Liars @ Shepherd's Bush Empire, 27th May

It goes without saying that Liars are a band that enjoy the louder things in life. Their five studio albums are a maelstrom of ideas and concepts merged together, propelled by a ferocious appetite for unseating the listener with wildly unsettling dynamics. Psych, folk, garage rock and punk form an often inconsistent palette that yet never fails to impress. So tonight’s surprise inclusion of two extra band members begs the question: what more is needed?  

Solidity and a more polished performance prove to be fruits of this line up change,  with frontman Angus Andrewprowling the stage like a caged animal, free to let loose safe in the knowledge he has double the manpower behind him.

Read the rest on www.musosguide.com here.

Holy Fuck - Latin

In today’s overtly fickle and pedantic media industry, albums get criticised left, right and centre in scrupulous fashion. UK Funky maestro Roska’s debut album was received to lukewarm applause by those who felt his soca-fied rhythms felt misplaced within the album format, while Fuck Buttons came under fire from a dissenting minority for supposedly “selling out” by compromising on their intensely abrasive noise.

Perhaps more than any other art form, music does not suffer fools lightly, and often a band’s work is heavily scrutinised in light of their previous work. New directions, an appeal for commercial success, an ill-conceived attempt at broadening horizons – all of these are potential pitfalls into the waiting arms of a zealot. Holy Fuck’s third album Latin falls under none of the aforementioned categories, but its problem lies in the distinct lack of progression from its predecessor, LP.

The album starts promisingly enough, with a welcome curveball of glacial ambient swathes and swelling white noise that form the introductory ‘1MD’. It’s atmospheric stuff, and slowly lifts a haze of smoke to propel the band into more familiar waters with ‘Red Lights’, a brilliant opening track combining a throbbing bassline and vibrant keys that are eerily reminiscent of much of LP.

The following 7 tracks are much of same, and herein lies Latin’s major downfall. There is no clear standout track to be found, and consequently the entire record melds into one congealed composition of overdriven basslines and madcap percussion. As the album wears on, the songs quickly begin to lose the fervent intensity that Holy Fuck clearly sought to bring to the table, and it’s a shame that they appear to have made little concession to the album listener and instead focus their energies on creating sharp, dynamic songs that are suited to their equally febrile live show.

‘Stay Lit’ is the only track that attempts to break the stifling mould, which falls flat on its face as a derivative, poorly conceived epic post rock clone. Its an oddly mournful-sounding effort, and stands out for all the wrong reasons.

Latin is by no means a poor record, and when taken out of the context of an album format a lot of the songs achieve a remarkable potency, in particular the crashing crescendo of ‘Lucky’ and the swirling, ethereal ‘Silva & Grimes’. It’s a solid, and momentarily exhilarating record, yet it falls short of beating LP and offers little to reward repeated listening.

http://musosguide.com/holy-fuck-latin/10308

dBridge Interview

With drum & bass seemingly in a state of flux at the moment, scene veteran dBridge has quietly but assuredly carved out a niche with his burgeoning Autonomic movement, an all-encompassing music collective formed with fellow producers Instra:mental. Beginning life as a series of podcasts, Autonomic now extends to a regular club night at Fabric and a record label. I caught up with dBridge to see what he had to say about his latest venture, how the scene has changed and his singing.

H: Your latest release, and the first for Autonomic, is ‘Acacia Avenue’, a collaboration with Skream. How did you and Instra:mental hook up with him?

D: I’m trying to think when I met him first, it escapes me now, probably in some random club over a vodka! Well we were doing the podcast, and he was always really into it, and he started following the podcast. I think he hit us up actually, and we really liked what he was doing, and you could just tell the enthusiasm in his music, he was really keen. It was just nice to have someone who was obviously that big on another side of the scene into what we were doing. So we invited him to Insra:mental’s studio and we just hit it off straightaway. He’s really knowledgeable about music you know, especially drum and bass, he knows it inside out. The first couple of times he came down we didn’t do much, I think the first track we did was a track called ‘Reflections’ which is gonna be on his album. So I think we’d been in the studio all day and hadn’t really got anything, so Al and I went outside for a bit, and just left him and Damon in there, and they just came up with a beat. It literally came together really quickly cause we were almost in the last hour of the session and the track just came together. It’s quite hard sometimes with 4 people all in the studio, just trying to vibe. I think Oli wasn’t really used to all these synths screaming out at him at once (laughs), and it was organised chaos really trying to get the best out of each thing, but yeah it came together quite quickly.

H: What was the inspiration to start Autonomic, when you are already running Exit Records?

D: I think its just giving what we’re doing and our music another outlet really, cause instra:mental have their own ideas behind what they’re doing with their label and I have with mine, and we just wanted to give the stuff we were pushing and the stuff we were into…. just get it out there really. We were doing the podcasts, and we purposefully didn’t do tracklisting and people were always wondering what the songs were, and it was just kind of getting them out there to people and another way of doing it. So we literally have the next 5 or 6 releases sorted. I think people will recognise some of the tunes from those previous podcasts.

H: Music from the Fabric CD as well?

D: Yeah, some of the stuff from that is coming out as well, eventually, so yeah literally it was just started as an outlet to get that stuff out there really.

H: I caught the autonomic takeover at Fabric last week, which seemed to go down pretty well – will this continue to be a regular feature for you and Instra:mental?

D: Yeah, well as long as Fabric will have us down there. It’s a weird one, sometimes it seems to work, sometimes it doesn’t, It’s an up and down thing. We’re trying to get our crowd I suppose, or what we consider our crowd, who are used to stuff other than 170 or drum and bass tempos. But when we have guests down we want people who we are really into, artists who are pretty much as non-drum and bass as you can get. Sometimes the crowd kind of thin out when the guests come on, but its good for them to hear the other side of things and hear what’s going on, because we’re really honest about our influences and we really like what these people are doing, and they respect us the same way we respect them. We had Jimmy Edgar down before, and that’s one of Instra:mentals biggest fans, and to have him is a real honour. I love what Blue Daisy is doing, and we’ve got Bullion down for the next one, I’ve always loved his music. Its nice for us in some ways, cause Fabric are backing it, to get the guests that we ideally want for our parties. We’re booked into at least the end of the year, so if it all goes well we’ll still be there.

H: So how did you and Instra:mental begin working together?

D: I think the first time I met them was down at Swerve. I heard their track ‘Naked Zoo’, and I was really feeling it, that came out on Dat:music, and I was really into their stuff and was actively trying to get more of their music. I think they heard about me playing their stuff, because not many people were, and I was just expanding my set and a section of my set included their music, which was growing every month or so, so I started with a couple of tunes and it expanded to 20-30 mins, and it got to a point were I was going down the studio and making music with them. They were on my album, we were producing music and it was like well there’s a lot of this stuff here now, we should go out and rep this sound.

H: Your work with Bad Company will always ensure your place in drum and bass history, but do you feel that the direction you’re currently on is pulling you away from the core of the scene?

D: Maybe. At the end of the day I’ve just got to keep myself interested. I think most producers are constantly trying to move on and do something new, but at the end of the day there’s only so much you can do I suppose. I’ve never been one for overly rinsing a style, I try to do things and move on somewhat. It’s the same thing with all this stuff here; I don’t know how long I’ll be doing this style of drum and bass. You know there is that question  - is it drum and bass? Maybe it isn’t, but its roots lie in it definitely, even if it is the halfstep, 85 stuff, it’s still related to it, so I don’t see why the core part of drum and bass should feel its anything but that. I’m not overly concerned about maybe alienating some of my fanbase, the bottom line is I make music for myself really, so it’s for my own reasons and my own causes I suppose. If I wanted to just continue doing one thing or rinse out a style then I guess we could have kept Bad Company going! I could have quite easily done that but I’ve never been one to sort of stay in one place. So yeah, I think I have drifted away from it somewhat, but nowadays I think what’s good about music now is that the genre lines are really blurred. What I like about what we’re doing is that we’re encouraging people from other scenes to get involved cause its such a closed off scene; most people into drum and bass only listen to drum and bass, so its nice we’ve got people like Skream, Scuba, Distance, Ramadanman, Joy Orbison and James Blake all really into what we’re doing with the whole 85, 170 thing. Its good we can have that influence, show people outside our scene that you can get involved in it. Drum and bass has always been that whenever there’s a new scene that pops up, people making drum and bass sort of break off and join these scenes, Its never the other way round.

H: Do you pay attention to the other side of drum and bass at all?

D: It’s a hard question because as a scene its so wide now, its like there’s so many different sub-genres of it its hard to keep up with it. I’m more into the different artists, and whatever it is they do, I’ve never been one to like this certain style or that certain style, so I follow artists more than anything I think. For example, some artists who do jump up stuff, I like some of their stuff. I can’t even be bothered with half the names that crop up. It’s all at BPM (laughs).

H: You spoke about moving your style. Obviously your current sound is quite different from Bad Company’s – did that progress over time or were you always itching to broaden your style?

D: I think it’s always been a part of me. I’d like to think it has. I said in previous interviews where with Bad Company it was 4 very different people with very different approaches and sound, but towards the end it became less about the 4 of us and more about the 2 of us. But yeah it’s always been there. Once I was outside of that dynamic I was able to express myself you know, without having 2 people telling me ‘I don’t like this or that’. But when you’re on your own you can be selfish but at the same time I like working with other people and bouncing ideas off them. Like I work with Instra:mental and I like to do collaborations, and you learn a lot from collaborations, its interesting to work in different styles and approaches to music. So, my style is ever evolving, I’ve got this whole singing thing which is new to me and is a new approach to making music and a way of looking at it, so its constantly evolving for me.

H: So what prompted your foray into singing?

D: I’ve always sung in some way, mainly it would be on my own. When I was in school I was in a band for a while, but its always been a confidence thing for me and to be honest it was Calibre, we used to talk a lot and he was starting to sing more and it was just nice to have someone who was on a similar wavelength in that sense and him making those steps gave me the confidence. It’s the whole side of you that you’re putting out there for people to judge as well as criticise in some ways but its still a confidence thing for me. I should be singing a lot more than I do, but it takes me a while to kind of get on and do it and I’ve only recently started getting comfortable singing in front of other people or even in the studio, and that was through working with Instra:mental, who were kind of just like “fuck it just do it, don’t care what others think”. I think it’s always been a part of my sound as my brother Steve Spacek sings. So its something I’ve always wanted to do but just never had the confidence, and in the last 3 or 4 years its been slowly growing. I’m just enjoying the whole songwriting aspect really. I wrote a song for Breakage’s album, so it’s nice to get into the whole songwriting side of things as well. It’s another string to my bow I suppose.

H: Will that be a main focal point for your songs in the future then?

D: I think it’ll be one of them. I’m trying to write my second album, but I think a lot of it is getting the right equipment for me and learning how to mix vocals. I don’t want just sort of throw it onto a track, it’d have to be a part of it and feel naturally part of a tune, so there’s a lot I still need to learn about working with vocals. I’m getting there, the last 2 years or whatever I’ve been really trying to get my head round it. I’ve got some more collaborations coming up as well. So yeah, I’d like to do an album that is based around that. I’ve also got other people to do tracks for me that I can sing on and that’s nice as well, to be able to take that pressure off from me having to produce a track, with people sending my stuff, and I’ll think “yeah I like that, I can hear the vocal melody in my head and work with it”, so there is going to be a lot more of that.

H: You recently contributed an instrumental hip-hop track to the Fat City records compilation. Will that style feature more in your music as well?

D: Yeah definitely I love that. Its weird cause all that stuff there is just basically my halftime stuff and I play that in my d&b sets. Its just halftime drum and bass you could say. I’ve always had a love for hip-hop, I’ve got my brothers Black Pocket album coming out in May. Fat City have signed 2 things off me now, “ZX81” and my remix of “U’re A Sta”. So yeah, I’ve got a lot of those kind of beats, I’ll be putting some of them out there myself and getting them to Fat City, seeing if they’re liking any of them, so there’s going to be some more of that. I need to do some of that stuff cause it keeps me sane, I’ve been doing drum and bass for so long, its bloody knackering after a while (laughs).

H: In a previous interview you spoke of your dislike for the term ‘minimal’. How would you prefer your music to be categorised, if at all?

D: That’s a hard one. I understand why people say it but if you actually listen to it there’s probably a lot more going in it than most other drum and bass tracks. You could play a roller, for me that’s minimal. But ideally, I’d call my music electronica, as some of the stuff, especially the Autonomic stuff, has similarities in some senses to some of the early Warp catalogue, like Autechre, all those kind of things. So if I could pick any category it would just be electronica, simple as that because that’s what it is really. But we’ll always be called minimal, it’s simpler for people isn’t it?

H: With the rise of Serato and CDJs, and decline of dubplate culture, how has the scene changed?

D: I actually think it’s changed for the better. I love vinyl, I buy it constantly and I’ll always buy vinyl, but in terms of DJing out the logistics of talking out all those records, its ridiculous. I remember Bailey used to bring like 4 boxes of records to some places, and now I can have all that on my laptop. I love the fact that I have all the music I’m playing out, all my hip-hop things, all my electronica things, all my massive old school collection, so I could literally go in any direction in any club environment. I could play for 7-8 hours if I wanted to, so I think its helped in some senses. But I suppose the negative aspect of it is there’s this whole filtration process that used to happen with dubplates, especially from my point of view within drum and bass there was this whole culture of us going down to Music House, and you’d have a certain amount of money to cut plates and you’d make sure you were cutting the best tunes. There was that natural filtration process where you had to be coming with something good to spend £25-£30 on a dubplate, a tune that I’m only going to get 15 plays out of. But the flip of that is that its helped new artists who have come through and want to be heard. I can get sent a track by someone, try it out and if it sounds good its that simple. I can make a track, play it out and think “I need to change this, I need to change that”. To be honest, I think the positives far outweigh the negatives, and nowadays the problem I think you’re finding is that in clubs there’s an art to setting up record decks, you can’t just put them on a table and plug them in, so you’ve got to feel for the people playing out with dubplates and the needles jumping all over the place. A lot of clubs don’t seem to know how to set them up anymore, and they’ve almost become glorified drinks coasters. It’s only natural but for me personally I love vinyl and I will always buy it because in terms of sound I think its superior, but I think the convienience [of serato and cdjs] definitely outweighs that.

H: Also in terms of the digital culture, do you feel that maybe quality control has dipped with artists knowing they can send whatever they want, whenever they want instead of thinking long and hard what they would cut to a dubplate?

D: I think it’s down to the DJs to have that kind of filtration and ensure quality control. I get sent hundreds and hundreds of tunes, but its not as if I’m going to play all of them. I listen to them, and if they’re not of a certain standard then they’re not going to get played. With the whole digital culture you could say that with a lot artists around now, would they even be here if it wasn’t for the digital culture. A lot of these artists who live on the other side of the world, you’ve got a genre that’s centred in one country, how do these people in the outer regions get their music out there and into the heart of it? Things like AIM have helped. I think just now it’s a case of everybody thinks they’re a DJ and everybody thinks they can make music, just because they have a computer that has some music creation program on it. There’s more to making music than just having the equipment to do it. When I’m listening to tunes, you hear music where someone has tried to reverse engineer something else, but I try to find tracks with character, that have something a bit individual about it, and you can hear that person coming through. For me the whole digital culture, what happening now I’m personally moving away from it in terms of my equipment set up, cause I’m going back to hardware. Back in the early days of making music it wasn’t as simple as just having a computer with Logic or whatever on it, you had to invest money into it, in a sampler, mixing desk, all these things that weren’t cheap, so you’re making a vested interest in what you’re doing. It’s not just a hobby, although it can be for a lot of people. So I’m going back to my hardware roots, like old synths, cause for me I know that’s like. Its an edge I suppose in some ways over most other people cause I don’t like the idea of everyone out there having access to the same synths and presets as I have. Which is why I always liked sampling, cause its like these are the records I’ve found, I’ve dug out, I’ve found these sounds, and these go towards making up who I am. So now rather than sampling the sound that other people have made, Im going to make my own. There’s a lot more producers doing that now. I get old producers hitting me up, asking about my hardware, cause they want that as well, It’s a career that you have invested in, so use that rather than using some copy of Logic you got off a torrent (laughs).

H: What have you got planned for the rest of the year?

D: I’ve signed lots of stuff to Exit, and I can’t get it all out as quickly as I would like, so decided to do a various artists compilation instead, so that’s coming next. There’s me, Consequence, Instra:mental, ASC, Genotype, Distance, Code 3, Loxy, Mode,  I’ve got quite a few tracks , but I’m like “OK, how am I going to get all this out?”. By the sound of it with the artists I’m reeling off it might even be 2 albums, but we’ll see how it goes. Skream is doing a 12” as well, Consequence is working on his second album, and I’m working on my second album. I’m also doing a project with Riya, working with Instra:mental producing an album for her. So that’s what I’m up to at the minute.

Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma

Much like dubstep, the rapid rise of instrumental hip-hop beatmakers in the past few years can be traced to a single place or collective. Dubstep famously emerged from Croydon, more specifically the Big Apple record shop where the likes of Skream, Benga and Hatcha developed their trade and formed a tight coalition of like-minded, musically driven individuals.

Flying Lotus and his cohorts reside in far sunnier climbs in Los Angeles. His breakout LP, named after his hometown, enabled him to transcend his close-knit community, and it was clear that the city had a major influence on the woozy, discordant music that he championed.

‘Cosmogramma’ presents us with his third album in only 4 years, and displays a startling change in direction. Dense, multi-layered and with a sonic palette that belies his 26 years, Steven Ellison uses 45 minutes to take the listener on a wonderful trip through his racing mind.

A cursory listen to opening track ‘Clock Catcher’ gives a brief snatch of what to expect; electronic pulses, silky harps and a throbbing rhythm all combine to throttle the senses and plunge you unexpectedly inwards.

The pace doesn’t relent, with Ellison continuing what he does best by creating all enveloping futuristic beats. The album reaches its peak with the stunning one-two of ‘Computer Face // Pure Being’ and the Thom Yorke featuring ‘… And The World Laughs With You’. The former is dizzying clash between two-step and 4/4 beats, with triumphant synths vibrantly jolting to and fro, whilst the latter avoids a potentially superfluous “Hollywood” guest spot from Yorke by seamlessly weaving him into the spectral fabric of the track.

The album somewhat reaches a lull when “Satelllliiiiiiteee” arrives, with Ellison indulging in psych-jazz electronics to admittedly great effect. But the drawback lies within its unfortunate disruption in continuity, and as such ‘Cosmogramma’ as a whole suffers.

Time will tell if it turns out to be the masterpiece that some are hailing it as, but the fact remains that ‘Los Angeles’ is the more important of the two, Whilst ‘Cosmogramma’ heralds a producer that can safely rest in the upper echelons of electronic music, its predecessor gifted the world a sound that was new and exciting, and has spawned a plethora of equally unique producers who can flourish with their growing fanbase.

   Despite this, ‘Cosmogramma’ will in all probability be considered as his crowning opus, and taken as a single entity is a mind-blowing journey through the thoughts and dreams of a genius. 

http://www.virgin.com/music/reviews/flying-lotus-cosmogramma-album-review

Autechre - Oversteps

For someone unacquainted with Autechre’s work, a quick delve into any of their 10 studio albums is a confounding and exhausting experience, regardless of where you start. Displaying an admirable sense of ambivalence towards categorising their music within established genres, Sean Booth and Rob Brown have traversed the length and breadth of electronic music whilst still retaining a relatively dissonant yet rhythmic sound. From propulsive techno throbs (Incunbula) to introspective ambient soundscapes (Amber), the elusive Mancunians love to keep their fans guessing. Perhaps the album that is most representative of their all-encompassing sound is 2008’s Quaristice, an album widely hailed as return to form following the intimidating and at times mechanical production that characterised the main body of their career.

Oversteps continues that successful formula, and possibly singles itself out as the most accessible of Autechre’s albums. This may sound unappealing to some who hold Autechre in high esteem for their sheer experimentalism, but thankfully none of their avant-garde sensibilities are lost amongst the melee, with melodious arrangements and off-kilter percussion augmenting the more discordant parts of their music.

Opening in the album in total silence, ‘R Ess’ atmospherically drifts into life with a cold, apocalyptic tones harnessing Autechre’s penchant for enveloping the listener in their shadowy world. A skittering beat enters, setting the tone for a wildly diverse collage of songs.

Above all, Oversteps is an inherently textural album, with layers of synths and surprisingly moving notes forming the core enjoyment of the record. The true triumphs come in shape of the more contemplative tracks ‘Known (1)’, ‘See On See’ and ‘pt2ph8’. Devoid of any discernable rhythms, they are instead left to stew in their own beauty. Of course, Overstepshas its more orthodox moments, with Booth and Brown’s love for hip-hop shining through on ‘Treale’, a track that could quite easily be slotted into any one of their previous efforts.

More than anything, a major part of Autechre’s appeal is their ability to extract emotion and human feeling from their equally abstract sound, a feat that shouldn’t be taken for granted. Despite its perceived accessibility, Oversteps still stands boldly as an album that requires your time to release the endless sheets of detail that reside within its 71 minutes. It presents itself as both an ideal starting point for newcomers and as one of the highlights in an increasingly impressive back catalogue.

http://musosguide.com/autechre-oversteps/10111#more-10111

James Blake - CMYK EP

In a recent article in the Guardian, writer Paul Lester offered up James Blake as the new figurehead for "intelligent urban music". Many loose terms have been banded about by journalists desperately seeking appropriate illustration for Blake's vibrantly unique sound. Yet this latest effort smacks of laziness, and revives the old argument that hounded the once-ubiquitous genre tag "IDM"; what makes it intelligent, and is all other music consequently cast off as dumb and brainless?

The 22-year old's productions feature a strong vocal R&B backbone, and beard-stroking, supposedly insightful music isn't the typical paradigm associated with a scene now lodged in rampant misogyny and overtly sexualised imagery. Rather, Blake's singing heroes include Ray Charles and Joni Mitchell. But for the purposes of his music Aaliyah, Brandy and R. Kelly are sampled, almost to the point of where they are indistinguishable. Their voices are twisted and contorted in Blake's inimitable style, cut up in staccato fashion and swamped in a mass of electronic effects.

Long the staple of many high-profile DJs' sets, title track 'CMYK' has its roots in the dancefloor as well as the headphones. He repeats the powerful one-two of dissonant, protracting synths and yearning vocals that embody his best work. The use of vocal samples other than his own offers a form of narrative that has escaped his perhaps more personal previous songs, with "I'll Stay" merging together both male and female vocals, stopping just short of revealing itself as a anguished plea to a lover.

"Footnotes" and "Postpone" show Blake at his most restrained, and both tie up sparse, effective openings with soaring crescendos. 

As the releases notch up, James Blake sustains the high expectations that rest on his shoulders. With   "CMYK" he presents a set of wonderfully fractured electronic pop songs, which continue to lay the groundwork for a potentially explosive talent. 

Out May 31st.

RIP Steve Reid

Record store day

Surely everyday should be record store day for music lovers? I know that it doesn't take one designated day for me to appreciate a dying institution in our country. Independent record shops need support 365 days a year, so avoid the corporate pigs that are Amazon and HMV, and keep underground music alive!


Despite my scepticism, I'll be grabbing my copy of Digital Mystikz's remix of 'Love You To Life' by Grace Jones:




Plus the Mogwai/Fuck Buttons split 10", Crystal Castles EP, Harmonia '76 remix EP, and possibly The Flaming Lips' reworking of 'Dark Side Of The Moon'.....


www.recordstoreday.com

Songs for a sunny day

Gonjasufi - A Sufi And A Killer

Over 20 years and still going, the creative juices still seem to be flowing for Warp, and their unrelenting passion for innovative acts shows no sign of abating. Their recent penchant for establishing non-electronic based artists has given their already impressive roster some breathing room; the considerably more conventional Maximo Park and Grizzly Bear created a much needed, albeit unexpected balance.

 

Incorporating the best of both worlds, self-styled ‘desert yogi’ Gonjasufi first lent his crooning, meditative tones to Flying Lotus’ ‘Testament’, one of the many highlights of his sophomore effort ‘Los Angeles’. But this soothing side of Sumach Ecks proves to be just one string in his bow, for the majority of ‘A Sufi And A Killer’ is a distinctly harsh affair. ‘Kobwebz’ kicks off proceedings with a fuzzy, psych-rock number underpinned by Gonjasufi’s grainy, distorted vocals. The raucous discordance of ‘SuzieQ’ and the yearning ‘She Gone’ follow this abrasive formula, but make no mistake – this purely intended, and Ecks revels in subjecting his listeners to this uncompromising approach. In a recent interview he stated that he wanted “to almost hurt the ear: to shock people with something raw, something hard, something that’s capable of cutting into the eardrum and scratching off the resin of that microchip filth”.

His coarse timbre makes way for an earthly rasp at times, and with this Ecks demonstrates his ability to seamlessly fit his voice into any environment. ‘Sheep’ adorns his cracked, tranquil delivery with a lilting blues guitar and middle-eastern vocals, and provides ‘A Sufi And A Killer’ with one of its many highlights.

Flying Lotus returns the favour with the sitar-featuring head-nodder ‘Ancestors’, whilst Mainframe provides some dreamy, electrified workings in the shape of ‘Candylane’ and’Holidays’. However, the strong, almost telepathic relationship between Gonjasufi and The Gaslamp Killer’s production proves to be the albums crowning glory, with GLK displaying an immense talent for crafting his obscure psyche samples into twisted beat collages.

At 19 tracks long, ‘A Sufi And A Killer’ can prove to be a stifling and somewhat incoherent record, with the rash segues between songs creating a rather disorientating effect. That said, Gonjasufi’s brilliantly idiosyncratic lyrics and gauzy timbre more than make up for this, and gifts listeners with a utterly beguiling and unique album.


http://musosguide.com/gonjasufi-a-sufi-and-a-killer/9968

Actress - Paint, Straw & Bubbles

Not reducible to one genre, Actress' multi-faceted style leaves him devoid of stringent categorisation, and it certainly would take a brave man to do so. Armed with a fresh outlook and showing subtle progress since 2008's 'Hazyville', Darren Cunningham drops a carrot in front of our noses ahead of his much anticipated new LP.

'Paint, Straw & Bubbles' advances from the 4/4, Detroit sensibility of his previous work and delivers a tense, angular technoid work-out with filtered percussion, popping drums and kaleidoscopic melodies. Devoid of any structural orthodoxy, the track fails to adhere to the model of techno, or even house, and consequently marks itself out as an alien within the sometimes suffocating world of dance music.
   
Following on from their tantalising collaborations released into the net earlier this year, Zomby remixes 'PS&B' into an entirely different beast. He continues with the vivid technicolour blueprint of late, adding a thrusting UK Funky rhythm and bassline, scattered with incisive gasps and chants.
   
On the flip, 'Maze' sketches out a cold wave/ early techno throwback, marking out Cunningham's extraordinarily diverse yet easily distinguishable sound.


www.myspace.com/actresskhz   

Brainfeeder @ Fabric

Burrowed in the outer reaches of Los Angeles, the Brainfeeder crew aren’t the most nomadic of music collectives. It’s even rarer for the whole lot to link up for one night, but luckily for London, Flying Lotus and his corps descended on Fabric for a special one-off event courtesy of Red Bull Music Academy,

Despite its midweek timeslot, the event was a total sell out, and the early birds were fortunate to catch Tokimonsta and Nosaj Thing. The first lady of Brainfeeder gave a blistering opening set that belied her diminutive stature, while Nosaj Thing delivered a well-received set that borrowed heavily from his LP ‘Drift’.

Dimlite switched things up and tested the crowd with his contorted, off-kilter beats. A consistent rhythm eluded him; the crowd felt it too and as a result only a stable ending kept the night running on smooth ground. Compere Gaslamp Killer had no problems in whipping the audience into a frenzy, frantically spinning a wild collage of music that spread across the entire spectrum of dance music, but always maintaining a unrestrained edge.

Daedelus has always stood out as idiosyncratic within the confines of Brainfeeder’s sound; he eschews blunted hip-hop in favour of uptempo house and electronica fusions, and his captivating performance with his Monome provides an exciting continuum from his records.

This provided a fitting precursor to head honcho Flying Lotus’s set. Rooted in the dreamy, psychedelic records of his own, and complemented by various re-workings of existing songs, Steven Ellison’s face was a picture of verve and delight as he sprang between his laptop and drum programmer. The heaving dancefloor paid true testament to FlyLo’s fast-expanding popularity, and it is him who has the power to transcend the niche that him and his peers have carved.

Stones Throw associate J. Rocc made sure the punters didn’t stray too far with a head snapping set of hip-hop and various electronic offerings. Swiss producer Dorian Concept followed with an energetic display on his Micro Korg, his fiery synth work keeping drooping eyes at bay.

Kode9 and Martyn rounded off a memorable evening with a solid set of funky, 2-step and fresh Hyperdub plates.

It’s evident from this night that the Brainfeeder collective has the longevity and nous to survive in today’s swiftly moving climate, with a roster of artists diverse in their own way that will hopefully keep pushing each other to create ever more innovative beats. 


www.brainfeedersite.com
www.redbullmusicacademy.com

Ikonika

Riding on a crest of adulation and praise at the moment, Ikonika is fast proving herself to be a producer that is quickly realising her potential. A stack of successful 12"s and an ever-increasing DJ schedule has steadily built her profile, and I caught up her for an interview ahead of the release of "Contact, Love , Want, Have", which is hitting the shops 5 April.

Your roots aren’t electronically based, as you used to be in a hardcore band?

Yeah I used to play drums, I was in some bands at school, so I don’t really know too much about techno or house or early Warp stuff!

So you didn’t grow up with jungle then?

No, garage maybe, because my sisters used to listen to garage and R&B and hip-hop. Thats about it, so when people talk about me and the continuum, saying I’m not continuing, yeah it’s true (laughs).

How did you get into post-hardcore then, when your sisters were into garage and hip-hop?

I think because I started playing the drums, and obviously there’s not much live drums in hip hop, it’s very sample based so I was just kind of finding stuff I could play to and practice to and just make myself a better drummer. I was hanging out with guitarists in music rooms at school, listening to Nirvana, Hole, and kind of moving on to post-hardcore stuff like Glassjaw and Poison The Well.  Before was like nu metal, so I was a little grunger at school, but in my school everyone was friends. There wasn’t set groups and everyone would just hang out with each other. So it would be like the grungers hanging out with the R&B, urban kids etc.

So how did that move into dubstep then?

I started getting quite bored of hardcore, just cause everyone was trying to do the same thing, screaming lots, it became too technical. Like 'yeah lets see how many double bass pedals hits I can do, how long I can go on for', that was just me so I got kinda bored of it. Then I just kind of started to fall in love with hip-hop again, like J Dilla stuff, Madlib, Stones Throw stuff,  just getting back into it really, and then I just started making hip hop instrumentals. I thought I might be the next J Dilla.  But then I got bored with it again, and I guess around 2004/2005 [my friend] Malcolm introduced me to a Skream mix, so yeah I kinda fell in love with it, and I remember saying to him I can do this, let me try make something at 140 bpm, and yeah it sort of went from there.

So did you go to many raves when you were getting into it?

Yeah defintely, the first dubstep gig we went to was a Skull Disco night, with Shackleton, Appleblim, Kode9, Chef b2b Skream, and hearing Skream play 'Check It' on that system, that was just… I’d never heard a soundsystem before so I thought it was amazing.

Where was that at?

That was at the Red Star in Camberwell. Before that time I’d only ever been to R&B clubs and hip-hop clubs and it’d be like really plush and kind of fake glamour and really pretentious, so when I went to this night I was a bit confused!. Everyone was in their tracksuit bottoms and stuff, dressed how they wanted to, just being themselves and relaxed. They just wanted to hear some bass basically, that just really attracted me to it, and I just wanted to become a DJ and producer. I remember FWD in particular, we used to go FWD quite a lot, just being in Plastic People, just being in that club, the bass, you would just suck in this bass. It would be really hard to breathe and I’ve never experienced anything like it. Like Loefah playing 'Mud', stuff like that…..

I can imagine, with the early DMZ stuff…..

Yeah, just being totally crazy, meditating, nobody really moving, just closing their eyes and skanking. Of course we could smoke at that time, you know, obviously I miss smoking, I miss 2005! (laughs).

Did you go to the 5^th birthday on Friday?

Yeah, we were there for a little bit, it was absolutely rammed. DMZ is usually rammed, but this just was crazy crazy, very ravey. Got to see Joy Orbison b2b Oneman which was really good, but yeah it was good just seeing everyone there who I haven’t seen for like ages. DMZ is always like, if you don’t go for the music you can just chat to people the whole night, and miss the DJs and just be the corridor talking.

Moving on, how did you get in contact with Kode9?

Through dubstep forum (laughs). I just pm’d him, actually no, the first time I e-mailed him and sent him 5 tracks, kind of weird wobble tracks, with really weird melodies, including a version of Phonelines, the first version of it, and he was like "I really like Phonelines but I feel your stuff is a bit too cluttered and there’s too many bad things going on, strip it down a bit". So I ignored him for a few months and then sent him 'Please' and he loved it and cut it. Then we were talking for ages on the internet and we still hadn’t met each other, we met at DMZ in fact so yeah, (laughs). Just asked me if I wanted…. Actually no I asked him if he wanted to release 'Please'.

How do you fell being a part of the Hyperdub roster, you’ve got so many artists like Zomby, Joker, who are pretty big in dubstep now?

When I got signed it was just Kode9, Burial, (turns to friend) did 'Skeng' come out then? No, there was a Quarta330 single that came out and the LV 'Globetrotting' 12”. So you know, being a big fan of Burial, being a big fan of Kode9, it just seemed a bit unreal in a way, cause it you know, (pauses) when I was making these tracks I was thinking "yeah I’m gonna get signed by the end of this year but I don’t know who with". I just thought it would be a 12” on some random up and coming label or something like that. It turned out Steve (Kode9) was into it, which was a little bit scary, we had to keep it a secret for a while, and then he posted up on the forum “I’m releasing 'Please'” and everyone was kinda shocked just because at that time everyone was getting kind of bored of wobble, like you could feel dubstep it was branching out. Like there’s Hyperdub stuff, or like there’s techno stuff or wobble stuff, so I didn’t really initially see myself on Hyperdub. But after I started thinking about it I was like "yeah ok, this could work, we have the same kind of values", and I think that’s really important.

Forward thinking music?

Yeah, I guess, just, confused music (laughs).

Anyway, what hardware did you start off with when your begun making beats?

I had nothing, I just had this shitty Toshiba laptop, plugged it into my Numark mixer and out of my Yamaha monitors. The monitors were the first things I ever bought, as soon as I had a little bit of money I bought these monitors. I made 'Please' on it, I made 'Millie' on it, made a little bit of the album on Fruity Loops, and then the beginning of this year I just changed everything - I bought an iMac. I just thought I needed to change, I needed to have a polished sound and I needed to spend some money. Now I’m using Logic, a little Phatty Moog and an Alesis Micron and that’s it, I don’t want anything else for the time being.

It surprises me that you didn’t use synthesizers for 'Please' or 'Millie'.

Basically I just used a simple bleep sample that just went (makes bleeping sound) and that’s it (laughs). I just tuned it, and mucked around with it. I still use that one sample for everything so I just put it in my keyboard, play around and muck around with filters and stuff.

What about DJing, do you enjoy it?

I love Djing. I think I like it a bit more than producing, just because I’m doing more of it and it’s at that point where it’s really exciting. I love playing around with the crowd, like testing them to see what they’re like, that kind of stuff. It’s definitely an experiment to me that I’m just fascinated by.

Where are your favourite places to play out then?

I don’t know. I could play anywhere. I could play in this pub right now and enjoy it.

Do you still collect vinyl at all?

Yeah, a little bit. I tend to buy old garage these days.

Not so much new releases then? But do you get all that sent to you?

Yeah (laughs). Most of it gets sent, like the new stuff, but I just want timeless pieces, I’m looking for pieces instead of tunes. I’ll just go out and buy Madonna vinyls or something like that.

You follow the general 140bpm blueprint of dubstep, but do you feel a part of it or around the fringes?

I’ve had that question asked to me a lot - I’ll give the same answer: sometimes. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t, like sometimes I’ll make a track at 140bpm, but these days I’m making tracks at like 128, 135 just mucking around with it I guess. To me when I first heard dubstep, you had all these different producers doing these different things, like you had Coki doing one thing, Skream doing something, Kode9 doing something, Burial doing something, but all of these were dubstep. There was nothing wrong with calling it dubstep, but what I don’t understand these days is that I’m doing something that is still on the right bpm but  not considered dubstep because I don’t have one wobble sound. It frustrates me a little bit because when dubstep was emerging that wasn’t the case, and was never the case for me. So, yeah, what is dubstep I guess? People are getting it confused with wonky, funky, funkstep, future garage - it's all getting a bit confused right now.

It’s all kinda getting placed to one pot, when maybe it shouldn’t be.

Yeah. It’s hard to predict things as well, like you don’t want to say something wrong, but if people are happy to say I’m a key figure in post-dubstep then I guess I’m fine being a key figure in something.

What do you want people to gain from your music?

Just an understanding that the dancefloor doesn’t have to be one certain thing. When you’re dancing its ok for you to feel something. I just want the crowds to be a bit more intelligent on the dancefloor, be a bit more conscious. Not getting bored, just experiencing something new. If I’m flying somewhere, these promoters have flown me from the UK to their country, you know, I’m there to do something different, but album wise I want just as many people to listen to my music as possible. If that sounds too cliché then whatever, but I’m really happy with it. I made it for myself, and maybe Kode9 as well and that’s it, that’s the objective really.

Synths are a part of what characterizes your sound, which is popular in dubstep at the moment, particularly as a part of the whole “purple” thing with Joker, Gemmy and Guido. Do you think you have subcousciously made your less orthodox music as an alternative to that?

The thing about synths is that you can create any sound, not necessarily any sound you want, but you can just create any sound. I just like melodies and obviously synths are one way of expressing that. I don’t really know to be honest. I think with people like me, Joker, Guido and Gemmy, maybe Darkstar and Zomby, is we are all around the same age range, so we’ve obviously been brought up with the Megadrive and SNES, old Nintendo, so we’re familiar with those kind of sounds. But at the same we were probably listening to lots of R&B, a lot of American hip-hop, and also being from the UK listening to a lot of garage, pirate radio, so I think just all of that combined is the reason why a lot of synth based music is coming out.

Do you think video games have directly influenced your music?

I think subconsciously more than anything. LIke I said, just growing up being around my older sisters who would be raving and I’d be on my Megadrive. Obviously it will have something in you, pressing these buttons is kind of like making a beat at the same time, like you’re making a beat on the keyboard and computer. Just being brought up around computers is like seeing a change and I think seeing the internet grow has something to do with it.

What are your influences music wise, apart from post-hardcore?

Alot of R&B, stuff like Amerie, Total, Mary J Bilge, Brandy. Hip hop like J Dilla, Biggie, Nas and Madlib. With garage, I really like those silky, moody tunes that had really heartfelt vocals that still had thick drums and really deep sub bass. And Madonna as well.

What can we expect from the album?

It's just a continuation of what I’m doing, but its more of an introduction to people that don’t know me. It’s ikonika on a CD. It’s not a vinyl, it’s not a 12”, it’s not a single, it’s not 2 tracks, it’s 14 tracks, there’s a story behind it.

So you’re approaching it as a concept then?

A little bit, I wanted the songs to kind of fit next to each other and for each song to relate to one another. It’s madness but I think it’s joining the dots of everything that I’m into, being influenced by, and just how Ikonika is progressing and how I’m feeling right now. I think the title of the album kind of explains it a little bit better (laughs).

Your single The Idiot has rhythm similar to funky, is that gonna continue throughout the album?

Yeah a little bit. There is songs like 'Psoriasis' and 'Video Delays' that feel like funky, its just me being a bit more percussive, not being boring anymore. I’m just moving on, filling the gaps but having enough space at the same time. But funky has influenced me in the last year.

Who are you feeling on the funky scene at the moment?

Stuff like Lil Silva. Basically hard, edgy stuff, more grimey stuff like Apple as well, D Malice maybe.

Any collaborations on the album?

  

I was going to get Daryl Palumbo (of Glassjaw) but we couldn’t work out a deadline. He’s really busy with Glassjaw’s album and Head Automatica stuff. But hopefully in the future we can do something.

Any potential collaborations with anyone from Hyperdub, or dubstep in general?

Not planned, no, I think I’m quite hard to work with. Saying that me and FaltyDL did something not too long ago, that might come out but we’ll see (laughs).

Do you enjoy being by yourself in the studio then?

A little bit, for the time being until I can drain it and rinse it, I’m quite happy on my own for the time being.

What else can we expect from you next year?

I’ve got quite a big remix release schedule. Just had the Brown Acid remix come out, there’s gonna be a remix on Night Slugs, something I did for Egyptrixx. I did a Detachments remix, they’re from London, hopefully a These New Puritans one, might be an ep for Planet Mu, summertime maybe, still working on that, Jahcoozi remix, Cubic Zirconia one. I did a remix of 'Flex’d' by DJ Madd and an Illum Sphere remix. 

www.myspace.com/ikonika