This blog is dedicated to the sounds of Future Jungle ,J-Tek,140 Jungle,Jungle Breaks,Hardcore Breaks,Dubstep,Breakstep,Nu Jungle,Jungle Tekno and Nu-Rave
Showing posts with label Strange Rollers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Strange Rollers. Show all posts
We're a little late with the review on this superb new release from Boomsha Recordings, its a bit of Jungle/DnB from Schoco with 'Inside My Skin', a producer whose sound we are so fond of, exquisite and intricate spacious sounds that leave a lasting impression and really do get inside your skin albeit in a good way!!! We also get quality Future Jungle remixes from Bay B Kane and Strange Rollers plus some more breath taking Jungle from the one and only Sound Shifter, phenomenally good!!! https://pro.beatport.com/release/inside-my-skin/1561666
Soundcloud remains to be a haven for so much great free music, here's a few tracks that are on repeat play here at the blog right now, Thumbzo takes a journey back into 92/93 with a Ibiza Records style Jungle Tekno flava for the old skool headz
Staying on the oldskool tip, BreakBleetz does it Basement Recs style
USBS remixes Case Of Bass 'Release Me' into a tough and euphoric Rave/Hardcore Breaks banger
Strange Rollers & Bad Habit have 2 awesome colabs up for free download
DJ Flow drops another free ravey banger with vocals from The Ragga Twins
Finally, Nefti remixes The Prodigy classic into a rave weapon to unleash in your mixes!!!
Strange Rollers who have featured heavily on our parent
label Top Drawer Digital over the years hit Bass Elements running with this
Huge EP.
BASSE004 – Strange Rollers – The Spaced Out EP
3 Tracks inspired by the early days of house music that show
how relevant those groundbreaking sounds of the late 80’s and early 90’s still
sound today.
From the Sunrise FM Pirate station inspired Acid goodness of
"The Phone In" to the trance inducing "The Word" and full
force Jackin’ House monster "Mushroom Cloud"Strange Rollers are truly on a roll with
this.
Our latest free download comes courtesy of Bad Habit Muzik & Strange Rollers, 'Change Pace' joins the gap between 140 Jungle & DnB, a transitional temp switching tune perfect for switching from 140-174 in your set, Bad Habit Muzik recently celebrated it's 2 year anniversary along with a string of No1s in the download stores, we would like to thanks for letting us have this track as a free giveaway.
Now for our second free track, we have something rather special, we owe a debt of gratitude to Mark Archer and one of the hardest working and most talented producers in the scene, Strange Rollers. this is a official remix of Nexus 21's classic 'Real Love', check out the original here and please, please, please show some love for this Future Jungle/Breaks rework, don't mind our rather lame 'artwork, you can blame this writer for that, I'm learning the ropes but you must grab this tune and repost, share on social media, its massive!!!!!
Be prepared for the return of one of the scenes most influential labels, Bad Habit Muzik, in the coming months, a whole load of new releases are lined up showcasing both 140, Garage, DnB, Dubstep/Bass & Deep House. Curious-'Sky High/Liquid Light' is due out on the 16th may 2014, you can buy it via this link from the release date and eventually from all good download stores.
'Sky High' is the absolute sound of the summer, rolling breaks and bleepy pads with a combination of deep, melodic and more uptempo strings, its an instant winner, a sure fire repeat play tune!!!
Strange Rollers takes 'Sky High' into hybrid trap/bass/140 territory for yet another of his amazing remix jobs, the man with the musical midas touch just can't go wrong!!!!
Finally the always awesome Pressa takes 'Liquid Light' and puts it through his dubbed out blender to produce a remix full of subtleties, intricacies and layers
Bad Habit Muzik makes a firm staement of intent with this excellent EP, they are well and truly back and you can expect only the best from this ground breaking imprint, its a case of one ear to the ground, some real gems are on the horizon, this being the first of them.
Following on from the epic compilation 'We;re Not Dead: The 3rd Chapter' the latest release on Warehouse Wax is a mammoth free EP consisting of 10 tracks by Vinyl Junkie & Sanxion, from breaks to 140 Jungle to DnB, a wide spectrum of styles is covered, vocal anthems like 'Poison Me, 'Talk To Much' & 'Wages Of Sin', remixes from Gold Dubs & Strange Rollers, this really is a very BIG EP with something for everyone, oh and did we mention its free!?!
Originally released On Held II Ransom last year, Strange Rollers' sterling debut LP can be yours for free or a price of your choice from his bandcamp page , you can read our original review for the album here or if you prefer a short synopsis then we wrote 'What you have hear is 13 tracks of sheer audio awesomeness from one of our favourite producers, you know what to do.......' The LP now comes with 2 previously unreleased bonus tracks so lets not catch you sleeping on this!!!!
To celebrate the milestone of reaching 5k likes on facebook, www.freebreaksblog.com has put together a package of free downloads which include tracks and remixes by Strange Rollers, 601 & Lucas, you can listen via the links below and click on them to get the download links
Introducing the 3rd in the series of excellent EPs from Warehouse Wax showcasing some of the finest artists in the 140 scene. There are 4 tracks here, each reflects the diversity within this sound perfectly, 100me 'In Paradise' flips the formula for the breaks sound with a unique sounding groove that you will keep coming back to, trust me, its incredibly catchy and no doubt has been rocking the dancefloors!!! Radiokillaz 'Burn Babylon' is ragga tinged 140 at its very best with a phat bassline that reminds us of old skool Andy C/RAM Records/True Playaz circa late 90s. Strange Rollers 'Doin The Herbie' fuses funky house sounds with futuristic jungle vibes and to round things up, Sanxion 'Rusty Screwdriver Skanks' is a trademark bass devastating 140 bad boy in that Sanxion style we all know and love.
Strange Rollers have played a massive part in the shaping of the Top
Drawer Digital sound since the beginning but this is their first full
solo EP outing on the label.
The Nerve Endingz EP is a true reflection of where their sound is at
right now, 5 huge tracks of diverse forward thinking Bass Music that
give a nod to the Old Skool but push on forward into the future.
Already gaining XFM support from Eddy Temple Morris ,BBC Introducing
,601 , Outrage ,Brewster B (Kiss FM Au),Billy Bunter,Jay
Cunning,Sappo,Faydz,Vinyl Junkie ,Saxion,Digitally Mashed ,2 Bad Mice
and many more.
For anyone who has been living in a cave for the last three
decades, could you briefly tell us a bit about yourself?
Started DJing in
1991. Played at the first Tribal Gathering, main arena 1993. Started Producing
in around 1995. Started Warehouse Wax in 2003… For more info see my website: www.djvinyljunkie.com
Your roots are in the rave scene of the early 90s, long
after the supposed demise of this scene, you formed Warehouse Wax in 2003, the
first release by yourself and Darkus was a full on 150BPM hardcore tune that
sounded like it came straight out of 1992. What was the reaction at the time to
the label and this first tune?
At first it was
really only the Old Skool crowd from the B2VOS website that really knew about
it. They all loved it and it sparked something off and lots of labels started
to emerge soon after that. Sales wise, it was a gradual thing. Sales were
really slow at first but then picked up and we ended up getting rid of the
first batch and doing a repress.
Fast forward to the present and the label is now known for
supporting the 140/Future Jungle sound, comparatively speaking, how does the
140 sound stand up to the much loved Old Skool?
Well. I love the
Oldskool as you know…. But I love the new stuff equally. The production has
moved on massively but the vibe is different now. There was just something
really raw about the music back then and as the music has evolved and the
production got better, that raw edge has kind of been lost. But I think in this
day and age, the standard of the production has to be of a certain level and
that’s not a bad thing.
Your new release is out now, it’s a who’s who of old skool
legends with Austin & Rachel Wallace on board, the video has reached over
3500 views on you tube, we understand it was a labour of love for you, how did
it all come about?
LOL. Yeah… Well I’ve
been working with Austin on and off for about 17 years so we basically just got
in the studio one day and made a rough backing track. I vaguely knew Rachel as
my mate Sike had done a track with her a few years previous, which ended up
being released on Warehouse Wax. We sent her the track and she liked it. She
wrote the lyrics and recorded the vocal and sent it to us. Me and Austin both
loved it. It was originally just something we done for a Live PA that we were
booked for at Fantazia in Bristol but everyone loved it and lots of people were
saying to us that we should release it… So we did! It took almost a year to
sort everything out but we got there in the end. And yes, it was definitely a
labour of love…
So, do you think you will be doing more videos in the
future?
To be honest, I
really enjoyed doing the video and yes I think we will be doing more. It was a
lot of fun and I think I have got the bug for it now…
Lastly, any final words and shout outs?
I’m not going to name
anyone in particular because I always forget somebody. But would just like to
send out a massive thank you to absolutely everyone that has helped out and got
behind us with promoting this release. I am quite overwhelmed and humbled to be
honest… The amount of support that it has been getting is amazing and I really
appreciate everybody’s help. Of course a massive big up to all the remixers
involved as well. THANK YOU! x
RACHEL WALLACE INTERVIEW
Thanks for taking time to have a chat with the blog, as a
brief intro, tell us a bit about your self
Well I started
making music when I was around 14years old, singing vocals in a r&b band
called Kreuz...after a few years with the group i left then started singing
with Sub Base records...
I then moved to
Germany and recorded a lot of techno/dance music...
I then joined
Stereo Mc's and have been working with them for the last 7 years...in between
touring, recording tracks for the some of the artists you named and others, at
present I'm working on a album with various other artists including Joe nebula
and the love2love Soulsystem from Basel, Switzerland...
Most of us know you from the 2 massive tracks on the seminal
Suburban Base, ‘Tell Me Why’ & ‘I Feel This Way’, how did you link up with
the people at Suburban Base?
I was at my first
rave In lea Valley...dancing on the stage, like you do!! and I bumped into Dan
Donnelly on the stage and he said that's one of his tracks they were playing
and I think I said I'm a singer...and there you go...that's how it all
started!!
You have an amazing voice, what inspired to embark on a
singing career?
Thank you!!! I've
always loved music and singing since I can remember! I've been immersed in all
different types of music since i was very young. My dad was a keyboard player
for Marcia Griffiths and various other bands and my uncle's too, so I've been
going to festivals, gigs ect since I was 12!
Recently you have
appeared on tracks for 100Me and 2 Vinyl Junkie tracks including the current
release ‘Can’t Hold Back’ where you also appear in the highly popular you tube
video, how did you get involved with this tune?
I'm very open to all
kinds of music, if someone sends me a track and I get a vibe then usually I
will record some vocals, and this is how it worked out with the 100me
guys. With Johnny it was kind of similar
but I already knew Austin really well from the Sub base days as he was the
in-house sound engineer!
What do you make of the current 140/Future Jungle Sound?
I'll be honest
with you, there are so many different styles and types of music about, if I
feel it then I like it, it's really that simple. I've just spent 2 days at
Notting Hill carnival listening to all different sound systems.. But
I always ended up at Aba-Shanti-I, this type of dub music takes you to another
level! When you’re just open to music it will touch you and that's music to
me!!
Thanks for taking the time once again, any big ups/shouts
outs to wrap things up?
I would like to
say a big shout out to all who have supported and helped with the release of
this track...and to all music lovers...
Peace & luv,
Rach
Austin & Vinyl Junkie Ft Rachel Wallace-Can't Go Back is out now with remixes by Dom Almond, Sanxion, Cottonmouth, Maximus Baxter & Strange Rollers
Check out the official videos here, now at almost 4k views:
Wishing a happy 4th Of July to our U.S readers, have a great day y'all, here's a roundup of the finest bangers available on trackitdown.net this week, new E.P on the mighty Bassrock Records 'Drop The Bass' features 4 killer cuts from Strange Rollers, IG88, Lethalness & Original Primate, emphasis is on the bass here which will definitely make you rock!!!! On Kode 5 we have a tasty 3 tracker by Counterfeit, wicked DnB rollers with NuSkool sensibilities Finally, the new EP on Held II ransom by D.Trac3d & jay Walker goes in hard with the absolutely banging Trap/140 crossover 'Bad But Good' and 2 killer elctro house and dubstep beasties..... Chart is here where you can listen to clips and get purchasing!!!! https://www.trackitdown.net/playlist/show_public/1013856
USA Legend Dani B (of the Knights of the Turntables) Returns with her beautifully inspired Track "All Believers" Produced by her husband and Hip Hop Legend Lil Rocking G with Strange Rollers on the remix Ritchie brings his usual Magic with a lLTJ Bukem flava but with a hint of future garage to boot...DJ Mag reviewed and a big hit on all the radio stations and clubs worldwide in the Future Jungle Scene...a must and sure fire No.1 hit in its genres..big big tune going down!! Da Boyze Brings the souilful house element to the party by way of an uplifting but still thomping dance floor hit for the terraces and bars of Ibiza this summer..another hit on its way from this talented producer..see you on the dance floors! Bad Habit Fan Page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bad-Habit-Muzik/202794693168109?ref=ts&fref=ts Soundcloud Page - https://soundcloud.com/badhabitmuzik Da Boyze Remix: https://www.trackitdown.net/track/dani-b/all-believers-da-boyze-remix/house/5923659.html
The Imperial Brothers are back on Bad Habit Muzik with a punchy, energetic slice of classic Hip Hop reminiscent of Public Enemy circa late 80's/early 90's, in particular, I love the UFC reference in this tune, believe this kicks like Anderson Silva, GSP and Jon Jones !!!!
Strange Rollers delivers a killer breakbeat house remix with a distinct old skool rave feel to it and to finish things off nicely and put the cherry on the icing, 100me offer up a fantastic 140 tearout take on this banger!!!!
Reaching my first real milestone on my Soundcloud page i hit 100,000 plays today and as a massive thank you to all my supporters and friends here is a free EP, Original mix featured on last years amazing Future Jungle USB Stick (Big Ups Simon Harris) so here you get not only this free but my 2013 remix
Darkness is upon us!!!!!!!!!
Plus Limited time Remix Pack and Remix release possibly available
Share, Blog, Play and enjoy
Released by: Strange Rollers Free Download EP Release date: May 6, 2013
Top Drawer Digital : Future Jungle Expeditions Volume 3
To celebrate the full release of their latest album The Future Jungle Blog have got an exclusive Future Jungle Expeditions mix for you to download , free tracks ,a full review and Interviews with some of the artists involved .
Future Jungle Expeditions Volume 3 - Future Jungle Blog Set by Top Drawer Digital
This, the 3rd instalment of Top Drawer Digital's compilation series 'Future Jungle Expeditions' showcase the versatility of 140-150bpm Future Jungle, continuing in the spirit of its 90's precursor, an array of styles are here for your listening pleasure.
We start thing's off with Lucas' remix of E Lab Rat-Rat Hustle which has strong techno and hip hop leanings as per Lucas' inimitable style, a great half tempo drop with beat boxing samples leads into this continually building atmospheric roller.
Next up is a TDD favourite, Netherlands original Junglist, Bojcot Selectah with ' Winston Tribute ', neatly chopped up breaks with a heavy, hypnotic bassline and intricate pads. A track that will apeal to dubstep and breaks fans alike.
Schoco's 'Sunrise' is ethereal trance like future jungle that will send shivers down your spine and give you goosebumps, a slow burning, driving tune that builds up to an immense finale
RadioKillaZ 'Leatherface' takes a few samples from a well-known horror cult classic and marries it to a bassline reminiscent of seminal DnB anthem 'The Nine' for a dancefloor smasher par excellence, good tongue in cheek fun never sounded so good.
The Rumblist ' Forever Sleep ' is a musical masterpiece, intricate tearout breaks with so many subtle elements that make it a brilliant tune, constant key changes throughout keep this fresh and the basslines are huge, watch your bassbins!!
Perennial favourite of all discerning DJs and fans of future jungle alike, Electrux offers up ' Tau Ceti ', a wonderful combo of bleepy pads and a grimey bassline with skippy amen breaks, more of his consistent greatness.
Lucas & Strange Rollers''100% Pure(Digitally Mashed)' kicks off with a classic speaker rumbling reese bassline before a Irvine Welsh sample kicks in extolling the virtues of the raver's choice of mood enhancement, this track is full of vibes and extremely infectious, it seems that as the track title suggests, tireless veteran DJ of the scene, Digitally Mashed has had a hand in this great tune!!!
Ben Venom makes a welcome TDD return with 'Destroyer', a punchy hardcore breaks/future jungle slammer with gnarly bass and electro/tearout influenced pads, this is seriously heavy!!!!
Eddie Voyager's'Let It Roll' is perhaps the raviest tune on the album, with hip hop vox and a 90's rave style melody running throughout over some super tight and funky drum programing, if this doesn't get you moving, check your pulse!!!
Sanxion's 'Ain't Nothing' takes modern bass music and puts it through a 140 breaks filter with a huge uplifting drop 40 seconds in before introducing some sweet pianos just before the 2 minute mark, what happens next is signature Sanxion twisted bassline madness that is simply irresistible
Final Conflict's'We R Who We R' takes us back to the mid 00's with a modern ravey take on the Nu Skool breaks sound, lovely organ pads and ragga vocals on this bad boy!!!
Vinyl Junkie concludes proceedings with 'SubTropical' which certainly has subs and is indeed very tropical!!!! again, there's just so much going on here and it sounds stunning, trippy bleepy pads, tropical jungle samples, bongos, eerie building melodies and a beastly bassline make for a banger of a tune to put the icing on the cake for Future Jungle Expeditions, an album equally suited as a selection for the clubs and raves as much as a great home listening compilation or indeed, one for your car stereo. Whatever your pleasure, if you've even heard one or two future jungle tracks and you are eager to find out more, make this your first point of call.
Lucas Interview Since the early days
of TDD up to now, what would you say have been the focal points of the label
growing and the sound of future jungle in general?
I think the progression of Top Drawer Digital so far has
been mainly down to the fact that me and Digitally Mashed make a great team.
We do things our own way, not following the pack or worrying
about conforming to what’s expected. We just want to write/play/release forward thinking bass
music within the 140-150 Bpm area unconstricted by rules. As far as Future Jungle goes, yes I’m one of the people who have
pushed to make the tag stick which it seems to have but it means different
things to different people which on a positive note should keep it diverse.
I’m not a Jungle purist myself and am happy with how things
are progressing. It’s a bastardised genre in my opinion with its roots firmly
set in the Old Skool but with no real allegiances to any particular part of it
, 140-150 Bpm Bass and Break Driven music for the current producers to do something
new with.
Personally I’m not
fussed if the term stays , we will just keep progressing and let people call it
what they like.
When putting together
this new compilation, the 3rd in a highly popular series, was there a certain
criteria you looked for?
I do love putting these albums together , My main aim is to
get a good cross section of all the styles I think sit under the Future Jungle
Umbrella within the Top Drawer Digital sound then work them into a track list
so that the album flows as a complete listen rather than just a collection of
tunes.
I’m really happy with how Volume 3 has turned out.
One of the tracks on
the album by Strange Rollers and yourself is entitled '100 Pure (Digitally
Mashed)', listening to it makes me think there must be an interesting anecdote
about how this came together?
I’d been planning a trip to the Strange Rollers Studio for a
while we’ve been involved in many projects together but never actually got
together in the studio to do something. It’s the first time I’ve ever directly
produced a track with anyone , generally I find the production process a very
personal thing. When we eventually locked down the date it turned out that DM
was DJing just down the road the night before so joined up with us for the day.
It was great to catch up properly and the 100% Pure track
came out of it too. DM definitely had some input on it so we wanted to give him
a mention in the title in someway.
Not wanting to put
you on the spot but of the more under the radar producers in this scene, who do
you see as potentially having a big impact in the near future?
I’m good at evading these sort of questions as a rule due to
the pure mass of new talent coming through all the time but if I have to name
one person I see potential in it would be Gav Ley , He has the ability to
become huge in my opinion in whatever style he chooses.
His productions are innovative, clean and powerful and he is
my big tip for the coming year.
And also, EDM is
evolving faster than ever right now, is it still possible to stick to your guns
with a sound or do you see the current 140-150bpm jungle sound also inevitably
evolving?
EDM has always evolved at speed, it’s the nature of the
beast , Do I see the current scene evolving ? it fucking better had ;) Evolve
or Die I say!
I don’t feel the sudden mass worldwide interest in
commercial EDM will really effect the likes of us , were about as underground
as it comes but the spread of The Future Jungle sound internationally does bear
well ,fingers crossed hey !
DM’s doing a tour of the USA , has had mix’s played on FM
station C89.5 in the USA and has a forthcoming mix airing on Kiss FM Australia
so things are looking good.
Lastly, what
direction would you like TDD to go in the future?
Top Drawer Digital will just go with the flow, we’re on a
journey that we have no idea where it’s going and are quite happy to just enjoy
the ride and see what happens.
Here's a full free mix from the host and DJ of The Top Drawer Digital Show, each Tuesday 7-9pm on http://nsbradio.co.uk showcasing tracks from the full Future Jungle Expeditions Series
Digitally Mashed Presents Future Jungle Expeditions Volumes 1-3 by Top Drawer Digital
Final Conflict Interview You've been involved in the breaks scene since 2003, tell
us a little bit about that journey...
Hailing from the Manchester area I was raised on good
music, I originally started out playing Trance but I discovered Nu-Skool breaks
through the seminal night 'Tangled' and never looked back. I promoted for a
night called 'Military Breaks' and played a host of venues including 'The
Pheonix', 'Zumbar' and 'North'. With a move to Leeds in 2004 I was involved
with events at 'Stinkeys Peephouse', 'The Fav' and 'Oceans Eleven'. I then took
a bit of a hiatus to pursue other business ideas but with a move to London in
2008 I was drawn back to the scene (should never have stayed away)
Playing at various venues across the capital I secured my
first residency playing hip hop, breakbeat, garage and dnb, a relatively commercial venue but this, combined with a move into production led to playing
regularly at Londons leading bass music night 'Supatronix' which led to playing
various events with the likes of Rennie Pilgrem, Elite Force, The Freestylers,
Jay Cunning, Pyramid, Jurassik...and even a set at Stanton Sessions with The
Stanton Warriors earlier this year.
Can you share a few thoughts on the current future jungle
sound?
I love it! I've always been a fan of clever percussion,
deep basslines and intelligent riddims and this genre has it all. I love the
diversity you get with Future Jungle, there is something for everybody in there
and means you can take the crowd on a journey through the various guises from
mellow reggae vibes to full on tear-out assaults.
You also run the Ruffneck nights which heavily promote
the 140 sound, what can we expect at a typical event?
Everything from the Future Jungle!, with a bit of Old
Skool thrown in for good measure. It was set up with 'Rennie Pilgrem', who has
always been ahead of the game with all things breakbeat, 'Jay Cunning' of Sub
Slayers who are in my eyes the leading bass music label at the moment and are
banging out some top class 140 non stop and Supatronix boss Jurassik who is one
of Londons biggest breakbeat promoters.
The whole ethos is just to have a good party, to push the
Future Jungle vibe and to showcase up and coming talent in the genre and
basically just go nuts for a few hours, we've created quite a buzz over the
past year or so and have been able to attract the likes of The Freestylers,
Pyramid and Schema to headline and have King Yoof coming up on May the 18th.
Whats the reaction been to 140 Jungle at your events?
Its a great vibe, with its infectious rhythms and deep
basslines it always makes the crowd bounce and it fits with so many genres
(Breakbeat, Dubstep) but has that fresh forward thinking sound and variation,
we've been very lucky in one sense that the Ruffneck events have always been
packed which shows that this is a genre that's going places. Even at the more
commercial venues i play at i drop some Future Jungle and the place goes nuts.
Who inspired you to get involved in breaks and who
inspires you today?
This is a difficult one to answer, I'm a massive Hybrid
fan, back in the day their DJ sets were more Nu-Skool breaks than the
orchestral immense soundscapes they do today, also I'd have to say The Stanton
Warriors and The Plump DJs brought me a lot closer to breakbeat. Nowadays I'd
say im inspired by the likes of Pyramid with there full on tear-outs, 'Toronto
Is Broken' (he's making big waves at just 20 years old) and Resin, love his Old
Skool vibe. But I'm still inspired by the likes of The Prodigy, The Freestylers
and Hybrid and think this comes out in my productions.
Tell us your favourite tune on Future Jungle Expeditions
3
The whole album is a great representation of all things
Future Jungle, they all have their place but if I was to pick one It has to be
Schoco - Sunrise. I love music that involves you and takes you on a journey and
this does just that, i think it sums up the album Future Jungle Expeditions.
Finally, whats coming up production and DJ'ing wise from
yourself and where can we hear more of your sounds?
Production wise expect some more high octane Nu-Jungle
bangers, there's a few in the pipeline im really excited about people hearing,
more to come on Top Draw Digital and Bad Habit Musik and even working with a
singer at the moment to explore the more vocal side so watch this space.
Dj wise there are many more Ruffnecks planned for the
rest of the year, more Supatronix events but what i'm most excited about is the
Bad Habit USA Tour where i'll be playing 'I Love LA' at The Airliner in Los
Angeles on the 21st April, 'Concrete Jungle' in Las Vegas on the 23rd and 'The
Kava Lounge' in San Diago on the 29th with a few radio appearances along the
way on KPFK RADIO Fm and deeprootedradio.com. Future Jungle Worldwide!
Schoco Interview
Hi Dan, tell us a
little about yourself for the uninitiated
Hi, I'm a producer from Fellbach near Stuttgart, South
Germany. I mainly produce future jungle at the moment, but also other styles of
breakbeat music and sometimes Techno.
My tunes and remixes have been released on Quantum
Progression Audio, Boomsha Recordings, Top Drawer Digital, Digital Acetate,
Brainfunktrax and Junglist Manifesto.
And there will shortly be more releases from me on
Boomsha Recordings and Digital Acetate, and some others are in the pipeline…
As a producer, you
have a very unique take on the future jungle sound, very minimal and euphoric,
often you produce between 130-150bpm and many of your tunes are quite techno
influenced, when making tunes, what do you aim to convey to the listener?
That’s very simple: music creates emotions, positive or
negative. If I can touch the listener with my sound and my music creates
positive emotions, I’m happy!
Music has always been very important to me, and I always
wanted to create music on my own. I personally hear a wide range of different
music. And as a producer you are always influenced by your personal taste, but
that is often a more subconscious effect in my opinion. When I start producing
I often have an idea what kind of tune I want to do, but the result is almost
always very different to my plans. Often it’s more like what the sounds make
with me, not what I make with the sounds... and I always keep my productions
very open till the end. Sometimes I change nearly everything on an almost
finished tune, when I’m not 100% happy with it. Another important thing in my
productions is that I always try to give every single sound enough room to
breathe, that’s why they often sound more minimalistic.
As you're
appearing for the 2nd time on TDD for Future Jungle Expeditions 3, whats your
favourite track on the album?
The whole Album is superb! But I Think I have to choose 2
tracks that stand out a bit in my opinion:
The first is RadioKillaz’ Leatherface. It totally sounds
like slow-downed version of Alien Girl from Ed Rush, Optical & Fierce, and
I like that, big tune!
And Forever Sleep from The Rumblist. This is such a huge
sounding and euphoric tune, perfect for the wee hours!
Lets imagine for a
second that I am an alien who's never heard of future jungle, how would you
describe it to me?
It’s very difficult and almost impossible to describe
future jungle without describing the roots of fj, plus there are so many
influences and fj has such a variety of sounds and the boundaries to other genres
are fluid… and I’m not a big fan of classifications to be honest.
But if had to make a definition, I would say it’s a
breakbeat based and bass driven sound between 130 and 150 bpm with a lot of
drums, main influences are all kind of other breakbeat music, and it’s open for
all kind of other influences.
In my opinion, this openness for different influences is
very important to develop fj further and to keep it alive! We shouldn’t start
one of those ‘true’ or ‘real’ debates again...
Lastly, where can
we hear more of your sounds and any last words and shout outs?
Massive shouts and thanx to Dan (Bright Lights), Generic
Bass, Kano (Bay B Kane), Chase (Sound Shifter), Daz Breakz, Lucas, Digitally
Mashed, Dave (Rich Tones), Ali (Visible Sound), Dave (Breakz), Jules (Time
Travel), George (Sir Charge), Ryan (RyKennon), Gav Ley, Ruined Jon, John (Vinyl
Junkie), Ritchie (Strange Rollers), Dennean, David (D-audi), Aitch, Laurence
(DJ L.A.B.), Simon Harris, Otter and everyone I forgot in this list, all others involved
in the future jungle movement and everyone who listens, plays and supports my
sounds! BIG UPZ!!!
If you want to be up to date with my latest tunes,
releases, free downloads etc. you should follow me on
We're sure this must have grabbed your attention as soon as you saw the heading, yes, that's right, Strange Rollers has released a full LP on Held II Ransom, from the chilled vibes of 'Fallen' and 'Heat' to hi octane ravey bangers like 'What U Gonna Do' and 'Dig This' through to the deeper sounds of 'Searchin' and 'Jungle Massive' through to the mindblowing 'Stick Up Kids' taking in 3 decades of rave and throwing in some Hip Hop influences too. What you have hear is 13 tracks of sheer audio awesomeness from one of our favourite producers, you know what to do.......
Get it here, and make sure you do!!!! http://www.trackitdown.net/track/strange-rollers/break-it-down/breaks/5631119.html
Boomsha recs continue to up the ante, this time with a full
10 track album from San Diego original junglist, Sixfootunda featuring remixes
from Visible Sound, Bay B Kane, DJ Aitch & Strange Rollers.
Kicking off with the opening ‘Someone was looking for you’,
a classic jungle roller at 140bpm sampling from one of my favourite films, ‘The
Shining’, this is a bass fuelled monster!!!!
Visible Sound takes the opener down a melodic route with
added female vox, flutes and super phat amens for an intelligent rinse out.
Then we have one of my favourite tracks from the album ‘That’s
what I do’ with it’s eerie jazz like pads and gangster vox sounding like Lou
Reed turned junglist or a junglist Tarantino soundtrack, seriously, this is
sick!!!! BBK maintains the dark vibes on remix duties, going down a more
minimalist 2 stepping route building into bass heavy amen rolling wickedness.
Another fave is ‘Low level frequencies’ with dark menacing
gangster flick style pads, heavy subs as per the track title and loads of great
bleepy bits, DJ Aitch gives this banger his own unique old skool style jungle
re rub.
‘War is in the dance’ at 150bpm has a 94’ vibe to it with sirens,
atmospheric pads and ragga vox, get your lighters out for this bad boy, the
Strange Rollers remix is tight, emphasising the bongos and adding in dark,
spooky pads for a killer re rub.
‘This is a kill’ is a nice melodic future jungle workout with
uplifting, intelligent pads, still keeping the beats n’ bass phat and heavy
though.
We finish with ‘The conscious mind’ with pads reminiscent of
the early Metalheadz era, a voice repeatedly tells us of strange sub conscious experiences,
intersped with huge subs and junglistic vox with some nice bleeps.
This is a great album, essential for all future junglists,
taking all the best elements of 20 years of the sound and putting it together
in 10 dope tracks, you have been formally introduced to the O.G Sixfootunda, we
fully expect you will be coming back for more of those sick beats!!!!
