We've been waiting to see this one released since a clip appeared on YouTube, courtesy of AJP, and had us at the replay button. Finally picked up by Pressed Records for a full 12" outing, 'Aight' still bangs as hard as it did back then: drums punching through a huge bassline groove, Ipman's characteristic control guides every element in the mix and the end result is one that tests the mettle of any soundsystem going. Killawatt turns the whole thing inside out for the B-side; drenched in delay and swarming hi-hats, the beat takes a dubwise approach: stripped back and stretched out, all deep textures and moody atmospherics.
With a test press of the record going spare, the guys at Pressed suggested we link up to give one lucky winner the chance to get their hands on a copy of the EP ahead of the official release date. To enter, simply head over here (or click on the link below) and follow the instructions. The competition will close one week from now, on Monday the 14th of October, on which date a winner will be chosen at random by an independent third party and announced via Facebook and Twitter.
Like an Italian Ipman, the engineering and sound design behind Piezo's work is exemplary. This latest release, coming from the Nomad Records stable, is no different, 'Ptay' is dripping in atmosphere and subtle touches - a rolled crash cymbal here, distant footstep there - as it rolls on rounded kicks and progresses through reams of hand percussion and synth lines that rise into the beat before falling away just as unannounced. Cinematic is a word that is too often overused, but it works here as the track holds down its own sense of narrative structure and breaks, happily, from any standardised outlay. Killawatt, an ideal selection for the remix duties, flattens out the kicks to a steady pound and leaves the whole thing dripping in dread atmospherics. What's astounding, again on that note of the subtle touch, is the amount of movement generated with just light touches of hi-hat and loose snares - from static beginnings, the beat gathers a momentum that feels like it might go on forever.
To be in with a chance of bagging an early test press of the release simply head over to the Hedmuk Facebook Page and Like and Share the above image to be entered. The competition will end on Thursday the 12th of September, and a winner will be selected at random by an independent third party before being announced via Facebook and Twitter.
Piezo - Ptay / Ptay (Killawatt Remix) will be released on 12" on September the 16th, with a digital release to follow on the 1st of October.
Further expressing his techno lean with this latest offering on Kryptic Minds' Osiris Music UK, 'Press On' and 'Tantra' see Killawatt expressing a newly-grounded confidence in his natural production abilities; and whist describing something as "experimental" is an approach more commonly used for delivering a poorly-disguised insult, this is a territory into which Killawatt has dipped carefully and, arguably resultantly, successfully on this release.
The lead track is, as its introduction suggests, a study in rhythm and percussion as the tune is lead on by a whirling range of beats and blips: the distinctive tick of each percussive sound being played off against one another to create an intricate, beats-based melody. And yet, despite the apparent absence of a traditional catching melody, there is a hook there, and one which draws subtle attention to Killawatt's ever-developing accomplishment when it comes to arrangement. The flip, 'Tantra', re-balances the record with a more familiar skulking step to it and a sub-line that nods to the jungle influence that is never far from his work and will always do the damage on the dancefloor.
Since being featured by our friends over at PYC Sessions, Kaiju have been on a roll; buoyed along by a rapt fanbase as well as the big-hitting likes of Kryptic Minds and Youngsta, the first thing that most won't notice is the almost imperceptibly high benchmark they set for themselves. With a simple formula of 'less is more' - excepting, of course, when it comes to the sub-bass - the duo's productions serve to further the myth that simple music is simple music; with so few components to each tune, each one that is present has to absolutely earn its place. And earn their place, in a Kaiju beat at least, they do: the result is chasms of space for that characteristic, tape-warm sub-bass to groove in and through. With a very exciting 2013 ahead of them, January seemed the ideal time to link up with the pair, and have them contribute a stunner of a mix to our exclusive series...
Hedmuk: To introduce yourselves to those who might not know, what are your names, where do you both come from and how would you describe your sound?
Paul: He's Jamie...
Jamie: ...and he's Paul: together we're Kaiju. I'm from Sticksville somewhere near Bath/Bristol and Paul's in Cardiff. We make bassy stuff around 140bpm that tends to be on the deeper, dirtier end of the scale. Sometimes it's got garage-y undertones, sometimes theres reggae vibes, but all the time there's lots and lots of bass.
P: None of this Skrillex shit.
J: Right.
H: When did you both start producing? Had you been working on solo projects before Kaiju, and do you still have other projects on the go at the moment?
J: I'd been making D&B for about 5 years or so, had been through the ups and downs of the industry and started running a label. Paul, after much thought, decided that he wanted to send beats to us and it kinda blossomed from there really. I'm still involved in the running of the label but at the moment i'm really enjoying the 140 area so for now I'm concentrating on that musically.
P: I've been producing about 3 years or so now, still as involved with the D&B scene as much as possible, but also finding myself drawn to the 140 space more and more at the moment.
H: You were picked up relatively quickly by Kryptic Minds to release on their Osiris imprint: how did this come about, and was it more than a coincidence that you signed to a label run by producers with a similar musical background to yourselves in drum & bass?
J: When I was working as designer for Chemical Records, Si and Leon came in to talk about the look of their album and I gave them a CD of our tunes I'd been checking on the car stereo during the tedious drive in [to work]. I didn't really expect to hear back, but they were really into 'Close Break' and 'Belcanto' and we then started to talk about being exclusive.
H: How did it feel to get such an opportunity? Were you consciously choosing these specific labels and artists to send your music to?
P: Amazing, to be honest. With J working at Chemical and us both having a bit of experience in the art of dub-sending we definitely had an idea of who to send to, and still to this day only really give new new tunes to Yunx.
H: DJ Thinking did mention, in our recent interview with him, an in-house designer at Chemical that he'd worked with on the Black Box, Black Acre and Box Clever stuff, but we hadn't put two-and-two together to realise it was you. How did you get involved with doing the design stuff at Chemical? Do you think that your music as Kaiju is at all informed by that aesthetic side to your creativity? Perhaps even just on the simple level of learning graphic design programme interfaces as helping to learn production DAWs, or vice versa?
J: I've wanted to be a designer since I was about 6, I think; it all stemmed from going car racing with my parents and seeing the liveries and stuff. I started copying what I saw (mostly cigarette logo's (laughs)) and then progressed onto making new liveries and logos. I find my creative process with design crazily similar to that of when I make music, and in both areas I feel my style is always 'less is more': I've never believed in over-egging something. Although I attended College and Uni for design, all of my computer knowledge is self-taught so opening Windows and fiddling with things is second nature to me, and definitely helped me when it came to getting down and dirty with Logic in the beginning.
H: You seem to enjoy working with vocalists: is there somewhere from which this particular influence comes from? Or is it more a case of viewing the vocal as just another instrument or 'part' within the tune?
J: I'm a sucker for a vocal. Being brought up on 80's power ballads and soul singers probably has something to do with it, but personally I think a vocal can really help make a tune human, especially nowadays with all this cold computer music about.
P: Some tunes feel as if they need a vocal and some tunes just don't. I've always been heavily into dub, reggae etc. so appreciate how a vocal can bring a tune to life.
H: Tell us a little about how you went about putting together the mix you've done for us.
J&P: Basically it's about 60 minutes of us. Being relatively new to the scene this is the best way to show people what goes on in our brains, so there's a couple oldies in there but most of it's new and pretty exclusive really. We've got collabs with Truth, Killawatt, Perverse and Nanobyte and a couple remixes, all with lots of nice warm sub. And we're working more and more with MC Toast at the moment, so thought it'd be rude to leave him out!
H: How did the link up with Toast come about?
J&P: We're pretty lucky in that we hit him up and got on like a house on fire. We've had some vocals off him for a couple tunes, and are available as a package to book for gigs so it was only right to have him on the mix. He's genuinely one of the nicest people you'll ever meet, so we feel quite honoured to work with him.
H: Finally, are there any forthcoming releases or anything else in the pipeline that you'd like to put the word out on?
J&P: We've recently spoken about our next two releases with Osiris, although we can't really say much. There might be a sneaky clip of a certain tune we've done with one of our heroes floating around, and that might be backed with something awesome but that would be telling….
Cheers Hedmuk, been an honour to be featured on your blog!
One of our favourite production duos remixing one of our favourite production duos: rarely does it get much better than this. Dropping in as a (very) early Christmas present, this rework shifts the intense atmospheric focus of the original track in favour of an unforgiving roll that is so notable across Killawatt's solo productions; and yet, with Ipman's masterful approach to sound design and engineering, that sense of atmosphere is not lost and is rather tugged back slightly so that it no longer envelopes, even smothers, the listener but is hung invitingly in front of them.
Not only is this an example of production and intricacy at its best but, with an airing out of the hard drive as it were, a suggestion that 2013 will hold plenty more exciting developments for the Jack Sparrow, Ruckspin, Killawatt and Ipman.
It seems fitting that the first post of the new year should be a collaboration from two new producers whose progress we have spent the last year supporting, and who are both set to enjoy a strong 2012. Both Killawatt and Thelem have established themselves over the past twelve months as two of the most consistent and forward-thinking producers in dubstep: balancing a dedication to the sound's original ideas of space and bassweight with the need to keep things fresh in order to avoid succumbing to any notions of stagnation.
2011 has seen an explosion in interest for what, over the course of the year, has been termed and re-termed multiple times but ultimately is dubstep in its most elemental form. Perverse have risen through the ranks at an incredible speed this year and are on course to make the coming year their own: what is important about the duo, though, is a dedication (shared with a number of the year's other breakthrough producers, such as Killawatt, Thelem, District and Sleeper) to progression. With many people happy to level the lazy argument that the deeper end of the 140bpm spectrum has become 'boring' or 'repetitive' it is necessary for producers to continue to strive for originality and, to a certain extent, for the fans to demand it too. Originality is something that this New Zealand duo have, and to note it's correlation with their rapid ascent this year is key. We caught up with them for an interview and got them to lay down the latest instalment in our exclusive mix series.
Hedmuk: As an introduction, what are your names, where are you from and how would you describe your sound?
Brett & Alex: We are Brett & Alex [aka Perverse] and we're based in Auckland, New Zealand but originally from South Africa and Scotland respectively. We like to think of our sound as clean, deep, emotional, bass-driven and thought-provoking.
H: Had either of you previously been involved in making music in any form, or is Perverse your first real venture?
Brett: Both of us produced under different aliases before meeting: I produced under the name Ducer and Alex under the name Zander. For me, Perverse was the first serious thing I had done.
Alex: I had been messing around with producing for about 2 years before forming Perverse with Brett. I didn't really find my "sound" until about 4-5 months ago; I used to experiment in all kinds of beats like trip-hop, D&B and experimental stuff, but dubstep was always my favorite.
H: In only a matter of months you've successfully caught the ears of many of the most influential DJs and producers, including the likes of Youngsta and J:Kenzo: is there anything in particular that you would out this down to? Does this kind of support add an extra element of pressure when you come to making new beats?
B & A: The way we look at it, in most cases these guys are bombarded with tunes daily so it's not common that they just happen to stumble across up-and-comers. For us it was about chasing down those we felt might connect and feel the music we are producing, and only sending our best quality stuff: nothing we were unhappy with. We always sent what was, in our eyes, [music that was produced] to the best of our ability.
It does [add an extra element of pressure] in the respect that we have to maintain a standard, but that can only be a good thing.
H: How do you find producing as a duo? Do you always produce together, or have you other solo projects outside of Perverse?
Brett: We may not always start a tune together but we always finish it together. We spend most nights in the studio so just bounce ideas off each other and let the tune write itself a lot of the time. I think both of us have singular projects on the go as well, but not with the same passion I have for Perverse.
Alex: I found it very hard to work with others before working with Brett. We both work really well together and our styles seem to merge when making a tune. I make tunes on the side too but they won't see the light of day for a long time, I'm experimenting with loads of styles at the moment.
H: How much of a scene/following for dubstep is there in New Zealand? How did you first come into contact with dubstep, in particular the deeper sound that you're building yourselves?
B & A: Bass driven music has always had a huge following here, especially in drum and bass. The scene is extremely healthy catering to those of all tastes, it's continually growing and 9 times out of 10 in a positive way. Both of us were introduced to dubstep through friends and the internet, it became quite the addiction very quickly. The first artists we came into contact with were people like Mala, Vex'd, Distance, Burial, Pinch, Cyrus, Cluekid, Benga and Skream. I guess it was that first taste of the darker, minimal heavier vibe that we fell in love with and that is why we choose to reflect that in what we produce. You can possibly hear their influences in our stuff but hopefully it has an individual sound as well.
H: You've recently joined Rood FM, with your Monday night show: how did this come about? What sort of vibe do you aim to create with the show?
B & A: We were approached by Fish, one of the owners of RoodFM, saying he'd heard some of our stuff and wanted to know if we'd like a slot. To have a radio show was definitely a goal of ours but we didn't think it would come so quickly. We play anything we are feeling and we like to have a laugh. Anyone that has tuned in knows we don't take anything too seriously and we like to have fun, while interacting with the people in the chatroom and people on Facebook and AIM.
H: Can you take us through how you went about putting together your mix for us?
B & A: We just chucked a bunch of tunes we were feeling together and had a jam, as well as including a few of ours for good measure. To be honest, planning mixes for us never seems to really flow it's better just to have a jam and let the mix dictate itself.
H: Finally, are there any forthcomings or anything else in the pipeline that you'd like to put the word out about?
B & A: Definitely. We're stoked with the reception the Innamind release has received and are truly honoured to be a part of a release with some good friends and people we look up to. 'Skylark' is currently sitting at #5 in the sales chart (shameless self-promotion).
We also have a forthcoming vinyl release featuring 3 of our favourite tracks, coming early next year as well as a few other releases and projects in the works which will hopefully see the light of day very soon. There's collabs too, with some of our favourite artists and people we really look up to.
Big shout out as well to all the people helping us, pushing us, buying the releases and chatting to us. Churrrrrrrr...
If he didn't already have enough tunes on their way to people's record bags, Killawatt has decided to celebrate reaching 1000 followers on his Facebook page by giving away a free, four-track EP including three original productions and a remix of Black Sun Empire's 'Kempi'.
Featuring the usual weight, tightly-layered percussion and bending basslines, this collection serves as an apt pre-amble to the slew of forthcoming releases the Guildford producer has in the pipeline.
Since appearing on the scene only a matter of months ago, Killawatt has had a presence that has been hard to ignore: with tunes being snapped up for release by almost every well-respected label around, he is soon to be boasting a very impressive back catalogue. With an incredible work-rate and level of productivity he has been quick to carve his own niche, producing a unique take on the rolling, techy dubstep sound.
With DJ support from the likes of Youngsta, N-Type, Distance, Skream and Benga he is certainly one to be keeping an eye on. We caught up with Killawatt to ask him some questions and he's also recorded a mix to take the #25 spot in our ever-growing series.
Hedmuk: For those who don't know, what's your name, where do you come from and how would you describe your sound?
Killawatt: I'm Matt Watt, aka Killawatt, and I'm from somewhere near Norwich in Norfolk. I've just moved back here since being at Uni in Guildford.
I'd describe my sound as a combination of tribal percussion, rolling subs and dark and cinematic ambiences (most of the time anyway!).
H: When did you start producing beats, and have you always made music of this style?
K: I can't really remember when it was exactly that I started making beats properly. I suppose I'd messed about on Reason when I was in 6th form about 5 years ago, but I never really knew what I was doing or what I wanted to do. It wasn't until my 2nd year of Uni, about 2 years ago, that I started producing seriously. I'd made a fair few old-skool-sounding jungle tunes the year before that, when I was involved with Satta Sounds, but that was never particularly challenging because of the fairly simple aesthetic of jungle.
My old housemate, Jack aka Ipman, got me into dubstep and started making very dubby sounding tunes inspired mainly by people like Radikal Guru, King Tubby, RSD, Scientist etc.; but that style is very limited so I took the darker, techier sound and it's all escalated quite rapidly from there.
H: You've very quickly established a name for yourself and have tunes signed to some of the most respected labels around (such as Wheel & Deal, Box Clever, Boka and Subway): how did this come about?
K: Well it all started with N-Type's initial support of the first darker tunes I wrote. I just sat down and told myself I was going to write a 4-track demo to send to labels, all based around a similar theme. I sent it to N-Type, he really liked 3 of the tracks on there ('Capa', 'Selenium' and 'Shakuhachi') and that was that. That really gave me the confidence to get on with promoting myself a bit more and also to write more tunes and develop my own style. I think the main key to securing all these signings is the amount of tunes I write: I don't really have anything else to do so producing is pretty much all I do.
I'm incredibly grateful for all these labels wanting to put my music out. If you'd asked me a few months ago if I thought it would be like this I would have just laughed at you, it's quite overwhelming how quickly it's all happened!
H: How does it feel to have the likes of N-Type, Skream and Benga playing your tunes on radio?
K: It feels incredibly satisfying. Getting plays on Radio 1 was especially satisfying since it was a complete surprise to me. I think it was Murky who told me about it: I probably wouldn't have known otherwise. I've got to thank J:Kenzo, Youngsta, Distance, T_!, Bunzero and Crises for further radio support as well!
H: With such a fast rise into the limelight, do you feel under pressure to keep upping your game?
K: Yeah I do but not from anybody else, only myself. I'm constantly pushing myself to write more and more stuff, if I go a week without finishing anything I feel like I'm slipping behind but then I have to make myself stop writing so I don't just run out of ideas and inspiration and get frustrated. I think it's natural for people to want to up their game all the time though really, especially if it's something that you want to take seriously as a career. I want to be able to produce for other artists and do soundtrack work in a few years time like Photek and Amon Tobin have done, and to be able to do that you have to really push yourself to learn all the time about different aspects of music and production and I see dubstep as my initial starting point. I do have to tell myself to be patient with it a lot of the time because I want to be able to do that now, but I've only really been producing for a couple of years and those guys have probably been at it since before it was born!
H: How did you go about putting together the mix you've done for us?
K: I've been wanting to do a mix purely consisting of my own stuff for a while, but I've never had enough tunes that I was confident about playing out or including in mixes. Now I have enough tunes to do this. I also wanted to represent Ipman's tunes because I think he's a sick producer and needs some more airtime. There's our collabs in there and a couple of collabs I've done with Thelem also. I'm hoping it'll give people a good idea of what my sound is and show that I like to change things up a bit too.
H: Finally, are there any other forthcomings or anything else you'd like to put the word out about?
K: We've just finished collating my 2nd Wheel & Deal release, which I'm excited about! I also have finalised forthcoming releases on New Moon ('Reason To Worry', 'Swarf', 'Too Dark'), Loft Party Records ('Interplay' and 'Binary'), Box Clever ('Mantra' and 'Schitzophonia'), BLKBXXX ('Sidewinder' and 'Sidewinder (Ipman Remix)'), 'Xibalba' is the B-side to Ipman's Boka release, Subway Digital ('Critters' and 'Floating Weight'), 'Conflict' is due out on a Requiem Audio 12" with a DJ Madd and Matt-U tune and I should have another batch of 12" releases to announce in the next couple of months too so watch out for them.
Should also have a few collaborations with the likes of Biome, Matt-U and Phaeleh hitting the airwaves very soon, as well as a few remixes. Going to be remixing Radikal Guru for his album remix EP due out on Moonshine in January too which is quite a personal thing for me as he was the one that really hooked me into dubstep!
Big ups to everyone who's supported my music over the last few months, it would be hard to keep making it without that support!
Undoubtedly one of this year's fastest rising talents, Killawatt has been pushing out fresh beats over the last six months with a notable consistency. With a slew of releases forthcoming on labels such as N-Type's Wheel & Deal aswell as Black Box and Subway, he's likely to make 2012 his own. Linking up with MakeItGood and FatKidOnFire to celebrate their 50th interview, this free EP serves well as an introduction to Killawatt's sound, and one which is set to become more and more prevalent over the coming months.
