EDJ Interview // Villem

Sample packs are a bit of an ambiguous entity for your general music listener. Firstly and obviously they have little practical use. Secondly your average lay person has little in the way of any real understanding of the nature of the product and its worth to the wider musical spectrum at large. The cynics among you might even ask, 'If artists can't find/generate samples of their own, is their music not of lower artistic integrity?' I suppose taking it back, pretty much every great tune ever conceived from the world of drum and bass is brimming with samples. Whether those samples were intended for use in drum and bass music or not is kind of secondary right?

Well that is the conclusion that EDJ favourite Villem must have come to as he has decided to employ his musical prowess to create and release his own sample pack this week. We took a bit of time to ask him some questions about the whole process and the wider world of music at large.

How did the whole idea for a sample pack come about? What made you want to do it?

Producers of electronic music use samples a lot, I’m always hunting for the next sample I can flip into a tune. So therefore the need for new samples is almost infinite, you can never have enough!

Going through other sample packs I felt that I could bring my own high standards, and create a sample pack that is really strong throughout. I also saw it as a challenge to see what I could come up with, and I’m very pleased with the results.

Who do you see it being of use to? Is it geared towards drum and bass producers or do you think producers of other genres will use it?

It’s aimed at drum & bass producers, especially the beats. But the pads & fx are mostly analogue/outboard and would suit many different genres. There’s also a killer Fender Rhodes folder, which I recorded round a friend’s house in Bristol, shouts to Printers Devil! The sound of a Rhodes is so classic and has been used countless times in dance music from House to Drum & Bass, this folder will be the most versatile and personally is my favourite as I got a chance to play on an instrument I had been dreaming of playing for years.

How long did it actually take you to pull it all together? Has it been evolving over a long period of time or was it consciously and quickly created with the finished product in mind? When do you know when to stop adding to it?

I did some research of other well known sample packs, and then geared mine towards a similar approach. I knew I didn’t want samples in there for the sake of padding out the size of the pack, I wanted it to be high standard, so every sample is clean and weighty.

The process of building it was a lot of fun, I got to create noises without thinking about an overall track. So I could fully focus, and hone in on that noise until it was sounding great. It’s actually made me think about writing music differently. Usually I would be creating noises within a context of a tune, now I’m going to spend more time on sound design to create unique sounds.

What dictated which sounds/samples to include or exclude from the pack? How do you exercise quality control/general direction and feel over something that can be perceived so subjectively by each different user?

I made a sample pack that I would want as a professional or a beginner. There is fully formed sounds which can slot into a tune, or there’s strong basic sounds that lend themselves well to further manipulation.

I always enjoy the sounds of the 90’s and am greatly inspired by that classic era of drum & bass, one of my favourite sample CDs is the Reinforced one from early 90s. That thing is huge, still haven’t got through it, many classic tracks were born out of that CD (Deadline/Gateman). So I was aiming for that style.

Does it not feel like you’ve restricted yourself slightly by giving away lots of sounds that otherwise would have been exclusive to you and your productions?

Not at all, all these sounds were created specifically for the sample pack. I’ve taken a month off from writing music to dedicate myself to the sample pack, mainly to stop me from starting new tunes with the new samples!

How easy is it for you to recognise your own samples in the work of others when it starts getting used? Is that something you will be conscious of from now on? How will it affect your own productions in terms of making them unique from the overall feel and aesthetic of the sample pack?

You can give someone a sample pack and ask them to write a tune, and then give that same pack to someone else and the results will be totally different. The samples are a great building block but the unique take on arrangement and processing will always take the samples in the direction of the artists’ vision.

With that in mind I won’t feel that this will affect my own productions at all, yep there might be a tune released which uses one of my beats as the main break, but I’ll be flattered more than concerned.

Does it create a different state of mind when listening to the work of your peers knowing that they may be using your samples? A kind of higher state, knowing that you may have indirectly had a hand in the creation of somebody else’s music?

That’s a pretty deep question! For me drum & bass is all about samples, I’ve sampled my heroes and they sampled their heroes before that, for me its the evolution forward with those samples that count.

You’re releasing this independently. Do you think that not having a record label or a recognised brand behind it will have much of an impact on it’s success or is that not much of a concern for you? Is success measured by more than just how many units you shift?

Certainly a concern, I wish this to be as successful as possible and reach out to as many producers as possible, in the hope to inspire them to create new music. Life is about creation, the more people creating, and the less people destroying the better. If I can be involved in helping people create then that's a beautiful thing.

Has that freedom of self releasing given you a bit of a taste for more self releases for your own tunes and setting up a label? It seems to be the done thing for established producers nowadays.

Its been a life long dream to have my own label, its the ultimate goal to be able to have creative control of the whole thing. I think most electronic producers have a certain element of control freak in them that desire to hone every step, to create their own vision.

While we’ve got you, what else have you got in the pipeline, release wise?

Just about to drop is Mako & Villem - Whatever Whatever (Ft Fields) on Warm Communications, then a summer roller 12” on Samurai Red Seal with Mcleod, details to follow shortly, excited about that one.

Other releases that are getting ready with Metalheadz, CIA, Samurai, Utopia, V Records, Dispatch.

Any shouts, mentions, etc?

Shouts to everyone that knows!

From a listeners point of view, I always like hearing the creators' own perception of the samples they are trying to get people to invest in. Great then that Villem has produced four short demos using the sample pack. There are also tutorials floating around on Youtube but if I'm honest they went over my head a little bit.

Villem Drum and Bass Sample Pack volume one is out now from http://villemmusic.com/

12" of the Week // Calibre - Spill

Much like the Felix K album, our pick of two weeks ago, anybody who keeps half an eye on this blog will have spotted this one coming a mile off as well. In a week of impeccably high quality releases from ASC, Stray and Alix Perez, there was never really any question for me, which album would be getting my vote for 12" of the Week.

For a while a few years back, a Calibre album became something of an annual ritual, often precluded by his Sun and Bass set of equally legendry acclaim, you knew it would be something special to look forward to. This was certainly the case with his last two albums and with a great deal of speculation, thoughts were that this one would be no different. But September came and went, a set yes, but no album. The amount of times I speculated over anonymous tracks in sets downloaded from various Calibre affiliates was probably no less reflective of the general level of anticipation building in the wider world of drum and bass lovers. It was only really when EDJ interviewed Calibre back in March of this year that we really got any confirmation of what we were to expect. So this week, what feels like much longer but is actually only 20 months since his last full studio album, 'Spill' drops.

From the aforementioned interview it was gathered that this album, in the most part was written on a remote island off the west coast of Ireland. With Atlantic storms battering the walls, you can almost feel the wind rushing through the chimes of 'Close to Me' or window frames shaking to the low end rumble of 'Start Again'. Quite whether this is how the writing process panned out is anybody's guess. What 'Spill' offers overall, is a similarly broad cross-section of Calibre's repertoire of sound that we saw on his last effort, 'Condition'. It doesn't all conjure images of an angered Irishman alone with his thoughts in the comparative wilderness. As probably expected, there is melancholy to be found though. Underneath the vocals of 'Don't Turn on Me' and 'Wilderness', the minor keys and drawing strings, respectively hint towards a sullen reclusion that most people will rightly or wrongly assimilate with their creator. Some tunes are actually more upbeat than even I expected. The way the plectrum dances over the fret on 'Running' gives it an almost Balearic feel. If it wasn't for the strings and Calibre's self procured vocal, you might not even recognise it as his work.

As with any Calibre album it flows incredibly well as a set piece but there are a few highlights that stand out from the general fluidity of the whole package. 'Think On' has a delicacy triggered by breaks instantly recognisable to all Calibre fans but complimented by a chord structure, simple and beautiful that just proves how much you can get from a perfectly balanced tune, uncluttered and dripping with emotion. This is that tune. 'Key Flicks' isn't too dissimilar but injects slightly more energy into proceedings with a bit more punch at the low end. The playful keys throughout take the lead again and go to prove (if more were needed), that you don't have to process everything beyond recognition to get it to stand up in today's world of infinite sonic possibility. Same can be said for 'Paragov' another from the more rolling school of Calibre productions. A slightly more sinister aesthetic in the breaks and drums but more prominent keys and another of Calibre's own vocal efforts mean it isn't in danger of coming across as one dimensional with two other very similar productions on the same album. In fact it's quite bold and refreshing for somebody to stick their neck out and say, 'yes all three of these tunes are worthy for my album' there are some out there who would favour trying to show their diversity rather than trusting the intrinsic value in what they do best.

So, was it worth the wait? Well, when you consider that the wait in question was only eight months longer than the previous wait and to boot we have another Shelf Life album coming in the not too distant future, I would say yes, it definitely was worth the wait. I don't doubt that like all Calibre albums, it will grow on me and ferment over time like all good albums should. It's what I look forward to most about it. It's a pleasure less experienced in drum and bass than most other forms of contemporary music so when it does come round we must relish in it.

Out now at Surus with full artwork from Calibre himself.

As a little bonus to those of you who have made it this far, I thought I would upload the interview we did earlier in the year so that you can hear the man himself talk about the album, the creative process and his plans for the next year or so.

12" of the Week // Emperor - Begin EP

We posted earlier about one of the leaders of the new school and today's '12 of the Week' kind of follows on with that theme quite aptly (albeit purely by chance).

Much like our subject of earlier, young Emperor has been blessed with the opportunity to release on some of drum and bass's most sought after labels. His rapid rise to prominence has seen his productions picked up by Symmetry, Neosignal and Kasra's Critical music group. Quite a resume already! The latter of those three hallmarks seems to have invested the most, with a twelve on Modulations last year, followed by a superb remix of Enei's seminal 'One Chance' and now, this week, we are treated to a full EP's worth of Emperor goodness.

I say EP, only two tracks make it to wax. The other three are digital only, which I was a touch disappointed about when I realised but I'm sure you as much as I do, realise that you can't have everything these days when it comes to black plastic. Of those two tracks that were pressed, the lead features vocal offerings from previous Critical collaborator, Georgia Yates. 'Begin' thunders along in a semi-erotic, tech-funk, work-out kind of way. It's not entirely dominated by the vocal but you get the impression that it's the main reason for the track taking the lead on the EP. It's really all about the B side for me though. In a time when there is a certain sympathy in the new wave for all things jungle, it's great to see that penchant taken one step further and harking back to the Bristol sounds of slightly later in our music's history. No more evident is this within the throbbing double bass plucks of 'She Said' which are sonically complimented by somewhat less organic sounding sub bass notes and smoothed over with float-away pads that drift in and out of the mix taking the edge off of an otherwise pretty tough number. It's cliche to say it but you just know that this track is going to cause serious damage on any dance floor that it touches. And why the hell shouldn't it, it's exactly what dnb needs every now and then. A track that traverses the divide between the discerning and the dance-floor foraging. Not that those two groups are mutually exclusive. In fact, it's tracks like this that ensure they are not.

Of the digital offerings there isn't a great deal to choose between them. Offering three digital only tracks is reasonably rare these days but I still can't shake the stigma when there are vinyl offerings alongside them. When label owners talk about their love for vinyl and wanting to preserve the format, you can't help thinking that anything not committed to wax just isn't quite as good. Neither 'Solar' or 'Radar' are hugely penetrative, both sonically well produced and everything but both just lacking that je ne sais quoi that the first two tracks have over them. 'Precursor', the final offering is a bit more interesting with a low end rumble and glitch laden top end that harks back to the experimental potential seen on the aforementioned Enei remix. That would have been my preference here, to see the digital only tracks be a bit more experimental, in either their arrangement or sound palette.

I don't want to dwell on that too much though. It's easy to forget that this is guy still finding his feet to an extent. I suppose if you come into the game as a fully fledged, flawless artist at 19 or whatever, where else is there to go. The 'Begin' EP as a whole is a great testament to the potential that Emperor has to offer and with the much heralded Stray 10" on Modulations dropping next week, sees the start of a fruitful fortnight for one of dnb's brightest entities.

Out now at Surus.

Clarity // FabricLive x Samurai Mix



OK, so the savvy amongst you may already have this, but seeing as I only just got round the listening this weekend I feel compelled to post it up as this mix is firing! Dark, industrial sounds from one of the leaders of the new-skool, Clarity, as promotion for the Samurai label's inaugural appearance at Fabric, hosting room 3 on 31st May. No tracklisting for this at the moment which is a shame, the train-spotter in me needs to know what most of these tunes are, absolutely serious selection...

There's an interview + ticket info for the night over at the Fabric blog too.




http://soundcloud.com/claritymusik

EDJ Guest Mix Vol. 25 // Pattern

EDJ Guest mix Vol. 25 - Pattern

We all know Manchester is a hotbed of contemporary electronic musical talent right now. Talent that spreads itself comfortably across the divides of previously genre binding constrictions. The latest affiliate of these ranks is Pattern. Also known as Bane, those local to Manchester may know him from cross-counter encounters at Eastern Bloc Records. He's certainly struck a chord with EDJ favourite and general Manc legend Marcus Intalex who has hand-picked him as a resident at Soul:tion's regular nights up north under his Bane alias. The latest of those is due at the end of this month and sees Calibre rolling out a two hour set to launch his forthcoming album, which if you haven't heard, is rather highly anticipated.

In his own words, the Pattern Alias is designed to 'bring a layered, textured, smooth feel without losing the punch and grit for the dance floor.' Sounds good. The debut release, 'Draft', drops on Re:Alignment Records next week and does pretty much exactly that. Still requires a slightly more open mind to be appreciated on the dance floor if you ask me but that's definitely not something to be discouraged in this day and age. There's also a rather tasty, pulsating, 130ish remix from AnD, another product of Manchester's ever evolving creative core.

Great then that Pattern has decided to put together a guest mix for us. Refreshingly light on self promotion in favour of showcasing a highly adept selection of tunes old and new. Great to see a particular favourite in Fracture and Neptune's 'Colemanism', their personal ode to the Amen break and the drummer that played it on the original Winstons recording, GT Coleman. Check out the full tracklisting below and head on over to our Official FM page for the download/stream/whatever.

1. Blocks & Escher - Sagan - Narratives
2. Sam KDC - Sepia - Samurai
3. ENA - Quiet Man - Brainz Recordings
4. Photek - Ni Ten Ichi Ryi (Two Swords Technique) - Science
5. Panic Girl - Blue Lights (dBridge Don't Panic Mix) - Shadybrain Music
6. Roni Size / Reprazent - Share The Fall (Grooverider's Jeep Style Mix) - Talkin' Loud
7. Ruffhouse - Pellet - Alignment
8. Overlook - Three Shards - Narratives
9. Audical - Maya - Forthcoming on Imprint
10. Seba & Paradox - Red Tears - Secret Operations
11. Breakage - Come Back - Bassbin
12. Lower Depths - Digital - Photek Productions
13. ASC - Bad Dreams (Sam KDC Re-Think) - Download Bundle
14. Pattern - Draft - Re:Alignment
15. Commix - Everything - Metalheadz
16. dBridge - Cornered - Metalheadz
17. Breakage feat Threshold - If - Digital Soundboy
18. Earl Grey - Winter Symptoms - Free Self Released
19. Fracture & Neptune - Colemanism - Outsider
20. Cern - Raven Row - Horizons Music
21. Detail - Outrage - Med School
22. Adam F - Metropolis (Doc Scott remix)



http://soundcloud.com/pattern

A Guy Called Gerald // The Old Jungle Mix


The legendary A Guy Called Gerald dropping some serious knowledge in this almost 3 hour old-skool jungle mix - none of your bog standard obvious cuts here (well, ok there are a few) but mainly its forgotten/obscure gems from the man's no doubt gargantuan record collection. A must for all true jungle heads.



Download

Tracklisting:
Noise Factory - Breakage #4
Dillinja - The Angels Fell
Dillinja - Baby Your
A-Zone - Calling All The People
Dance Conspiracy - Dub War
Brainkillers - Loving Part 1 (tease)
Cutty Ranks - Armed & Dangerous (Beef Base Mix)
Adam F - Circles
DJ Ileagle - Crazy
?? - ??
Cool Hand Flex - Melody Madness
Alex Reece - Basic Principles
Andy C - Cool Down
DJ SS - Hot Steppers Vol. 1 (tease)
Andy C - Roll On
?? - ??
Aquarius - Drift To The Centre
Dillinja - Untitled (Test |2|)
Dillinja - Rastafari (Majestic Bassline A1)
Dillinja - Brutal Bass
Asend & Ultravibe - What Kind of World
Asylum - Da Base II Dark (Mickey Finn VIP)
Cutty Ranks - Armed & Dangerous (G-Mix Full Vocal)
Moby - Feeling So Real (Ray Keith Remix)
DJ Crystl - The Dark Crystl
Badman - War In 94
Desired State - Beyond Bass
Wax Doctor - ??
DJ Red Alert & Mike Slammer - Original Bad Boy
Dillinja & Berty B - Lionheart
Bizzy B & D Lux - Take A Deep Breath
Da Intalex - What Ya Gonna Do
Bizzy B & Equinox - The Brain Records Crew ??
Bizzy B - 16 Track Ting
DJ Mayhem - Inesse
Bizzy B - Bad Boy
Bizzy B - Twisted Mentasm
Blackman - Bastards
Dillinja - Jah Know Ya Big
Blackstar - Alaska Ride (ft. Tenor Fly)
Wax Doctor? - ??
DJ SS - United
Bodysnatch - Euphony (Just 4 You London)
Deep Blue - The Helicopter Tune
Dillinja - Sovereign Melody
Boogie Times Tribe - The Dark Stranger (Origin Unknown Remix)
DJ Crystl - Deep Space
Brainkillers - Screwface
Desired State - Goes Around (Remix)
Capone - Massive
Carlito - Heaven
?? - ??

http://soundcloud.com/aguycalledgerald