Keysound Takeover

Robyn Travis and Patrick Regan

They say one of the biggest issues in helping keep young inner city men on the right path is positive male role models that they can relate to.

Raised in part in the Tiverton Estate, by all accounts Robyn Travis lead a pretty road early life - he came from a family of drug dealers so those were his role models - so perhaps you might not think he makes an obvious candidate for a role model, But he's changed and after that change, he can speak from a position of both experience and reflection.

His life is outlined in his book, "Prisoner to the Streets" the launch for which is tomorrow at the Bernie Grant Centre. Its powerful message is: "DON’T LIVE THE LIFE I LIVED."

On a related note, I heard youth worker Patrick Regan by chance on local radio during the riots last summer and bought his book "Fighting Chance." 

Like Travis, he also has direct experience of people growing up in difficult situations and he also wants to get a different point of view out there. In the face of negative media coverage over gangs and the cultures that surrounds them, his book is the stories of those who began in those situations but found themselves a better path. They never make headlines of course, but their struggle and stories deserve to be heard.

Rinse September

Dusk + Blackdown Rinse FM Sept 2012

DOWNLOAD HERE


Da Altered Natives "Natural Freak" [Tenement Yard Volume Three]
Hagan "Malfunktion" [unreleased]
Funkineven & Fatima "West 2 East" [Eglo Records]
LV "Siyevaya Rev" [unreleased]
Da Altered Natives "Allwhere" [Tenement Yard Volume Three]
Detboi "Sliding Floors" [unreleased]
El-B Ft Juiceman - Buck & Bury (Caski Remix) [unreleased Ghost]
Pangaea "Middleman" [forthcoming Hessle]
Dubchild "Don Dadda ft Creed (dub)" [DPR]
Sepia "Look Around You" [unreleased]
Brunks "Untold" [unreleased]
Enyo "Poltergeist" [unreleased]
Emma "Untitled" [unreleased]
HXDB "Up (Bassmynt remix)" [SoundsOfSumo]
LV "Come to me" [unreleased]
Detboi "Different Techniques" [unreleased]
Mavado "Dem A Talk (Marcx Dub)" [unreleased]
Macker "CCCP2" [unreleased]
Major Notes "O'Beasity" [Holy Rollers]
Visionist, Beneath & Wen "New Wave" [unreleased]
Epoch "The Steppenwolf" [unreleased]
Parker "Frost" [unreleased]
Moleskin The fantasy between (y)our lips [unreleased]
Logos "Steel Pulse" [unreleased]
Macker "Fifth Element" [unreleased]
Fresh Paul "Blaster" [unreleased]
Amen Ra "Testament" [unreleased]
Epoch "The Avenue" [free download]
Rabit Satellite [unreleased]
Facta "Kingdom (dub)" [unreleased]
No fixed abode "Certified" [unreleased]
Logwad "Bump" [unreleased]
LV "Izibozl" [unreleased]
Chesslo Junior "Alpine Riddim" [forthcoming WotNot]
Carrion Sound "Channel" [unreleased]


While you're listening to the show, read this interview with us.

And catch the Keysound family back together again, Nov 16th:


Fabric Room 3

KEYSOUND
Dusk & Blackdown
LV
United Vibez (Amen Ra LHF & Vibezin)
Logos
Beneath
Visionist
Wen

Dusk + Blackdown "Apoptosis" Video

What if cell death isn't just inevitable, it's also healthy? Apoptosis.

Gilles Peterson on Mala in Cuba

Over the summer I chatted to Gilles Peterson for the "Mala in Cuba" sleeve notes...

Blackdown: Hey Gilles, great to chat to you. So first of all, I’d love to know, really, about the beginning of this project. I didn’t raise it with Mala, I didn’t know whether it was appropriate or not but the funny thing is back in the day he always really wasn't sure about albums. And maybe he got over that with “Return II Space,” but what’s so great about this project is that Mala really seem to be comfortable with the album format for so many years, and it’s like, even in some of the interviews I’d done with him, it’s apparent on the record why he’s really resistant to it. So, I just think it’s fantastic that you got something of that length out of him.  

Gilles: Yeah, yeah. Well, I’m delighted as well. I don’t think there was ever any sort of definite concept to the album. I mean, I was a fan of him and what he represented for many years… and his aura. In a way I just I went to the club…

B: Yeah, I remember seeing you there!

G: …Well, yeah, so that’s good because I only ever went once. Yeah, so, I went to the club and I remember Mary Anne Hobbs was at the door (laughs). It was probably about four years and it had been going for a while but… but it was quite a big deal for me because that was a Saturday night, and I work every Saturday night. So I really made the effort to go to Brixton.

B: And cancel a gig!

G: On a Saturday and all that. Anyway, the point was, I was discovering his music through Soul Jazz really because they were pretty quick at stocking that kind of sound. And I just kept an eye on him all that time really, and played the odd record on the radio that I liked and stuff. And then the Cuban project sort of came along and I wanted to have a second “alternative” approach to the project, just to make it more exciting for me really because, obviously, these projects that I do, under the Havana Cultura banner, they’re actually quite an amazing opportunity for a label like mine to be able to go and do something that’s funded by a brand. It reminds me a little bit of when Island Records used to do weird concept albums and stuff. In those days labels used to throw money at fusion projects or world music… like Kip Hanrahan or Bill Laswell.

So, for me, it was brilliant to work with an initiative like Havana Cultura, run by a French guy called François Renie, out of Paris. Fundamentally, for him, it was about me guiding people towards their website – havana-cultura.com. Havana Club is jointly owned by the Cuban government and Pernod Ricard, which is a French company, and the deal seems to be that they have to give something back and promote Cuban culture. So, they have a website called Havana Cultura which is a really passionate sort of guide to all things Cuban and cultural.

So, whether it’s art or dance, or music... They basically gave me carte blanche to go over there and discover what is currently happening in Cuba. So, I went over there, recorded an album – ‘Havana Cultura: New Cuba Sound’ – a few years ago, and we did a remix version of that too. And then for the second album – ‘The Search Continues’ – which we went and did last year, I was very keen to have a twist, and to be able to do my straightforward version, which was kind of me taking rappers, singers and musicians and having a nice platform for them. But, equally, I wanted to do something a little bit more experimental and just out of the blue, which was basically this kind of clash, this sort of Britishness and…

B: I’m glad you describe it as a “clash” because it’s interesting for me to find out if there is some kind of overlap between Mala’s take on sound system culture and Cuba’s roots. And maybe there are, like overlaps but maybe there aren’t. It’s not the first thing I’d think of for Mala to do, so yeah, “clash” is maybe a good one for it.

G: Yeah, I mean, I just wanted to have fun. I’m in such a good place to do this sort of project, I wanted to throw more things at it just so that there’d be more surprises to be had. I’ve always been a believer of just throwing stuff in… even some things that you just don’t think are going to work at all… and then, usually, things come out of negatives, as such. I knew that.

Anyway, for me, I just had an instinct and I just thought it would be really good. I wondered if Mala would try it because dubstep is a big part of British music culture over the last however many years and on one hand you’ve got the success of the Benga’s and the Skream’s, and the Skrillex’s, and whatever, and then you’ve still got this kind of foundation which belongs to Mala and what he has kind of created.

I’d done interviews with him on the radio and for a lot of reasons I was impressed by him and I thought it would be really interesting to see how he would react as a sort of Jamaican Englishman, coming from all that culture that we come from, who didn’t know anything about Cuban music, just throw him over there and see how he responds to it. And like I’m sure some people would have just gone: “Oh, where’s the local McDonalds?” and “I just want to stay there for three days and I’m actually not at all interested in the culture or anything.” Whereas, obviously, Mala was fascinated.

I mean, on one hand it was kind of like he’s an intelligent guy and he’s interested in the world… and the fact that he was from Jamaica, which is the island next door and Cuba’s there and it’s just so different, and they speak a different language and they’ve got different roots and stuff. But I thought, “Let’s throw him in”. So, I actually went over there, with him, just to sort of test the waters and see, just as a sort of holiday really. I was like: “Oh, do you want to come over to Cuba for a few days and see what you think of it? I’m not asking you to make an album or anything, I’m just I’m going so maybe there’ll be something in it”.

B: See what happens...

G: I was in such a privileged position to be able to offer him that haha. Which is great. And then he came over and for a couple of days we hung out and it was great. And then I had this studio booked with Roberto Fonseca, who’s kind of really important to the new Cuban sound because, I mean, on one hand he’s a pianist who’s world renowned as a jazz sort of prodigy. He came and played with Buena Vista Social Club, so he’s obviously touched that huge kind of Cuban heritage side, but then on the other hand, he’s totally young and modern, and interested, and global and worldly, and fascinated by everything. So, he’s just an incredible person. So, it’s been great.

B: So have you known him a while?

G: I met him on the first record. I was just really lucky that I just happened to… when I went out there to do my sort of checking-everything-out-before-I-make-the-record-type-of-visit, I was doing interviews for the radio as well and I was doing two or three things at once and when I interviewed him, I was like, “Actually, this is the guy to make the record” because he speaks good English and he gets, I mean, he doesn’t fully get my scene, but he definitely knows the difference between…

B: He’s open to it?

G: Yeah, he’s open to it and he was fascinated by some electronic music, and by dance music in general. So, it was like, “Oh, wow!” So he realised that certain people have heard of me… so, he was a bit fascinated by me. So, in a way, we kind of got on really well because we both worked it. So, for this new record I didn’t use Roberto as much because he was kind of quite jazz. Almost too jazz. It was good for the first record but for the second record, I wanted it to be a little bit, slightly different. I didn’t want him to kind of monopolise it because he’s so… because he is so prodigious he tends to almost frighten people, a little bit haha. He was that good.

So, I didn’t want him as involved in the making of my version of the album this time, but I did have him for a day, on that little testing visit with Mala. So, I introduced them. We went to the studio and I just thought it would be really good to ask Roberto… because obviously I wanted to start working on ideas for this… my version of the album, and so, I wanted to take rhythm tracks back to London with me, so that I could start working on compositions around them. And I thought, “This is quite good for me to kind of explain to Mala about the heritage of Cuban music, by asking Roberto play different Cuban rhythms to Mala”.

B: So, when you talked about a culture clash, I guess, in the back of my head I thought, on the other hand they also share a sense of importance of rhythm.

G: Yeah. I mean, between Jamaica and Cuba you’ve got a lot of different rhythms that have that – whether it’s mambo or cha cha cha, or Mozambique or descarga or the gun shot rhythm (laughs), or whatever, this is basically where it’s all from. So, I kind of wanted to explain to Mala about the essence of what makes Cuban music and how Cuban music has had such a huge influence on a lot of other music around the world. So, that’s where we went in the studio and I just asked Roberto to record, with a trio, and we had a couple of other instruments that we dropped in there. I can’t remember what else we had, but we had a couple of more traditional instruments in the studio as well, and literally recorded like twelve or thirteen rhythms.

And so, we recorded all that and that kind of, obviously, made Mala quite interested. He was like really fascinated by all that. And then we kind of had something to take back to England with us, musically, which he could then kind of live with and give himself time to try and understand it. We threw a lot at him in a very short space of time out of nowhere. And you’ve got to remember as well, that this is Mala, who’s somebody who’s got his labels, and he’s DJing and so I’m sort of, actually, throwing a lot at him in one go. And he’s going to need his own time to kind of to kind of put it all…

B: Mala is somebody who really does take his own time and feels his way through things, he feels, a way that things feel right or not to him.

G: Yeah. And that’s I suppose, that’s the other reason the project kind of ended up working because I don’t think I ever made him feel pressure in any way, I mean, apart from the fact that, well “You into this?” I didn’t kind of go, “Okay. Well, I’ve taken you to Cuba, now I want you to make me two tracks in two weeks time”.

B: And that’s one part of the process that I’m quite curious about your input and methods because obviously, I can see you’re doing this pretty amazing way of sort of pulling different people together, and sometimes, I guess, you might need to be really proactive in some, in other scenarios you might need to be a bit more, 'sit back and let things happen.' How do you choose what to do and how to be the person that, either actively or just subconsciously gets things together?

G: I don’t know. I mean obviously, I’ve been doing this for thirty years now, like A&Ring or being on one hand I’ll be headlining gigs myself, or on the other hand, I’ll be interviewing people, or I’ll be interviewed, or I’ll be A&Ring or I’ll be mentoring, or whatever I’ve been doing all aspects of the sort of music thing for quite a while. So, I’m still a mad music fan. I’m still somebody who’ll go and buy magazines and read them, and, not because I want to read about myself, but because I want to kind of find out about things. I’m still a fan in a lot of ways. And I think that with someone like Mala, or someone like Roni Size or groups like Masters at Work when I do the records of all of those people, or Carl Craig I think that I’ve found my place because I could talk their language, in a way. I wasn’t competing with them, as a producer, there was no sort of rivalry there, which is weird. I think that’s probably helped me slightly… I find myself in quite a good place that is close enough yet not too close.

B: So, does that mean, if you have this, a position that’s slightly removed, that you can, they’re open to like overt persuasion and more subtle persuasion, or that it’s just the balance sits right and you don’t really need to think about either really?

G: Yeah, I just think the balance is right. I think that I think that with all these things, I mean, I think persuasion is probably quite a good word because I mean, with Mala, actually, to be honest with you, I wasn’t thinking, okay, I’m going to do it in such a way that in a year’s time I’ll have this great album that could be a Mercury Prize winner.” I didn’t think like that haha. Obviously not to say that it’s going to be that, but, I just, I don’t know. The other thing is with the music industry these days, I mean, of course, you’re thinking about running your business and you’ve got people, who work for you and all that stuff, and you want it to work well, but I think that, equally, there’s so little to gain in the music industry these days. You can only do things and enjoy them, almost. Because if you’re going to try and deal with it to make money or whatever, I think you’ll be fucked really.

I don’t, so, for me, I’m just trying to have fun really. And I just wanted to have fun, I wanted to get to know Mala better and I wanted to… I thought he was a really interesting guy, and I thought and I thought, “Let’s just try…” I mean, really it isn’t any more complicated than that. I mean, literally he’s a really cool bloke, and I really respect what he does, I think he’s really relevant in terms of where he fits into this history, whether it’s sound system culture, club culture, or whatever.

B: He did sound like, talking about it, that he has really been through hell and back to do it, that he struggled, and it was a complicated thing for him to go through.

G: Definitely, definitely. When I spoke to him a couple of… just after he delivered the final record we went out, and he was like, “I was so close to saying that you can have your money back and here’s the record I got. I can’t keep with it” haha. But I kind of sensed that was happening anyway, a lot of the time, so I just left him to it really. And then, I think we were quite lucky and I think Simbad helped a lot as well…

B: Yeah. He said that Simbad was really crucial at a key point.

G: Yeah, he was crucial at that key point because he could just give him a little bit of that more traditional production value, and lessons about arrangement and this and that. He’s a musician so, actually, I think that was really… and Simbad is… Simbad is a mad guy so, I don’t know if you’ve met… have you met Simbad? Do you know him?

B: I haven’t, no but I feel like I must have heard his stuff before.

G: Everybody loves Simbad. He’s one of those guys who’s just totally, he’s so pure. He’s such a pure person. And especially in England, everyone’s like always after something or they’ve got another, they’ve got their own sort of agenda or whatever. He’s just totally honest and pure, and a nice bloke. I mean, I know that sounds weird, and people actually find him, they find that disconcerting because they think he’s got to have another agenda, but he’s not. I mean, I’m overstating it, but he’s one of those really unique blokes haha. Does my head in sometimes haha but he’s too nice. But, anyway, yeah, he came in good because he understands… he, because, again, he’s another one he’ll have the Koli Geet album, or he’ll listen to a new thing on Hyperdub and he’s right on top of that culture, musically. So, he can have those conversations with Mala. So, those two elements together and at a time when Mala was probably going through a moment of doubt, definitely gave the record a boost.

B: He sort of described it as getting himself into a maze or like fifteen different mazes at once, and couldn’t find his way through. And it sounds like a little bit of classical training from Simbad allowed him to see the route through.

G: Yeah. Yeah. I’d say that. I think that definitely I mean, I, again, I had absolutely nothing to do with any of that stuff. I literally let Mala get on with his stuff, send me some demos, I thought they were sounding good. It didn’t sound like it was quite, kind of getting to the next level two months later and I thought these guys get on really well, let’s send Simbad over there. That is probably that’s what good A&R is, I suppose.

B: It’s like a really great England substitution.

G: Yeah, it is hah. It was a good substitution.

B: You send Walcott on.

G: I send Walcott on, and exactly. So, yeah, and that’s what’s come out and we’re there.

B: I think what’s most amazing about it is, just as, definitely as somebody who’s listened to Mala’s music right from well, dubplate really, so before “Pathwayz,” it was just that, I think it has a uniqueness of the sounds he’s chosen, because they are all organic instruments and all Cuban organic instruments, that like having that number of tracks with the same, or related instrument families, and then Mala’s approach to each of them, musically differently, but like with different melodies and so on, it makes it really coherent and also really unique because it doesn’t entirely sound like anything Mala’s done before, but there are elements that are very familiar to what he’s done before.

G: Yeah, I mean, it’s all of that. I just love watching people… I just love the spell that he casts on people when he’s either DJing or when that record goes on. People who don’t really know whether they like that music or not… Mala’s got an incredible… he gets everybody with his music. It’s very… it’s hypnotic.

B: It’s a very direct extension of who he is inside. That was the funny thing was that, Emily, who works for you, asked me to write a biog for Mala the other day and I wrote one and it didn’t feel like… I couldn’t write a normal biog for him, like a normal 'list of achievements' type thing. I wrote really what I felt was the essence of Mala’s music.

And then after that Mala reminded me on the phone that I’d done one for him about five years ago, he’d compared it to that and they were very similar. And it was like, it’s because that’s in essence still who he is, like that sense of trying to generate unity and connection through - in a positive way – his music. And I honestly think people connect with that in a way that subconsciously they don’t realise what he’s trying to do, but it’s very powerful. And I don’t know if all musicians have that kind of message sometimes. Maybe they should do but…

G: He found his reason for being, that’s for sure and he’s advancing it. And, I think, this project is coming at a very interesting time as well because, of course, of where that movement has gone, and all the different directions it’s gone and also I think a lot of people missed what he was doing five, six, seven years ago because it was too ahead and they weren’t ready for it. And now… they’ve subconsciously heard that sound, and now, when we go and drop this record, I think a lot of people are going to be ready for it. More than they would have been at the time. And I think the dubstep movement, whatever, if you want to call it that these days, I think it could kind of give it some new sense of… well give it that direction again. Or I mean, I don’t know if you want to call it dubstep, that’s a bit of a weird term, but it’ll be interesting to see… it’s just funny to hear the likes of Skream and Benga and those people, because they all really love him, don’t they?

B: Totally, yeah.

G: I mean, he’s really important to them.

B: He’s revered.

G: Yeah, revered, so, it’s going to be it’s kind of making everybody go, “Hang on a minute. Where are we coming from?” and that’s quite… I’m really interested in all that.

B: Yeah, and I think it’s true… I think there is a danger that dubstep will make itself irrelevant, or what most people think is dubstep, will make itself irrelevant. And maybe, arguably, already has sort of en masse perhaps already has and so, I think an album like this could be, like you say, influential in that direction. And the best thing about it, is though, that it still maintains a lot of the sound system values and the intensity from that culture. The impact of his music rather than it just being really mellow and not having the counterpoint of the bass or the drums and so on. It’s got that both sides to it.

G: That’s why I was really pleased when I heard the record it had, it does get rude and naughty at times. I was really pleased he didn’t make because it’s very easy to sort of make a record, ‘oh Gilles Petersen is involved and it’ll end up becoming a little bit jazzy, oh, here’s a trumpet or whatever’ that’s easy, I’m very aware of that with some of the projects that I’ve done and tried to keep them as dark as possible.

B: You go round telling people to be ruder haha?

G: A bit because that’s what I love about it. That’s why I love Masters at Work because Kenny Dope’s going to get dirty and that’s always been my thing. Roni was another example of that, when we did Reprazent. It was just fresh at the time, but it still had a big essence of the ruder side of drum & bass at the time. So, with this record, I was just delighted that it was just the right amount of melody arrangement but without forgetting what it’s about and where it’s coming from. So, I think that’s the most satisfying part of this record because it doesn’t ever really go into a kind of cool sort of lounge music thing. Because it could so easily have become that.

B: Totally. Well, sort of. I mean, except, of course, it’s Mala and Mala being Mala, it never would have. But, yeah, yes, I totally mean that you could see how a lighter dubstep remix could have gone in that direction. But, yeah, it’s brilliant that it didn’t, and it’s much stronger for it. It didn’t make as much sense to me the first few times I heard it, and so I had chance to listen to it loud and with the bass properly up, and suddenly you hear both working together and in harmony rather than the upper registers by themselves.

G: That’s important. That’s really important. I mean, we did this party in Paris last week. We did a listening party there, and the sound system wasn’t right. So, we had to go and get a sound system at the last minute, into the venue. But, it was great, yeah, we were really lucky, how it was, definitely the spirits were with us, and we had like forty, fifty people in there, and it was amazing because it sounded great. And we just listened to it from the beginning to the end, and everybody got it and it was really important. So, we’re doing one here, in London, in a few weeks time as well. We’re going to do one in New York. So, it’s really important for us to kind of present the record to the people who are going to be the tastemakers, and the people that are important, and the journalists and all that stuff. And we really want them to listen to the record the way it should be heard because, in this day and age I mean, I’m getting all this music sent, I’m just I’m making my decisions over my little, shitty little laptop speakers. And so it’s important to try and make sure people can experience it in full sort of three hundred and sixty degrees.

B: It totally didn’t make sense to me, entirely, until I’d heard it up with the bottom end properly so I can see why you want to present it in those environments rather than somewhere else.

G: Yeah. So, hopefully, people are getting that.

B: Cool. Well, I mean, I think that’s most of the picture of… as I need it, unless there’s other bits that you think we haven’t covered?

G: No. I’m delighted, I mean, one of the nice stories, actually, it was… I don’t know, I’m sure he told you about it, was when we went over there on the, I think it was the first visit as well, he did a party. We got him to DJ over there. So, that was… he kind of did the first official dubstep party in Cuba, in Havana. And at this event, which was kind of this the cool kids were there, the ones that the little the sort of the, like in any society, it might be communist but you’re still going to get your cooler kids and your so that kind of nice venue, pretty girls and good crowd and stuff. And he was banging it out, and they were kind of they were… the crowd was kind of hip to the music, they were very interested by it all. And literally, I don’t know if he told you this, but suddenly there’s this bloke who starts playing the trumpet, and he sounded brilliant. I was like, “Well, I got to get him in the studio tomorrow”. And that’s a really nice sort of… nice moment in the record, and it’ll be great when he comes over to play trumpet when they’re doing some shows, hopefully, in the autumn.

B: Are they going to do a live project out of it?

G: Yeah, yeah. We’re going to do it. I mean we’re going to, I mean I say live, in my head, I’m seeing the Roundhouse, I’m seeing Mala, some percussion I’m seeing Changuito playing congas, who’s like a proper legend, Cuban musicians, some wicked visuals, a bit of piano, maybe, with Roberto just coming in for a couple of but I’m seeing the kind of sound system, but with Cuba, and three thousand people bouncing like it was, like DMZ. I’m seeing that for sure. I think that’d be amazing. So, yeah, I think, I think Mala’s going to be… in a way Mala’s quite modest, isn’t he? He doesn’t quite realise, in a way, who he is, and I think that he is not far from being able to… I mean, I saw Nicolas Jaar last year at the Roundhouse and I was like, “Oh, God!” This is sold out on a fucking Wednesday in February, snowing outside. I was like, “My God there is a world for this”… Mala would just murder this. So I’m hoping that he’s going to be really up for doing all that stuff.

B: Well, that will definitely get to a new audience as well.

G: Nice one, Martin.

B: Alright. Thanks, Gilles.

• "Mala in Cuba" is out now: A&R by Mr Gilles P, music by man like Mala, sleevenotes by me. Read my 2004 Digital Mystikz interview here and 2007 Mala interview here.

My Roots of ( gratitude to) Gilles Peterson

So... it was fun interviewing Gilles because he, alongside others, really influenced me back in the day. Around '98/99 if you got a remix for Talkin' Loud you were obviously hot property, and the album projects were all serious business. So here's a bunch of tracks Gilles released, compiled or first lead me to. Respect.

Roni Size / Reprazent "Brown Paper Bag"



Nuyorican Soul "I am the Black Gold of the Sun (4hero remix)"



Krust "True Stories"

 

MJ Cole "Sincere (2000 dub)"

 

Incognito "Out of the Storm (carl craig planet remix)"



Soul Dhamma "Flower (The Underwater Garden Dub)"



The Isley Brothers "Ohio"



Joyce "Aldeia De Ogum"

 

John Martyn "Solid Air"

 

Bigup Tasha, James and Mark who remember these times too. Memory flood...

LDN033 Dusk + Blackdown Dasaflex

Well, it took us four years, lots of tea, pizza and tired nights but it's out on digital, CD and vinyl. Hope you like it. To celebrate the occasion I'm giving away a track that was made during the process (~2010), called "Ridge."

The thing is, when people talk about Wiley’s eski sound, as they have been recently, they mention his glacial square waves – and that’s cool. But what’s utterly cold is his merging of a track’s elements. In his anthem “Eskimo” the bassline is both the melody and the rhythmic driver, it’s EQed so it provides bottom-end momentum but also catchy, sing-a-long mid riffage.

With “Ridge” - which I named as a contraction of the slang “garridge” - I’d been sampling hundreds of UKG tunes in 2010, especially the donk-y marimbas, and wondered ‘what would happen if you applied Eski-think to them?’ What was the minimum number of elements I could reduce the track to and it still sound “garage-y?” How many could you merge and it still worked? The result is “Ridge.”

UPDATE: DiS have done a Keysound profile and given away a mashup dub I did with Durrty Goodz.

Win tickets to Forward

So, we're releasing an album and having a party to celebrate, at the club night that made us first want to make music over a decade ago and in the venue we most like playing.

Keysound, well as the saying goes, it's a family affair so we'd love you to be able to join us, Sully, LHF and Beneath. To that end I'm giving away 5 pairs of tickets to the party. Want some freeness? This is how you enter.

Imagine you were playing Plastic People, what one record would you like to hear on that system?

What fresh MP3 would you draw into the Serrato, what upfront CDr would you slip into the Pioneers? What untouchable dusty vinyl classic would you pull from its sleeve or 10" dubplate would you like to see spinning on those decks?

Leave a comment below (I'll publish them as soon as I see 'em) and 5 of you will win pairs of tickets. It'd be nice to see ya. You can enter as many times as you like, that's cool.

[UPDATE] Winners

OK so the winners of the +1 each are...

• Kate Phillips 
• Kieran Swain 
• Ash Oglina
• Smoove Kriminal
• roshman111 

Please get in touch!

• Dusk + Blackdown Facebook event here.
• Download Blackdown v Wen v Beneath v Visionist on Rinse 

How do genres get named?

So last night I was a guest on Will LV's NTS show to talk with Laurent Fintoni and Rogues Foam to chat some waffle about genres.

Some articles that brought this debate about here, here and here. Rory Gibbs' thoughts were fantastic.

And while you're here, LV's siiiiick new album for Hyperdub is here. Loving the videos too...

 

Rinse August: Blackdown v Beneath v Wen v Visionist

Blackdown v Beneath v Wen v Visionist Rinse FM August 2012

DOWNLOAD HERE

Dusk + Blackdown "Lonely Moon (Android Heartbreak) ft Farrah" [forthcoming Keysound Recordings]
Bias & Gurley "Roll (Blackdown's 'a debt repaid' remix)" [Keysound Recordings]
Blackdown "Apoptosis" [forthcoming Keysound Recordings]
Dusk + Blackdown "We Ain't Beggin'" [forthcoming Keysound Recordings]
Blackdown "Untitled" [unreleased]
Blackdown "'Ridge" [unreleased]
Blackdown "Wicked Vibez" [forthcoming Keysound Recordings]
Blackdown "R in Zero G (lost mutant cousin version)" [unreleased]
Blackdown "R in Zero G" [forthcoming Keysound Recordings]
Dusk + Blackdown "This is London (2011 riots remix)" [unreleased]

**Beneath in the mix**

Beneath "Wonz" [unreleased]
Beneath "Illusion" [unreleased]
Beneath "Tribulation" [unreleased]
Beneath "PVO" [unreleased]
Beneath "Future Shock" [unreleased]

**Wen in the mix**

Wen "Untitled" (Ft. Dot Rotten) [unreleased]
Wen "Lo-Fidelity" [Forthcoming South Fork Sound]
Wen "Swingin'" [unreleased]
Wen "Takin' Over" [Forthcoming South Fork Sound]
Wen "Nightcrawler" [unreleased]
Wen "Spark It" [unreleased]
Wen "Walk Tha Walk" [unreleased]
Wen "Empress (130 Mix)" [unreleased]
Wen "Commotion" [unreleased]
Wen vs Epoch "Hydraulics" [Forthcoming Egyptian Avenue]

**Visionist in the mix**

Visionist "Control This" [unreleased]
Visionist "Revolt" [unreleased]
Visionist "NGF" [unreleased]
Visionist "2 Sides 2 Every Coin" [unreleased]
Visionist "Mr.67" (klp edit) [unreleased]
Youngstar "Pluse X" (visionist remix) [unreleased]
Visionist "Snakes" [unreleased]
Visionist, Beneath & Wen "New Wave" [unreleased]

Double Helix "LDN VIP"[unreleased]
Double Helix "Illusion of Time" [unreleased]
LV "Animal Prints (feat. Okmalumkoolkat)" [Hyperdub]
Balistiq Beats "Rise of the Machines (Yardman riddim) ft Riko (Sully remix)" [unreleased]
Emma "Marina" [unreleased]
Luna Beduin (LHF family) "The Island" [unreleased]

LDN031 Keysound Allstars

 Keysound Allstars vol 1: Walton, Gremino, Visionist  & Vibezin
[Keysound Recordings]
LDN031

Out now on 12" vinyl and digital. Hear the entire EP here:



The 12” is illustrated by specifically commissioned photos of the tower block grime godfather Wiley grew up in Bow by London Nico Hogg (read more about Nico here).

Shout to the original “Allstars” dons: the Allstars label releasing incredible under-cover remixes by former jungle don and proto-dubstep godfather Steve Gurley with Chris Mac. Also the seminal Tempa label, who continued the “Allstars” tradition with cuts from El-B, Artwork and Geeneus.

Rinse July

Dusk & I were back on Rinse last Thurs 11pm.

Download the AUDIO HERE.

Tracklist:

Funkystepz "Bizzaro" [unreleased]
Shy One "Blackwidow" [forthcoming DVA]
Funkystepz "Star9" [unreleased]
Jook10 "Jump Up" [Soulserious]
Jook10 "Ghost Hunter" [Soulserious]
X5 Dubs "From Dem Ah" [unreleased]
Jook10 "Funky Junky" [Soulserious]
LV feat. Okmalumkoolkat "Animal Prints" [Forthcoming Hyperdub]
Mista Men "Rush On Me" [unreleased]
Riffs "I Don't Care (Original Mix)" [Totter]
Samrai "Hear Me Now [unreleased]
Bombé "Tell (Riffs Remix)" [Full Fridge]
Compound One "Calling Out (Qualifide Dub)" [forthcoming]
KG "808 (Fis-T Remix)" [Free DL: http://www.semaphoreartists.com/]
Visionist "Funk" [unreleased]
LV feat. Ruffest "Uthano Lwakho" [forthcoming Hyperdub]
Beneath "Half Dead" [unreleased]
Macker "Euthymol" [unreleased]
Beneath "You & Me remix" [unreleased]
J-One "The Way You" [unreleased]

Gremino "Rupi VIP" [forthcoming Keysound 31 12"]
Walton "Cool It VIP" [forthcoming Keysound 31 12"]
Vibezin "A Little Higher" [forthcoming Keysound 31 12"]
Visionist "Come In" [forthcoming Keysound 31 12"]
Dusk "Focus (Blackdown VIP)" [Keysound 32 12"]

Moleskin x Wolffcubb "That episode of star trek where everyone goes missing" [unreleased]
Goon Club Allstars "The Housten moonwalk riddim" [unreleased]
Goon Club Allstars "Goon Plate" [unreleased]
Moleskin "Pulskimo" [unreleased]
Moleskin "Murdah in the dancehall (club mix)" [unreleased]
Fresh Paul "Sunblazed"
unknown "Rhythm" [unknown]
Planas "Better Days" [unreleased]
Lewis James "Peroxide Blonde" [Forthcoming Raid Systems]
P Money "Dubsteppin (Club mix)" [Forthcoming Rinse]
JME "Murkin (Spooky remix)" [unreleased]
Oris Jay "Boosi" [Texture]
TS7 "Grade A (Walton Remix)" [Forthcoming Coyote]
Oris Jay "I'm Chosen ft MC Ranking" [Texture]
Surkin & Todd Edwards "I Want You Back" [Sound Pellegrino]
J-One "Sacred" [unreleased]
LV feat. Okmalumkoolkat "Safe and Sound" [forthcoming Hyperdub]

Goon Club Allstars "Love sequence" [unreleased]
Guido "Something Wkd" [unreleased]
Oris Jay "Heavy ft Rodney P" [unreleased]

August show will be 23rd 11pm. Me (Blackdown) v Wen v Visionist v Beneath. Dubplate showcase.

You can also download all the Dusk & Blackdown Rinse shows back to 2002 HERE.

Cosmic Bridge: slowfast

Exclusive Om Unit Cosmic Bridge mixtape: HERE

Kromestar (feat. Team Starfleet) - Outer Limit (CBR002)
Om Unit vs Kromestar - Solar Cycle (CBR001)
Kromestar - Don't Make Sense VIP (CBR003)
Danny Scrilla - X (Moresounds dub) (Un-released)
Moresounds - Analog Steak (CBR004)
Moresounds - Analog Steak (Danny Scrilla remix) (Un-released)
Danny Scrilla (feat. Om Unit) - Hunch (CBR006)
EAN - Flow (Om Unit remix) (CBR005)
Moresounds - Weeda (CBR004)
Danny Scrilla - Street Sound (CBR006)
EAN - Darknet (CBR005)





Om Unit interview

B: So I think the first time I noticed your music was  the "Digidesign remix" but I bet you were up to stuff long before that. How did you get the "Digidesign remix" and can you describe what you were up to before that?

Om: I had been working before that as 2tall. That was the pre-cursor to everything I'm doing now. It was a little more homespun and rough around the edges. I think I refined my approach to making music after the last 2tall album "softer diagram" and I went quiet for a bit just approaching things differently, learning more before coming out again as Om Unit.

The "Digidesign remix" was just something I made as I love the melody. Turns out that Joker liked it and allowed me to cut it to white label and after Plastician and Joker supported it in their sets. 

B: So it was a refix?

Om: Yes, just a personal thing, Joker did send me one part to use once in the version once he had heard a rough cut

B: Nice. And what tempo was it?

Om: I think 92bpm or 90.

B: So do you see it as a precursor to what you're doing now with Cosmic Bridge?

Om: Absolutely. the sound and feeling is of the same lineage, to me at least.

B: So what's interesting is when I came to the Cosmic Bridge releases recently I connected it with juke and the re-emergence of interest in those higher tempos, as much as that 2009 "Digidesign remix". Is that fluke or a contributing factor?

Om: There's tinges of that footwork flavour in the "Moresounds EP" and the EAN records. That's really just down to my taste as the A+R side goes really, so I guess I'd say it's a contributing factor but I certainly don't think to myself "oh yeah wicked this is a footwork record let's put it out" - I'd rather hear something that has it's own twist on a style that is instantly convincing. I think you can hear that across all the Cosmic Bridge releases.

B: So was it like, you were already working at those tempos and then suddenly the juke thing was running nicely in parallel to it?

Om: Well you can hear the influence in my own music but Cosmic Bridge as a label is more about sound system music than trying to be soup du jour but there's certainly the flavour of footwork in some of the records as I've said. However there's even larger influence coming from far less hip and more interesting music such as dub, hip hop, jungle and synthpop.

B: I just think its interesting because, the elephant in the room in dance music is tempo. Perhaps Ableton DJing and other newer technologies are changing that but for so long most genres had narrow tempo ranges so DJs could beat mix them within +/-8 bpm. So this made me think how brave you were to be running at 80 bpm!

Om: Basically I'm taking risks when I play out now, I think it's much more challenging to pull off your own thing convincingly, but when you do your own thing well there's enormous satisfaction in that. Now there seems to be a growing group of people on the same tip making stuff from 80-85bpm with a mish-mash of different vibes to it, so we all feed each other. Plus to be honest a lot of house music bores the shit out of me. I'm more into the subs, but most dubstep parties dried up. Thank god for Vivek's system night though! I'll tell you what as well, playing all over Europe there are hundreds of people making tunes at 80bpm

B: Nice how come?

Om: It's just they exist only on the internet or their own parties

B: Haha, no focused scene, in real life!

Om: Should there be?

B: Well things that exist but just not on the internet, must exist in real life… no?

Om: Can of worms! Anyway fuck a scene. Good music is timeless, something things are seasonal. Whether it's only on the internet or only on a ltd 7" run makes no difference, to me at least. If someone created it and shared it, great!

B: So, the 80 bpm thing, do you feel it's trying to make some kind of rhythmic paradox, kinda fast & slow but even more extreme than halfstep dubstep?

Om: There's no paradox to it, in my eyes. I think a rhythmic paradox might be something far more twisted and interesting. I like this term that Boomkat came up with "slowfast."

B: That's what I mean…

Om: But really its a slow backbeat with double time percussion if you will. I think that the switchups you find in juke and footwork music have allowed people to experiment more rhythmically and I think that's brought about some progression in terms of people's drum programming and yes it's certainly more extreme than the 70/140 dubstep/grime angle I think, literally because it's just faster plus a lot of dubstep producers got very lazy. Maybe the 140bpm format has been explored loads and people want to hear different stuff.

Download the amazing Phillip D Kick "footwork jungle" refixes:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3

Read the full story about them here.

B: Can you tell me about the story of how Phillip D Kick came about?

Om: It's as simple as a synthesis of 2 styles I was mixing together in my DJ sets, I thought to myself 'what would happen if I took these classic jungle tunes and put that chicago footwork twist on them.' I think I was kind of the first person to do this, and I've heard it catch on quite a lot since, I have to give a shout to Machinedrum who had the same idea that same week too! I saw him Tweet about it and hit him up, that's actually how Dream Continuum came about. I decided to use an alias to keep it low-key until I had finished the 3 volumes of 4 tunes. It lead to gig offers, remix offers all sorts. It was a great experiment that I'm proud to have seen through to completion.

B: Beyond the refixes, do you think it could lead into its own space, that's neither juke nor jungle? that original productions rather than refixes, could emerge from it?

Om: I think it has/is happening, there's trap/jungle/footwork being blended. I am not sure if it'll ever be anything but a synthesis, but at the same time I don't think that's a problem.

B: It's tricky that balance right, the point between blending two known forms and a third unique form emerging, or indeed in some cases not emerging...

Om: Well perhaps most things start like that but there's a line where something becomes independent.

B: Totally. So can you tell me more about the Dream Continuum?

Om: That's me and Machinedrum, we released one record on Planet Mu called "Reworkz" it's essentially three jungle footwork reworks. I think that this record and the Phillip D Kick stuff are all still really good DJ tools.

B: How connected are they in vibe to Cosmic Bridge? what are the similarities/differences?

Om: Well the link is me I guess. I feel like if you create anything it's somehow linked to everything else you create. I don't see an obvious link. Cosmic Bridge is really my pet label to release great music by other people or collaborations that I make. I guess the similarities are that people can still play the music in the same set much as I do.

B: Yeah, the tempo thing...

Om: Its similar but most of the Cosmic Bridge stuff is more focused on the slower/heavier/dubbier side. And tends to be more up in the 85bpm range. as i say, to me it's music that you can play out and references those things. I am a lover of synthesis

B: Of bringing differing things together?

Om: Yeah I think the most interesting stuff for me at the moment is between the genre borders.

B: Where things are more blurred?

Om: No not blurred: still well conceived. There's a lot of pseudo stuff but you can hear when something is well realised.

B: Do you have an over-arching sense of the vibe of Cosmic Bridge, what makes sense for it and what doesn't?

Om: I find it hard to explain, and can't fully verbalise. I guess Cosmic Bridge is a representation of that bass heavy downbeat dancefloor driven sound but not genre exclusive.

B: Can you talk about the relationship between tempo and drum density. Like the juke refixes of jungle tracks or the cosmic bridge tracks at 85/170...

Om: I think it's a simple as quanitzed 16ths providing the movement, with a steady downbeat. At 80/160 you have more room to play. Once you get up to 85bpm things tend to sound better a little stripped down.

B: I guess what I'm asking when do you decide to strip back and when to add density. Because if you go too dense you're into drum & bass territory, and if you go too light, then it risks lacking in momentum...

Om: The track should decide for itself and what I mean is if you feel where it should go you just let this happen.

B: Sure except with the Cosmic Bridge stuff generally you're not going either beatless or full on d&b tearout...

Om: No that sound I guess focuses on the "one". 4/4. I think that's where the dub reference ties in. Moresounds for example blends the dub feel with the skittish footwork percussive elements.

• For more info cosmicbridgerecs.com
• Soundcloud www.soundcloud.com/omunit 
• Buy Om Unit's new EP on Civil Music

Rescued From The Fire

I wrote the 41st edition of Rescued From The Fire for the Red Bull Music Academy.  NB: that's not my actual Amiga (I tried to take shots of my PC but the screen looked crap in low light).

LDN033

I swore we wouldn’t, couldn’t do it again... but, erm, we have.

Dusk + Blackdown “Dasaflex”

[Keysound Recordings]

LDN033

Released September 17^th on CD, LP and digital

More info here.

The Roots of Keysound

The Wire magazine asked me to do a "Roots of Keysound" top 15 so I did. Then I thought it would be fun to make it into a playlist to share. I included Hatcha's Rinse FM sets from 03/04 but there's none on YouTube, so it's a top 14. Enjoy.

Rinse June

Dusk & I were back on Rinse in June.

DOWNLOAD the podcast here.

Dusk + Blackdown + "High Road" [Forthcoming Keysound]
Grenier "Vendetta" [forthcoming Tectonic]
Mista Men "Flake" [unreleased]
Checan "HYTZ" [Uttu Records]
Mella Dee "Lowkey" [unreleased]
Voltron "Play It (Bambounou remix)" [Discobelle]
DJ Pantha Ft Shantie "Love To The Max Hate To The Minimal" (Jackin) [WeRBass]
Teeth "Percolator Meme" [Sound Pellegrino]

Emma "Shoot the Curl" [unreleased]
Blind Prophet & Volatil "Dominoes" [unreleased[
Emma ft Rebel MC "Untitled" [unreleased]
Swindle "Need to Know" [Forthcoming swindle productions]
Damu "Echelon (vocal)" [unreleased]
Voltron "Play It (Gremino Remix)" [Discobelle]

Wen "Tredz" [unreleased]
Visionist "Armhouse" [unreleased]
visionist "Pour Water on a Witch vol 3" [unreleased]
Double Helix "The Uprising" [unreleased]
Double Helix "Illusion of Time" [unreleased]
Trevino "Shorty" [!K7]
Visionist "Why So Rigid" [unreleased]
LAS "Lowout (Teeth remix)" [forthcoming Signal Life]
Mickey Freeze "Carbon"
Wen "Commotion" [unreleased]
Djrum 'Turiya' (Tessela Remix) [2nd Drop]
Monky "L.I.G." [unreleased]
Mala "untitled" [forthcoming]
Mala "untitled" [forthcoming]

MR K-RO "Prevail ft Wiley" [unreleased]
Walton "Rainbow Grime" [unreleased]
Flash G "Pearl (Instrumental)" [unreleased]
Wagon Cookin' "No Bossy Girl (Imami remix)" [unreleased]
Last Japan "East ft Trim" [forthcoming]
Crackatoa "Strange Encounters" [forthcoming No Hats No Hood]
Terror Danjah "Dark Crawler feat Riko Dan" [**bagpipe airhorn** Hyperdub]
Walter Ego "Sidney Street (Original mix)" [forthcoming Senseless]
LV "Sebenza feat Okmalumkoolkat" [Hyperdub]

Sines "You Got Me"  [Free download]
Danny Scrilla "Hunch (feat Om Unit)" [Cosmic Bridge]


You can download last month's audio here. You can also download all the Dusk & Blackdown Rinse shows back to 2008 here.

Cooly G

My review of Cooly G's amazing album for Fact. It's my favourite longplayer of 2012 (alongside LHF and "Mala in Cuba"). Just remember who started early in all this dark rolling UK funky stuff!

Wen: what's all the commotion about?

Clustering: it's a word that keeps coming into my life recently.

Beneath, Visionist and Wen are a cluster of producers that I'm especially excited by right now, all of them mining a really compelling seam of dark, 130ish beats. In a second connected cluster you could also look at how Wen, Visionist and Logos are making grimey 130ish beats but while Visionist, Logos and Beneath have had some press coverage, I suspect Wen will be new to many.

In the last year, I've become increasingly convinced the purpose of our Rinse show is to give some exposure to new & emerging producers on our wavelength. Many of the producers that we played when we first joined Rinse and those we knew before now have international profiles & insanely successful brands. Their press officers send us their music: that's not to say that we will or wont play their music, but things like that make me feel like others need what we have to give more right now.

It's felt good to have this sense of purpose with our show, to find and share producers hungry to experiment and evolve who are making beats that hold their own to the current biggest names - but don't yet make the same headlines. And one of those is Wen.

People talk about "bass" music as if the only common denominator in dubstep and it's "post-" experiements is b-lines, but to me you could also easily have reduced '06 dubstep to "dark"; the Metalheadz flavour El-B injected into garage's vocal warmth. But in the period after dubstep exploded and got ruined, I went through a crisis of confidence around whether there was any mileage left in "dark" as a style. Wobble was unlistenable, halfstep now known as "dungeon" was fine but derivative of 04/05. On the other hand UK funky was warm, percussive and fun the wonk/purple synth thing was merging with the Butterz grime strain and producing gem after gem. So for a while, I questioned "dark."

But sounds and scenes are cyclical, as much a re-action as an action, and so the further the colour intensifies the more interesting an absence of light feels fresh again. Coupled with a new tempo and undefined rhythmic matrix, there seems like a really creative cluster of undefined, interesting and dark producers working in the shadows.

Honestly, you should really meet Wen...

Download an exclusive Wen production showcase

Wen "You Know"
Wen "Brisk"
Wen, Lex, J-One "Closer"
Wen  "Lo-Fidelity (Original Mix)"
Wen "Road"
Wen "Treds"
Wen "Wind It Up"
Wen "Takin' Over"
Wen "Persian"
Wen "Spark It"
Wen "Nightcrawler"

Wen interview:

B: Can you tell me where it all started for you?

W: I really got interested in music, and the instrumental side of things when I started listening to grime with a friend, we heard about Wiley during the Tunnel Vision days and I was well into that sound. Around the same time another friend (J-One) was producing hip-hop, I saw him playing with Fruity loops one day round his. Asked him what it did and how it worked, he kinda showed me the ropes that same day and just made a simple loop, then he sent me samples and everything I needed to get started - I started with hip hop like him, but was using those grimey basslines and quite a lot of Eastern/Oriental samples to begin with. I continued messing about but took the tempo up to grime speed and slowly moved onto more spread out halfstep.

B: Spreadouuut!

W: I heard dubstep in a car with Elz (the one I used to listen to grime with), we were listening to it so loud but only realised when we lost signal of the sketchy station, then I looked in a bit further and discovered Youngsta on Rinse, he was playing Kryptic Minds really early stuff.

B: so do you think of what you do now as "dubstep?”

W: nah I don’t think so, it was and I was 'stuck' in making halfstep for a while, it was all I had been doing and what I was really feeling at the time, whenever I started to make a tune it would be solid kicks and 9th hit snares standard. I guess I did this cos there were so many other things I was learning with production all at once, you know how the learning curve is, its hard to take it all in and be creative with sounds as well as tempo all together Over a year and a half ago I had an accident with my external hard drive, I lost all my samples and all the files for all my beats up to that day. I was devastated at the time, but was still hungry to make new music. Roughly the same time I started to hear alot of 130 stuff, which was well fresh and interesting.

B: So disaster became an opportunity?

W: Exactly, I started from scratch. New samples, was properly out of my comfort zone. So I turned the tempo down a touch, and messed with some vocals and a few 808's and made “Lo-fidelity.” It was a real turning point in my style, opened a lot up. I dunno why I was so scared to try something new before then. But yeah, from that tune I became a lot more open minded with what I was producing. J-one and Lex had always been making garage and 2step, I had dabbled in it before but was a bit refrained if I’m honest. So played with the drums a lot more, started to swing ‘em a lot more and just have fun with them and just tried to move away from the organic Eastern samples I was using, those sounds are irresistible to use and are really beautiful, but admittedly I started to feel a bit trapped in using those instruments. They were taking over my sound, and sorta became it.

B: It’s funny, because “Persia” the eastern sample one in your mix really stands out. I'd not heard you use those flavours before, even though (it seems from what you're saying), that you had used them so much before.

W: Yeah, its not like I was recycling the exact same sample over and over - but that 'Eastern' style of sound was consistently a focal point in my tunes. It became a bit of a habit. I wanted to give my sound something fresh, wanted it to sound a bit more digital. It was becoming really earthy and I didn’t wanna be named under the tribal thing that was emerging. well... that’s been about for a while I guess, in Mala's beats but there were heads calling their music tribal, dungeon etc. I’d rather it was a bit unclassifiable.

B: “Tribal” as different to the UK funky tribal thing? That Brixton funky rave etc...

W: Yeah, I mean I liked that stuff a lot and its certainly been an influence. Early Cooly G stuff was quite dark on the funky side, and I liked that, with the grime esq violin samples and stuff. But I’m still quite fixated on keeping things minimal. I like space between each element, especially when there’s certain stand out sounds. The gaps in the percussion can often tie it together better than an drum hit. At that time i was hearing fresh music, but wasn’t too sure where to look for it. I heard Kode9 play some weird shit, he might of been the first , probably was. It was nice not to know what the expected drum patterns were at that tempo.

B: I was listening to your mix, which is really percussively diverse and wondered, if you ever had the urge to make something more, well, urgent to contrast what you have now?

W: What do you mean by urgent, like 4x4?

B:  Yeah, but without defining that exact beat pattern.

W: yeah I have experimented with kinda transitions during tracks where it embraces a predictable drum pattern just to jar people when they hear it go back to how sparse it was before. But I usually end up doing the opposite and drop more of the drums out. I've been really tempted to make stuff where the snare is the driver of the beat, rather than the kick, so fully swapping their roles.

B: UK funky does that to an extent, but its underpinned by a kick.

W: Yeah yeah true, gives the start of each bar a lot of impact. With the right snare I feel you could get the same feeling if it was alone.

B: You sound like you've spent a lot of time getting into sound.

W: Yeah, I know how I want things to sound. I don’t like getting to hung up on mixdowns and stuff though, that technical side of production always detracts something from my beats. Spending hours tweaking things really subtly gets really tedious. It probably sounds like a lazy excuse but I really like a rough quality to music. Not in a vinyl crackle way, more of a pirate radio thing. Well I don’t even know if its that. It might just be a knock on of low quality samples produced in low quality programs. You know like Dizzee beats on made on Playstation. They sound raw, early days production, its got a richness to it. Imperfection is something I like.

B: It's funny, people can have totally divergent opinions on this. It’s funny how a lack of understanding of engineering can become an entire aesthetic

W: Yeah, I can see how people might not like that and want (or expect) music to sound crystal clear or too clean. Maybe its something I learned to love thru using samples a lot because they’re always gonna have a particular roughness about them even if its only subtle, it’s still there.

B: I'm interested in what you said "I’d rather it was a bit unclassifiable". Why is this important to you?

W: I think when people can say 'ah this music is this' it’s cool to be able to differentiate and it does make things simpler when you can pick out genres, but its more interesting when people have to listen hard (and struggle) to put their finger on it. That for me is when something starts to become 'original.' I like people to be able to listen to my music and know that its one of my tunes, but not in a way that they can pick elements out that are familiar e.g. 'Eastern samples, halfstep drums' that could be a number of producers

B: I first remember talking to MJ Cole about this, maybe 10 years ago that perhaps, at their subconscious core, each producer has some or a few fundamental traits - like how you could always tell his arpeggios a mile off

W: Yeah that’s it. Like there’s a way that the tune is assembled or a certain style of sound. It’s weird, when I listen back to my recent stuff. I always visualise this deep purple colour

B: More like that there's certain fundamental ideas hard coded into a producers brain or subconcious, that cant help but come out.

W: Yeah couldn’t of put it better.

B: Music and colour is a whole different thing i.e. synesthesia! I have that very strongly, or at least the association between tracks I write and a colour – though some people are said to literally see colours when they hear music. I've told video directors to change the entire palate of a video as the track "wasn’t that colour."

W: Haha yeah fully understand you on that! It’s almost a mood that comes attached to the music. I think something as simple as putting a colour in front of you as you listen to something can change the depth of that tune a lot or in fact no colour at all, dark room and loud music, you just get lost in it.

B: I have found when DJing or listening to DJs the light levels in a room are key. If it's too bright there can be no vibe.

W: yeah, the less light you have the more comfortable you are. I think this applies when producing too, or at least when you first get ideas rolling. I feel like I have more room to breathe when it’s dark. The vibe thing is cool too. I find my better tracks are made when I shouldn’t really be focusing on making music, can be really creative when you drop everything else. It’s a bit of a cliché thing to say but channeling that energy into music becomes an escape. It actually does though, hours fly by when your in that zone. And when that happens its hard not to take advantage of it. The amount of times I’ve had open opportunities to get in the studio, have nothing else to worry about yet my output is so dry, its frustrating. But it’s certainly not about forcing stuff out when I find the pieces in my tracks they tend to just fall together. Sometimes these things happen by accident too.

B: So can we talk about some of the tracks in the mix?

W: Yeah sure. “Closer” is a track i made a couple of years ago with Lex and J-One - they've both been massive influences on me since day one, this track was an eye opener for me of what can actually be done.

B: I don’t really know them, can you tell me a bit more about them?

W: J-One consistently produces mad high quality music, really crisp drums that float over any synth/sample/vocal he puts beneath it. His tracks are really soulful, but not in a slow way, his drums are properly swung and he’s been on the 2step flex for ages and Lex sources these well delicate samples every time, also been on the 2step thing since day. He told me about you two, think he recommended “Margins Music.”

B: Good man! He sounds alright to me.

W: Hahaha

W: yeah I really look up to them both, they’ve always been really open to listening to my tunes, giving me feedback, showing me new stuff they’ve learnt, makin’ tunes together. Everything they could to help me progress quickly. I’m heavily influenced by them both, I properly started the eastern sampling thing after we made “Closer” and my drums seemed to get solid after that tune, I think I just started looking for stuff that would help me make something on par with that track. Cos honestly it was way ahead of me at that time helped me step up though I’ll pass some tunes on from them once I get permission.

B: Tell me about your interest in grime MC vocals...

W: yeah, I got into grime through my mate Elz. He showed me some random set one time and I was hooked straight away. It just sounded interesting and different, had loads of energy and was to be frank, cool music he started MC'ing, and got good real quick. So I really started to appreciate the lyrics and how clever some of the things the MC's strung together were, even just the vibe that was given off by the choice of words and way certain words were said, that’s before you even consider flow.

W: Quickly got attached to listening to Wiley, Young Dot and Trim in particular. Dizzee was sick too but at that time he was on everyone’s lips. I loved the instrumentals, maybe a bit more than the bars we would sit in his room listening to Logan Sama and sometimes he would turn to me and quote a bar, I couldn’t remember that bar but could hear the beat that was underneath it clearly in my head.

B: OK but what about sampling them?

W: Yeah, the sampling is a kind of way of revisiting those tunes/sets that we listened to including snippets from those tunes is almost handing it to people and sayin’, yeah this is why I started makin’ music, this is a big part of my influence. Sets a mood. If I was 16 again sittin’ listenin’ to those sets I would love to be able to pause it and play my tune that samples it.

B: But, to play devil's advocate, a synth can set a mood. So why sample a vocal?

W: Haha, yeah that’s true. But a vocal in my opinion has a much more presence than a synth (there are synths that I will agree have more, Logos stuff does this really well) but a vocal has words that can have multiple meanings, that is said in a certain tone.

B: Multiple meanings eh?

W: yeah like metaphors. “Road.” That word means loads of things even within the 'grime' language. “On road shotting, clued up.” The original sample says 'good as Road' – that’s another twist, rhetorical question – “good as gold?” But then its fully styled out, 'Nike-d out… hoody’s low… good as road.'

Its offering you to read it how you want. There’s not necessarily a right way to take it, its kinda what I want to come thru the tracks. Trim is just a boss.

Follow Wen on Soundcloud

Follow Wen on Twitter

Do you heart music?

So, I was hoping some of you lot could help me out.

An exciting startup is looking for people who are passionate about expressing their opinions on music. Any type of music - it doesn't matter - all that's required is some genuine enthusiasm.  (Don't worry, they're safe: trust me.)

If you're into music, to a certain extent open to trying new types of social media and are interested, leave your email in a blog comment. I won't publish the comment but will be in touch directly. Alternatively you can Tweet me or send me a FB message.

Nuff said :)

[UPDATE] WOW, you lot are up for it!!!! If you left a comment, thanks I'll be in touch.

LDN032

LDN032. Incoming.