Sonic Router

http://sonicrouter.blogspot.com/

The new blog brought to you by the people behind 3barfire and The Sonic Mine Field.

We will be covering all that is good in the world of bass / dubstep / hip-hop and anything in-between.

The idea has been under way for a while now but yesterday we went live!

So far we have covered: Hermutt Lobby, Slugabed, Lloop, Rekordah, Mount Kimbie, Ramp Recordings, Dub Lime, Harmonic 313, Martyn, King Cannibal, 2562, Tectonic, Warlock and Noyeahno, Buddy Peace.

Exclusive Sonic Router mix by Rekordah is so sick you have to get on that. Plus the interview with Tom from Ramp is very informative. Dem's my top tips.


Have a read, bookmark it, whack it on your RSS feeder and feel the bass.


Shout us at:


sonicrouter (at) gmail (Dot) com

Starkey - Ephemeral Exhibits (3barfire Review & Interview)

More 3bar business today in the form of my review of Starkey's excelent debut album Epemeral Exhibits right here, go on click it!

Then just as a little reminder if you didn't catch it the first few times I posted about it. My interveiw with the man himself Stark Bot AKA PJ. Click me!

Starkey - Trouble in Space (3barfire Interview)

I got the opertunity to shoot some questions to the Street Bass producer for 3barfire (originaly posted here) and this is what happened.

Starkey, known to has family, friends and publishing company as PJ, has been dominating the airwaves recently with an instantly recognisable brand of synthesized mayhem. His beats are expressive saws off sound that splinter and chip away at your eardrums just as much as they slap them.

Fresh from running his labels Seclusiasis and Slit Jockey and pioneering the gritty grime sound of the UK capital in his native Pennsylvanian home town, Starkey took a few moments to explain his love for the sound and introduce to his Planet Mu signed full length album 'Ephemeral Exhibits' to James Balf.

James Balf: I love the term Street Bass you use as a catchall phrase for what you play and make. What first got you into the underground urban dance sounds?

Starkey: It had to be, first and foremost, trip hop. Tricky, Portishead, Alpha... downtempo, hiphop influenced electronic music. Also, Bjork around the same time I think. I was also into some of the random tunes I would hear.... like from DJ Wally and such. Still to this day that era of music is still my favorite. But when I started college, I quickly got into the Warp and Planet Mu stuff.... Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Boards of Canada, Venetian Snares, Shitmat. I was going to school for music production and started producing my own tunes, basically to practice what I was learning in class and trying to have another output for creativity (besides playing in the band I was in).

JB: Can you tell me a little about your native Philadelphia and how it’s shaped your music?

S: Philly is a hip hop town... plain and simple. That definitely comes through in my music - a bit. Even if you aren't too into hip hop, you're surrounded by it every day. It definitely influences many aspects of the city... from how people act and talk, to how they interact with each other.

JB: The dubstep scene has embraced you over here in the UK and it’s wicked to see the age old US, UK dance music exchange isn’t dead. Since house and techno and even before that, the US and UK has been feeding off each other and bringing different influences to the table. When did you first hear about this stuff we call grime and dubstep and think, wow we could add this to what we have going on here?

S: For me... I was living in London in 2001, going to school, when I first discovered garage. So Solid's album was dropping and all that. I also heard ‘Has It Come To This’ by The Streets and instantly fell in love with it. It was just so different from the stuff I was listening to at the time. So after I came back to Philly.... I tried to stay in touch with what was going on with the sound. I remember hearing Wiley & Dizzee for the 1st time back in the states and was like "WTF?"... that was the most exciting thing I'd ever heard, It had such a raw energy to it.

JB: You flew all the way from the USA to come and spin a 10 minute set for Generation Bass - I have to big you up for your level of dedication to the Street Bass cause... How did it make you feel when Vex’d picked you and who would you pick if you were in their shoes?

S: Well of course it was something I wanted to be a part of. I was really honored when Vex'd asked me. They were a lot of people's first introduction to what is now dubstep in this country.... particularly with the Planet Mu link. They are amazing producers and such good guys. I couldn't believe they asked me to do it. I was flattered to be honest.

If I had to pick someone.... I don't want to say.... if there is a Generation Bass 2009, I may have to do just that.

But it will be difficult.

Starkey on Generation Bass

JB: Can you shed some light on yours and Dev79’s Seclusiasis Crew and the Sub FM show...? How did you hook up and what’s your plans for the label?

S: Dev79 and I met back in 2004. When we started talking about music, he asked me what I was into and I said, "well I'm really feeling this music out of London called grime." And he was like, "no way... I thought I was the only person in Philly who knew what that was." So… the rest is history really. That year we started the first party in Philly to play grime... seasoned with hip hop, dancehall and such. Seclusiasis was already a crew, throwing parties around Philly and such... but we kind of pushed the brand into a different place.

The radio show had been going on in some form since 2002.... a couple of years before I became involved with Seclusiasis. When we decided that I would take over the hosting of the show at the end of last year, I hit up the SubFM people to see if they would be interested in hosting the show because I really wanted to get back into the interactive aspect of doing a live show... and the chat room helps to achieve that. It's been great on SubFM.

Regarding the label side of things... I've been really pushing to make moves with things this past year. We started releasing Seclusiasis and Slit Jockey 12”s this year... with a bunch of releases planned for the coming months, including an EP from Raffertie, an album from Kotchy and a Dev79 single. We're also dropping a lot of digital releases with people from all over, including Small Professor, a Philly hip hop producer.

JB: I heard you drop some tunes on your radio show from a forthcoming mix CD for LoDubs, it sounds big! What’s some of the hottest tracks going to be for that?

S: Yeah... going to be mixing that very, very soon. Got all the tracks in now. A ton of great tunes on there... Zomby, Joker, a Raffertie remix of Food For Animals, O-Dessa, Dev79, BD1982, a Blackdown remix, Toast, DZ, Bombaman, Dubsworth, Cardopusher + more.

JB: What are your top dubplates right now and what do you have to keep wheeling back at gigs?

S: Every Raffertie tune... haha. There's also this guy called Stagga from the UK who makes crazy drops; everyone goes mental for them. Bombaman makes some stupid drops as well.

I'm not the type of person who wheels up tunes just because people are calling for it.... it needs to be completely warranted.

JB : Apparently ‘The Message is Love’ was voted the sexiest breakdown in grime history (this may or may not be true) and the other night I heard Blackdown play your remix of it on Rinse FM. Did you give it a good work over to see if any of that good lovin’ advice would rub off on you or do you think you were the only person qualified for such a task?

S: This was in the same week that Boomkat was talking about touching me with a big massive stick... hahaha. I guess it's a sexy breakdown... but it contradicts some of the other lyrics in the tune, obviously.

Silverlink ft. Badness & Jammer - The Mesaage Is Love

That tune is just wild. I remember running into Robin who runs No Hats No Hoods on the corner of Bethnal Green Road and Brick Lane earlier this year. He was like... “I got this new tune and I don't know what's up, it's just wild. I'll send it to you”. I was like, “cool... I'm playing fabric tonight so I'll drop it”. So I think I was one of the 1st people to drop that tune - ever. It's crazy... plain and simple. I slowed it down a bit for the remix to 140, so it would mix better with my typical sets.

JB: I hear you’re a classically trained musician, have you got any non Street Bass endeavors on the table at the moment or are you concentrating on ripping up the dance?

S: Nah... not right now. The concert music is on hold. I mean, if I got commissioned to work on a piece, I'd be all about it. But, the last piece I did, ‘Bending Light’, took a year and a half to complete. It's really all about the Starkey stuff right now.

JB: What’s you studio like now compared to the set up you started on?

S: When I started producing music as Aunt Jessica (which subsequently became a group of mine)... I was using a Gateway PC w/ Acid Pro 1, Fruity Loops 1 and the Hammerhead drum machine. I had a Sound Blaster soundcard which was fed by a Behringer mixer and my Korg N1 keyboard. I was mixing on the speakers that came with my computer.

Now I have a couple of Mac laptops.... and still use the Korg N1 (but mostly as a MIDI controller for the fully weighted, 88 key keyboard). I mostly use a Motu 896 interface w/ Logic 8, Reason 4, Ableton Live 7, Kontakt 2, Melodyne plug-in and a few other plug-ins here and there. I'm all about re-wiring. I'm not a hardware junkie at all... but I do have a Juno60 and the Moog Satellite Synth along with a 1/2" 8tk machine.

JB: What else inspires you outside of music?

S: Sci-Fi movies are a big one.... definitely. I'm all about outer space and thinking about the future of the world. Also, been getting back into comics a bit lately…

Zomby - Spliff Dub (Stareky Remix)

JB: Your hooking up with Blackdown’s label Keysounds to release ‘Gutter Music’ on 12”, I heard him describe it as being, “like a mutant Daft Punk/grime jam”, which isn’t far off at all. You two are kind of pushing a nice grimey, off kilter, urban bass thing as well as the deep meditational stuff. What was it like hooking up with Blackdown and what treats can we expect on the flip side to the 12”?

S: Blackdown hit me up because he had heard some stuff of mine that he was feeling, and he wanted to write about me in his Pitchfork column. It was really great to hear that he was interested in what I was doing. So I sent him a bunch of tunes, ‘Gutter Music’ being one of them. He hit me back saying that both he and Dusk loved the track and would be interested in putting it out on Keysound. Mike at Planet Mu subsequently wanted to put it on the album as well... so that's why it's only on the CD version of the album, and not the vinyl, because I had already promised it to Keysound. The 12" will be all gutter.... with a vocal and a VIP mix.

Can't tell you who will be on the vocal yet... but believe me, it will be good.

JB: Your debut album 'Ephemeral Exhibits' drops soon Planet Mu, what can we expect from that beast?

S: To be totally honest, I'm really happy with how this album turned out. You know sometimes after something is finished you look back and say there's things you want to change or would do differently, and I really truly feel as though this album is a snapshot of where I am right now. That's where the title comes from. It wasn't written per se as an album, but it really flows well. Mike has a great ear for picking out tracklists and running orders.

The music is basically a culmination of everything I've been doing for the last year or so. It's got the vocal cutups, the grime-influenced stuff as well as tunes that are more dubstep or hip hop influenced. There's even some sci-fi / electronic stuff on there. But it really does feel like a complete album when you listen to it from start to finish. I'm more a producer that wants to write songs, not just drops. If something doesn't keep your attention for 4 minutes... then it shouldn't be 4 minutes.

Also, Love the Chaos did the artwork and it's completely gorgeous....the CD especially. I can't wait to see the finished, printed version.

JB: And finally... are you planning on coming back over soon to play some more hype sets in the UK?

S: Yeah... I'm looking at January 2009. Another Europe mini tour with hopefully some dates in the UK…

Words: James Balf

For more info on Starkey go here: www.myspace.com/starkey

Starkey's album 'Ephermeral Exhibits' is out on 24th Nov on Planet Mu Recordings

You can download a pre album mix from Starkey at the Electronic Explorations website - Week 43: http://electronicexplorations.org/the-show/week-043-starkey/

With thanks to PJ.

Distance - Repercussions & Interview (3barfire)

Go and have a look at my review of the Distance new album Repercussions over at 3barfire here. Then if you missed me post it before go and check out the interview with the man himself here. Big up to everyone involved...

Distance - I'm A Big Fan Of Gary Numan (3barfire interview)

Distance - I'm A Big Fan Of Gary Numan

Written by James Balf
Monday, 27 October 2008


Distance aka Greg Sanders is somewhat of a scene lynchpin. He was one of the original seven artists selected by Mary Anne Hobbs for Radio One's seminal Dubstep Warz broadcast, his debut album, 'My Demons', was voted by Dubstep Forum's purest public as the album of 2007and his label Chestplate has rumbled its way into the hearts (and record bags) of many a fan.On the eve of the release of his second album for Planet Mu, 'Repercussions', Distance clocked in for a chat with James Balf, who managed to get him to admit his love for industrial power tools and reveal a hidden passion for the work of gloom pioneer Gary Numan.

James Balf: We all know you as a bit of a legend in Dubstep circles, you’ve been on the scene for what seems like forever now, tearing up places like DMZ, FWD>> and anywhere with a big enough soundsystem, not to mention on your Rinse FM show, tons of 12”s your own label Chestplate. But what got you into this music, pushed you into DJing and making your own beats?

Distance: Well as most people know I was a huge metal fan I listened to bands like Pantera, Sepultura, Fear Factory and didn’t really have any interest in dance or electronic music. It wasn’t until I started college that I began listening to loads of different styles and started going to raves. I picked up on a few D&B artists, mainly Dillinga… I could really relate to the live drum sounds he used in his tracks and he had an energy about his sound which reminded me of metal. From there I got into Aphex Twin, Redsnapper, Portishead and Prodigy but the tunes that stuck out for me were always the darker more atmospheric edged ones.

A close friend of mine Phil used to play me loads of garage and 2 step beats and that kind of started things rolling. I bought decks, a drum machine and started using my PC to build a few loops but I didn’t take producing that seriously. I became a massive DJ EZ fan and would record his Kiss FM sets every week. Bit by bit these slightly darker sounds crept into his shows. Most were produced by Wookie, Oris J, Zed Bias, Ed Case and Zinc and I would desperately hunt for these in records shops.

I used to go to a load of garage nights and would always be waiting be for the dark beats drop like Narrow’s ‘Saved Souls’ and Wookie’s ‘Little Man Rmx’. I then found out about a new rave in London called FWD where I could hear what I was calling "dark garage" being played all night. I religiously went every month, it was a night purely about the music not about shiney shoes and over pressed shirts and trousers.

Producing was naturally the next step to take. First real tune I made was called ‘Trust My Logic’ and EZ was the first person to drop it. I still have the tape somewhere. Things just grew and grew from there.

JB: What was your first set up like for making tracks compared to what you use now?

D: I had a pretty standard PC running Cubase v.5, a Terratec sound card which wasn’t bad… my first 2 tunes where made with just 1 stereo speaker - ha ha. The first monitors I had were Fostex PM1s which done me proud but now I’m on a Carillon PC, with an RME sound card, running Cubase V4. I upgraded my monitors early this year to a set of Genelec 1032a's… that was a special day.

I don’t think it is so much the equipment which makes the biggest difference it’s your self, training your ears and getting your mixes sweet. You could be sitting in a 30 grand studio but if you don’t know about your frequencies then that equipment is worthless.

JB: Dubstep takes a lot of influence from all over the place, what other kinds of music do you love listening to that you find influence your sound?

D: I listen to so much music, loads of metal, rap, dnb, dub… I’m a big fan of Gary Numan, Kate Bush and Prince I have my Dad to blame for that… I would say my main influences come from Metal though. I love the sound of live instruments, the natural distortions and Harmonics are what I’m all about. I always try and create a live feel in my tracks.

Films have played a huge part in my music too; I pay a lot of attention to the way music is used to create tension, emotion and suspense. I try and inject some of that into my beats.

JB: Who are your favourite DJ and producers in the scene pushing it all forward and keeping it exciting for you right now?

D: Pinch, Mala, Jamie vex'd, Cyrus, Benga, and Skream. They never stay in one place, they are constantly progressing. Plus there are loads of new artists coming through who are keeping the whole scene fresh. Joker, Ramadanman, Peverelist, Silkie and Quest really stand out.

JB: I want to ask you about Metal. I hear strains of metal or heavy guitar music in your sound at times, even a bit of Doom laced heaviness at times in the form of someone like Sun O))) or Khanate as suggested from your Marry Anne Hobbs mix with Vex’d. I’ve even heard your stuff to be called Mosh-Step, I think the metal sounds and influence work well in dubstep, I mean it isn’t that far a step from a skanked out head nod to a full on headbang session is it?

D: I get approached by a lot of people voicing how they are metal fans and are feeling what I am doing. That’s mainly because they can hear my metal influence coming through. I’ve been playing guitar for 18 years now and use it where I can in my beats. The riffs in ‘Headstrung’ and ‘No Sunshine’ are me on guitar.

I never forget Joe Nice telling me how he played ‘V’ in Belgium and started a full on mosh pit… it also happened to me in Rotterdam. The moshers got asked to stop by the promoters - ha ha. I don’t know how but I think im able to inject the same energy metal has into dubstep.

JB: Some of your stuff sounds quite industrial, do you dabble in a bit of DIY? What’s your favourite tool? I’m pretty fond of lump hammers and the monkey wrench myself…

D: Well I am a builder so that might be why, favourite tool hmmmm???? Has to be the circular saw, it’s a beast. I truly fear it as much as I love it.

JB: What influences you outside of music?

D: People influence me most definitely. If it wasn’t for certain people in my life introducing me to different sounds and experiences I probably wouldn’t be here.

Films are on a par with music, they’ve have had such a big influence in my music. My Dad was heavily into films, and most of my childhood was spent watching films I shouldn’t have. Omen, Blade Runner, Alien… I’ll never forget, my Dad had Nightmare On Elm Street taped after Snow White, that’s enough to traumatise any 7 year old.

JB: What was it like being picked up by Planet Mu and what’s it like releasing on such a big electronica label?

D: If I’m honest I didn’t know that much about Planet Mu previous to be being signed. That’s mainly because I was listening to metal more than electronica. I was aware that Mark One and Vex’d had released albums with them but that’s it really. I did my research though and soon found out how big they were and felt privileged to be offered the opportunity to produce an album for such a respected label. Mike’s got an ear for great music.

JB: How did it make you feel when all the heads at Dubstep Forum voted your debut album, 'My Demons', the album of the year in 2007?

D: Completely unexpected… I went to the awards just to go and support, at about 12am someone came up to me and says “congratulations on the award”, I was like, “what award?” he said, "Best Album of the Year Award...!"

I had no idea I was going to win or even that I was nominated. I was gutted I wasn’t in the room when it was announced though but it meant a lot to me.

JB: You picked Cyrus for Generation Bass the follow up to the pretty damn huge Dubstep Warz on Radio One with Marry Anne Hobbs, what drew you to him? Did it make you think about the state of the scene now compared to way back when you first spun on Warz?

D: Cyrus provides a much needed side to the scene. He has his own unique style and he’s a sick DJ as well as a producer. When I got asked to pick an artist he was the first person I thought of. The first Dubstep Warz was very much about 7 individuals with very different influences and styles, and I think Generation Bass adopted that brilliantly. Every artist stood out and made it very clear that Dubstep will continue to excite people. Cyrus was an important part of that.

JB: What can we expect from your forthcoming album Repercussions, how do you think your sound has progressed from ‘My Demons’?

D: Its a little darker then ‘My Demons’. I went in deep on the percussion arrangements, hence the name ‘Repercussions’. I wanted to take it back to what dubstep was originally about: beats, percussions and bass.

I wanted the album to be more of a listening experience rather then straight up club bangers. My production as a whole has definitely improved; I find it hard to listen to my old beats without cringing. I’ve spent a lot of time mastering my mix downs and I’m a lot happier with them now.

Words: James Balf

'Repercussions' is out 24th November on Planet Mu Recordings.

www.myspace.com/djdistancedub

www.myspace.com/chestplates

www.planet-mu.com

With thanks to Greg and Jonas.