Making a difference in drum & bass is hard to do if you don’t want to be a producer. This is primarily because drum & bass already exists and lots of people are already well involved. You could go off and make a new scene, but then that wouldn’t be drum & bass, would it? So what do you do? A brave yet neat answer to a problem that nags the brains of many a newcomer, is to take the gospel of drum & bass to somewhere new, and build a whole scene there. Voila, you’ve actually made a difference,…
Ice Minus Recordings comprises of Bart Icus, Keiren Lomax and Julian Ayton of all whom have been involved in the music industry in one form or another for a long time. Bart Icus, now 31, developed his interest in music from going to UK raves in the early 90s. Buying a set of decks and lots of records led Bart to meet Chris Maxey who worked in Replay Records in Bath. Chris himself was writing music and it wasn’t long before Bart got involved and the two were producing sounds on a basic studio set up. The two continued writing…
When they were younger it was a steady diet of twisted sci-fi movies and Patrick Moore television (host of the BBC’s ‘The Sky at Night’ programme) that the hard-hitting duo of Stakka and Skynet credit with influencing their current sound. “2001, Flash Gordon, The Black Hole, Star Wars, Aliens, anything which was set in space or in the future was what I loved to watch,” says Skynet. “I remember Flash Gordon freaked me out a little bit when I first saw it,’ Stakka recalls. ‘It was a glimpse into a very strange and weird future world.’ Prophetic words that would…
Last autumn Emcee Recordings came out of nowhere with a hit track by an unknown production duo, and an all too well known front man. Since the label has such a prominent owner, MC GQ, it’s not a surprise the release did reasonably well on his name alone. But what was unexpected about the release was the fact that the production credit on the record sleeve, Cybin, was a virtually unheard of name. You might have expected GQ’s label to have a big name producer for its first release to ensure popularity, but that wouldn’t fit with the ethos of…
What do you get when you put a new school Drumsound and an old skool Bassline together? Good quality tear-out drum & bass for the dancefloor of course. Knowledge caught up with Simon ‘Bassline’ Smith on the eve of Technique’s biggest release to date… A couple of years ago, Derby’s drum & bass massive rocked to the sounds of a night called Technique. Organised by a local crew known as Drumsound – comprised of Andy ‘Drumsound’ Wright, Tim Pugh, Andy Rothery and Benn G and the anonymous Future Tech – Technique rinsed it out regularly for its punters, bringing in…
Hardleaders After Dark mixed by Ruffstuff tracklisting Capone – Soldier Souljah – Fade 2 Black Capone – Tudor Rose Digital feat. MC YT – Critical Situation Capone – Massive TechLevel2 – Hardtimes Decoder – Turnover Capone – Fusion Souljah – Come On Capone – The Growler Digital – Jester Decoder – Tag Capone – Feelings Manifest – Firin’ Squad Decoder – Stash Capone – Friday Souljah – Down With The Lights
At 26, DJ Marky is already established as one of Brazil’s biggest DJ and producing talents. Based in Sao Paolo, Brazil’s clubbing and dance music capital, Marky quickly made a name for himself in the early 90s pioneering (against the odds) the sound of jungle and drum & bass in Brazil. In 94/95, when jungle became hugely popular in Brazil (though few of us in the UK even knew it), DJ Marky had his own radio show, a residency at the then legendary Toco club (rammed every week with 5,000 clubbers) and released a massive drum & bass/jungle compilation on…
Have you noticed how most new drum & bass DJs making a name for themselves these days seem to be producers first and foremost? There’s nothing wrong with this of course, it’s just very different from how it used to be. Believe it or not, in the olden days (circa ’88 – ’93) DJs purely played other people’s records! The need to be different from everyone else meant DJs who also produced had an advantage. Not only could they play a tune nobody else had on dubplate, but by letting a few other producers cut it, they could cut one…
The road of DJ Craze has already been a long and fruitful one, yet the future is what makes it so exciting. Aristh Delgado, aka DJ Craze, was born in Managua, Nicaragua and came to America in 1980. His interest in DJing started at the age of 13 when he bought his first turntables. Turntablism first caught his eye at age 15 when he started watching DMC and New Music Seminar videos. What actually set Craze apart from most other turntablists is that he could rock a party for two hours, not just a routine of ten minutes. Craze has…
Dazee is one of the jungle nation’s rising stars with a DJ profile that is gaining international respect and a growing track record as a producer. Her career began in 1993 as the resident for Bristol’s number one jungle club, Ruffneck Ting, and her name now regularly graces many of the big rave flyers like Dreamscape, Helter Skelter, World Dance and One Nation. Dazee is also making a name for herself on foreign shores and has just finished a month-long tour of North America with MC Jakes. Dazee has been producing tunes as part of Substance on Ruffneck Ting Records…