I opted for a slightly tribal approach. I like percussion, as you may know, haha.

What's your favorite track on the Artikal compilation? What makes it your favorite?

Either ‘Foul Play’ by Thelem (for the reasons stated above) or ‘Coxsone Dub’ by Sleeper, because it features some sick organic-yet-digital-sounding sound design.

You've recently put together a sample pack, and mentioned that the starting point for your tune 'Myth' was building around samples, even your thesis was on sampling and copyright law. I was wondering is sampling still playing an important part with your productions now?

It definitely is, but nowadays I tend to record stuff myself or use sounds that are a little more ‘out there’: it’s good fun to kind of mangle real world, non-musical sounds into something that’s pleasing to the ear. Of course I still use a lot of sampled drum hits from breaks and that sort of stuff, and I’ve recently been getting more and more into high quality samples from vintage synths, because of their subtle (and often not so subtle) character.

I loved your 1988 EP, released on Bandcamp digitally and on limited cassettes, and also your free track with Danny Scrilla 'Tread Lightly'. What has been your inspiration for the beautiful synth work in these productions and for working at 85bpm? Can we expect more of this type of music in the near future?

I’m not sure what my inspiration is for those particular synth sounds, but I guess it’s pretty obvious that  the stuff Kromestar and Om Unit have been making at that tempo has really inspired me. I’m definitely learning to not care and just go all out with 80s style synths, even if they sound borderline cliché at times. Using more elaborate and obvious chord sequences, melodies, etc has really helped me go back to that state of mind where you use music to express yourself, not to just make sub bass focused soundsystem bangers.

Any more collabs planned or in the works?

Yeah, definitely. I can’t really say anything specific about them until they’re finished though!

“Using more elaborate and obvious chord sequences, melodies, etc has really helped me go back to that state of mind where you use music to express yourself ”

Why did you choose 1988 on cassette? Was the sound colouration of cassette a factor when choosing this format?

It was, but honestly the whole thing is more of a gimmick. I didn’t have the money to release it on vinyl, nor a guaranteed number of sales, because it’s not a dubstep release. I wanted the cassette to be an affordable physical accompaniment to the digital release, because in the end, music is to be enjoyed, but it’s cool to have something physical to hold on to when your hard drive inevitably dies. The sound colouration is pretty cool, especially as the tape starts to deteriorate, but it was never the main point of choosing cassettes. Big up LAS for pointing me in the right direction for the actual tapes, by the way.

Producing unique music across a number of genres, you talk a lot about always wanting to have variety in your music, rather than what might be expected in a genre. What for you has been the most unusual or abstract piece of music you've made, released or unreleased?

I’ve made some ambient not too long ago, which was pretty weird to produce. I had this idea about telling a sci fi story through an album’s worth of soundscapes, but that never really got off the ground as I was too busy with other things. Actually, the most unusual piece of music for me is probably the incredibly not dark and brooding house tune I made last week. I even recorded vocals for that one, which was kind of a major step for me in some ways.

There appears to be a trend of increasing more well known artists releasing on Bandcamp. What do you think appeals to artists about doing this having done it yourself? Is it anything to do with artists being able to excersise variety and true creative vision on this platform? And do you see this as a trend set to continue into the future?

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that some of the more underground music scenes are pretty much set in their ways at this point. This probably has to do with the fact that people don’t buy a lot of records right now (aside from huge major label band releases, which seem to be on the rise in a lot of places). The bigger underground labels often play it safe and go for a limited number of artists and certain types of styles and I honestly can’t fault them for that.

It’s just a nice way to get your music to the people that want to listen to it, and who want to support what you do. For me, the reason I chose Bandcamp for the 1988 EP had more to do with the fact that I had no idea how to shop it around or who to approach in order to get it out there. The creative control is cool, of course, but the main reason is just that Bandcamp, combined with a decent number of fans and social media followers, is not a bad way to get your stuff out there on whatever budget you have, without having to worry about scene politics and labels.

You first dabbled in production making DnB tunes, but shortly moved onto dubstep. Now you've making more 85bpm material, do you see you see this as a return to DnB, or something completely different?

Well a lot of the rhythmic elements can be reminiscent of drum ‘n bass, but the 85 stuff I’ve made up until now has more of a hip hop swing to it, not so much the double time sound of drum ‘n bass. DnB is cool, but I don’t see myself making a lot of it, to be honest. I used to really be into it, but it just doesn’t get to me like it did back in the day. The 160 stuff that’s around right now has a lot of the elements and characteristics from drum ‘n bass and jungle that I used to love, but to me it’s definitely more interesting than a lot of the DnB I’ve come across lately. 

You've mentioned listening to music outside of the genres you produce in, as important for inspiration. A tip echoed by Addison Groove in a recent interview. What percentage of the music you listen to is from outside these boundaries? And can you let us in on some of the music you've been listening to recently?

Almost everything I listen to has nothing to do with what I’ve made in the past couple of years, haha. Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of 4x4 and beats type stuff though, and it’s definitely been inspiring. I think it’s healthy to be inspired by music outside of the genre you produce in, to stay inspired and open-minded and to avoid musical inbreeding if you know what I mean.

I’ve been into organic and old synth sounding house music, as well as hip hop, classical music, arabic classical music, reggae, dancehall and a lot more. It’s always difficult to name the stuff you’re listening to if it always changes you know?

“it’s healthy to be inspired by music outside of the genre you produce in, to stay inspired and open-minded and to avoid musical inbreeding ”

Any future releases or projects you can tell us about?

There’s a forthcoming release on Artikal which has a couple of tunes on it that I think people really want to be able to play, so I’m excited about that. I’m also playing Paris with the Artikal guys on 19 December.

I do have to say that I find myself moving away from the dubstep type stuff I’ve always made. I realised I really needed to take a step back and re-evaluate what it is about producing music that makes me happy, what’s been keeping me from expressing myself and having fun with music. Until very recently I’d been feeling uninspired and, frankly, jaded for some time, and I noticed I kept making a lot of the same kind of music over and over again, even though my heart wasn’t in it as much as I would like it to be. That’s why I’ve decided to stop being a ‘dubstep’ or ‘bass music’ producer as such, and to take some time to allow myself to go back to making music without thinking about how it will affect my career as a producer or DJ. I don’t have a set plan or project for the future, and to be honest I haven’t been this excited about making music in years.

I will keep doing my radio show on RoodFM every 2 weeks (Thursday, 8-10 GMT. The next show is Thursday December 4th). I guess the show isn’t really gonna change a lot. It’s always been a mix of every genre I feel like playing and random guest appearances by people I think play interesting stuff.

“I don’t have a set plan or project for the future, and to be honest I haven’t been this excited about making music in years. ”

Tell us about your mix for Inflect.

I’ve never really done a full mix of music that’s not at 140, so it was interesting to see what combinations and mixes I could get away with. I think it’s a nice snapshot of the type of thing I’m into at the 85-95 BPM range. Oh and there’s some weird Dutch hip hop in there as well.

Any shout-outs?

Out to everyone who’s been supporting me and my music over the years, everyone who spent their hard earned money on my records, everyone who’s ever sent me a heartfelt message I was too disorganised to reply to, every DJ who’s played my music, everyone who’s ever booked me for a set, and everyone else I’m forgetting to mention right now. It’s difficult to explain how much all of that means to me without sounding overly cheesy, so: thank you.

Tracklist:

01. Homemade Weapons & Gremlinz ft. Collinjah - After Dark (J:Kenzo Remix) 02. TMSV - Move On 03. Om Unit ft. Tamara Blessa - Dark Sunrise (Kromestar's Lean'in Mix) 04. TMSV - Sundown 05. Busta Rhymes - Do My Thing 06. Fat Eyes - Answer Riddim 07. VGB ft. Ill Chill - Weapon System 08. TMSV - Head For Home 09. TMSV & Danny Scrilla - Tread Lightly 10. Sukh Knight - Earthed 11. TMSV - Far Away 12. De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig - Voor Jou 13. Om Unit & Kromestar - Merkabah 14. Tenor Saw - Ring the Alarm 15. Danny Scrilla - Thorium 16. Lurka - Full Clip 17. Mavado - Last Night 18. Quest - Smooth Skin 19. TMSV - Up Here 20. VGB - Shift 21. James Blake - The Whilhem Scream 22. TMSV - Blood Dragon 23. GZA - Liquid Swords

Follow TMSV on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud and Bandcamp. 

Artikal Music The Compilation is available now on vinyl and in digital formats via the Artikal Music Bandcamp.

[inflect-uk-blog]

'This project has also been a release for me, literally, healing for old wounds' Om Unit Talks Inversion, Inspirations, and Creativity

Om Unit aka Jim Coles has played a seminal role in the last decades evolution in uptempo electronic dance music. Starting off in production as his hip hop alias 2tall, he later went on to produce footwork mash up's of classic jungle releases from his younger years as the alias Philip D. Kick. Alongside Mike Paradinas of Planet Mu and Machinedrum, he recognised the power of footwork rhythms pioneered by those such as RP Boo, Traxman, DJ Rashad, DJ Spinn, DJ Earl and more, and helped introduce them to a global audience outside of it's originating city, Chicago.

Image by Jonangelo Molinari

From this, taking on the alias Om Unit, he introduced what he termed the "slow/fast" sound of meditative half time pulsing kicks combined with erratic percussion, taking the world by storm with releases via, among others, Terrorythm, Civil Music, who released his debut album "Threads", Exit Records, his own imprint Cosmic Bridge and most lately Metalheadz. 

Released in 2013 his Grey Skies Over Chicago track on Metalheadz seemed to combine the frenetic rhythms of footwork through the lense of grittier breakbeats. Ever a master of blending, evolving and sculpting his wide ranging rhythmical influences, his latest outing, the 8 track "Inversion" EP released last week, see's him look back on the Metalheadz sound, deliciously reminiscent but with a renewed and varied vigour, drawing from dub, drum n bass, jungle, footwork and his "slow/fast" approach. We hooked up with the man himself to discuss the "Inversion" EP, past, present and future sounds, the ins and outs of "slow/fast", philosophies of life, those who've inspired him and more.

Hi Jim, thanks for talking to us. As a producer we’re first aware of you working within hip hop as 2tall, but coming from a background of being a fan of early jungle. You helped bring footwork to global attention among others with your Philip D. Kick project and have since moved through the sounds of “slow/fast” before perhaps returning to roots of a kind with Metalheadz. How has Metalheadz influenced you, both early days and on signing with them recently, do you see yourself as returning to earlier influences, and what do you hope to bring anew to the Metalheadz sound, and more broadly to drum n bass?

“What I think is more important is showing people that are fans of my stuff a way into that world, and perhaps others a way out of the homogenisation. This project has also been a release for me, literally, healing for old wounds, teenage woes.”

In your debut album, on the track “Roads” you heavily featured prominent urban poet Charlie Dark discussing the paths to be taken in life, on your latest EP for Metalheadz, “Inversion”, the track “The War” features Jehst commenting on modern society, and a sample of the philosopher Alan Watts on the subject of technology and in particular the influence of tv screens on humanity. Your track titles also allude to interesting philosophical ideas, such as “Bardo Realms”, or sociological issues such as “Gentrification”. Do words play an important role in conveying meaning in your music? Do you want your music to transmit a message or guidance? What would the message be that you would most like to get across? Do you see music as a powerful tool against some of the problems in life/societies?

I think language is one of the most powerful tools we have. I choose to slip terms and ideas into the music to allow people to follow an idea if they like the sound of what is going on, or perhaps they might be curious about the terminology used, for example “Bardo Realms” refers to the Tibetan Buddhist idea of the Bardo, which is a state of consciousness immediately following death, they have that stuff down to a fine science, which I think humanity can gain a great deal of understanding by entertaining those teachings. 

I am not into manipulation or preaching so much though, and i’m also aware that people only truly hear what they want hear too, so I can’t really sit here and say “hey people the world is really fucked and you should do this and this”  and so on because then we are stepping outside the realm of art.. it’s about subtly and trying to maintain a hands off approach for me. I think Music can be a very powerful tool for whatever you intention might be.

The words in “The Road” and “The War” point to approaches or mindsets taken in life. A hard one I know, but what would you summarise your approach to life as and how does that interact with your music production?

I don’t have one single philosophy or spiritual path to share or preach about really, I’m a person who reads stuff and tries stuff and I just try to learn by experience like most people. With the music I am primarily concerned with being an artist and some of my own experiences and ideas I like to share through the art. 

What is your approach to starting a tune or beginning a creative process in general if you prefer, how do you put yourself in that creative/inspired place?

I honestly just start at the beginning and see what happens, which explains why my stuff sounds quite different from tune to tune, that it keeps it interesting. I think I like to struggle a bit each time and i’m able to be creative and inspired by being fairly detached from the outcome, and perhaps also from being detached from so much structure and daily societal doctrine in having the luxury of time on my hands (thankfully) being able to do this full time.

“I like to struggle a bit each time and i’m able to be creative and inspired by being fairly detached from the outcome”

Music has taken you across the globe touring, what has been your most memorable tour moment, and what are your thoughts on music’s ability to cross and perhaps unite differing people/cultures as perhaps the Internet takes music global more quickly?

Honestly it’s very hard to pick just one, I played in Rome to 2500 people before Jon Hopkins and honestly though I would go down like a ton of bricks but the set was very well received.. touring the US is always a crazy one, darting around time zones which messes with you’re head a bit. It’s really hard to choose any specific tour moment but 2014 in Finland swimming in the fresh water lakes with my Parter was magic. I think it’s thanks to the global sense of connectedness that mankind is starting to evolve a little bit faster, or at least has the potential to!

“I think it’s thanks to the global sense of connectedness that mankind is starting to evolve a little bit faster”

What are the most exciting producers/artists/labels at the moment for you and why?  (Doesn’t have to be electronic or even music related)

My girlfriend is my radio generally so I have to thank her for playing new music around the house as I don’t seek it very often to be honest. I like Princess Nokia, Igloo Ghost, Tehbis + Touchy Subject, the new stuff on Samurai is really good, Blocks n Escher, there’s tons of new individual tunes that i like to DJ out at the moment & I’ve got some good stuff lined up for the label in 2015 that really fits for me too.

Who are your most inspirational figures, not just music related, but perhaps philosophically, in other arts, or just in life in general? 

Baba Ram Dass, Alan Watts, Alan Moore, Rupert Shelldrake, David Bowie, Vangelis, Paramahansa Yogananda, Picasso, David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch, Kromestar, Burial, Theo Parrish, Saul Wiliams, Micheal Stearns, Lucky Spin records, Steve Gurley, Goldie, Mike James.. and on and on and ariston!

Can I perhaps ask if you have any tips for producers out there? 

To quote my good mate Ian.. “Learn other people’s chops, THEN find your own way and put that stuff out”

What do we have to look forward to from Om Unit and Cosmic Bridge in the future?

New one or two or three from me early next year and a load of new Cosmic Bridge releases!

Inversion is available to buy now on vinyl and in digital formats via the Metalheadz store and all good record/music stores. Bristol heads can also catch him playing at Basement 45 for EazeUp on 12th December, details here.

[inflect-uk-blog]

Loxy and Isotone Ever Bringing Dark DnB Forward With Latest Release on Canadian Imprint Machinist Music

Canada's Machinist Music has a history steeped in the techier, darker side of drum n bass. Setting itself as "a label that navigates the realm between techstep/hardstep of DnB's 95-02 platinum era and the DnB of tomorrow", it's owner John Rolodex recounts first being drawn to the sound in late 1995 on hearing Dillinja's "Ja Know Ya Big" and Source Direct's "Snake Style" via a late night radio show. Since then he has gone on to see releases on seminal labels such as Dread Recordings, Metalheadz, Hospital, Tech Itch Recordings and more recently V Recordings.

Going on to found his own imprint Machinist in 2010, it's fair to say one could expect to hear quality, deeper drum n bass styles coming from the Machinist camp, steeped in as rich and strong a history as it is. Cue their latest release, calling up none other than early driver in all things at the sinister side of the genre, Loxy, for track "Kaped Krusader", teaming up on the b-side with his Cylon imprint signee Isotone yet again for track "Burden".

Bringing this style to Machinist, track "Kaped Krusader" combines tight tonal hand drum richochets, weighty kicks and driving sub bass over atmospheric whirs, interrupted by intermittent edgy stabs and animal like cries to create a techy roller with a sucking depth. Second track "Burden" with Isotone recalls some of the dark warmth of their critically acclaimed "Ancients" which saw a recent Skeptical remix, with sparse sinister atmospherics and intricate drum hits countered by humanising tonal hand drums, evocative vocal chants and warm sub bass driving the whole through.

Loxy & Isotone - Burden

Loxy - Kaped Krusader

  Keep and eye on Loxy's Cylon Recordings for the release of the "Illustrations" samplers on 1st Dec as covered here, and grab "Kaped Krusader" and "Burden" available now on Machinist Music here.

[inflect-uk-blog]

Inflect003: Preview Intervision from Neuropol's Intervision EP; Bold Synthesis, Cinematic Soundscapes and Involving Uptempo Rhythms

As a Bristol born brand pushing the boundaries of uptempo electronic music for over two years, through a club night series, music website and the recently minted Inflect Audio label, Inflect is honoured to have it's third release come from fellow Bristolian talent Neuropol.

Neuropol made waves earlier this year as new signee for Shogun Audio's sister imprint SGN:LTD, with his "Warning" EP earning widespread critical acclaim. No newcomer to production, with a background taking in hip hop and various guises of electronic music, his productions combine refined skill with pioneering creative vision, garnering early support from respected electronic innovators, such as Om Unit, Rob Da Bank, Rockwell, Spectrasoul and more. His distinct sound combines bold, lush and evolving synthesis, catchy hooks, deep basslines and richly textured atmospherics with inventive, fresh rhythms that fuse elements of hip hop, drum n bass, footwork, slow/fast and more. Also showcasing his forward thinking approach to electronic music are his excellent DJ sets, taking dancefloors by storm, such as in recent sets for Shogun Audio, and as featured on Ninja Tune's Solid Steel Radio Show.

 Neuropol's second EP, the "Intervision" EP, gets off to a powerful start with "Eye Don't Know", in which rhymical plays of heavy half time kicks and ricocheting, erratic 808 hits run amidst inventive powerful synth stabs and soft lilting swells, interspersed by catchy vocal licks. "Co Extinct" continues in form with a bold steppers rhythm, sweeping cinematic melodies with added depth and flickering acid lines. Title track "Intervision" alternates between light and dark, moving from evocative soundscapes, emotive vocal cries and a moving piano line, into an intense interplay of thudding jabs and urgent stabs, whilst "Night Sky Whispers" ramps up the pace with a full throttle drum n bass beat amongst stunningly cinematic strings and growling mid line.

Continuing to reinforce Neuropol as one to watch in the ever diversifying realm of uptempo electronic music, the "Intervision" EP will be released in digital formats on Inflect Audio on 1st December 2014.

Neuropol - Intervision (Clip)

Neuropol - Intervision EP Sampler

[inflect-uk-blog]

Boxcutter Teams Up With Belfast Based Defcon for Seventh Release on his Kinnego Imprint

Boxcutter returned this week with a new collaboration EP with Belfast based Defcon, the "New Yen" EP released on Boxcutter's own imprint Kinnego. 

In EP title track "New Yen", jazzy, lounge synths lusciously drift amongst morphing footwork-like erratic 808 drum hits and intricate synth interplays. Ken & Ryu, previous collaborator on "Dream Gator" from the "Gnosis" EP return for "Phonetic Flex", switching beautiful melodies up with tight and flickering breakbeats, whilst jazz and broken beat influenced Kaidi Tatham joins for track "Skylights", a beautifully sparkling melodic work out. The highlight of the EP for us however is "Egypt". The darker side of the EP, it takes more from hip hop rhythms, combined with a deep sparseness filled by a rumbling sub and atmospheric breathy flute line, climbing to an energetic climax of spasmodic drum edits.

We hope to hear more from Boxcutter, Defcon and the rest of the Kinnego roster soon, and for those in London, Boxcutter will be playing at The Laundry alongside fellow Planet Mu artist Venetian Snares tomorrow (Saturday 15th November). 

Boxcutter & Defcon - New Yen EP

The "New Yen" EP is available now in digital formats via the Kinnego Records Bandcamp page.

[inflect-uk-blog]

Inflect Picks: Best Free Music Oct/Nov

In the digital world there is always an ever growing body of free music available for those who seek it, here is our round up of freebies that have caught our attention this past month.

Sully - Low Res

Danny Scrilla - Singularity

Thanks to social media milestones there is often a great excuse to grab free tracks given out by artists. October saw Danny Scrilla offer up freebie “Singularity” on reaching 1000 Twitter followers, featuring that characteristic bold half step beat and morphing lead line, a track that leaves the listener encased in that full bodied cocoon of dark yet warm Scrilla synthesis. Giving double cause for celebration, his self released "Monolith" EP is also out now, and it’s truly stunning. Varied and captivating, we can’t get enough of the shimmering emotive pads and dubby aesthetic of “Hindsight”, the skilled morphing and involving leads of “The Rift” and two of the darkest tunes we’ve heard from Danny Scrilla since “X”, in the acid line wizardry of “Illumination” and the weighty tumbling sub and tribalesque rhythms of “Shai-Halud”. "Monolith" doesn’t need to be free, it’s essential, and with another EP for Cosmic Bridge on the horizon we’re looking forward to hearing more Scrilla soon. Both "Singularity" and the Monolith EP are available via his Bandcamp page.

Sampha - Too Much (Spectrasoul Bootleg)

Another social media milestone was met in October by Spectrasoul, who thanked fans with a sinister drum n bass roller bootleg of Sampha’s “Too Much".

Ivy Lab Bootlegs and Stray's "Since You've Been Gone" Mixtape

Meanwhile another bootleg has materialised from Ivy Lab, who turned their attention to Cam’Ron’s “Oh Boy”, stripping it back, chopping the vocal and adding creative rhythmic plays and a brutal sub in the latest offering to promote their 20/20 London club series, whilst member Stray has produced 11 stunning hip hop tracks from his archive, in the touchingly named "Since You've Been Gone Mixtape".

Plastician Launches Terrorythm Elements Free Series With Daffy and Max Baer

Plastician's Terrorhythm label have announced a free off shoot label series recently, entitled Terrorhythm Elements. The first release “Onyx” comes from Bristol based Daffy and Maxx Baer, with tracks “Summer Falls” and “Master Sword”, both unashamedly, blissful, melodic and bold trap. Whilst they may be an acquired taste for some, there is no doubt this definitely is unique and fresh, perfectly suited to Terrorhythm and Plasticians uncompromising and forward thinking approach to music that has him driving trends years ahead of time. With a back catalogue that saw Om Unit’s first release under that moniker, a free series from Terrorhythm is bound to throw up such gems.

Pixelord's Hyperboloid Free Offshoot Series Internet Ghetto

Pixelord's Hyperboloid label followed on from it's Internet Ghetto compilation with the launch of an all free series with it's own Soundcloud page. Internet Ghetto freebies have been a diverse take on underground electronic music, with four tracks made available in October alone, and a further two featured since in November. Ranging from warm, soft garage from Pixelord in “Sinking Ship” featuring the soulful harmonies of Fifi Rong, plus his beautiful remix of Ryan Hemsworth's "Walk Me Home" through the spacey, neon footwork of Azeriff and BVKΣDMILK's “Halfway” and bold yet atmospheric hip hop and trap styles from Saddest Bot Alive, it's a series well worth following.

More Great Free Tracks from All Roads

K-AZE aka Lemon D's All Roads has been regularly offering up surprise and top quality free tracks on and off since its inception. In the run up to a soon expected and eagerly awaited compilation, we have had 3 free tracks on offer from the All Roads camp, a gritty footwork piece in “Your Love Is….” from K-AZE himself, a deeper, stripped back, breakbeat laden jungle footwork re-edit of Shawn T’s “Kiss Me” off his "Country Livin'" EP, the first on All Roads, and a pointing forward with the soulful, bubbling footwork of “Wonderful” by Footmerc, an artist set to appear on said compilation.

Polish Juke - Exclusive Series

Polish Juke, a label and collective pushing the sounds of footwork producers from Poland, have always offered their releases for free or pay as you like on Bandcamp, and lately have released "Danzig in the Ghetto" by Rhythm Baboon, one for those who like their footwork beats with dark and wonky aesthetics. Another reason to keep an eye on Polish Juke for free music is their Exclusives series. One of our favourite tracks to come from the label was released via the series two months ago, the hardcore leaning footwork rush that is Fidser's “B.U.K.”, and the latest, #6, comes in form with unsettled dubby half time in “TELE” by TVB. Be sure to follow Polish Juke for new names rising.

New Footwork Inspired Takes on Hardcore from Footwork Jungle Blog X Dred Collective

Speaking of hardcore, the comprehensive Footwork Jungle Blog and Dred Collective, who’s owner we interviewed recently here (including a great footwork mix from label signee's Beach Club and Relic), have joined forces to offer the Rave 2.0 compilation. Asking a number of producers (including Fidser) to produce a track being their take on modern footwork combined with past sounds of “rave”. The result is a glorious frenzy of mentasms, acid lines, sirens, major chord piano lines, clattering breaks, vocal chops, dotted tumbling 808s and more, pure feel good at velocity. Some of our favourite tracks include Homesick’s “Lolrave” which, with its deep sub pulses, wailing diva, and angry mentasms, harks back to hardcore’s dark side transition, RedHat’s “TmrW”, with its deep, dubby jungle sound, and 5ifty$ix K’s wildly erratic breakbeat edits contasting with a smooth jazzy Rhodes in “Nice Rhodes Mix”.

Sweatson Klank - More Butts Than Ashtrays

Coming with a disclaimer not to take this track too seriously, October saw a free track from Sweatson Klank, “More Butts Than Ashtrays”. Complete with heavy rumbling sub, hip hop swagger, it's not bad for a joke!

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'Never be predictable, never play it safe' Doc Scott Talks Past, Present and Future Beats

When it comes to the evolution of drum n bass, few can claim to have seen and influenced so much as Doc Scott. As a DJ he has been mixing and recording mixtapes since the 80's, before dance music soar to recognition, gaining his name as Doc Scott as friends likened going to him for mixtapes to getting their music prescription, a practice we can still look to him today for, with his Future Beats radio show paving the way for the freshest sounds in DnB and beyond. His sets have graced venues across the world for over two decades, everything from 90s raves to superclubs, including the hugely influential Metalheadz Blue Note sessions.

As a producer he has been a leading figure in the darkside styles of drum n bass. Taking influences from an early love of hip hop, and then techno, he has infused drum n bass with an edgier, darker side from the early 90's, with seminal unforgettable releases such as "Here Come the Drumz" and "Shadow Boxing" under his alias Nasty Habits. 

His activities haven't stopped at DJing and producing, using his skills as a selector to further showcase some of the freshest sounds, he launched Metalheadz with Goldie, later going on to start his own label 31 Records. Now relaunched as 31 Recordings after a short hiatus, the label has returned afresh alongside Doc Scott's renewed vigour for an ever diversifying genre. With releases from fresh faces such as Thing, Gremlinz, Hidden Turn and more, besides an incredible remix of "Shadow Boxing" by Om Unit (admittedly no easy feat) the label has shown it's ability to showcase "Future Beats", and it isn't stopping there.

Future Beats the Album is forthcoming in, all being well, December. Showcasing 24 tracks from 24 artists pushing the boundaries of drum n bass, including 6 "non drum n bass" artists. The release will be produced as a very limited edition 6 vinyl boxset, besides other formats. We hooked up with Doc Scott himself to have a chat about the past, present and future beats to come.

Hi, and thanks for speaking with us. We read that your first ever gig was apparently at a rave in the early 90s for which the organisers were arrested, alot has changed since the early days of the free party and illegal rave scenes, how have your experiences of gigs, DJing and touring changed with this? What are your thoughts on free parties?

“the one thing that is constant though is that all a good party really needs is an open minded crowd and a good sound system.”

What has been your most memorable gig, where was your favourite place to DJ and would you prefer short 1 hour sets, or longer several hour sets these days?

Hard to pull out one memorable gig but the ones that come to my mind are playing twice at the Eclipse in 1992 at a Boxing day party, playing in the Ninja Tune tent at 6am at Tribal gathering in 1996/7, my first time in Tokyo in 1996 with Ed Rush & Randall, New Years eve 1999 in Melbourne, Kemistry 10 year memorial gig in 2007. theres loads, I could go on forever.

My favourite place to play, in the UK is Fabric, I love America and always have a soft spot for New Zealand. 

I still prefer longer sets, 2-3 hours is ideal.

Having seen so much of the evolution of electronic music, both musically and in the culture surrounding it, what do you think is the most surprising/striking change to have happened? With a radio show called "Future Beats" is your focus mostly on moving forward and embracing the new, or are there aspects of the past you also feel have been lost or overlooked? 

I think the biggest change, and in some ways it can be a negative, is how accessible the music it is, its everywhere and theres tons of it. Theres no filter anymore and people are spoilt in my opinion with the amount out there and how easy it is to access it. Anyone can produce an EP, throw it out there and call it a release, as I said thats good thing and  a bad thing. Theres need to be more restraint and more quality control.

The ‘future Beats’ thing is absolutely about embracing the new, new ideas, new artists, but, some of the best music out there is the music that can take something from the past and reinvent it, when a track or artist reminds me of Krust or Photek, that cant be a bad thing right? 

“some of the best music out there is the music that can take something from the past and reinvent it, when a track or artist reminds me of Krust or Photek, that cant be a bad thing right?”

You get sent hundreds of demos on a regular basis. What's your process for going through all this music? How do you choose tracks to play on your show, live and to sign? And do you have any tips for people wanting to send you demos?

I get sent anywhere between 150 - 250 tracks a week, i set aside an afternoon and go through everything, I have a first cut, anything interesting goes into a 2nd folder, I then go through that and listen more intently, I then sort out the tunes that will either be for the radio or my DJ sets, I keep everything Im sent, you miss stuff and theres no greater feeling hearing someone like Loxy drop something and think, “i got this but I missed it". It happens when you get sent so much stuff. It can be a long afternoon, but, there are joys to be had from finding amazing music in your inbox every week, especially from artists you’ve never heard of before, thats the real joy.

One of the best things thats happened in recent years is that i get sent so much non dnb now, i think the radio show has shown i am completely open minded and yes I am a dnb DJ, but i will play anything if its good.

Tips for sending demos, please don’t send me everything you’ve ever done in the first folder, send me, in your opinion, your 3 - 4 best tracks, theres nothing more over whelming than when someone you don’t know sends you a folder with 15+ tracks in.

Do you also kindly have any tips for those who'd like to try and make a living out of music? Either production or DJing. 

Be yourself, its so important, yes of course be influenced by people you like, but theres a fine line between influence and copying. Your personality should come through as a DJ or producer, don’t pander and be true to what you believe in, if you fail at least you failed being honest. 

Ive always said theres 1000s of disc jockeys out there and a handful of DJs. If you understand that you get what I mean.

With all this electronic music to get through, do you find time to listen to/do you listen to any other genres of music? 

Yes, barely, Im a huge techno fan and I would say I listen to techno more than anything,  I like to listen to hip hop, although I mostly listen to old stuff now from the 80s and 90s, I love to listen to film soundtracks and I enjoy listening to artists Ive never heard of before but are recommended to me, Im very open minded and can find musical influence from anything.

You've been DJing and producing since before Drum n Bass' inception, and kept at it as it has been from popular to pronounced dead by mainstream magazines, and back, time and time again. What has kept you enthusiastic about drum n bass, what is special about it, where have you seen its originality coming from over the years and who is pushing the boundaries into further fresh sounds today? Where do you see things going in the future if you dare to predict?

Well its true, dnb has been popular in the mainstream press and declared dead about 5 times now, I see MOS has just dropped all there dnb radio shows so it must be dead again. The originality of the music is what I love about it, the fact that outsiders never really understand it and the fact that after all the years, all the knocks, its still here, it will always be here and it will never go away. Its that what keep me enthusiastic about it.

There have been times though when Ive been frustrated with the scene, when I felt it wasn’t being true to itself, it was going through the motions, at least from my perspective, there was a time when the scene was putting out some really generic and boring music. I need dnb to be true to itself, which is never be predictable, never play it safe, take risks and push boundaries, thats what the core elements of dnb is, thats what we did at reinforced records and then Metalhadz, as long as music is produced with these core values, dnb will always be here and so will I. 

There are many people pushing the music right now, dnb has never been healthier and there great music across all the sub genres, although I do hate that term, its all dnb to me. I think if you look out our own label 31, Metalheadz, Exit ,Soul:R, Dispatch, Narratives, critical, symmetry,  etc … thats where the future is.

“never be predictable, never play it safe, take risks and push boundaries, thats what the core elements of dnb is ”

With 31 Recordings being one of our favourite labels pushing the freshest uptempo music, we are really excited and holding our breath for the 31 Recordings Future Beats Compilation! So far there's been little information out there besides it featuring 24 tracks which will all be on vinyl. Can you tell us any more about the compilation, how it came about, how you chose tracks for it, any news on release dates, whether there will be samplers and why it is important for you that it all be on vinyl?

Well the idea has always been there to do an album, from years ago but Ive never felt 100% committed to doing it, and if thats the case it was best not to do it. I think Im just in the right place in my life where I could do it properly. I have a great man behind me,  Chris Parkinson, who is helping me run the label now since we brought it back after a 3 year hiatus. The time felt right. 

The concept is pretty simple, I wanted it to be a dnb album, but more than that, a dnb album that hopefully will appeal to a wider audience, beyond dnb and into other electronic music worlds. so we have 18 dnb people, 6 non dnb people. The concept is simple, its music by people I like and respect. I basically asked everyone whose on it if they would be up for contributing a track to this project called “future Beats : the album” - I said you can make whatever you want, Im a huge fan of you and your music and it would be an honour if you were on board, pretty much everyone I asked said yes and came back with some amazing music, I feel truly lucky and blessed. I can’t thank the artists involved enough.

We have people like Calibre, Marcus Intalex, Klute who I guess represent the old 31, we have Vromm, Thing, Hidden Turn who represent the new 31, then we have Loxy & Resound, Bungle, Ruffhouse who represent people who I just love in dnb, then we have Jkenzo, Ital Tek, House of Black Lanterns who represent non dnb I guess, again people who I admire greatly and I love their music. Thats just a taster of whose on it, as you already know its 24 tracks by 24 artists.

As of right now, we are hoping for a December release but we are in the hands of the pressing plants, we want to release all formats at the same time so  fingers crossed. Its finished and its ready to go.

Ive always wanted, as far back as I can remember, to appeal outside the dnb world, Ive always felt that dnb at its purist is an extension of techno, I have a lot of friends in the techno world, a lot of people I look up to and Ive never ever wanted to be embarrassed about a tune I play, or make or put out in front of anybody. 

Im confident that i could play in a techno club, a 140 night, whatever and wherever,  and I have done so.

Future beats is dnb, its everything, its whatever you want it to be, but at the end of the day, its hopefully just good music, and good music should appeal to everyone, 

“Ive always wanted, as far back as I can remember, to appeal outside the dnb world, Ive always felt that dnb at its purist is an extension of techno ”

You have spoken of having 7 year cycles in your music production, with one coming to fruition this year, can we expect a Doc Scott EP or some interesting collaborations in the near future?

I hope so, I never not want to make music, i always have ideas, getting those ideas down and into a form that makes you happy is another thing.

I have a very simple rule, if I can’t make anything thats better or at least as good as anything I’ve made, then its not worth putting out, and beside I’m not a producer anyway, Im a Dj. 

Shadow Boxing has sold over 30,000 vinyl copies since release, a staggering number in this day and age. What are your thoughts on musical formats, how the internet is shaping the business, distribution and promotional sides of music, and about the role vinyl has now, with 31 Recordings being a strong vinyl label?

Well, Im glad i made music when I did as you could make some money from it then, but in all seriousness, its difficult, especially if you’re running a label, we support vinyl as theres a core audience out there that want it, as long as they are there we will support, what doing vinyl releases does is it forces you not to just chuck anything out there , which is a good thing. Digital only releases allows labels to chuck any old garbage out there, and they do. 

The internet, as everyone knows is a blessing and a curse, for getting info out there and finding stuff out its great, for piracy its a nightmare.

“ I have a very simple rule, if I can’t make anything thats better or at least as good as anything I’ve made, then its not worth putting out, and beside I’m not a producer anyway, Im a Dj.”

Who is the most exciting producer for you right now, and what are the fresh sounds you are feeling at the moment? 

I would have to say Vromm, this guy has come from nowhere and frightened the life out of me and many in the dnb world, especially Teebee :)

What else is next for yourself and the label?

For me, just keep on trucking, stay true to myself and keep spreading the music to as many people as I can.  thats why i do this, its why Ive always done this from when I was 14 years old handing out mixtapes to my friends at school in 1985. Im going to China in the new year, never been before, so its still exciting, theres still places to go and people to win over, its that that keeps me going. 

For the label, hopefully lots more music that people will find interesting, enjoyable and inspiring.

Follow Doc Scott and 31 Recordings for more information on forthcoming releases, including the Future Beats album, and keep your eyes peeled for the imminent launch of the 31 Recordings store. In the meantime you can hear Sinistarr's contribution to the album in Doc Scott's latest Future Beats radio show below. 

Doc Scott Facebook, Soundcloud and Twitter.

31 Recordings Facebook, Soundcloud, Twitter and YouTube.

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Preview Machinedrum's Forthcoming Vapor City Archives LP

Following on from his critically acclaimed “Vapor City” LP, and a glut of free releases made available to Vapor City “citizens” via the mailing list sign up, Machinedrum returns this month with an LP of new material, the “Vapor City Archives”. The new LP will be released on 17th November, in the meantime previews have been made available via the Ninja Tune website.

"Electronic music’s Renaissance man Travis Stewart, better known as Machinedrum, brings his Vapor City project to a close with this final chapter in the sprawling epic – Vapor City Archives. Paying close heed to the spirit of the Vapor City community he forged and nurtured, Stewart chose to announce this new record via the global community created when he invited listeners into his personal dream world dubbed “Vapor City”.

Constructed around his vision of an imaginary city with fully-realized districts, the year-long Vapor City project was founded upon Machinedrum’s critically acclaimed album of the same name and supplemented with a worldwide live tour, a string of satellite EPs, remixes and free download drops to subscribers to the Vapor City Citizenship programme. This final installment sees the talismanic producer deliver 10 brand new, exclusive productions alongside fresh artwork from the project’s art directors: LuckyMe’s Dom Flannigan and Éclair Fifi.

Once again experimenting in soundscapes between footwork (“Safed”, ”Only 1 Way 2 Know”), hip-hop and jungle/drum&bass (“More Than Friends”,”Boxoff”) to forge a unique sound that he has come to own, Stewart creates a subtle homage that nods to the past while staying firmly future-facing.”

Machinedrum - Only 1 Way 2 Know

You can preview the rest of the tracks, at Ninja Tune's website, here

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Dub Phizix Launches Senka Sonic Label with His and Strategy's Buffalo Charge

The hotly anticipated dance floor smasher that is Dub Phizix and Strategy’s “Buffalo Charge” was launched last Monday via the Bandcamp page for Dub Phizix’s new label imprint Senka Sonic.

The duo have a proven track record of making killer collaboration tracks, “Marka” being a hard tune to forget, and with the wonky playful beats, electronic squeals, and tight chopped MCing of “Buffalo Charge” driving dance floors crazy over recent weeks they have surely done it again. Accompanying track “Bounce” from Dub Phizix also stands up strong, as listeners are induced to bounce along to light, snappy and pattering drums, driven along by a perfectly contrasting bold, weighty sub line.

There’s little information on where Dub Phizix intends to take his new imprint, so fans will have to wait for more, but it’s off to a charging start for sure!

"Buffalo Charge" and "Bounce" are available now in digital formats and on vinyl via the Senka Sonic Bandcamp page and in all good stores.

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Episode 1 in Cylon Recordings 'Illustrations' Unleashes Four DnB Monsters

'Illustrations' is a multi-part LP set to be released over the next few months on Dylan & Loxy's 'Cylon Recordings'.

It was back last summer, that on their Facebook page they released an impressive list of artists to feature on the 'Illustrations LP' including DBridge, Homemade Weapons, Skeptical, and Indigo just to name a few.

Nov 24th will see the release of 'Samplers 1 & 2' of the LP, and is lead by minimal drum n bass mainstays Loxy, Resound, and Skeptical with their track 'Choices', a deep dark roller with layers of intricate percussion. Also featured is Pessimist & Understate, and Ruffhouse, delivering equally insanely subby and atmospheric pieces, with a common theme of departing away from the standard 2-step DnB beat and into more forward thinking rhythmic territories. 

Our favourite here however comes from Gremlinz & No Rules with their track 'Water'. It's an absolute monster, painted with an impressive pallet of sound design. Dark, percusssive delayed stabs, wind and twist through granular-esque flutters, crackles, and haunting sweeps, all coming together to form this undead beast of a track.

You can listen to the rest of the tracks, and pre-order 'Illustrations Episode 1's two part vinyls individually, or as part of a bundle, complete with Cylon Recordings T-Shirt, from the Samurai Music Group on-line shop here.

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Coleco's 11 Totally Random Music Production Tips

These are ideas and techniques, some you might already know, some you might not, some you might think are plain batsh*t crazy. But you'll just have to bear with me...

I wouldn't want to call myself an 'expert' at music production or engineering, or feel I have any real authority on it compared to a lot of other people. I'm just a producer like you, trying to be the best I can be, and learning some tricks along the way. But, I've been in this game for quite a few years now. I want to share just some of the tricks I have learnt with you.

1. Smashing And Clipping Those Transients

The theory is you get the power of that drum popping hard, but less of the nasty extreme transient. Of course if you're clipping that thing right above digital 0db, it's just gonna square off and sound nasty. But tape or tube emulations are particularly good with this as they 'clip' or 'saturate' in such a softer, and more musical way. I might even softly limit it afterwards, just to catch any peaks that might have slipped through, or tame the rest of the transient I don't want to sound too saturated. Of course, don't overdo it, but if you get the balance right, I find it's a way of achieving those drum sounds you hear that have such a crazy punch, but not nasty or too overwhelming. You might disagree if you listen to my productions, but hey, we all differ in taste. Obviously the same thing is achievable in the hardware domain, and it can be done to varying levels of extremity.

2. EQing In Reverse, Yes You Heard Me Right

Something I've heard a few professional engineers do, is export their mix (a drum track, or the whole mix), reverse them (play them backwards), then do some EQing. This sounds mad I know, but think of it like this: When you're listening to your track normally, you have all the transients aggressively 'popping' at you, especially the louder you have it. This causes your ears to focus on them, (as well as to get tired). When played backwards, you're more likely to just hear the general tone of the music rather than transients themselves, as they're a lot slower and less aggressive. It also allows you to disassociate yourself from the music and listen to it more purely as a “sound”. This can all lead to better EQing and even leveling. Save your preset from the reversed mix, and apply it to your normal mix. Try it!

3. Turn the lights off! (And The Screen)

Every so often, more often than we do, we should take a moment to listen to our productions without all other stimuli and sensations coming at us. When you're looking at the boxes on the screen, and the play line running across, or even staring at the lava lamp on your desk (who even has one of those any more?), you're looking at those things AND listening to the music, not JUST listening to the music. Take some time to turn the screen off. Close your eyes. Even turn off the lights! Immerse yourself in it, meditate on it if you will, take time to really enjoy the experience, and you're more likely to know exactly what's right and wrong.

4. Ram That Compressor Threshold Down

It might sound crazy to some but turning the compression threshold down (and the gain up) to extreme amounts can actually be a great way of A: learning to compress well, and B: actually compressing something well. The thing is, when the compressor is working really hard, that's the time you can really hear what it's doing. You can then experiment with the attack and release functions and really hear where 'that nice pop is' or 'that nice little release suck-back is'. Then you can turn your threshold back up to where you want it to start to compress, and adjust the ratio as a 'compression amount' dial. I find you can even get away with much less compression that way as you can get closer to what you want it to do in the first place, without compressing too hard. It goes into more detail with this technique where I learnt it from, in a wonderful book called “Mixing with your Mind” by Michael Stavrou.

5. The Power of The Hypnagogic State

Hypnagogia as the good ol' wiki puts it is “the experience of the transitional state from wakefulness to sleep” I'm not a neuroscientist so I'm not going to go too deep. I'll say it more like a drunk music geek down the pub probably would. It's basically a slumber state at which you can experience heightened creativity. Have you ever been just drifting off to sleep after a studio session and suddenly a great melody line pops into your head, so you just have to get out of bed and add it in? The reasons for this are complicated and a bit mysterious, but scientists point towards it being something to do with heightened alpha and theta brain waves, amongst other things. In this state you can experience visions that you can mould with your own thoughts, hear and sculpt beautiful music, or even transition into altered states of consciousness. But besides all the stuff a lot of people might pass off as 'hippie crap', it has been proven to be a tool of our most celebrated creative minds. Salvador Dali was said to come up with a lot of his paintings when experiencing hypnagogic visions. Thomas Edison was said to hold ball bearings in his hand whilst taking naps, so that when he fell asleep, the balls would drop and wake him up, enabling him to stay in a sustained hypnagogic state, and come up with some of his most novel inventions. Even Machinedrum has reported sourcing inspiration from his dreams and Venetian Snares produced a LP “recorded quite literally when he was falling asleep”. My guess is that this is why a lot of producers are 'night owls' who do a lot of music in the dark hours, enhancing the possibility of those creative brain waves.

Well how can we use this? My ideas are: Keep a book or computer near your bed so you can jot down ideas that come up at this time. Unless you're really gonna mess up your day routine, don't be scared to jump back out of bed and do a little sketch into the sequencer of what popped into your mind. If you're not near the sequencer, hum that line or beat box those drums into a phone recording. It will probably be one of the best ideas you've ever had!

6. Don't Neglect 200-300hz!

200-300hz has become in some circles like an ugly swamp monster. “There's loads of mud down there” is what people say, and you're encouraged most of the time to take it all out. Yes, sometimes it is a bit wishy washy down there, but in a lot of cases, it's one of the areas that with the right content, helps bring tracks to life. It's where all the warmth and character of a lot of sounds is. I made this mistake SO much when EQing 70's drum breaks, I used to notch up around that area, to hear what it was doing, hear a load of humming and rumbling, and then notch it all back out. Then I would A to B with the original break and wonder my new version was thin, cold, and had lost all it's character. Treat that area with respect, tame and work with it, rather than slashing away at it, and you music will love you for it.

7. A-B, A-B, A-B!! And Lose Your Pride

This to me is one of the most important things of getting a mix sound right to the best of my ability. The usefulness of A-Bing can not be under-estimated. It's common practice with professional engineers, and we often forget to do it regularly. Take say, 5 or 6 tracks, from pro-producers in your genre (or as close as you can get). People whose mixes and productions you really admire. Pick the ones that are as close to your tune in content as possible ie. “Do they have dry, electronic sounding drums? Do they have a distorted bass line? A prominent vocal line? Ah! My track has all that, great.” Get it close without going OTT with it, and then put them into their own tracks your DAW at a similar level to where you're currently sitting with your mix. Then get A-Bing and A-Bing with different tracks. Close your eyes whilst you flip between and really try to get a feel for what's wrong, and what's right.

You can do the obvious solo/mute technique. I use a plugin called Magic A-B by Samplemagic, because you can load tons of tracks in at once, set up loop points, set individual levels so they all sound of similar volume, and you can even set presets. I put it as the last thing on my master channel and the transition when A-Bing is so smooth when compared to soloing the reference tracks and hearing all your midi/sounds judder in awkwardly when using the solo/mute way.

The most important thing: Lose the pride! A-Bing should be used lots and lots, and it doesn't mean you're not a good producer! And it doesn't mean you are copying! Professional engineers do this all the time. It's called 'Referencing'. Imagine it like knowing where you are in relation to something else. If you can see Nelsons Column and the surrounding buildings, you know you're near Trafalgar Square. If they weren't there, you wouldn't know where you are or where you're headed.

8. Using 'Good' Plugins and Hardware (Colouration)

One important thing I've learnt is using the right plugins or hardware for the job. There's so many producers out there just using the standard in-the-DAW Eqs and compressors for example. If it works for them, and they're happy, and their music sounds great, then that's great! I'm well aware that some amazing producers use very basic software. But the 'magic' or colouration that some of the higher grade plugins or hardwares introduce can be a real influence on whether you stand out from the rest or not. Why do you think lots of pro-producers are hard pressed to give away knowledge of exactly what they use? There are always free, cheap, or in-the-DAW plugins that do absolutely fantastic jobs. But there's also stuff out there, in all price ranges that introduce wonderful, musical colouration when applying them to your sounds. Be it EQs, compressors, reverb, or even your plain channel strip emulation. I use a lot of my favourite tape and tube emulation to give colour to a sound. Some of the EQ emulation and channel strip plugins I use immediately add a magic to the sound without even dialing anything in! The same goes for hardware, depending on your budget. We know Boards of Canada get a lot of magic into their sound by running lots of stuff through real tape machines, and that's something I've also been doing for a while. It's all the same thing, but it depends on the effect you're after of course.

9. Put A Plant On Your Desk

There some scientific evidence to suggest that putting a plant, or flowers on your desk, can increase well being, and even creativity. People with desk jobs who have plants around them have been shown to be more productive with novel ideas. Recovery times of hospital patients has been shown to be reduced when they can see trees or greenery out the window. It seems sticking plants on your desk (and not just the ones you can smoke) might give us that little creative boost we sometimes need. Just don't forget to water them! I first heard of the actual evidence for this in a book called “59 Seconds” by Professor Richard Wiseman.

10. Limiting Your Channels (Yes, It's OK)

A lot of people making electronic music would think that limiting lots of individual channels is sacrilege. An absolute no-no. “You're taking away all of the dynamic range man!” And then they go and whack -7db limiting on their master channel. Limiting isn't just for the master channel. Limiting on channels when used subtly, and with a soft hand, can be a great creative mixing tool. In my opinion, it's much better to take any erratic peaks off signals at the channel stage, rather than letting everything else get pushed down by them when they hit the master limiter. You can also use it to get some elements more up front, without increasing the overall level too much. Also, if you're into it, clever channel limiting is I'm sure one of the tricks in the box of some producers who create 'massive' sounding tunes that tear through sound systems and dance floors.

11. Know Your Canvas / The 5 Dimensional Box

When you're a painter, you have to know your canvas, in terms of it's size, and shape. If you don't know that, you'll be either painting right in the middle of the canvas and leaving a load of white space round the edges by accident, or going straight off the edge of the easel and putting splatters of paint all over the wall behind like a lunatic. Additionally, you need to know where you're painting so you don't start painting new figures straight over the top of the ones you've done before.

I know what you're thinking “These are the ramblings of a mad man”, and that it's easy right? You can see the canvas there in front of you! But with audio it's not so easy. It's not quite there in front of you. It's more like a ghost between the speakers. Like a psychoacoustic illusion.

I want to know what 'space' or 'canvas' I have to work with. I also want to know where I can put things so they aren't going to over-lap or turn into a messy blob. This is why when I'm producing I like to imagine a 'box' (albeit with a few more dimensions than we're used to conceiving). Some imaginary space I know I can paint my sounds across in.

If you're not a visual thinker, this might not work for you, but imagine a box that you can place things in, in separate positions, just like a 3D cube, yet this one has a few more dimensions we can also place things along. As I'm looking at this '5 dimensional box', (assuming we're working in stereo) from left to right is panning. We realise quickly that sounds panned hard left, and hard right, become completely sonically isolated, but the same occurs to a certain degree, when positioning things right across the panning spectrum. That's one basic 'dimension' right there. But I like to think of 'stereo width' as a related, but almost entirely different dimension in itself. A common way of producing this illusion of stereo width on a sound (along with chorus and other similar effects) is using a plugin which slightly offsets the left channel, from the right, with a delay of just a few milliseconds. But even if you have one sound in mono, sitting in the centre of the stereo field, and another sound still centre, but with some 'width' to it, the brain starts to perceive them as separate sounds all together. Even a new sound that is panned within boundaries of the 'width' of the wider sound, appear slightly separate itself. I've heard producers commonly layering a snare in centre mono, with a clap that is centre 'widened' as a way to achieve a 'bigger' sound, yet they appear as two separate sounds, and this can be applied to all sounds and instruments. Even sounds with varying amounts of stereo width, appear to be in different sonic spaces.

From top to bottom in this box, is amplitude, or rather, and more specifically, how 'loud' a sound appears to be. It might seem obvious, but say you have 2 separate instruments going along in parallel (for example a string and a horn), at exactly the same sense of loudness. Yes, the brain can usually tell them apart pretty well. After all, it's used to the differing timbres of the instruments, and perhaps they sometimes play different pitches. But it has an even easier time if they are different volumes, especially if their dynamics are fluctuating, the brain has it's way of going “Yes, that's definitely a different sound.” and they therefore give the illusion of appearing more isolated from each other. Producers who use lots of sound layering to beautiful effect, might have say, a quiet pad line, a slightly louder arpeggio, under a slightly louder lead line, and the mind can easily tell they're separate, yet interacting elements. “Not everything has to be loud and up front.”

The 'depth' of this box, moving away from me I see as reverb (or some types of delay). Dry sounds are always immediately up to the front. Wetter, more reverberant often move further back into the background. Dry and very wet sounds together give the brain the illusion that they are in completely separate spaces. The same goes for sounds which have reverbs of more extremely different 'sizes' or decay times, and even reverbs that have differing stereo widths! Try having a reverb in mono along side really wide reverb and see the effect. Although physically impossible in real life, in the magic world of digital audio we can experiment with some really weird effects and ways of isolating things.

The other obvious 'dimension' is EQ. I can't fit it into a 3D box, so I'm just imagining another dimension going off, on which I can place audio. With two sounds, that have both been band passed, at different places on the frequency spectrum, we make them sound very sonically isolated from one and other. But also with a sound made very thin, layered over a very thick one, they appear separate too. The possibilities are almost limitless, especially when you're also looking at mid/side EQing. Experiment with EQing way beyond just positioning elements or making it all sound nice, use it as an effect! Think about your canvas, whether you've overfilling it, or whether there's too much stuff in one place. Obviously things are going to overlap, inter-wind, or even merge for musical effect, but you can have so much control when you know exactly what space you have to put things in.

I suppose there are more 'dimensions' when you get into the realms of holophonic (which you need headphones for really), or surround sound (which most clubs don't have, let alone a stereo system sometimes!) but I'll leave it there. You may also imagine it different to me, this is just my way. Perhaps if nothing else, it'll help you create your own way of seeing things, and you can create your own mental canvas.

Oh, and I know what you're thinking “You forgot about time!”... well let's just say this box is moving through time like 3D space is. Aside from dynamics and composition, It's just one way I try and get a picture of what's going on in front of me.

Coleco's Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/coleco

[inflect-uk-blog]

More Different Uptempo Beats from Diffrent Music

Diffrent Music have yet again brought to the table, well, something different. Their latest release features Russian artists Andy Pain and Z-Connection aka Segment, with a track each of differing styles. Andy Pain’s “Take It” is a stunning piece of glitch hop, a rich and diverse sampledelic tapestry of fluttering, spacey elements, wrapped in analogue warmth, over a staggering, swung hip hop beat, clattering percussion and stuttering vocal. He continues in style with free track #banana offered alongside the release, featuring bold and fractured rhythms in staggering, woozy half step, tripping over itself with a drunken sense of inertia, finished off by loose and low slung bass stabs. Also be sure to check out his killer podcast for download below

Taking a completely separate route, Z-Connection’s “Horizon” brings together a winning formula of frenetic rhythms seen in recent drum n bass with the invasion of footwork elements, accentuated by chopped, yelping vocals, Amen break flickers, and stop start end phrasing. It’s forceful, unrelenting, chest jabbing dance floor material, and has been on repeat over here at Inflect HQ since we first heard it.

Diffrent as a label are ever forward thinking, the fact that they can combine two so very different tracks together, still coherently, on one two track release, only shows their reluctance to be confined by musical boundaries, a philosophy that we revel in, and ability to pull this off well. With talk of a compilation on the way celebrating and showcasing their journey to this point, the future surely hails exciting things from the Diffrent camp. An ever growing live schedule also means more chances to catch the Diffrent sound live, with the next event featuring Kolectiv, Dexta, Mauoq and more at the release party for Kolectiv's "Immortalis" EP on 15th November at 10 Below in Brighton, not to be missed!

Andy Pain "Take It" and Z-Connection "Horizon"

Andy Pain - #banana

Andy Pain Diffrent Music Podcast

Download #banana for free and buy Take It/Horizon at the Diffrent Bandcamp page now.