Moby – The Drum & Bass Remixes [Shogun Audio]

Shogun Audio present a very special release this month as four of their label family go in on remixes for the legendary Moby! Tackling such iconic and recognisable material is both an honour and a daunting challenge, but thankfully each of the artists has risen to that challenge and turned in some really memorable new versions within the D&B template.

Pola & Bryson and Technimatic turn in perhaps the most obvious remixes of the collection, sticking to their strengths and bringing some delicious liquid reworks to the table. The P&B remix of Porcelain in particular is just so lush; all the instantly familiar parts of the original are there, within a crispy framework of rolling breaks, warm bass and bubbling arpeggios.

Fourward also do a commendable job on their remix of Go, with the classic string segment matched by swelling reese basslines before a rough techy drop. Possibly the best of the bunch comes from Icicle though, harnessing the piano and vocals of Natural Blues into one of the wonkiest halftime compositions we’ve heard in a while. The beats and bass are positively lurching on this one, giving a really seasick lilt to the lyrics. Sick!

As with all the best remixes these are instantly recognisable yet entirely distinct from the originals; the Shogun camp have smashed this one. Check out the clips below and hit up your favourite digital outlet to grab the EP now.

Dojo Damager: Icicle & Safire – Suction Cap

Plasma Audio are back with another slamming release and the A side is our pick for this week’s Dojo Damager! Dutch technical wizard Icicle teams up with Ozzy native Safire for a relentless onslaught of scuzzy low end punishment and precise neurofunk drums. The lead melody has an air of the technoid sound pioneered by the likes of Raiden which is just the icing on a big bass-laden cake; tasty business! Check out the clip below and pick this one up from your favourite digital outlet now.

Friction Vs. Volume 2 [Shogun Audio]

Shogun Audio present the second of the Friction Vs. series and this time the label boss has teamed up with Icicle and Technimatic for two fresh new collabs. Crucifix yields a slab of weighty dancefloor neurofunk which won’t win any prizes for innovation but will certainly shake down your bass bins more than adequately.

Floating Frames is the real star here though; insistent, melodic, and euphoric without becoming outright cheese, showing Technimatic’s mastery of the deep liquid roller. Check out the clips below and look for this on vinyl and digital from March 15th.

Icicle – Entropy Live

icicle-LIVEONLY-portrait

Icicle is teaming up with Skittles to take a new project on the road called Entropy Live which promises to be something a bit different from the average DJ set. The man himself describes it as follows:

Entropy Live is based on hardware, controllers, live synthesis, sequencing and analogue mixing. There is no digital audio workstation involved and I cannot simply press play and take a step back. Sonically the show is a re-imagining of my album Entropy with some additional music from my earlier career and live improvisations. I think this show is about technical excellence as much as it is about depth, and Skittles is the embodiment of that sentiment holding a microphone.

Check out a teaser for the tour below and hit up Icicle’s website for tour dates across Europe over the next few months.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCltupm5R6Q

10 Years of Shogun Audio

Friction’s Shogun Audio are celebrating 10 years in style with a massive bundle of new tunes. The 10 Years compilation features brand new beats alongside remixes of some Shogun classics, and comes in a beautiful six piece vinyl box set.

Dancefloor tech is well represented among the new tracks with beats from Icicle & Prolix, Friction, Joe Ford and Fourward all bringing the hard and nasty vibes. There’s also rolling liquid from LSB and Technimatic, a new genre bender from Rockwell and something a little unusual from Spectrasoul in the form of Ben. On the remix front, Spor’s anthemic Aztec gets a pretty hyperactive rework from Calyx & Teebee, Aliz Perez and Spectrasoul get the liquid refix treatment from Calibre and Etherwood respectively, and Fourward turn in a chunky new mix of Dark Days. Last but by no means least, Total Science & S.P.Y bring us a new VIP of another back catalogue fave – 2010’s Gangsta.

As if all of that wasn’t enough, the set also includes a poster, stickers, 3 CDs and a DVD; the CDs provide the new tracks in digital form, a selection of classics from the Shogun back catalogue and a fresh mix from Friction, while the DVD features a 10 Years documentary. There are only 500 copies of the full bundle available so head over to the Shogun Audio store pronto if you want to bag one, or save your wallet and grab the CD or digital package.

Icicle – Problem / The Edge [Shogun Audio]

Icicle teases his forthcoming LP for Shogun Audio with a pair of MC-led beats. Problem combines the unusual style and delivery of Manchester MC Skittles with a heavy combo of kicks, claps and bass growls; the influence of grime and hip-hop clearly flows through the veins of this tune.

Over on the flip The Edge sees Metropolis (better known as one half of Foreign Beggars) lending his vocal weight to a more conventional slice of up front tech D&B; all groove and swagger, and sure to move a dancefloor. Check out the clips (and the rather impressive video for Problem) below and look for the single dropping September 28th, with more news on the album sure to follow.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNNtGFHe-jE]

DNB Dojo Mix Series 07: Double Helix

MixSeries07DoubleHelix_new

The seventh in our exclusive mix series comes from Deep Field Audio alumni and neurofunk wizkid Double Helix who lays down a storming selection of dark, futuristic bangers. There are some tasty new DFA dubs in the mix alongside big tunes from Phace, Noisia, Misanthrop and many more! Stream via Mixcloud below and grab yourself a download from MediaFire.

Thing – Nightfall (Double Helix Remix) [Deep Field Audio, dub]
Rockwell feat. Zero T – Bone Structure [Critical Music]
Bowsar & Wintermute – Augmentation [Dub]
Mefjus & Inside Info – Repentance [Critical Music]
Voima – Epiprocta [Deep Field Audio]
Rawtekk – Photone Recruits (Phace Remix) [Hospital Records]
Black Sun Empire & Noisia – Hideous (Double Helix Remix) [Free DL]
State of Mind & Black Sun Empire – Unconscious [Blackout]
Cern feat. Receptor – Formless [Renegade Hardware]
Misanthrop – Deadlock [Neosignal]
Black Sun Empire & Jade – Deadhouse (Inside Info & Mefjus Remix) [Blackout]
Voima – Apoplexy [Deep Field Audio]
Place 2b & Paimon – Secret Mission [TAM Records]
Icicle – Nausea [Shogun Audio]
Double Helix – Microgravity [Deep Field Audio]
Bowsar – Helios [Modulate Recordings]
Noisia & Icicle – Driftwood [Shogun Audio]
Dub Phizix feat. Fox – Never Been [Critical Music]
Double Helix – Nebula [Deep Field Audio]
Rawtekk – Working Man [Med School Music]
I Am Legion – Dust Descends (Ft. Strange U) [OWSLA]
Double Helix – Muffler [Deep Field Audio]

Q&A – Safire [Plasma Collaborative]

When the debut single from brand new Melbourne crew Plasma Collaborative landed in the inbox we were suitably impressed by not just the tunes but the presentation and ethos of the outfit. To find out more we caught up with Safire about the collective’s ideas and their plans for world domination over the coming year.

DNB Dojo: Plasma Collaborative is clearly a group with many talents and many ambitions, can you tell us a bit about how the collective came together and who does what?

Safire: Plasma Collaborative is a creative platform that allows artists & musicians to express their creative works to the world. We wanted to create something new that isn’t afraid to takes risks in a new environment. We are a group of friends – artists, musicians, audio heads, fashion designers etc. from Melbourne.

The project is driven by Safire & Finna. We’ve been orchestrating tours and events in Australia for almost a decade. Through our events company BBA we’ve been lucky to develop relationships with a lot of great people and has been one of the major factors we’ve been able to get a project like this off the ground, having the global support we do. Our two closest partners are Morph & Tobias J. We’ve always seen so much talent around us and needed a way to bring it all together, so we decided to form the collaborative as this would give us a way to expose our works to the world. The concept was to create a collective made up of various components…A (Record label), Apparel (Products hand made in Australia & locally produced), Digital Media Production (Music Videos, Audio Tutorials, Sample Packs etc.) and a studio facility based in Melbourne. This kind of platform would give us freedom to work within our creative sector…now that it exists the scope is endless moving forward.

DD: The teasers of the first single are sounding enticing, and you’ve netted some big names for a new collective. How did the single come together?

S: We always had an intention for Plasma Audio’s inception to be one of very high standard. We’ve worked with Icicle quite a lot over the years through promoting events in Australia and couldn’t think of a better artist to help us kick off our label, he is very aware & aligned with our direction & intentions. We knew we’d get exactly what wanted, so I hit him up regarding a remix and he suggested I send over something over. Myself, Amoss & Gusto had just finished up a tune which had lyrics referring to ‘Plasma’ and the ‘4th state of matter’ so it made sense for Icey to remix 4th State!

DD: Can we expect some home grown singles from Australian producers in the future?

S: Yes definitely, if the quality is there then for sure. Plasma Audio isn’t necessarily about representing music from the south pacific though. There have been a few labels pop up over the years that have had the concept of exposing music from from a continent that isn’t quite as active in the drum and bass world as some but that isn’t not our focus to be honest. We want to represent production that aligns with our concept & vision regardless of where its from…we just want to have a certain standard representing our sound and through the relationships we’ve developed over the years we’re lucky enough to have access to artists from around the globe from our inception.

DD: You’ve already notched up some fantastic videos for The Upbeats and Subtitles Music. Do you feel the music video is underused or under-represented in the D&B scene?

S: Definitely, I think music videos and media production is very important nowadays. In my opinion is shows extra effort has been put toward a label’s productions. I feel it’s important to show that you’re doing these kinds of things if you want to set yourself apart from the rest in some way. The music videos were created by one of our artists ‘Tobias J who represents his own media production company Defnative. A lot of the credit goes out to him for all the video productions on the Plasma website. He is a talent and expect to see a lot of work from him popping up throughout various audio and visual scenes throughout the world.

DD:  What’s in the pipeline for 2014?

S: We’re currently wrapping up music for 002, and 003. 002 will be another 12″ from artists we’ve worked in the past through BBA. We’re looking at doing an EP for 003 which will feature artists from around the globe. It might not be the case with every single release, but for some of them we plan to include a range of artistic products relative to the release such as limited edition vinyl sleeve, art prints & t-shirts etc.

We have a new range of apparel coming including new t-shirt designs, a jacket and various other apparel products. We’ve also aligned with various audio companies around the globe such as hardware and software developers. We’ll be demo-ing some of their products and making production videos giving insight to new products from boutique analogue equipment to our own audio sample packs including a Plasma Audio Virus TI Soundset & even our own acoustic treatment products. We’re lucky to have a wide range of talent & artists working with us to cover a huge range of fields giving us the opportunity to immerse in various fields.

Music will be at the forefront of our agenda although apparel, digital media, studio work & various other creative avenues will no doubt be providing us with plenty to do over the years to come!


Check out the new Plasma Collab single from Amoss, Safire, Gamma and Icicle below and watch out for the release dropping next month.

Way of the Warrior 2 LP [Shogun Audio]

After the success of 2011’s Way of the Warrior LP, Shogun return with another installment and 12 new tracks spanning the D&B spectrum. DLR brings us soulful vibes with a techy undertone and some superb percussion on Sleep Talk, and Rockwell and Joe Ford vie for position with Fourward and Mefjus to see who can turn in the dirtiest neuro belter!

Elsewhere on the LP Spectrasoul, Total Science and Technimatic serve up some smooth liquid rollers and Friction gets on the remix for Addison Groove and Sam Binga turning in a trap-infused rework of RZOR. Something for D&B heads of all tastes here. Check out the beats below and watch out for the release from November 10th.

Mefjus – Contemporary EP [Critical]

Critical return with an EP of techie beasts from Mefjus, the Austrian pretender to Phace’s neuro-bass throne. The titular track sees the man pairing up with scene stalwart Icicle to create a warped, tearing smasher imbued with skittering, intricate percussion and some ridiculously exacting bassline modulations. Next up comes the riffy basswork and sharp, synthetic snare work of Dissuade, which takes it’s name from the robotic sample pleading “please don’t do that”.

Out into the digital bonus tracks Leakproof adopts a glitchier aesthetic with an angular beat pattern punctuated by stabs of melody, bass and FX to create a track that will keep the listener guessing. Finally Mob Rule builds up with synth swells to a stomping half-time beat with a singing, 8-bit tinged synth section at the very top end giving the tune character.

Check out the beats below and watch out for the full release dropping October 28th on vinyl and digital.