Category Archives: 24Seven

24Seven, Review, Video Games, Writing

Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3

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Could anyone possibly dislike a game that has Frankenfurter travel back in time and kill Einstein, then return to his time to find his Russia gloriously populated by hot, busty women in tight plastic outfits, only to be thwarted by an ex-MTV soft porn star, a host of psionic school girls and the Hoff? No, I thought not.

This is Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, the third sequel to the prequel of the Command and Conquer franchise… Errr, yes, it’s rather confusing if you don’t know the history of the games, but the basic premise is the Nazi’s never rose to power in Germany, allowing Russia to dominate Europe, much to the dismay of the Allies. In the future, the Russians become the Brotherhood of Nod, and the Allies the GDF which is what Command and Conquer deals with. The Red Alert series deals with the Russians and the Allies. Simple, right? Well, to make things a bit more complicated, Red Alert 3 introduces a new faction, the Japanese, who have mech robots and the aforementioned psionic schoolgirls.

But it doesn’t really matter if you don’t know the history of the franchise, as the premise of this edition is explained in glorious full action cutscenes throughout the game. Featuring real actors including J. K Simmons, Jenny McCarthy, Gerge Takei, David Hasslehoff and Tim Curry, these are worth the price of entry alone. Sure, it’s B-Grade, but it’s the best kind of B-Grade, being funny and entertaining, and they really set the vibe of the game incredibly well.

The game never takes itself too seriously, and gameplay wise is pretty much a traditional Real Time Strategy – it’s faster paced and relies a more on the rock/paper/scissor dynamic than being a matter of building your forces and “zerg” rushing your opponent. The xbox controller does it’s best to match a mouse and keyboard, although I did find myself wishing for them on more than a few occasions, but the online play is smoother than PC could ever be.

If you’ve liked the previous Red Alert games, then this is pretty much the same, just with more to see and do. If you’ve never played these games, you’re missing out on some of the best B-Grade action this side of the 90s.

3.5 Stars

24Seven, Interview, Music, Writing

The Herd

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What’s been happening with the Herd lately? What have you been doing?
Hanging out on the Central Coast of NSW writing another album, playing computer games and eating Rok Poshtya’s (our bass player) ill cooking (that means Good cooking, Mum!). Plus Sulo, our resident Italian is showing us a thing or two about pasta. It’s great times.

When’s the next album going to drop?
Sometime in 2008.

How is Elefant Traks doing?
It’s cruising along nicely – we have a good position to unleash new artists and promote our current crop of fine young cannibals.

Who are the newest signings?
The Tongue – he is a very talented vocalist whose album will be released in 2007.

Is it hard being an indie label in Australia?
It’s not hard unless your measurement for success is loads of money. If you want loads of money I suggest you become an arms dealer or a corporate executive. We have a lot of passion for these little records we put out and that probably results in them going further than your average indie release.

How do you see the direction of Aussie hiphop at the moment?
Getting plump, watching TV and not going out much. Perhaps it’s too much takeaway food and beer. Probably could lose the extra tyre lurking in the beer gut.

Do you see Aussie hiphop having appeal beyond our borders?
Of course, the powers that be have delayed the growth of localised forms of music many times before, by not reading the possibilities that the future holds. But that’s fine – it allows for more development and more avenues for the artists that will command international attention to break through. Either that or you accept that hip hop will only ever come from America – I think a lot of Australians (and people around the world) would object to that status quo.

Are you looking to reach a wider audience, or are you content with this one?
Central to our successes thus far is the conviction to pursue our own ideas rather than trying to fit into mainstream radio’s framework, for example. It’s meant that we haven’t simply blown up at any point, but we’ve got a loyal live following and we sell a lot of records for an indie band. Without sounding like a wanker, at least our music has a sincerity there rather than a contrived attempt at reaching more people.

You guys seem to tour a lot. What’s your favourite place to play?
Byron Bay is always good, Melbourne is a vibrant place, Adelaide is the one place we haven’t gone that often (maybe 6 or 8 times in the last 5 years). I love crossing the Nullarbor though – it’s incredible from the sky.


Do you like the big festivals, or do you prefer more intimate surrounds when performing?
Intimate gigs are great – more personal and much more interesting shows. Festivals can be great if there are no technical problems, because everything is so quick. Live music is where it’s at though – there’s no way you can get the same kind of energy in CDs and recorded music. In the live context, it’s more exciting, more lively and memorable.
Your cover of John Schumann’s “I Was Only 19” was well received – do you know if sales improve for Redgum since its release?
I have no idea, particularly as John is involved in numerous other projects like ‘Lawson’ which is touring around the nation and playing festivals etc.

Would you consider doing another iconic Australian song as a hiphop song – maybe an Oils song perhaps? Do you think Peter Garrett would sing at a BDO with you?
Peter Garrett has been very supportive of us and his praise has definitely been higher up on our scale of compliments – but could you imagine his dancing in our show? We’d all out-awkward-dance each other.

Do you ever feel that through your music you’re just preaching to the perverted? For example, have you met any Young Liberals who are fans?
Funnily enough yes, because people aren’t neatly folded into a personality box without some creases. This doesn’t mean that we appreciate them – I couldn’t imagine anything sadder than a young liberal aspiring to the sorts of things John Howard stands for. Humans are contradictory characters and we see our music as another form of dialogue that gets thrown into the general mix. I think it’s fairly common for our audience to agree with us on some levels and then have points of difference on others – even if it’s just small things. At the same time, I think the majority of these people are pleased that we’re discussing this stuff in a musical context because for some reason, not many bands do.

Who do you think will win the next election? More importantly, do you really think it will have any kind of positive impact on Australia and our position in the world?
This is too long a question to ask in a hurry, as the Liberals are far too sophisticated to allow a newcomer to snatch their power – and Rudd needs to walk such a fine line pleasing the various conflicting constituencies. It’s too close to call – but at least it is close. This time last year there was no hope of dislodging the Coalition. The danger in the excitement of it being a contest, is the haste in painting Rudd as a saviour – which he most definitely is not – which might come back to bite him if any mud sticks.

24Seven, Interview, Writing

Breakfastaz

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Here’s a cautionary tale for all you producers out there. I’m talking to Merf from the Breakfastaz, who are about to hit Australia on their 3rd tour in as many years, and he tells me the kind of story nightmares are made of. “It was the first Bank Holiday of the year and we had just moved into our new studio and spent two months setting the place up. We actually had our office and tech room in the men’s toilets,” he chuckles, “because we had an extra set, so we dismantled them and put computers and stuff in there and it must have got a little too hot or something because three of our fucking hardrives just popped and we lost a shit load of stuff!” OUCH!

“When it happened we were all like FUCK! We couldn’t believe it. I didn’t believe we couldn’t get the data back, I was like ‘nah, we’ll be fine, we’ll get it all back’ and as the weeks ticked on it was like ‘oooh shit, maybe we won’t get it back!’ he laughs nervously. And although it was a pain in the arse for them, they’re pretty optimistic about the whole ordeal. “To be honest it hasn’t really set us back too much as yet. The next single we were planning was on that harddrive so that would have come out around October, but if we don’t have it back by then we’ll probably have to re-write it which will be the first time it would have really fucked us.”

“To be honest there’s two ways of looking at it – either it’s a major disaster or it’s something positive. We’ve got all our samples and programs and plugins on other computers so we can still do our work and do some new stuff, and in some kind of cathartic, Buddhist kind of way we’re like burning the past and we’ve got a fresh start and can turn over a new leaf,” he laughs again. “We’ve still very much got plans to crank out some two or three more singles on Breakfast Club by the end of the year, and then try and put something big together for around the start of 2008.”

Yes, a Breakfastaz album is on the cards! “It’s something that maybe we should have done already,” he says diplomatically. “I guess we’ve been a bit lazy but because we’ve changed labels every two or three singles and never found one company we were really comfortable doing it for. Now that we’ve got our own label we can do it ourselves. If some other bigger label wants to help out then fine.”

But don’t take this as a 100% confirmation. Their label is still fairly young, and the boys themselves are taking stock of the industry as it stands, deciding what to do. “It’s kind of tricky with the beatport and trackitdown kind of stuff,” Merf explains, “because punters are buying individual songs. Chances are if you put out a full album people are just going to download the songs they like anyway so it’s kind of confusing figuring out if it’s even worth doing and how useful it is, bar having to say ‘we’ve put out an album'”.

Their new label, The Breakfast Club, has the three of them excited and optimistic. Forming good relationships with distributors and promotion companies, the boys are looking forward to releasing their second single ‘Girls, Money, Drink & Drugs’. “It just makes more sense to run your own record label,” he says, “rather than giving away half of your tunes to someone just so they can do a little bit of the organisational work. It’s not that hard running an underground record label… I say at his point after only having done it for a few months,” he chortles. “I might be eating my words in six months time!”

For this years tour down under, Merf and Gav will be gracing us as the Breakfastaz, leaving Froe to hold the fort back home. If you’ve never seen the Breakfastaz, never heard their sound, you’re missing out because their sets are full of energy and they have the big dancefloor party sound similar to the Freestylers, with a lot more enthusiasm because they’re not a bunch of old farts like Matt and Aston. They promise a jumping set with new stuff from artists like Far Too Loud, Control Z, the Freestylers and of course, their own stuff; providing their hard drive doesn’t give out on them again.

24Seven, Interview, Music, Writing

Andy C

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Drum and Bass is dead. So says the UK music press every few years. However, it’s a sentiment that gets a chuckle when I mention it to Andy C, one of the biggest drum and bass DJs in the world. Not only has he been voted the no 1 drum and bass DJ in the world for the last 6 years, he’s a regular in all the magazine ‘best DJ’ polls. “Those journos were ever coming out on the road with us,” he says, “and never saw what the DJs were seeing – the packed clubs and vibe of the crowd. And the facts that one label, well actually a few labels, are still going strong in 2007, show them up time and again.”

The label he is talking about is his own – Ram Records. Initially funded by a kindly uncle, the record label has risen to be one of the most successful labels in the dance music scene. “The biggest accomplishment is we’re about to celebrate 15 years. We started in 1992 and we’ve gone so far, done so many things and gone to many places, and it’s great that all the crew here and all the artists we’ve signed up are still going strong and still feeling a hunger for the scene.”

Drum and bass’s relevance and longevity comes down to the people involved. “Everyone within the scene is working hard, everyone is discovering new acts and doing their best when they DJ to the crowds. I’ve been out to lots of different music shows and I’ve never seen music touch people like drum and bass does,” he says. “It has never overtly relied on commercial success. It’s very hardcore, and the people who come out and feel the vibe are hooked in. There’s a massive internet following, regular clubs around the UK and it relies on its self really. I think that keeps it healthy.”

Andy’s accolades are well deserved. Every performance Andy C has done in Adelaide is talked about in glowing terms. In fact, read any of the reviews of Andy C and you’ll get the notion that Andy kills it every time, hence acquiring the nickname “the Executioner”. One review from Japan, a place not really known for its big drum and bass scene, likens Andy to Neo from the Matrix, in total command of the people on the dance floor.
I was wondering if the accolade’s he received have given him a big head at all. But Andy is quite humble about it. “The accolades are wonderful, but for me it’s more the drug of going out and playing records to people. Like right now I’m enjoying a couple of weekends off before I come to Australia but I’m just sitting around wondering what I’m gonna do! I’m already dying to get back on the decks really!” he chuckles. “If the accolades come then that’s all good, but fundamentally for me it’s all about being out there, being part of something that’s so loved around the world.”

Part of Andy’s appeal is his devotion to the dance floor and turntables. “For me it’s all about records, decks, vinyl and dubplates. It suits my style of DJing and it’s what I’m the most comfortable with. It’s all about the visual aspect, I love whacking the record down, slamming the needle onto it, seeing the grooves and knowing where to cue from.” The crowd feeds off his energy behind the decks, and even when he’s composing he’s trying to capture the vibe of the dance floor. “You look out to the crowd and get lifted by their energy and want to capture that connection with the people,” he says of making music.

Speaking of composing music, whilst Andy’s done more than enough tunes to release more than a few albums, he’s yet to do a fully fledged artist album. “Watch this space!” he laughs when I mention it. “I’ve got a few ideas down, some tracks done, but we’ll see how it goes. Fingers crossed for 2007!” He laughs again.

24Seven, Interview, Music, Writing

Vents

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Added to the Block Party bill mere months after being signed to Obese, Vents is the latest signing from South Australia’s seemingly massive pool of hiphop talent. With an album dropping shortly, and the tour about to commence, Vents is excited about his future.

Being pretty tight with the Certified Wise crew, but never inducted officially, “well not to my knowledge,” Vent laughingly tells me how he got into hiphop. “Trials (from the Funkoars) was the entry point… that sounds so suss man!” he laughs. “The first big show was Culture Kings in 2000, and that set the ball rolling. There weren’t too many people our age going to hiphop shows back then, and I just got to know them through rhyming at freestyle events and that.”

Through these associations, and his natural talents, he got onto Obese Records as their latest signing. “The Funkoars’ manager gave a copy of the raw, unfinished album to Pegz (current owner of Obese) and he really liked it and wanted to put me on board. It was really that simple!” he grins. “And I’m really happy. From my standpoint I can’t fuck this up now,” he chuckles again. “I’ve got the record, I’ve got the backing, I’ve got the tour. I know that the Funkoars are really happy with them, and they done heaps for the Hilltops.” Production was helped out by the Oars, and Suffa of the Hilltop Hoods and others such as Robbie Balboa from Queensland and Morta from Clandestine guest on the album.

Vents is uncharacteristically shy for an artist when describing his own music. “I think it’s hard critiquing your own music, I think it sounds a bit arrogant and I don’t want to sound like an asshole,” he smirks, “but I guess I’d call it aggressive. I try and give people a buzz and make them take something away from it.” Aggressive isn’t usually a word associated with Aussie hiphop, and guessing there’s more behind his statement, I ask him about his influences. “I’ve listened to metal since I was about 6. I like thrashy metal, old Metallica, Sepultura, late 80s early 90s stuff with lyrics that have meaning. It gives me a rush – it’s real fast and pounds in your head, you know? I’m not really into black metal or death metal from Norway,” he chuckles.

Vents approach to music, either his own and the stuff he listens to, is that good music transcends genres. “I look for music that gives me a buzz, that’s original and creative and energetic, and when people follow formulas you don’t really get that buzz anymore. I got into Public Enemy, Rakim, people who just sounded different and sounded like they had their heart in it,” he says. “As a teenager I listened to only hiphop, and it gets boring after you hear everything. If you go away and listen to metal or punk or whatever, you come back to hiphop and you feel refreshed.”

“There’s a lot more people making hiphop now compared to when I was 16 or 17,” Vents says of when he first started getting into it compared to now, “and I think that maybe the music has gotten worse since it’s become more accessible – more people are working to formulas and originality is lacking. But it’s not just hiphop – I think that anything that gets popular there’s maybe 20% that is good and the rest shit. I don’t try and follow a formula which most new guys seem to do, and to me good music transcends genres so I try to appeal to outside the hiphop realm without selling out, if you know what I mean.”

Vents is excited to be on tour with the Obese crew, looking forward to meeting those he hasn’t met, as well as those he considers friends and mentors. “This is my first tour of Australia,” he says excitedly “I’ve been to Melbourne and Perth with the Funkoars. I’ve never been to Sydney and am keen to check that out, and went to Hobart when I was like 12 or something. I don’t know how much time we’ll get to look around, but I’m looking forward to it.”

24Seven, Interview, Music, Writing

The Hilltop Hoods – MC Pressure

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The Hilltop Hoods began the hard road to fame a good 10 years ago, and have gone from strength to strength, winning awards, obtaining platinum albums, playing around the country, performing for a television audience, as well as opening the doors for more Aussie hiphop artists to jump in the spotlight and shine. But their laid back manner and modest nature contradicts their dedication to their art.

After performing with a string quartet at the ARIAs, the band decided they wanted to do something a little different from the norm. Possibly inspired by the Simpson’s Lollapoolza episode where, in a stoned haze Cyprus Hill decide to play with the Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hilltop Hoods have decided to record the Hard Road with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, and release it as the Hard Road Restrung.

“We were approached by the ASO to do some work with them over a year ago,” Pressure explains, “but due to time constraints we had to turn them down, but that’s where the idea came from originally to use a String Quartet. So instead of us doing their project, we offered ours to them.” They decided to use a string quartet for their ARIA performance to give their fans and the wider television audience something different.

“We had a local (Adelaide) guy who works for the ASO, Jamie Messenger, to compose a score for ‘The Hard Road’ for us to perform just with a string quartet. We were really happy with his work, and got him to compose scores for the rest of ‘The Hard Road’ album for a String Quartet and we took it on tour over the New Year break. That went really well, so we got Jamie to re-score it for a 32-piece orchestra for an album.”

Well, that answers “how”, but what I really wanted to know was why? Why did the Hilltop Hoods, who are probably the last people you’d expect to form a union with any kind of orchestra, do a Metallica and record their album with one? Have they gone mad? “This is something we wanted to do ourselves as artists, from an artistic perspective, just to branch out and try something different for the remix album, but we’re going to go back to making straight up hiphop after this,” Pressure reassure me.

I wondered if there was any special preparation they do with the orchestra for their one off show that launches the album. “Being that the people who play for the ASO are all professional musicians – they play 40 to 50 hours a week – we’re only doing one rehearsal with them because that’s all it takes,” he explains. “They take the sheet music and take it home and learn it off by heart. We get together the day before for a dress rehearsal and take it from there.” But he quickly qualifies it with, “We (the Hilltops) rehearse our side of things, plan it and put it all together well beforehand, but we only get one dress rehearsal with the orchestra.”

Pressure is aware that there will be some resistance to the show. “There will be some people who will turn their nose up at it and it’s not going to be their thing,” he says, “but I think many will come along to check it out and will leave pretty impressed with what they’ve seen because this doesn’t happen very often. It’s going to be a bit of a spectacle!” Unfortunately it’s only songs from The Hard Road, so there won’t be any HornBleed Section, but there is one new track that’s been recorded as a bonus song.

Of course, this means their next ‘proper’ album probably won’t be making it to stores until next year. “The next album is just started to get underway. Suffa and Debris have a few beats, and we’ve written a couple of verses here and there, but we haven’t actually started recording the new album at all,” Pressure confirms. “We’re just putting ideas down so it’s kind of on hold for the moment because of the remix album. The night of the launch we’re also filming for a DVD, so we’ve got a fair bit on our plate for this year.”

24Seven, Interview, Music, Writing

Bias B

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It’s been three years since Melbourne’s Bias B laid down some rhymes on wax, but after a three year hiatus Bias is back with his new album, Been There, Done That. In between albums he has had a bit of personal time travelling overseas on a journey of self discovery and that’s apparent in the new album.

“Everyone always said you never know what you’ve got until you leave it behind, and I went overseas and realised how good it is back at home,” Bias says of his travels. “I did spend a bit of time with hiphop people, but it was more of a discovery thing to find myself and learn a lot about myself. Put myself out there and in the massive world where I don’t know anything or anyone and made the most of it. When I took myself out of the hiphop scene and became, I guess, a nobody,” he adds, “I’d meet people who took me for who I am, and I realised I needed to come back to feel more special again,” he laughs.

“I became a less stressful person,” he says of the effect travelling had on him. “I realised how hard a lot of people have it overseas in a whole lot of different countries and how much struggle is going on, and how easy we have it over here – how much our money is worth, how easy it is to get good food, how clean our air is, how wide our streets are, the trees, you know, just how we have it so good in Oz”.

This is reflected on his album, which Bias says started off as a party album, rapping about chicks and partying all night, but the trip mellowed him out and helped him re-focus his energies, both lyrically and musically. “I got engaged and I have a baby on the way now, so I had to ditch a few tracks because they didn’t make as much sense or mean anything. And I got more on a personal tip, like the track “Now You’re Gone” which is about my mum who passed away in ’91; it’s a bit of a tear jerker. Even the title of the album ‘Been There, Done That’ – I’ve done the party raps, I’ve done the graffiti thing, the drugs thing, and now it’s about me maturing and progressing on to the next thing.”

But don’t start thinking Bias has gone soft on us and is composing soulful R&B ballads. He can still dish up the vicious rhymes, as on the track “Wordem Up”. Dissing the major record industry people like Figgkidd and Joel Turner, with the major music backing and major media outlets fawning over them. “They’re just terrible!” exclaims Bias. He doesn’t like the way people associate hiphop with those people, those who have had an easy ride and haven’t paid their dues. “It’s just my opinion on the whack mainstream industry. It’s about me who’s always been part of the underground and passionate about what I do, it just gets me a little angry. People always talk about this in conversation but no one ever says it on a track and I though fuck it, I’ll just call them out. The funny thing is Joel Turner’s single dropped on the same day as the album,” he laughs. “The kid can beat box, but…” I hear him shake his head dismissively.

However, Bias isn’t so down on the guys who do the work and make a name for themselves the traditional way – DJing, battles and Open Mics. “A few years ago I felt jilted to see people who’ve come in after me and I’d be negative towards it, but the older I’ve got I’ve come to appreciate it. I love to see people succeeding and if they succeed in hiphop, whether is be from radio play or units they sell or just exposure, it’s good for everybody, including myself. People say don’t hate the player hate the game or whatever, I don’t hate the game either, I just don’t have much hate,” he chuckles.

Bias does have a lot of love for Adelaide. As well as respecting the Hilltop Hoods for all they’ve achieved, he also just loves Adelaide’s scene. “Adelaide is the merchandise capital of the world!” he laughs “I tell everyone– you go there with 40 vinyl, you take 100 t-shirts and you leave with none. There’s always a good crowd, everyone loves the lyrics and they get into it and I get response out of them. I just want to treat every show like it’s my last… If I go to Adelaide and died the next day, I’d like people to remember that Bias killed it at that show!” he chuckles again. “Adelaide is always very supportive in every way and I love coming to Adelaide”

24Seven, Interview, Music, Writing

DJ Marky

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DJ Marky is one of Brazil’s best exports since nuts and waxes. He was discovered after fellow Brazilian Patife called the UK promoters of the Movement shows to see if he could use the name in Brazil. V- Recordings head honcho Bryan Gee flew to Brazil with Edo Van Duyn to see a scene they weren’t really aware of, and caught Marky playing at the now legendary Love Club. “Incredible, for here was a DJ who hardly spoke any English, lived 5,000 miles from the drum and bass Mecca [of London] and still managed to inject more energy, enthusiasm, originality and creativity into mixing drum and bass than anyone we’d seen before,” said Edo in a recent interview.

Marky gained his music knowledge in the way many DJs do – through family and working in a record store. “There was a really cool radio station that I used to listen to when I was a kid, that used to play old funk and proper hip hop tunes,” he says, “but mostly I got my musical influence from my Dad and his vinyl collection.” The vinyl bug must of rubbed off, as Marky worked in the Up Dance record store, which was vital in determining his tastes. “When you are working in the record store you have a lot of tunes from different genre that work for you. Maybe a techno track or a house track, something like that. But I remember when the first set of Jungle records came in and I was hooked!”

It’s clear from talking to Marky that he loves Brazil. Although at first his meteoric rise did cause some little problems. “At first, I won’t lie, it was hard,” he says of learning English. “I hadn’t had to speak it all the time like this before so I had to learn and learn fast, but having management there to support me and help me out was great and it helped me get to terms with it much quicker.” He also likes the fact that although he rose quickly, he’s still grounded in Brazil. “Yeah I got quite big in UK and Europe but I spend most of my time in Brazil so I can escape, and that time is golden to me.”

First time Marky played in Adelaide, he blew people away. His energy, his skills, and his scratching – a skill not too often seen at dnb shows – all shattered preconcieved notions of how dnb is played. However, on his last visit, on the back of a long festival tour, his performance wasn’t so spectacular, as there was only a little bit of scratching. But Marky realises that expectation and anticipation has it’s toll. “It is hard because everyone expects you to play the best set you have ever played, and honestly I try and do that every time I play,” he stresses. He also says the lack of scratching was simply an equipment thing. “Most DnB raves now will use an Allen & Heath mixer because a lot of people use it and it has effects but they are very hard to scratch on. It can lead to disappointment which is why I have got some new tricks in my sleeve to make sure everyone remembers this tour!”

Marky’s production is just as well respected as his DJing. He makes tracks with XRS, and I was wondering how it works. “We shared the work when we were producing together. I used to bring a lot of the samples to the studio and XRS would be really good at laying it out then we would both build the tune together. It was a really good partnership,” he says. More recently, he’s been colaborating with Bungle who he reckons is “gonna be massive next year! He is young but so talented it is unreal! Also,” he adds “I have done a few new tracks with Makoto and Total Science. In the future it might be nice to collaborate with someone like NuTone or Logistics for something a lttle bit different.” Those should get the dnb juices flowing!

Finally, whenever Marky is asked which is his favourite place to DJ, he immediately answers Australia. “The people are mad for it!” He exclaims. “Whenever I play in Australia I get a wicked reception and they just love the music. That is what I like when I visit somewhere is seeing people who are purely music lovers. Yeah it helps that there is a DJ there that they know, but really, they just want a good night out and want to listen to quality tunes. My kind of people!”

24Seven, Interview, Music, Writing

Soul Of Man

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The mighty breaks record label Finger Lickin’ would be nothing without the dedication of Justin Rushmore and Jem Panufnik, also known as Soul Of Man. From running the day to day admin work, to sourcing new talent, and designing the iconographic and wonderful album art, as well as produce fine singles, remixes and mix albums, they’ve certainly got reason to be a little less prolific than other artists. Add to this Jem’s recent marriage and Justin’s recent baby, and the fantasy of running a label starts to look less like a fun time sitting around listening to good music, and more like real work!

One of the things that makes Finger Lickin’ stand out beyond the incredible music is the artwork decorating every piece of vinyl they release. It’s bright, funky and attention grabbing, and all done by Jem. “We wanted to have a really strong visual identity,” Jem says of his artwork. “It’s important that the music is upfront, funky and in your face and the visuals to reflect that. And it’s great fun for me to do that,” he adds with a smile, “and more often than not it’s a piece of music that inspires it. And especially now that vinyl sales are very much in the balance it really makes a difference to have something that grabs people’s attention and is something they want to buy and keep. It’s much more exciting than downloading an MP3.”

“However,” he continues, “doing the Artwork is a full time job, so on top of the admin it is very time consuming, and Justin and I want to do less of the 9 to 5 drag and concentrate on producing music now. But it is kind of hard to let go. Whilst I may moan about doing the artwork and other things I’m often frightened to let anyone else take it over, and the same with Justin really. It is our baby, and it is frightening to start to let go, but having said that the whole of this year has been geared up to let things run themselves and to let go of the reigns and let us get along with our own thing.”

Even as touring DJs they don’t do things by half. Last year I was lucky enough to see them at Field Day in sweltering 44 degrees heat in Sydney. “Field day was particularly agony because it was a pretty full on tour. By the time we arrived in Sydney we had already done a gig in Perth, a gig on New Years Eve in Hobart, had to go without any sleep to Melbourne to do Summerdayze in the afternoon, and then literally take the last record off, leg it to the airport, and, I think our plane was the last allowed to land before the tarmac was considered too soft for planes to land! The whole baggage system broke down because of the heat!” he laughs. “We were really lucky to get there – we arrived maybe half an hour before our set, we were stinking of booze and sweat and it was pretty hardcore but we soldiered on,” Jem chuckles again.

Due to their recording commitments, they unfortunately won’t be back in Australia until next year sometime, but the first step on their way to getting back amongst the music is to produce the annual Finger Lickin’ Thang mix CD. Always funky, vibrant and featuring the best Finger Lickin’ has to offer, this year is no different, but does offer a slightly different sound. With computers and music software becoming more advanced, breaks are shifting from sampling funk and hiphop to producing its own sound, becoming a little more electro in its direction. “The whole electro angle is a production thing, and I think it’s probably kicked a lot of breaks people up the arse when they realise that there’s some amazing music being made out there that has fantastic dancefloor appeal,” Jem enthuses.

“The grooves are wicked, and apart from anything else the production sounds absolutely amazing. That’s the sound we’re very inspired by at the moment, because of the way it’s heading really. It’s giving breaks a really good shake up showing there’s a lot of great stuff out there. For example, I think it was a good move to put the D.Ramirez remix of the Plumps on Finger Lickin’ Thang 4. He’s woken a lot of people up to this sound, and the Plump DJs track adapted brilliantly as well.”

24Seven, Interview, Music, Writing

Krust

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DJ Krust has been an integral part of drum and bass since its conception. He and Roni Size hooked up at the beginnings of the V Recordings label and they’ve been a big name through their individual projects, through mega-group Raprezent, and also through running the labels Full Cycle and offshoot Dope Dragon. Of late Krust has been a little quiet, but he’s sure to shake floors and hips again with his latest album ‘Hidden Knowledge’, a double studio album full of new compositions and a retrospective of his Full Cycle recordings.

“It’s a Krust album first and foremost,” Krust states about his new album. “What I wanted to do is make an album that was all me. It’s been such a long time since I’ve made an album I really wanted to focus on what I’m about and what my music is about and what people could expect from me. I didn’t want any guests, I didn’t want too many vocalists,” he tells me. “I tried about 4 vocal tracks but I wasn’t happy with them. The vocal track on there, How to Mutate, was the last track I made, and I changed that about six times until I was happy with it. It was a real conscious effort to make some music that was real typical of what I was about and what the label is about and where I’m coming from and where I am going. It was about asserting myself in the scene as an artist and as a producer.”

Krust has included a retrospective disc as well, featuring classics such as Warhead and Jazz Note, in an effort to school new listeners to his sound. “There is a whole core audience that doesn’t know the music, that doesn’t know the foundation of it. It’s to give people a reminder of what I was about, where I came from, and where they can get more of that from,” he claims. From this, I wonder if he thinks it’s a little strange that there is an audience out there that has listened to nothing but drum and bass. “I do find that strange, but I have to really break it down and see how it is for real,” he agrees

“I’m about the source, I try and get the essence of the whole thing. If I hear a record I might hear a great sample, and I’ll wanna know where that sample came from. So once I find the sample, I might buy the album, then a few more albums, and I think sometimes today I think the kids of today don’t know where the music comes from. but I think that’s changing very slowly though,” he smiles.

“This is the same generation that came into colour and cable TV and listened to CDs straight away. But that’s not their fault. They were born into that and they don’t know anything else, whereas we were born into a different generation. We never had colour television or CD players growing up. It’s a generational thing. My nephew who’s 22 is making music and we were talking and I said “Bro, you’ve got to listen to music, listen to records, vinyl, that’s the vibe you’ve got to understand”. And at least he asked the question and that’s good and I respect that of him. I hope more kids back pedal and look at the history of music.”

We then discussed the current state of dnb, with lots of great artist albums coming out and impressing not only traditional junglists, but making waves all over the place. “I think we went through a period where it really got stale, and I know a lot of people weren’t stimulated by the music so much. I myself kinda lost interest in it for a while,” he laments. “But the beauty of what’s going on now is that we’ve been through that cycle now, and the people who make drum and bass have decided to do what they do best, regardless of the scene is trying to dictate, or what the press is trying to dictate. I think it’s really interesting because we’re seeing some proper players talking about the music and the state of play and what they’re gonna do about it and where the music is going to next, that can only be healthy when it comes from within the scene.”