August 1, 2013

OUTBOXX (Bristol, UK) @ Terasa Baraka - 10 August 2013

Sâmbătă 10 August, 22:00
Terasa Baraka – în Parcul Herăstrău, intrarea Charles de Gaulle

Fără prea multe comentarii, vă lăsăm cu toate coordonatele pentru o adunare prietenoasă într-un weekend de festival în capitală. O ieşire de sâmbătă în „grădină”, conturată în jurul muzicii „de sezon” şi o întâlnire cu unul dintre cele mai reprezentative act-uri de pe scena în continuă schimbare din Bristol, UK.

OUTBOXX (Idle Hands, BRSTL, Immerse – Bristol, UK)


Despre ei, câteva cuvinte ceva mai bine alese:

Operating from the core of Bristol's bottom-heavy 4/4 contingent Outboxx have releases on labels such as Idle Hands, BRSTL, Immerse and Well Rounded. Outboxx are one of the city's most recognisable acts whose work gives colour to a tough bassweight staple with jazz-inflected smokiness and key-driven hooks that defined house music. This hybrid sensibility and respect for the wonder years adds a unique and forgotten authenticity to both their live performances and DJ sets, where dancefloors are seduced by uplifting melodies and pummelled under low-end pressure in equal measure.


www.outboxx.co.uk
www.soundcloud.com/outboxx


Un preview la albumul “Outboxx” lansat în aprilie 2013, se poate face aici: http://boomkat.com/downloads/692350-outboxx-outboxx
„Trimisul” duo-ului Outboxx pentru evenimentul de la Baraka este Hodge – www.soundcloud.com/hodgebristol.

Support: 
SNYGG (Varme)  - www.soundcloud.com/snyggtingz
VRT (BASICS)  - www.soundcloud.com/vrt
TONÉ (BASICS)  - www.soundcloud.com/toneproduction
AERVERDE (FEM Blog) – www.soundcloud.com/aerverde

RSVP: www.facebook.com/events/577338425645502

Intrarea este liberă!

 

March 12, 2012

BASICS Podcast 015 - Rapala

Something a bit different this time as we adventure in a sound area we haven't really been to before, with this series. The itinerary is Rapala's work, one of the go-to-guys when it comes to soulful, laidback vibes and jazzed-up dance grooves as well.



Needless to say, Rapala is a DJ for almost 10 years now, he's an avid records collector, he comes from Targu Mures, he resides in Timisoara, he is half of LBC Kru - which he runs alongside WRK and he's always made a good appearance playing a wide range of sounds, from Funk & Broken Beats up to Drum & Bass; at the Summer Break, TMBase or AnonimTM 48H stages or with the likes of Jon Kennedy, Fort Knox Five or Ed Royal, amongst others.



The present audio material "has been built in a rush", we were told, but I think it's safe to say it doesn't feel like that even a bit. It's all a smoothly put together collection of world-music influenced, percussion-mad, keys & synth-driven electronics with a pinch of Swing and Kwaito here and there, hosting insanely good works from Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra or (the early-days) Freq Nasty, among others. It's brilliant! And since it's got a ridiculous amount of flavours to choose from, we reckon it will make an impression with those of you enjoying a carefully selected world cuisine of sounds.


Tracklist:

01. Black Dog With Black Sifichi - What Do They Want? [Hydrogen Dukebox]
02. Doctor Rockit - Veselka's Diner [Lifelike]
03. Floating Points - Shark Chase [Eglo Records]
04. Culoe De Song - The Bright Forest [Innervisions]
05. Renovation Unlimited feat. Roy Ayers - Antonata (Atjazz Remix) [ObliqSound]
06. Henrik Schwarz & Amampondo - I Exist Because Of You (Henrik Schwarz Live Version) [Innervisions]
07. Club Des Belugas feat. Brenda - Some Like It Hot [Lola's World]
08. Sofi Hellborg - Wouldn't That Be Fun (Señorlobo & Watch TV Remix) [Ajabul]
09. The Boogoos - The Journey - Ghana '74 (Dusty Remix) [Jazz & Milk Recordings]
10. Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra - War Hero (Guajiro) [Anti-]
11. Dousk - Gìgi [Klik Records]
12. Trüby Trio - Satisfaction (Salzmann & Zech's Slowdown Mix) [Compost Records]
13. Freq Nasty - Incredible Acoustic Properties [Botchit & Scarper]
14. Repeat - End Up [A13]

DOWNLOAD (via Sendspace - available for 30 days)



You can catch Rapala playing sort-of on a regular basis at Al-kimia in Timisoara but for more information go directly to the source. A mix archive can be accessed via Soundtracker here.

March 6, 2012

Revival: Whistla interview for dubstep.ro - 2008

This is the second interview in a series of articles published on dubstep.ro somewhere between 2007-2008. A couple of weeks ago we revived a rather long discussion between Tomasan and Hotflush's A&R at the time - c0p.

This time it's Whistla's turn. Before we (at that time - dubstep.ro and Yazee) got him to play over for the first time in October 2008, we had a quick chat with him about Sub FM, Dubstep, the potential revival of 2-Step and UK Garage (which actually happened!) and...just about records leaning on a desk.



A fun and quite relevant read for those who missed out on some things 4-5 years back, way before L2S Recordings was born and well before the term Future Garage was coined.

Interviewing affairs handled by myself - Antonio Nartea.



1. Ez mate and loads of thanks for spending your time on this interview. How’s stuff in the UK?

Yeh not bad bro. I’ve been obsessed with the Olympics the last couple of weeks, haha! Been busy with lot of bookings this summer getting out of London for gigs and stuff so everything’s been going nice.

2. First of all, tell us something about yourself and especially, besides DJ-ing and producing, who’s Whistla as a listener, what are your main influences and maybe your favourite artists?

Well I’m from the “hardcore continuum” as people seem to call it. I first started getting properly into music in the late 80s / early 90s. I used to be a regular hardcore raver for many years before actually building or DJing tunes (my fav producers from that time were Satin Storm, the way their tracks would barely hold together is amazing). Then along came Garage…lol.


I’m a big big fan of Todd Edwards, I listen to his stuff all the time still and would probably say he is the single biggest influence on me. I am also a massive fan of KMA Productions and recently did a mix of all their released tracks. Something people may not know is I was / am a massive fan of Pavement, the way they carried melodies across instruments, so that no one instrument carries the melody alone, and also their whole approach was really inspiring to me musically.

More recent people I am a big fan of include: Dem 2, Sunship, Steve Gurley, Horsepower, The Avalanches, El-B, Mala, Mr. Pud, Burial, M2J, Sully, Martyn, LHF, The Wideboys…there’s honestly so many people I like! People I’m feeling most at any given time are usually in my top friends on my myspace page: www.myspace.com/djwhistla. I could go on listing names forever! Haha.

Stuff I have laying on the side next to me right now: my record box that has what I played this week on the radio (tracklist on my blog), a CD of Ratty and MC Robbie Dee Live at Dance Planet in ‘92, Pavement - Brighten The Corners, some new Blackmass Plastics tunes, some LHF tunes and some M2J tunes, Todd Edwards - Odyssey, Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Vol. 1, a Sabrepulse CD, a stack of old mixtapes, a Submerse CD, and a few old Acen and 4 Hero tunes leaning on the desk.

3. Let’s focus a bit on your DJ career. When did the story begin and since when SubFM? What’s the tale of “Warehouse Meditation” after all?

Well I started DJing in about 96/97 and building around the same time. I started playing on Addiction 95.2FM and from that started to get bookings in most of the big raves of the time (Raindance, Dreamscape etc.). After playing the hardcore Breakbeat scene for a few years I decided it was time to go exploring the world and boxed up my tunes and went off travelling over Asia. When I came back I moved up to Sheffield and got involved in a station up there (Rush Radio) and decided that FM and all the OFCOM stuff was getting out of hand and seeing that the net was becoming so prevalent everywhere I thought why not start an online station, no OFCOM to worry about, and be able to make sure the right music was on it. So that I could tune in at anytime and would stay tuned in, rather than keep scanning. And so SubFM was born (May 2004). It was perfect timing really as Dubstep at the time was just getting underway properly and there was no online outlet for it that was reliable and regular. From that the station has grown to what it is now. My path since SubFM is more well known I assume, I moved back to London and have been here 3 years now. Back in my hometown.

Well “Warehouse Meditation” is kind of a an idea of how I go to a night, or how I would want a night to be. People in a “warehouse-type” place, be it a warehouse, cellar, bunker etc. and the “meditation” of just being in a dark room with bass and nothing else, no lasers, no dancers in neon. Like the original raves but with the modern appreciation of sound and quality systems. I guess the whole idea, for me, stems from Garage nights in warehouses were the budgets were tight, and lasers etc. weren’t worth the expenditure, so they would get a system in a place, and let the music fill it out.

4. Your sets are more like a bridge between Dubstep and it’s ancestors. You’re blending in all types of UK Bassline stuff from old Garage tunes, 2-Step to the newest sounds of Dubstep. How did you come up with this style?

I didn’t think “I know I will do this…”. I just sort of got to this point by just building tunes that I like and I’ve kind of evolved to making the stuff I make now. I am one of those people that has to build, it’s my creative outlet and meditation in one. When I’m building I enter into my own space where all i’m thinking about is the music and nothing else. The end result is the tunes, but I don’t set out to make a certain type of tune or anything, it just happens. I get influences from what’s around me and what I hear of course, but I never set out to make something sound a certain way, I just go where the tune starts to take me as I’m building it.

5. Are the “old school sounds” like Garage or 2-Step still catchy for the people out there, in the clubs or on the radio? No one seems to talk that much about these genres nowadays.

I would say that Garage and 2-Step are only as “old school” as House and Techno is. Fair enuff the genre name has been around a while, but the excitement to be found in the sounds and melodies is neverending. It depends where you are I think as well, in my area Garage classics are still played in all the club nights. I think that out of London (in my experience) Garage and 2-Step never really had anywhere near the impact that it had in London. London and Garage, I think, will forever be tied together.

6. As a producer also, you’re actually a bit “old school”, influenced a lot by Garage, Speed Garage and so on. Also you’re running a couple of labels hooked up on this sound too. Tell us more about it.

Yeh, Ox Rider is my vinyl releasing label, we have had 4 releases so far “Heaven / Rollerball” being the latest. I’d been wanting to start a new label for a while and managed to get a deal with ST Holdings to distribute my stuff. I have the ethos of “would I buy this?” and running my own label allows me the freedom to put out what I like without having to tame down my music. A lot of label owners are worried about putting out stuff that doesn’t easily fit into “the mould” whatever that may be for the genre you’re talking about. Running my own labels allows me to just go with my instincts and not have to answer to anyone but myself.

Warehouse Meditation is kind of my little digital project, we have only had one release on that so far (”Sacred As Standard / Weed College”). I have another release lined up for it and will be putting other artists out on that one to give exposure to tracks and artists that people otherwise won’t get the chance to own. In the future there will be a Warehouse Meditation EP on Ox Rider featuring some of the most popular tracks, but that’s once we have put more out on it!

7. Considering the fact that you’re actually a main man at SubFM, and you’re also producing and running two labels almost exactly on this profile, have you ever thought about yourself as one of the DJs that kept / keep the 2-Step sound alive?

Difficult question. I wouldn’t have said I was saving it, at least not on my own! I just play the tunes that I get, and find, that I like. I think there was definitely a point where the popularity of Dubstep and a particular trend in Dubstep had a flash point and you would hear a lot of people building with similar beats and sounds, and that did make me re-evaluate what I want to be making and playing. But as for setting out to “keep 2-Step alive” I don’t think it went anywhere, people just stopped paying attention.

8. Switching to the Dubstep scene, stuff’s been a bit divided lately into techy sounds, dancefloor bits and so on. There are producers out there blending Dubstep with lots and lots of other genres from Minimal Techno to Dancehall. Do you have a favourite sound, from all the styles out in the scene?

I don’t really have a preferred sound as such, I like the fact that the scene has so much freedom for experimentation. It’s a testament to the listeners that they are willing to listen to such different stuff in one night. I will like a diff type of tune for a diff reason at a diff time and I love how Dubstep can cater for all these moments.

9. “Warehouse Meditation” also sounds to me like a great name for an event series. And I’m not talking about 200 people sitting in yoga positions in a warehouse. Haha. I mean, huge Garage, 2-Step, Dubstep raves. Have you ever tried building a promoting brand under this name? It could be the long-awaited revival of Garage.

I would love to put a night on and have been chatting to people about it, so watch this space is all I can say for now.

10. Science fiction: If UK Garage and all the related genres never existed in the first place. Would you have chose not to DJ at all or to start with other genres?

Haha. well do you include Hardcore in that? Cos I played Hardcore many many moons ago (and I’m sure someone who has thought about the “hardcore continuum” more than me would have something to say on it! Haha). I don’t know, I would have been doing something in music that’s for sure!

11. „Heaven” was, is and will be, personally, one of my favourite tunes. A scoop on future releases? Future projects? Will there be any new artists signed at your labels?

Well I have a few tunes signed up at the moment: “Larry” - Clandestine Cultivations, “Riot Squad” - Bankai Recordings, “Rain Hits The Sun” - Ringo Records and “River of Tears / N35″ - Warehouse Meditation Music.

I’ve got a lot of new material I’m working on at the moment and would like to do an album, I’ve still got to find a label that would be interested. Ox Rider will stay as just Whistla productions but yeh Warehouse Meditation will be taking on new artists in the future. Keep checking the sites.

12. A shout out for the Romanian massive?

Yeh I would like to say a massive big up to everyone in Romania, thanks for your support!!! I will hopefully be over to play for you soon!

13. Thanks for your time again bruv, and wishing you the best of luck in whatever’s next to come.

No worries bro, safe. Take it easy.
Swivel!

-

More about Whistla on www.whistla.com. Sub FM is still running, just entered its 8th year online and can be found here: www.sub.fm.


February 19, 2012

Revival: c0p interview for dubstep.ro - 2007

Back in 2007 and 2008, way before BASICS popped up, I used to handle editorial affairs for dubstep.ro, as some of you may already know. Around that period of time Toma Soare (Tomasan), Silviu Costinescu (Alien Pimp) and myself managed to sort out a couple of interviews with people that at the time being were deeply involved in the Dubstep / current Bass Music scene.

Late 2007, one specific interview had Hotflush Records' ex-A&R in the spotlight. A certain gentleman that goes by the name of c0p and has laid a solid foundation for the Dubstep, Techno and Bass Music scenes in Hungary and the whole Europe as a DJ on Sub FM, as a promoter, as a talent scout back when Hotflush was just another label on the market and as a graphic designer for most relevant events in Budapest and for a couple of well known labels from the UK.

Since dubstep.ro took a dive and we are in possesion of what we like to call "timeless material" we took the liberty to re-publish a short novel that even 4 years after it first hit the web, still tells an undeniable truth. A great "early day vs. present thoughts" comparison that could easily spark memories for everyone involved with music or the past and current scenes. A great open discourse (or even monologue at times) reaching issues like: Stereotyp, Dubstep's early days in Hungary, the dubplate culture, Basic Channel, minimalism, Drum & Bass, crowds, the launch of Hessle Audio, El-Sid, predicting the future or simply being busy.

Interviewing affairs handled by Toma Soare.




c0p says it all!

c0p? Instead for me to make an introduction to this interview, c0p does it himself…so easy, you can see I didn’t even ask questions, as a rhetorical view, he does it himself again. We could say c0p talks to him with me in the background…so just go through it…Enjoy!



1. Hey c0p, how are you doing?

A bit busy. Okay, lets say freakin’ busy. Luckily I have to execute loads of projects at the moment. Hopefully you will see and hear the issues in 2008. I think I have to learn living without sleeping as looking back in the past years' boredom is an unknown word in my vocabulary. I’m always working on different tasks in different fields which is basically good. So to cut the long story short, I’m fine thanks.

2. Where does c0p come from? We might get scared, are you a policeman?

Well, I have to draw old memories when my life could have been described by 8 bits. I got my first experience by a Hungarian computer named Primo (pure quality at that time with 1kb memory and 2 colors) and a few years later I hooked up with commodore plus4 and c64. My life was permanently determined by computers. Well, not as much as nowadays but it was enough to jump into the demoscene in the late 80s. There I began using “cop” what was easy to remember, unique (who wanna call himself a cop?), cool to draw because of all the rounded letters and at last short enough to put onto classic 3-bit high score tables. And if you hate cops you’d better think of Robocop hahaha. I still use this nick to all of my activities and at the dawn of the h4ck3r typing I began using zero around 1997. Well, I still use both but zero equalize the word better in typography. So I don’t have anything in common with the police, even my father isn’t a cop as a rumor catched my ears back in the days.

3. When did you start Dj-ing and what did you play that time and who are the artists who influenced you over the time?

My most favorite question as I can start a never-ending tale and everyone gets bored before the end. I’m trying to sacrifice my storyteller side and cut the long story short. I’m trying to live open-minded so I hardly can state that there is just a number of influences reached me during the past decades. I should begin with Kraftwerk's “Boing Boom Tschak”, Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit”, Paul Hardcastle's “19″, Hot Streak’s “Bodywork” or Malcom McLaren’s “Buffalo Gals” just to show what were my grounding hits. Alongside these I melted into the Hip-Hop/B-Boy era with all classic stuff. Honestly I think I’m still on the same aesthetic vibe in a disguise, as only the elements changed during the time. On the other hand I can tell that my very first fave was Boney M, hahaha! Risking of ruining the evolved vision of a progressive c0p I can add Pet Shop Boys to my early 80s influences. I always tell that Rock and me are two different stories but I was listening to EMF, RHCP, Nirvana, Bodycount, Faith No More, Pink Floyd, at least one of their albums. But seriously, I realized that I can’t deny my raw and overwhelming desire of crispy, delicious beats, endless flow of wise minimalism or everlasting flow of bassline driven moods. Maybe that's why I’ve never sticked to any styles too long and ended up as a basshead who just wanna join his forces with others to shape the future.

I can continue counting the influences of my musical background after the late 80s but we wouldn’t finish this. So I just mention that I started asking mixtapes from my German, Dutch and Swiss friends I hooked up with on the Commodore64 demoscene (I used to be on the team Faces). That's how I found all the classic UK Hardcore bits, the very first mayday compilation, the Acid House fever, the Ambient space and even the Jungle fever just before 1993. In 1995 I got my first request to play in a freshly opened club and after a few months we started to organize our first monthly club night what went awesome for a year. That's how it all started and since then I played with several of my former icons (Rhythm & Sound, LTJ Bukem, Kevin Saunderson, etc. …) and we also invited a few heroes and upcoming talents to Pecs (Monolake, Jojo Mayer, Seba & Robert Manos, Doc Scott, Lawgiverz, ASC, Aquasky, Search & Destroy, Hotflush gang, etc. …). Looking back to very early 90s I’ll be always thankful for artists like the Basic Channel camp, the Warp stable, Steve Reich, FSOL, Plastikman, Orbital, Speedy J, Burnt Friedman (& Drome), The Orb, SND, Amon Tobin, Alec Empire or Biochip C. Sooo many names worth to mention. I should stop here haha. I think all the musical eras gave me a lot of inspiration and a pack of names but I’m always in search of new elements, fusions and impressions (maybe because I used to compose tunes?) though the aesthetic and philosophy are the same every time. I never cared what style I play until there are connections between them. That’s why I loved playing 8-9 hours sets covering everything from Dub, Minimal, Nu-Jazz, Dubstep to Broken Beat, Breaks, Electro, Drumfunk or Drum & Bass. Nowadays I prefer playing Dubstep (avoiding wobbler overdose and focusing on new directions), quality Minimal (not the well hyped reshaped Prog-House but the stuff influenced by Basic Channel, Profan, Mosaic, etc. …) and top notch Drum & Bass (mostly deep, spaced out vibes with clever drums) but I still play several other styles…

4. For how long Dubstep and what is your opinion about Dubstep's development as a genre over the last 10 years?

I think like several DJs I also started out with Stereotyp’s Yahman and his album on G-Stone besides the first Tempa plates. Stereotyp is more tagged as part of Vienna sound, there is an awesome 2-Step, Dub, Nu-Jazz, Dancehall mash-up style. One of his earliest was Yahman which was an unique dark Dancehall minimalism. But that wasn’t enough to see the whole movement which has a very limited scene. I’m a journalist at the Hungarian mag “FREEE” since 2000 and they asked me to do a 2-Step / Garage article back in 2003. I was digging deep and I hooked up with the “early” Dubstep movement. My guides were the Garage Pressure pages from Australia alongside Kode9's Hyperdub archives that I visited earlier a few times. Then I realized there is something more going underground and I got involved pretty much. Since 1999 Dubstep has gone far further though it’s still underground. From the early new dark swing and sub low (around the millennium) to the forming Dubstep and its angry bro Breakstep (we can even add Grime) (2003-04), the evolving Halfstep (2005) it has become international and much more diverse. Today it’s subtle with inspirations taken from the Basic Channel minimal Techno, influences by Electronica and all other styles (just like originally). Such a colorful spectrum of sound and I’m afraid what would happen if it keeps on evolving because it won’t stop for sure! On one hand I’m scared positively as Dubstep today is awesome and I don’t know how far can we go. It’s already magnetizing Drum & Bass, Electro-Breaks, Breakcore, Dub, Hip-Hop and even Mainstream acts so it could turn up something very big. Or it can blow up just before reaching its age. It is still in an experiencing phase with just a few elements grounded heavy to the compositions and people don’t like experiments. They don’t want to do the math on the floors. In 2006-07 Dubstep have been noticed worldwide and it is divided to popular, more dance compatible and more complex sides. I just hope everyone will be listening to all aspects just like a few years ago when it was smaller. You were able to hear all angles in an hour from deep meditating minimalism to floorfiller breaksbombs or tectonic wobblers. It’s all good to have ammo for the mind and the feet but look what happened with Drum & Bass when they got rid of the complexity and let Clownstep spread. I hardly find sets where you feel grooves and change of moods. Maybe it’s just a selfish need as for me style doesn’t matter and I always wanna make vibrating, diverse and add deeper cuts too. Maybe I’m wrong when I think we have to feed the heads (and not with E) too. I get easily bored with testosterone-filled wobblers all night long. Don’t give the people what they want, give the people what they need. It’s all about education and balance.

There is another, maybe even more important riddle for the future. What will happen with the vinyl plats and how long a dubplate culture can exist? Dubplates are very good for quality control but if the dub players are just a small part of the scene they could control the whole movement only in limited directions excluding several other aspects. How long can we go? Where is the balance? Who is trusted? At the digital age the dubs are sometimes leaking out faster than ever what makes the inner circle even smaller. Several artists or labels don’t send out tunes above 128-192 kbit and a lot of DJs outside have to wait to get a proper version released. But dubs are played sometimes years before street date so common DJs have a massive drawback. What will street date mean when mp3 releases will overwhelm the vinyl sells? We are living in a cataclysm when the society’s customing and listening habits are changing a lot so it’s hard to predict anything for real. I’m sure and I hope dubplate culture will stay alongside vinyls but I’m not sure what will happen next. One thing is sure: we have to keep on pushing the right vibes in the right mixture and make our best adding a bit to the scene. And we should never forget the original open minded approach what drove us into. If we stick to our original purposes it will progress ’till the end.

5. Who are your favorite Dubstep DJs and producers? How’s the Dubstep movement in Hungary?

There are way too many to mention. A lot of peeps just don’t get why the others like Dubstep tunes as these are driven by lazy ass, sleepy Trip Hop beats with lame production and boring build up. As a start I think they either don’t catch the word Dub’s meaning or they haven’t heard too much of Dubstep. There are several styles waving outside waiting to get explored especially in 2007. As a guy devoted to minimalism and feeling passion of thrilling beat cuts, energic and tricky, even offbeat rhythms I found Dubstep the most interesting phenomena in years. I can’t roll any electronic music style today that bridges the gap between 70-150 bpm so easily and consistent. I can’t name any other style that is going to make you freak without pace dictating beats in your face and giving the solution with pure bass. This case is similar to the early 90s era when most of us haven’t understood bogus Jungle grooves. Now we don’t understand the “beatless” freedom of surfing on sinewaves. Hah, sorry I turn off the low end theorist. This year I loved the bass driven deep Bristol cuts (labels like Tectonic, Punch Drunk, Mode, Immerse, Inprint, Compound One) who tend to inject a massive dose of the Berlin-based Basic Channel’s legacy to their soundscape. New breed of producers leaked into the scene from Holland (Martyn, 2562), USA (Intex Systems, Vaccine, Roommate, Djunya) who made a huge impact. TRG also produces better and better tunes without any solid identity which is unique I think. The Z Audio crew does it well, Argon rocks the floors, Skull Disco is on fire, Ranking has one of the best starts this year, Hessle Audio, Subway launched well… I have my all time favs every time like Elemental, Scuba, Boxcutter, Reso, 23Hz & Numaestro, Slaughter Mob, Search & Destroy, Hench Crew, Toasty, L-Wiz, Benga, D1… Okay I’ll stop it. There are a lot of good producers so let’s see the DJs… Thinking and his new partner Kidkut are flawless and guys like Scuba, Ben UFO, Plastician and several others doing the rounds too (how sad El Sid - Hotflush left the scene). Hard to pick just a few names as there are dozens of them.

Pecs had its own musical taste and we represent deeper sound. For example some key players in Budapest states that Pecs could have been the capital of Minimal or we are stronger in atmospheric and tricky Drum & Bass. Perhaps the relatively smaller scene allowed us building it up but that's another story. In Hungary we have an evolving Dubstep scene scene though only Budapest and Pecs have regular nights. Budapest has more of the London style wobble fueled anthems while Pecs is like Bristol a bit in Dubstep too. This is maybe because I play deeper or drumwise stuff besides the wobbling basslines and also some UK DJs had the same impression after visiting our parties and city. The Hungarian scene is still very young though we were between the first countries in Europe in 2005 with inviting UK Dubstep DJs. As far as I remember they were only in Spain and Belgium before Hungary. After the award winning Hotflush Records appearance in Pecs things started slowly. DST had been running his 3 weekly show on Tilos Radio, then Chi Recordings brought Pinch to Budapest, Search & Destroy came back alongside Hotflush, Scuba and Dubstep arrived to the enormous Sziget Festival in 2006. Although we could expect a growing scene in fact it's still an underground movement with small achievements. In 2007 the illustrious Bladerunnaz organized Boxcutter, Pinch and Mike Paradinas (Planet Mu Night) and Caspa (alongside the Dub Phase crew). DST, Gumilap & Kebab launched their first weekly club night (Dub Phase) with a pack of regulars what grew slowly and had an impact at the last period of the year after 2000 people witnessed to Benga, Skream & Crazy D (Tempa) on Sziget Festival'07. They have Izc, BunZero (Sub FM), Chef (Rinse) and Tes La Rok (Argon, Noppa) gigs behind. Also Palotai & Cadik are key supporters since 2006 in their radio shows and on the best'n'oldest Hungarian weekly night “Rewind” (last time they booked Martyn - 3024, Revolve:R). I think 2008 will be massive for the scene but I fear we won’t reach the level of a bigger country. We run dubstep.hu, there are a handful radio shows spraying the sound and more new or experienced DJs join the game but we need to build and grow. University and college gigs are inviting key players like Benga or DMZ in the UK, and in Helsinki there are more Dubstep nights than Drum & Bass so we still have a lot to achieve. Thing is that I’m not sure it’s good earning a big mass at the moment as I mentioned earlier… I hope at least other cities will also have regular nights (maybe Szeged will be the next) what would be far enough. Music wise a guy named Boc launched a net label, DST (Digital Distortions, Crater), Ekaros (Combat, DubKraft) and Sollabong (DubKraft) has releases but you’d better watch Madd, Metro etc.

6. What is your connection to Dubstep?

I’m not sure. I still play several styles besides Dubstep and I can’t imagine myself leaving the others behind to become a pure dubstepper. Some DJs are confused because I play different styles, some even more narrow-minded and play just one specific section of a genre. I like mixing the things up if it is possible. For example it’s fun playing some deep Minimal or Dub in Dubstep sets and I play every course in a Dubstep set. It’s very important not to stick anything but aesthetics or philosophy so we can implant as much diversity into our sets as possible. The whole Dubstep and even electronic music meant to be a playground where everything goes. Stealing elements from here melting them with those… If we stick to a strict sound or composition that would end the story. Keepin’ the sound moving, mutating equals living that's how life works isn’t it? So in every style including Dubstep I go for new impulses and stick to old quality pieces. Strange anyway as Dubstep still divides people. This is just another sound what has something more than the actual trends. We saw the situation several times and we can see where Drum & Bass, Breakbeat, Nu-Jazz or Garage are today. I just hope Dubstep won’t end up in a plain scheme and stays innovative and colorful. I’ll give my tiny knowledge to the movement as DJ on air or in clubs, as a writer in articles and reviews and I still have two more connections… I was asked to help Hotflush as international A&R in 2005 and I still help finding new talents and help talents find their home at other labels. Luckily I have a good relationship with several key figures and lots of artists are sending me their unsigned or unfinished tunes as well. I feel really lucky that I was asked to write in 2000 to a magazine because it helped a lot to build relations with all the scenes. One other thing I’m involved is graphics. I was asked to create designs to several Dubstep labels and clubnights. It’s good I can add my bits to last vinyls a bit longer. With the digital sellings personality disappears, you have a bunch of unsorted files in a folder and you lose all material beauties. I think mind and matter are equally important, maybe that's why I studied architecture and do graphics. I wouldn’t be able to live just in digital and forget books, sleeves, hi-q printed graphics, folding tricks, different papers, the smell of it. There is no flash animation or any digital trick that could replace several thousand years of handwork knowledge. Basically I also try to plant and reproduce manual methods in digital. So I was very glad to accept requests from several labels like Runtime (Elemental - London), Argon (Nick - San Francisco), DubKraft (Alien Pimp - Bucharest), Hotflush (Scuba - Berlin, lately), Immerse (Kidkut - Bristol) or even from Renegade Hardware and Santorin (Germany) and there are much more to come… What shocked me is that all happened just in 2 months. I’m not sure if my nomination on Dubstep Awards in the Artwork of the year category helped in reaching out. I was in the top 5 after posting two event flyers. We’ll see what 2008 holds to all of us…

7. Did you enjoy SummerBreak 07? You played after me and Sinkronize.

Hope you guys liked what you heard. Yeah it was very nice though the whole trip was almost a nightmare. There was a massive traffic so we ended up driving about 11 hours instead of 7-8 and I missed my time around 23:00 as Brains missed theirs too. So the organizers postponed my set 1-2 hours and then another… As a result I haven’t slept a second and jumped (moved slowly) behind the deck around 8 in the morning. I was happy I was still able to mix and concentrate on selection for almost two hours. Then I instantly drove back and hit the bed around 19:00 in Pecs. Wished to stay since we had a nice chat with TRG, Kubiks and several guys. I felt like I’m at home with such hospitality. It’s always good to play out in Romania (props to Dudu, Roli Breaker, Seba, BAU & Timisoara massive!) and many thanks goes to Hazee solving the problems!

8. If it were to give a shout to us… ?

I’ve already written a novel so I just wanna give some strict advices by tracks. “Don’t Believe The Hype”, “Shape The Future” and “Watch Your Bassbins I’m Tellin Ya”! Seriously these are important things. Keep the spirit alive and never stick to any formula, build your own scene that's the most important.

More about c0p here: http://c0pland.blogspot.com/


February 13, 2012

BASICS Podcast 014 - WRK

I think it's fair to assume there's never been a specific dance music subgenre that suffered more mutations than UK Garage over the course of the years. Starting off with the progressiveness of US Garage and carrying on through the percussive brilliance of classic UK imports, the posh R&B mixture introduced to the mass audiences by Luck & Neat and Artful Dodger, through Dark Garage, Horsepower, Gurley, Bias and the foundation of Dubstep, through 2-Step and 4/4, through Whistla, Sub FM, L2S and the whole coining process for the term Future Garage, even through Control-S and Hed Kandi, through Blackdown and Keysound, up to date along with Jacques Greene's, Mosca's or DJ Q's revamps and the huge amount of inspiration provided for various Bass Music producers out there - it has been through it all.



So, figured our fourteenth issue should reflect some of the past, current and future forms a chopped, bubbled riddim can take, and to do so we turned to one of the trusted true-school Garage / 2-Step / early-day Dubstep / Broken / Bass Music heads around: WRK.

WRK has been involved literally for ages, pushing all sorts of shuffled and bass-heavy sounds in his home town - Targu Mures, among all sorts of other places. If you were around in 2008 he played a brilliant warm-up set - which we can still remember almost entirely - for Whistla's first visit in Bucharest. If you missed it back then, we shared a couple of line-ups since and it's safe to say he's yet to disappoint!



His contribution for BASICS is a staggering 135+ bpm collection of eighteen carefully selected, properly (!!!) mixed Future Garage, Dubstep and Bass Music tracks. Whether you're looking forward to hear the classics - Kode9, Zed Bias or Goth Trad - at work, whether you're more likely to respond to new blood such as Vessel, Mock The Zuma or Throwing Snow, whether you're in for the hype associated with Distal or Damu - it's all there and the mixtape will deliver!

In our own words, we're talking about shuffled chopstick madness with sizeable amounts of bass on the side here. Punchy enough to make you wiggle your chair, smooth enough for some after-work decompression at home and definitely something we'd take along for a laidback nite drive on snowy roads. Believe us, you're in for such a treat this time!


Tracklist:

01. King Midas Sound - Meltdown (Kode9 & The Spaceape Rework) [Hyperdub]
02. Luska - Autobiography (Original Mix) [Dub Fetish Records]
03. Pale - Why'd You Even Say (Original Mix) [Fat! Records]
04. Cauto - 35 [Disboot]
05. Fontaine - No Cure [Gradient Audio]
06. Vessel - Ton [Left Blank]
07. Goth Trad - Sublimation [Deep Medi]
08. Distal - Space Graffiti [Tube10 Recordings]
09. Damu - Ridin' The Hype (feat. Trim) [Keysound Recordings]
10. Acre - Ghatt [Embassy Recordings]
11. Mock The Zuma - Black Puddle [Fullfridge Music]
12. Enigma Dubz - Between Me And You [Four40 Records]
13. Zed Bias feat. FaltyDL - Lucid Dreams [Tru Thoughts]
14. LPZ - Problems (Ave Blaste & Tom Central Remix) [Keep Up!]
15. Aeon - Different Quotes [Area Recordings]
16. Throwing Snow - Pyre [Local Action]
17. Funk Ethics & Lucid Directions - Together (Original Mix) [Boka Records]
18. Aphex Twin - Tha (Stavrogin Remix) [Free Download]

DOWNLOAD (via Sendspace - available for 30 days)




Make sure you rinse it thoroughly and tell someone about it.

Also, two more classic mixes signed off by WRK - Believe Me Winston and a guest mix for Tamaka's Spaecial Beats - are available here.

February 7, 2012

BASICS recommends: CE009 - Morphology - Information Paradox EP

If you take pleasure in spending your weekends in a dungeon here's one for you. Brand new signing for Cultivated Electronics - a rather unknown UK-based label specialized in pushing powerful drum-machine riddims and raw electronics - from the finnish duo Morphology.

If their name sounds a bit unfamiliar to you, their biggest release to date - Euclidean Algorithm - dropped late 2011 on Semantica, via a limited press of 400 12"s and got identified quickly as a darker, more rugged approach to a sound brought to the spotlight by the likes of Boddika or Jon Convex...with a Detroit twist.



If Morphology managed to prove that Finland's export doesn't only handle rally drivers, Cultivated Electronics on the other hand are yet to break through anonimity. But 2012 seems to have started well enough for them. The label just signed a brand new distribution deal with none other than the guys who brought you a massive Drexciya repress just a couple of months back - Clone Distribution.

So...following some simple logic pattern, their 9th release had to be good. And, guess what? To our surprise, it actually is!

Analogue four-tracker built exclusively for dancefloors consisting of one 808 vs. 606, spatial-strings construction - Escape Velocity; one EBM-infused, twenty-first century Juan Atkins-reviving, Electro-Funk anthem - Information Paradox; a laid-back technoid, arp-driven, Marcus Intalex-pleasing mutation - Tangent Spaces and the indisputable highlight: Sync 24's take on Information Paradox. Dark roller (and by dark we mean pitch fucking dark) set to move the immovable. Simple, not at all pretentious and a banger to play out. The kind of track that gives you the warehouse chills even when played in a pair of headphones.

CE009 - Morphology - Information Paradox EP

In less words brilliant EP and a strong impression from a couple of scene-outsiders, that would fit nicely in a set alongside Jon Convex's Pop That P, Dexter's Space Booty or Mensah's Off The Traxx anytime, anywhere.

The only argument against it could relate to its simplicity and to the fact that it seems to be stubborn enough to try and cater for a lost cause in today's dance music, but then again, we wouldn't have it any other way. It scores an A+ on our list and if your main dish is ~130 bpm Bass Music, it should score one in your book as well, without even trying too hard. So yeah, we'd say...buy a copy.

Do it via Boomkat.

February 6, 2012

Preview: HES019 - Objekt - Cactus / Porcupine

Much awaited return for Hessle Audio - the label everyone's been talking about. It's been a dreary 9 months since Ben Ufo, Ramadanman and Pangaea, last managed to squeeze some record pressing in their overcrowded schedules; 9 months which translated in just enough time to pour the foundation and build up the hype for HES019 - Objekt's contribution.



If you live in a cave or you just can't get your head around using the internet properly, you most certainly have no idea who Objekt is. A fella who lives in Germany, DJs in the UK, has remixed SBTRKT's Wildfire, builds tunes somewhere inbetween Techno and Bass Music (yes, we intentionally avoided the use of the term Dubstep) and loves to put them out on limited hand-stamped white labels (which apparently serve a purpose both as records and hipster food plates as well...so we've heard). Anyway, no diss involved. We've identified him as a meticulous and inspired producer ever since Tinderbox got a release out of nowhere; and apparently so did Hessle's A&R.

The two tracks that hit the virtual friday shipping shelves on Feb. 6th however, despite sharing more boldness and freshness than everything on the H.A. catalogue (except for Untold's Anaconda and Joe's Claptrap) and despite being A-class productions, as a whole just don't seem to be raising up to the expectations.

For the past couple of months I've made a mission out of understanding the hype surrounding Cactus. No result. I tried accepting it and giving it some credit for what it's got: an unbelievably well structured spaced-out percussion, some serious tweaking effort behind the lo-range wobble bass concerto and on-point / on-target breakdowns and drops. All of this even though I'm not really vibing to it.

To be honest, I realised it's all a matter of quality. On its own Cactus is a decent track. Well build, has the potential to be a club banger if dropped at the right time, in the right place and for the right people. It's surprising enough, it comes from one of UK's finest labels, it gets air time on Rinse from the likes of Ben Ufo or Oneman, it's broken enough, it's bassy enough and it's made by a guy who owns a weird haircut.

To be brutally honest, I also realised it's nothing more than a matter of vibe and how and when you were introduced to this particular sound. If you just came in through the front door (and the front door has James Blake's and Blawan's names written all over it) Cactus will probably deliver a full-on revelation. And it deserves to be appreciated for that. However, if you were buying Pinch's records on Planet Mu and Tempa in 2008-2009 or you've heard Spiders on Brainmath...not so much. Simple as that.

Objekt - Cactus / Porcupine

The flipside manages to save some (most of the) interest. Porcupine tends to forget about pleasing broken-beats munching, Brainfeeder listening fellas out there and delivers a far more interesting approach to Techno (?!) and the sort-of Drexcyian aquatic Electro derivations that turned the whole Bass Music world upside down last year. Lots of acid synths usage and a punching linear drumline topped by a fully oxigenated Echospaced breakdown that would make Appleblim and the lot shove two fingers in their mouths and whistle their lungs out.

A good DJ tool that acts like a riddim transfusion in pretty much any circumstance one could possibly think of.

Even though it's part of a sound we've kept hearing for the past 12 months, the track resonates quite well with the direction Hessle adventured in by putting out Pangaea's Inna Daze and Pev's Dance Till The Police Comes last year. Something that sits much closer to Hessle's brand new, post-Joe self-imposed quality standard.

So, to draw up a couple of conclusions:

- Decent debut outside the white label world for Objekt.
- Decent release for Hessle. Not great. Not outstanding. Decent.
- If you're a DJ and you're not 16; keep supporting the label. Buy the whole record. Spin just one half (the one that doesn't have Cactus on it).
- I'm probably gonna end up spinning Porcupine out there myself.
- And please nod and agree that Hessle needs a new Joe release.

Friday shipping for Monday delivery on Redeye Records.