Top Ten: DjRum picks out ten of the best from Bristol

DjRum completes a sturdy lineup for Tempo Clash which features an extended set from Hedmuk favourites Akkord, as well as appearances from Visionist, the inimitable Tempo Clash residents - Blue Daisy and Kidkanevil - and the broken barrier stylings of  Filter Dread, with Luke Benjamin lurking around the mic stand. The event will take place at London's Autumn Street Studios, and advance tickets are available from www.tempoclash.co.uk.

In the run-up to the night we got in touch with DjRum to take us through some of his favourite records to have emerged from his hometown of Bristol, and the results are as varied and interesting as could be expected from a producer known for his wide-ranging sample library and cross-genre approach to making music.

Hedmuk: Bristol is a place with a rich musical history, and there's a broad sphere of influence that's extended out from the city too. It's probably no simple task to pick a list of just ten, but are there Bristolian records that you would say have had a particularly strong personal influence on your own music?

DjRum: There are so many great records that have come out of Bristol: props to Phaeleh, Addison Groove, Massive Attack, Kahn, Mensah, Smith & Mighty, Tricky, Breakbeat Era... the list goes on. A few of my tracks could have been on this list too. I actually did the mixdowns for a few tunes off Seven Lies at Phaeleh's studio in Bristol, and I did the mixdown for my remix of Phaeleh's 'The Cold In You' down there too. So although all those tracks were made in London, in a way they did come out of Bristol! But here are the top 10 records to come out of Bristol that I would say have influenced me the most...


1. Portishead - Dummy


One of the finest albums ever made, let alone Bristol's finest. Every track has been my favourite track on the record at some time or other. I want to pick out one second from 'It Could Be Sweet' as a highlight, though: the crucial moment in this track for me is at 3:25, when you hear the smacking of lips, an intake of breath and a sigh. This little moment has been a real influence on my production. I had listened to the record over so many times before someone pointed this bit out to me. Now I wait for it every time I hear the track. It's a very deliberately chosen moment of accident: the producer, Geoff Barrows, has increased the volume of the sound to the same as the rest of the vocals, making it feel closer, more personal. There's something very intimate about a quiet breath at such high volume. With loud beats and bass sounding out, you could only hear someone's breathing like this if you were cheek to cheek. It brings you right up close to the music. There are lots of moments that make this album special: the first snare of 'Biscuit', the breakdown of 'Strangers', the drum roll in Mysterons; but the thing that has really stayed with me is that one moment in 'It Could Be Sweet'.

2. Pinch - Qawwalli


When I first heard this tune on Mary Anne Hobbs' Dubstep Warz show in 2006 it completely blew me away. It was unlike anything that was around at the time. After two hours of forward-thinking bass music, this totally stole the show.

3. DJ Krust - Burnin'


This track is a lesson in progression. The movement from one idea to the next is so simple, but totally draws you in. The pads at the beginning and middle are the perfect balance of mysterious and hopeful. Jungle music at it's finest - not to mention that it has 'Jazz Note' on the flip!

4. Monkey Steak - Grim Dubs: Vol. 1


I can't believe this is not up on Youtube, it's a seminal release. 'Crowsteppah' is phenomenal and it was a real game changer for me in 2005. It's an incredible deep mix of jungle and grime. One half of Monkey Steak, Atki 2, is from Bristol and is so underrated. He's one of these artists (like Boxcutter, Various Production, and Burial) who was making post-dubstep in '05, back when most people hadn't even got to grips with dubstep yet. Check Grim Dubs: Vol. 5 too.

5. Krust - One Moment (from Coded Language)


So many albums have token cinematic interludes in the middle, but this is much much more than that. Again there is a great progression: from the initial hopeful theme, into a darker more mysterious section (that sounds to me like it borrows quite heavily from Charles Ives' 'The Fourth Of July'), and then back again to the opening theme.

6. Björk - Venus As A Boy (from Debut)


Hey Björk's from Iceland, not Bristol! OK yeah, but this track (and most of Björk's debut album) was produced by Bristol boy Nellee Hooper. I love the way he's put this track together: the offbeat kick-drum is the work of a mad genius. There's loads of other great Nellee Hooper productions I could have chosen, Massive Attack and Soul 2 Soul come to mind, but I'll settle with this one today.

7. Roni Size - Hot Stuff (from the New Forms bonus disc)


Without doubt my favourite thing he's produced: it's really stood the test of time for me. The breakdown is so beautiful, I love the idea of having such a long ambient section with sine-wave bass stabs throughout it. This was the inspiration for the ambient section in my tune 'Mountains Pt. 3'

8. Peverelist - Salt Water


It's not often I get so excited about a new tune as I was when I first heard this one. The rhythm is incredible, I hear new complexities in it every time. This is Pev at his finest.

9. Appleblim & Peverelist - Soundboy's Ashes Get Hacked Up And Spat Out In Disgust EP


I'll never forget the reaction this got when I played this at Outlook Festival last year. After a sequence of hip-hop tunes, I brought the ambient intro of 'Over Here' in over the breakdown of a J-Live tune. The mood flipped from hyped up to deep down so nicely, everyone got straight into it. When the sub hits it's so understated, yet overwhelming. Amazing!

10. Limewax - Cracking Core (Technical Itch Remix)


I'm a huge Tech Itch fan; he's a very skilled producer, and he creates great cinematic atmospheres. There are loads of standout tracks from him: 'Pressure Drop', 'Implant', and the remix him and Dylan did of Photek's 'Baltimore' are all great. But this remix takes it for me: so powerful, so driving... infectious!

Catch DjRum playing alongside Akkord, Visionist, Blue Daisy, Kidkanevil, Filter Dread and Luke Benjamin on Friday the 4th April for Tempo Clash at Autumn Street Studios, London.

W.

Review: Keysound Allstars - Vol. 2 [LDN037]

Keysound is a label that, this year, has managed to achieve a rare synergy between imprint and artists - and, judging from our Twitter timeline during Dusk + Blackdown's regular Rinse shows, engaged fans. This second instalment of the Allstars series is indicative of just the sort of rude health the London-based label is in: each tune tussling with the others around it in a positive struggle towards creating something coherent and whole.

'Scattah' is reload-ready and comes on like a drunken 'Super Sharp Shooter' and is the sort of tune that Etch has been threatening to make since he last caught our (and our readers') attention more than two years ago. Manchester resident Walton looks back too, and digs out the vinyl crackle and the ineffable bounce of the garage era to pay his own 'Homage' to the UK's dance music culture. Visionist treads his now-familiarly fine line between gully and graceful, with grey synths, dainty strings and interjections from Crazy Titch. The four track EP is rounded off with a Keysound favourite from Fresh Paul, on which the tone is reset to something lighter with an epic synth workout twisting in and out of minimal, Eski-flecked drums.

In terms of A&R work, this is exemplary and, with all necessary credits going to the four producers involved, is a genuinely essential bit of wax to have in the bag.

'Keysound Allstars Vol. 2' will be released by Keysound Recordings on the 27th of May 2013 and is available for pre-order now.

W.

Review: Keysound - This Is How We Roll [LDN036]

There's a certain casual swagger to everything Keysound, and it's that sense that's caught up in the title of their debut compilation 'This Is How We Roll': a title that all-at-once nods to old-school jungle rollers, a previous release on the label from garage legends Zed Bias and Steve Gurley, and, perhaps most strongly in this instance, to the sense of a crew (and with this, by no small stretch, grime and the importance of the sound's founder crews such as Meridian, Ruff Sqwad, Slew Dem and, by no coincidence we might suggest, Roll Deep). And despite this ease of reference, the title is purposefully obfuscating; in recent discussions we've had with label co-owner Blackdown and intrigued attendees to the sound pushed here, there has always been an emphasis on a much wider approach to the sound: this is just music, let's just leave it at that, and "let's just roll".

In a similar way to the original 'Grime' compilations on Rephlex, this compilation might be taken as a moment of pause to collect what we've got so far and to - very loosely - define where things are with the sound; and it's that uncollected hybridity (a word which has appeared on plenty of occasions during our conversations with some of this sound's proponents) of styles that makes the whole move, and this compilation, so attractive. Opening up with a triple-header collaboration from Dusk & Blackdown Rinse regulars Visionist, Beneath and Wen, the tone is set to dark and drum-led as Beneath's characteristic kicks drive through the eery synths and grimey snips that can be found littered throughout both Visionist and Wen's beats. Each of these three appear once more as solo artists on the CD, with Beneath's gully take on tightly-syncopated UK funky rhythms, Visionist offering what it might sound like if Horsepower Productions made grime, and Wen delivering an enormous 130 VIP of his already large 'Commotion'.

Throughout there is a sense of musical pedigree, and pride in it: all over the CD are flecks and inflections of grime, UK funky, garage, jungle and dubstep but nowhere is there anything that might be straightly defined as any of these things individually: Epoch's 'The Steppenwolf' has been receiving regular rotation on the Keysound Rinse show, and rightly so as it is pure mood, taking the listener through a complete route of skunk-smoke head-nods; Double Helix' 'LDN VIP' rolls along all warm basslines and the tightest drums around, and Dusk + Blackdown's own offering - in the form of the the Android Heartbreak Drumz Remix of 'Lonely Moon' - achieves a similarly tense hybridity in its drum patterns as it skips in the mid-distance between garage and UK funky beats; Gremino and Samrai, meanwhile, both stretch as much pace out of the standardised 130 tempo, with jumpy bashment- and dancehall-influenced funky that would have most crossover MCs passing the mic back.

Showcased too is the label's fondness for experimentation with sound, as Rabit strips everything back to the coldest synths since Wiley was pressing white labels, and Mumdance & Logos include a tune literally 'In Reverse', and end up with a driving pulse that would have a dancefloor in fits.  The compilation is not all dark drones and tripped-up beats, however, as Fresh Paul delivers a purple synth workout and E.m.m.a. and Moleskin close out the affair with the sunrise that follows the murky late-night walk through, as the catalogue number would have it, a figurative LDN.


Keysound - This Is How We Roll [LDN036] will be available for purchase on 25th March 2013, on CD and as a digital download. In the meantime, the entire release is available to stream over here on Resident Advisor.


Tracklisting:

01. Visionist, Beneath & Wen - New Wave
02. Beneath - PVO
03. Samrai - Hear Me Now
04. Visionist - Dangerous
05. Wen - Commotion VIP
06. Double Helix - LDN VIP
07. Epoch - The Steppenwolf
08. Dusk + Blackdown - Lonely Moon (feat. Farrah) (Android Heartbreak Drumz Remix)
09. Fresh Paul - Blaster
10. Mumdance & Logos - In Reverse
11. Gremino ‘Monster VIP’
12. Rabit ‘Satelite’
13. E.m.m.a. ‘Peridot’
14. Moleskin ‘Burst’

W.

Featuring: Underclass

Reflecting a period in which dubstep and grime were still just undefined - or perhaps even over-defined, carrying with them a multiplicity of different, and differently inadequate, names - offshoots of a similarly difficult dark strain of UK garage, Underclass is emblematic of that raw, somehow-cohesive multiplicity that had an increasing number of disenchanted and disillusioned garage heads entranced as the UK crept into the noughties. Similarly to the way in which the likes of Threnody, Etch, Wen, Beneath, Visionist all contain, in their music, nods towards the rich musical history they have - often simply by making music where they do - inherited, Underclass' beats are aware of their influences and rejoice in twisting them into a new, informed figure. But what is striking about tunes like 'Ecko', though, is the intensity of their sparsity; and while this may sound paradoxical, it's a concept well-illustrated and illuminated below as we receive an insight, as unlikely as it might be, into the influence of John Cage and of Futurist theorists on Underclass' music. The result is a sound which is very raw and very engaging.



Hedmuk: Your tunes tend to share a raw, stripped-back aesthetic: is this something you feel you aim for consciously, or does it seem to come naturally?

Underclass: I do separate the textures and the rhythms consciously. The beats and bass are about vibes, movement and flex whilst the textures are more precise and all about depth. If you listen to my beats the instruments might be stripped back, but that is just to leave space for the incidental sounds in the background.  I’ve always been interested in the ambience encasing sounds, natural reverb on mechanical sounds like a helicopter or traffic, so leaving other areas sparse to let ambience ring out is important.

H: What was it that first got you involved with producing and making beats?

U: I got into making beats through DJing. I have a decent collection of early grime and dubstep and have been mixing it for a long time now. Really I started making beats mainly because my old vinyls had more crackle than bass as I’d rinsed them, so I wanted to make something with that aesthetic but for this decade. I wanted music that was raw, dark, cold but also paid attention to detail. 10 years ago coming out with something made on a Playstation was acceptable and new, but whilst the melodies and beats are still sick the depth isn’t there in terms of texture.



H: It's clear that you draw a significant influence from early grime and dubstep sounds, but do you find yourself trying to step away from your influences, to an extent, in order to set your music within a new, fresh framework? Where else do you tend to draw influence from, is it mostly music or are there other things that you find to be inspiring?

U: Early grime and dubstep are just what I grew up with so those sounds and that aesthetic is just ingrained in me. I have some older friends who were junglists and it is the same with them, 'Amens' are part of their psyche. Alongside grime I listen to a lot of electroacoustic music and I've listened to that since before I locked onto grime. I felt grime fitted into that, especially early on it was abstract and vanguard in the same way Jonathan Harvey, Jonty Harrison, Pierre Schaeffer etc. are. I use a lot of those composers as references for sounds and textures, while my rhythms & bass come from grime. I don’t look to step away from or step towards my influences, I just see what comes. I never think ‘I want this track to sound like DJ Oddz/Luigi Russolo/Trevor Wishart’, I just write.

I’m not interested in going back and trying to recreate anything that isn’t already ingrained within me. I don’t want to go back further and make a rave, garage or jungle pastiche because that was then. I also don’t want to make a record that sounds like 'eski' or early grime, but these sounds and rhythms are just what are in my head and what my brain is wired to so they probably come out. If I ever write a track with an Amen or an obvious 2-step beat then I have sold out because I would deliberately be trying to be something I am not. I didn’t experience garage or jungle first hand and I don’t have a complex about that and feel the need to make neo-garage/jungle through guilt, so I just write what comes.

As for taking influence from other places, like I mentioned probably the biggest thing is how sound behaves in space and just using my ears at different times in different places and thinking ‘how do I make a police siren sound like it is travelling towards me at 120mph through a city at 3am, and how can I incorporate that in a tune’. Probably the single biggest influences on how I listen to sound comes from the Futurists and their writing, and also John Cage and his lectures. Reading those teaches you to really listen to everything and without the Futurists we probably wouldn’t treat the sounds of industry as music. It is almost 100 years ago now but without them I don’t think we would be open to sounds and textures in electronic music today.

H: Like many of the producers within this loose grouping which we've mentioned previously, you're taking certain core aspects of styles such as dubstep and grime and pulling them back to a slower 130 tempo: what was your initial thinking behind this, and how important is the extra space that doing this can give?

U: Well, I don’t write dubstep and apart from a few tracks and producers I’m not interested in it particularly these days. A lot of the grime I have on vinyl is slower than 140 too and the beats I was making weren’t halfstep so they didn’t need the extra tempo to drive them. 130 leaves enough space for the background sounds and textures and it is a bit of a coincidence that some other producers seem to be working at that tempo too. I thought when people talked about 130 they were talking about Swamp81 or Night Slugs and although I like some records from those labels it is a completely different sound, although the framework might be similar. It is the difference between standing in front of a speaker in a rave or listening to the beats from the back of the room. One is direct and the other has space. I think the same difference was present in grime vs. dubstep 10 years ago. I suppose the only thing linking a lot of this loose grouping is the use of grime aesthetic with early dubstep’s sense of space. Obviously a lot of new dubstep has moved from the back of the room to in front of the speaker and lost that space whilst other stuff is obsessed with the space and has lost the vibes.



H: You've recently been picked up by Dusk & Blackdown, receiving regular airplay on their Rinse show: how does it feel to be getting that level of recognition and exposure? 

U: I’m shocked that I have been picked up so quickly by some big names but I had spent a while working on tracks and I knew at the end of last year that I had reached the right level to send beats out. Initially Threnody played a few tracks and this got me a lot of attention very quickly. Blackdown messaged me to say he had heard my beats on Threnody’s show and asked if I could send some. I locked onto his show the next week and him & Dusk were playing them. Brackles and J:Kenzo have played them out too, which surprised me a bit, but I’m honored they like them and feel they work in their sets. If anyone plays my music then it means a lot and the fact that people I’m playing, like Filter Dread, Epoch and Rabit are playing me means more to me than if someone told me Skrillex had just dropped my track.

Hearing Blackdown & Dusk drop them was special as Keysound is on fire at the moment and that Rinse show is a monthly ritual for me. It’s good for me to get support from DJs because I’m not that up for the hype game of Facebook pages or whatever. I have a Twitter to communicate and a Soundcloud to put out some tunes, but I’d prefer to be judged by my beats than how many followers I have. DJs are the important people for repping my beats and getting them out to the wider public.

H: How did you go about putting together the mix you've done for us?

U: I started off by pulling out all my vinyl and thinking what I could put in but in the end the only track that did was an old SLT Mob one. I think it is far more important to rep what is now rather than what I like. I can listen to my vinyl for fun at any time. I did consider putting in a little live re-edit of Loefah’s 'Mud' that I do with 2 vinyls, but I just thought if I start messing around with vinyls and tunes everyone knows already it is too much of a vanity thing. Everyone knows and loves 'Mud' so it was too easy playing that.

After that I just sat down and mixed. A few producers have sent me dubs that I’m really feeling and I feel work with my tracks so I just hunched over the decks and treated it like any mix I do. Nothing was planned I just went with the mood.

H: Finally, are there any forthcomings or anything else in the pipeline that you'd like to put the word out on?

U: Nothing is set in stone at the moment. I have given out a track with you and another one out for free with Below The Line, and then I'll be seeing which labels are interested. I’ve been chatting to a few and now just need to find the right home. I may just stick out a white label 12” to get a couple of tracks out there. Really it is only a couple of months since I came out the dark so I’d like to get a few gigs to hear my beats on a system within the space of a rave whilst continuing to develop new material too.



Download: Underclass - Hedmuk Exclusive Mix



Tracklist:


Steve Reich – Come Out (Underclass Edit) [Dub]
Underclass – Ecko [Dub]
Threnody – Emergency [Dub]
Underclass – The Revenge [Dub]
Sepia – No One Is Safe [Dub]
TMP – Battleground [Dub]
Rabit – Black Dragon (Shy Mix) [Dub]
Underclass – Klang [Free]
Name_Pending – 1snewve2 [Dub]
Filter Dread – She Glitched It [Dub]
Si Begg – UFO (Threnody Remix) [Dub]
Filter Dread – Murky [Dub]
Rabit – Air Port Systems [Dub]
Underclass – Istiklal Avenue [Dub]
Threnody – Ark [Dub]
Slaugter Mob – Fireweaver [Rephlex]
Underclass – Hype Dem [Dub]

Underclass - HEDMUK Exclusive Mix by Hedmuk on Mixcloud

W.

Free Download: Underclass - Rawkus

There are very few people who listen to dubstep, grime jungle or UK funky who could claim that they don't care what a snare sounds like; and if they do, then they're either lying or haven't realised that they care yet. 'Rawkus' is not just a snare workout, but it certainly includes one: a shower of different snares, claps and clicks all chopped and shuffled around until your head won't stop nodding; then just as it settles you, it pulls the floor from under your feet with a cavernous sub-bass.

Underclass jumped to our attention after Threnody included 'Ecko' and 'Klang' in his exclusive mix for us last month, and his sound - raw, and hinting at a strong and diverse range of influence - is one that keeps you coming back for more. Alongside the likes of Etch, Visionist, Beneath, Epoch, Wen and Threnody, Underclass is taking what is most exciting and attractive about British underground music and dragging all the way up to date.


Download: Underclass - Rawkus [WAV]
Download: Underclass - Rawkus [320kbps mp3]



Preacha.