First up we have DJ Mellow from Brussels, who runs the Low Up parties which I can describe as being properly amazing. Anyways, he's taken the We Here vocal and laid it over a track by Schlachthofbronx called 'Regulate' - check it out here:
Next up we have Borai, aka Boris the studio manager at www.dubstudio.co.uk - Bristol's dedicated dubplate studio, and one of the few places in the UK that cuts direct to vinyl dubs. I've had a couple of these done and they are well impressive - sound great and last plenty long, so definitely worth trying out. Anyways, Boris has built a totally new Funky-inspired riddim around the vocal - top stuff, check it here:
It's Friday, yes it's Friday. We've got some extra fast fun for you this week - some 175BPM fun in fact. Our free tune for the week is Baobinga & I.D. turning our hands to Drum & Bass, in a slightly techy, slightly twisty kind of a way.
It even featured in Bao's recent DJ mix for Lower End Spasm - so you know it's hot! And we're giving away the 320k mp3 for free, to you great unwashed. Hope you enjoy it!
I've been meaning to do this for ages, but I've finally got round to it, and maybe in a way the delay was for the best.
Well that was a confusing start, but in my defence, it's 6:15am and I haven't slept yet.
Right, this week's Free Tune Friday is The Body Snatchers (aka Ginz & Baobinga) ft Sirplus & Yolanda 'Dangerous' - Club Edit. All this means is I've got hold of the stems and tagged a vaguely mixable intro onto the start of the tune, but credit where credit is due - I've uploaded it as a full mastered AIF. So no crappy MP3 stylings in your clubs, straight up baddaman goodness.
This is one of my favourite tunes off the album, and it feels like maybe its time has come somewhat - there's a distinct Karnival-type vibe to the tune, which is obviously helped by the superlative vocals of Sirplus and Yolanda - both ridiculously good Bristol heads, who we really need to get back in the studio with. The beat kinda has a B-More feel to it, but the swing, and lack of a Think or Sing Sing gives it more of a dancehall / garage feel, possibly with shades of Funky. All those vibes are getting shine now, hence my opening gambit of 'maybe the delay wasn't so bad'.
Sirplus - seen above countenancing infinity - always comes with great lyrics, and no exceptions here:
'True so we're paid to buss,
But it's gully and I still gotta take the bus
And it's funny how I swear but I hate to cuss
But I could have had the money and be flavourless'
Big.
Anyways, if you feel this, show some love and check out the album - digital here, CD here, vinyl here - and also check the DJ Woody mixtape here, which has some fresh stuff from us and Plus, and is of course minto.
Back in t' day, I used to set my ghetto blaster to record One In The Jungle and listen back to it the next day. There was one particular show where I guess Ed Rush or Nico or Fierce did a guest mix showcasing the new wave of tech-step that No U Turn was coming with - and it absolutely blew me away. It seemed like every tune had these amazingly dark yet atmospheric vibes, yet still with enough hooks to stick in your head - Proton (the track above) really stood out as being utterly futuristic.
I think the same night, me and my parents went to a Schuman or Schubert concert (some classical dude starting with 'S' anyway) and it was dire - I can't remember what piece was being performed, but it was that kind of classical that seems to take a fairly bland and inoffensive theme and then spend ages running it through a load of formal changes and counterpoints, all of which maintain the level of 'twee' without increasing the level of 'good', before doing the same trick over again with a next bland theme. It just went on and on, and it annoyed me so much that when we got home I made my parents listen to the Ed Rush mix I'd taped off One In The Jungle, as an example of the amazing other-worldly sounds that were emanating from electronic music. Pretty mad really.
Listening back to it now, it doesn't sound quite as amazing as it did at the time, or as I had built it up in my head over the years. I guess that back then, I didn't make any dance music, so I didn't know how any of the effects were achieved - now, I can hazard a guess at what has been done. The 'amazing sense of dread' is now more clearly revealed as 'messing about with minor 2nds and augmented 4ths on a synth' and the 'otherworldly hooks' are often 'old hardcore stabs played on a sampler'. That's possibly a bit harsh, as the track below does have some wicked atmospherics, but you know what I'm getting at - not only has technology come a huge distance in the last 12 years, so has (to a lesser degree) my knowledge of how to do this stuff.
Having said all that, I still have a lot of fondness for this era of Jungle / Drum & Bass - the sense of space in the tracks, particularly the introductions (which typically last half the length of the tune - a far cry from today's '16 bars and you're ready for the double drop' stylings) is epic, and it's quite mad to think how big these tunes were. Anthems now tend to be massively catchy and obvious; these tunes evoke being in a paranoid skunked-out dark place. I guess that's what I liked about dance music - the sense that you had to work to understand it, and that you knew your mates who were into indie would not understand it at all.
This tune, however, still works so well. I got into Photek because I read a review of Modus Operandi in Sidewalk Surfer and thought it sounded interesting, so I went and bought it on trust. And then spent the next year listening to it and learning it. This is one of my favourite bits on the album - it takes Photek's break-chopping and sound-design skills but rather than applying them for the usual stripped-down, lean and moody results, manages to build something of pure joy and euphoria. I don't think any has ever made such intense drums 'sing' in such an uplifiting and life-affirming way - the drums have such a strong internal logic and melody.
Wonderful stuff.
PS while we're here, I might as well post the ultimate in minimal dark-steppage....
Does anyone have the Optimo mix where they blend this with The Cure 'A Forest'? Works surprisingly well.
Did a quick mix recently for Bok Bok & co's Lower End Spasm blog - head on over here to catch it. Features tracks and dubs from people like Cooly G, DJ Sneak, Redlight (aka Clipz), Taz Buckfaster, Guido, TRG and a bunch more. And a couple of tings from my new label Build, which is getting set to lift off in the not-too distant future.
The image above is going to the A side of the spinner for Build 001. The first release will be Baobinga & I.D. 'Tongue Riddim' (which you can check on my myspace) with a Roska mix on the flip (which you can't). Biggups to Andy Crazy Legs for laying out the artwork, which is a picture of some initiates at a tribal ceremony in South Africa - kind of appropriate as the tunes are both pretty percussive and raw.
Speaking of Crazy Legs, the latest installment of their mix-tape series is online now and is mixed by Dub Boy, who we spoke to in some depth here. The Poirier remix of me and Spyda's 'Criss Like HD' gets what is probably its first public airing in this mix too - check it out, Ghislain has stripped my raggastep original into a tuff Karnival version. Dutty! While you're on a Crazy Legs tip, head to their soundcloud and grab the other mixes there - plenty sick stuff to be had.
And if you're around in Bristol on Saturday, then you'd be foolish to miss their 1st Birthday celebrations at Basement 45 with Marcus Nasty, Spyro, Alex Nut, Scratcha DVA, Julio Bashmore (check his mix for us here), P Money & DJ Magic... Chiiish!!! That's a line up, dun kno!
And finally, sticking on a Bristol tip, Martin Clark of the excellent Blackdown blog chats to Peverelist about his upcoming album 'Jarvik Mindstate' over here. Well worth a read.
Fabric double whammy. Oh yes. As you may have noted - it's all over the interweb at the moment - it's going to be Fabric's 10th birthday this month. Over the weekend of the 16th/17th October, they have put together some of the biggest lineups they've ever managed, featuring quite literally a MILLION DJs; with the real plus that from Saturday night, the whole place doesn't close until Monday morning. I'd imagine that room 2 at 4am on Monday will be the most hilarious/frightening scene you've ever witnessed - worth it just for that, surely. For more details, check the Fabric site. It's hard to believe it's been 10 years - I remember trekking down to London just to see the magical clubbing mecca shortly after it opened. It might not seem obvious now, with our Funktion Ones and our tastefully designed flyers here in the luxury of 2009, but Fabric was one of a few clubs that helped usher in a new era of dance music clubbing. Up until the late 90s, if you wanted to hear dance music it was probably going to be in a club that had barely changed since the 1970s, with the sound system (and the toilets) barely updated either (yes Club Phoenix, Manchester, I'm talking to you). So for a specialist dance music club to open - and to be done well - was really something. Which is why people like me were making 400-mile round trips to see what it was all about. If you've never paid 10 quid to go raving to some local resident DJs in what is basically a social club, with carpets on the floor, you might not realise how impressive this really was.
So. We were pretty buzzing about this birthday anyway, when Fabric got in touch and asked if Baobinga might be up for writing a special birthday track, just for this one event. And he did! It's a riotous soca/ghetto-tech affair, laced with cheeky chords and a hammering beat. Not cool, but great. If you close your sets with this track, you win. It's in the rules. And we're giving it away for free!
But! That's not all! We're also giving away two free guestlists to Fabric on Friday 16th, featuring Simian Mobile Disco, DJ Craze, Rusko, Zinc, the Scratch Perverts, Baobinga and loads of others.
All we want you to do is send us your Fabric top 10s. Any top 10 - best DJs (or worst mixes!), best nights, best moments, best messy confusion, fittest girls/boys, best hands in the air moments on the stage in room 1. Email them to us at thebassmusicblog AT gmail DOT com, we'll post up a selection of the best - a top 10 of top 10s, if you like - and the two funniest, or most interesting, or otherwise great will win the guesties. Simple.
It doesn't even have to be 10 really - just give us a good story!
Our friends at We Fear Silence are linking with Bristol's mighty Tectonic for another night at Corsica Studios this Friday - the last one was by all accounts dutty as owt - but this time, the occasion is the launch of 2562's new album 'Unbalance'. We'll have a review up very soon (short version: it's great), but to get a bit of a different perspective, we hooked up with Tectonic label boss DJ Pinch...
How did you first link with Dave?
He hit me up on myspace actually. I really liked the track he sent (it was called 'Resistance Dub') and I asked him for some more tracks and didn't hear back for a few months. When he got back in touch it was with an 11 track demo! I knew I was interested in working with him towards an album for Tectonic from the material he sent me and we soon got that rolling.
Was it obvious straight away how much of a badman he is?
Indeed - badman with stripes!
What's the A&R process like between you and Dave?
He sends me stuff - I like it usually, then he spends X amount of time mixing it down over and over until he's tired of it - and then it's usually ready for mastering!
How do you feel this album compares to the last one?
It's a big move from the sound of the first, I think (without wanting to sound too much of a dick) a more mature sound than the first LP. It takes in many new influences and directions, plays around with the tempo a bit - still has that characteristic '2562' sound, especially in the drums, but the journey is a different one from 'Aerial'.
Any plans for a Pinch / 2562 collaboration?
Well we did do a tune together already - called 'Sandcastles' and are looking to get together another one somepoint soon. We did 'Sandcastles' at my place so I guess I'll need to make the return visit out to The Netherlands somepoint...
What else is coming up over the rest of the year for Tectonic - did I hear something about a Get Up remix package?
You heard right! Remixes including the massive RSD mix - as well as the original which has never been available on vinyl before - to hit shops mid Nov. Oh and there's a music video to look out for too...
Don't sleep on the back room btw - I caught Brackles at The Tube in Bristol recently and he slewed it, man definitely knows his way around a pair of turntables. Quick mixing and great tune selection.
WGIFC4 has plenty good beats too (and is well worth a download despite being quite old by now). This one fits the criteria of 'being better than the original' for me....
Speaking of the Clipse, I wonder how their Play Cloths line is doing? I always feel like it's missing an 'e' in Cloths. And there's not a lot of distro in the UK - although the baddamans at Wellgosh in Leicester are set to stock em, might have to swing through.
Ok so we're gonna do things a bit different this Friday cos we've given yous a bunch of free tunes recently.
Instead we're gonna open the hard drive vaults and bless you with not one but TWO full quality accapellas - yep, the original WAVs used to make the tunes.
First up we have the incredible Yolanda's work for The Body Snatchers on 'We Here (Big Pimpin)' - grab the vocals here. There's two files - the main vocal, and the extra flava she dropped over the top.
Yolanda is ridiculously amazing to work with. When she steps in the booth and literally starts creating the most amazing harmonies, in real time, off the top of her head, you know you're dealing with someone with actual talent, not one of us click-clacky mouse-pushin' fakers. I think my favourite bit in this vocal is:
'Get off my titties baby, I'm a little ticklish,
Just wet your lips and lick up on my liqourice
You're going too slow, could you work a little quickerish?
Wanna hold me down - honey I don't give a shit'
D.U.T.T.Y.G.Y.A.L.
Next it's the original Mancunian grime legends, Virus Syndicate, with the vocal for me and I.D.'s 'Jump Up Get Hype' - grab them here.
Again, its amazing being in the studio with Virus - the level of energy you hear in the vocal is definitely apparent in front of the mic! The opening to Nika D's verse (the first one) properly sent tingles up our collective spine when we got the vocal back - a great example of a vocal instantly going in and creating an energy. And normally, after such a hype first verse the next MC would struggle to match it but from the first bar of JSD's verse, you know that's not going to be a problem.
Should have a new Baobinga vs Virus tune soon - you heard it hear first fammo.
If you're feeling all this good ish, show some love to the original tings: here, here and here why not :)
So. Here we go with a new series; producers Q&A. The idea is kind of to acknowledge that we're all producers these days - the likes of Fruity, Reason, Reaper and so on (and hey, let's not forget the fact that if you're an amoral hound you can now get the latest synths off a torrent site without have to persuade your parents to buy you one for your birthday) have brought the realm of production into the hands of anyone with a laptop, so here we hope to bring a bit of insight into what it's like to be a real, proper producer like this clearly professional chap in the picture, and hopefully give people a few ideas for when they're producing too. Thus, I'd like to introduce Baobinga. Who you knew anyway.
How do you approach a tune? Drums first? Melody?
Generally drums first, but sometimes I'll have the concept for the bassline in my head first and that's what's really driving me to write, so I'll just put down some quick scratch drums to get started, then go back and re-up them. But yeah, I find it hard to get inspired if the drums aren't doing it. Having said all that, this is in reference to dance-floor music - when you're syncing to picture or doing album interlude-type tracks, its often a case of starting with a melodic or harmonic idea and seeing where that takes you.
What time of day do you work best?
For music work, after lunch. For answering emails and such, before lunch. And its nice to be able to keep rolling quite late into the night, rather than having to stop at say 6pm, just when you're getting into the zone. I think late nights can be good for that - you can get locked into that special state where its just you and the music - no daylight to distract you, no sense that you should be out enjoying the day, just you and the artificial light.
Where do you get your inspiration / motivation from?
Listening to DJs of all kinds, listening to music of all kinds, trying to take an idea from one sound that grabs you and work it into something very different in style or execution. Often dicking about with drums can be a good starting point, as can sample hunting, or messing about on keyboards. Anything really that gets you away from the 'blank canvas' of an empty Logic project!
What do you do when you're not feeling inspired?
If I'm being stupid, I stay in and guilt myself into doing something, but it's usually terrible. Sometimes you have to work through a lack of inspiration, but generally it's your brain and body telling you to take a break and do something else, ideally something that isn't music or computer related! Those times can be good times to chop up loops or hunt for samples, but for me I generally try and go visit friends or do some exercise.
Do you start a tune from scratch, or do you usually have a drumset/template/etc to work from?
Start most tunes from scratch. A template would probably be useful, but I've never got round to setting one up so I probably never will. And there's the worry that it would dictate your initial choices too much.
If you got a chance would you write pop stuff for a major label (if the money was good?)
I'd write pop for a major label for bad money! I think it would be great to be able to exercise the melodic and hooks side of my musical brain over the 'drums and bass' side, and I think it would be interesting to bring some of my vibes to a more radio-friendly project.
What's the boring, workhorse plugin/piece of kit that you use all the time?
Logic's Bitcrusher. I tend to wang it on most things to square them off and give them some crunch.
What's the coolest bit of kit you've got and do you actually use it much?
I've got an old Yamaha DX11 synth, which is quite interesting in that in some ways its simpler than the DX7 (it only has four operators rather than the DX7's six) but in other ways is more complex - each operator can be a variety of waveforms, rather than being limited to just a sine wave. And the user interface is much better in terms of programming. My parents bought me that synth when I was about 11, for passing Grade 5 piano - I was a proper synth geek when I was a kid! I used to use it all the time, but for a while I've been concentrating on learning Logic, so I've not been on it much. Once I get a proper studio sorted though it will be restored to its rightful place!
Do you mixdown your own stuff? Reckon there's a stigma around this?
Yeah I've mixed down all my own stuff and have done mixdowns for other people. I think it is a really good skill to have, but I think it can get in the way of writing music - I often think it would be cool to be able to write a track and then pass it someone to mix - let them worry with the very technical aspects! I think when people are starting out they often think that doing dance music means doing everything yourself, and I think that's probably healthy - its a good goal to be able to train your ears in that way as it will teach you a lot that is useful in terms of writing music - you won't pick rubbishy sounds that you assume someone can make sound good in the nix - but by the time you've learned how to do it, you're probably less precious about it than when you started.
What production technique do you think is really overused / annoying?
I think in general its too easy to rely on extreme top-end to add excitement - whether that's on your basslines (uber-distorted fidget wobble-bass for example) or your drums (the DnB 'wall of treble' effect).
What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started out?
Not so much production, but more just that the important thing is the music, not what scene you think it should fit into. And hooks are a good idea heheh.
