ARTIST:
Hue Jah Fink?
At the age of 15, I began to teach myself various aspects of music technology using an Amiga with the OctaMED software. I also began to DJ and later became a resident at nationally renowned dance club ‘The Brunel Rooms’ in Swindon.
In 1999, I started working with London sound-systems ‘Headfuk’ and ‘Unsound’. Between 2003-2006 I performed many times on London’s community arts radio station,’ Resonance FM’ assuming various guises, playing my own material with improvised turntablism.
I also have worked as a composer, sound designer and mixer for various short film and video projects. Most notably for film director and artist Dan Moss. Between 2005 to date I have worked on four of Dan’s films, responsible for music composition, foley, dialogue editing, sound design, field recording restoration and final mix.
Following a plethora of releases on various labels under various guises and groups, I started my own music label ‘Binary Feedback’ in 2009, primarily as a vehicle for the work I had been developing over the previous year with Kirsty Hawkshaw.
‘Out Of Reach’ showcased an ambitious range of electronic production styles, including electro, dubstep, jungle, liquid DNB, and atmospheric breaks. Our joint release was a definite success. Not just garnering respect from various international DJs such as Freq Nasty, Starkey, Acid Jacks and Jerome Hill, but also reaching high places on various genre charts at Juno-Download, most notably holding the number one spot on the electro charts for a whole month. My subsequent release ‘We Are The Prophets’ received even more noteworthy attention from international taste makers, including support and praise from Kissy Sell Out, Laurent Garnier, Danny Breaks and The Crystal Method.
Since 2008, I have turned my attention from writing and production to digital audio post production / mastering, attracting repeat work from electronic music labels such as Boka, Combat Recordings, Yellow Machines, Frijsfo Beats, Rag And Bone, Lab Beat, Section8 and Plush Recordings, as well directly for individual artists such as Kirsty Hawkshaw, Emika, Naked Lunch, The Sunkings, and Subeena.
ARTIST:
Kirsty Hawkshaw
After meeting with the trio OPUS 3 at the dawn of the early 1990’s, the track ‘It’s A Fine Day’ from the band’s first album ‘Mind Fruit’ became an international Billboard #1 hit.
After being sampled by Orbital for their original 1992 track ‘Halcyon’, Kirsty would contribute to the tracks ‘Halcyon & On & On’ and ‘Lush’.
From there, Kirsty would contribute to the work of some of the pioneering talent that emerged throughout the 90s electronic scene, working with Steve Hillage and Rachid Taha, and Global Communication’s Mark Pritchard (aka Harmonic 313, Troubleman) who produced her excellent solo album O>U>T which is now available on her store www.kirstyhawkshaw.co.uk.
Kirsty also contributed four tracks to Tiesto’s first two albums, with ‘Urban Train’ and ‘Battleship Grey’ gracing his debut album ‘In My Memory’, plus ‘Walking On Clouds’ and the title track ‘Just Be’ on the follow up second album. She has also worked with such names as BT, Swayzak, Way Out West and Hybrid.
Kirsty continues to surround herself and work with some of the best creative talents from all walks of life, but particularly in the DNB field, working with artists like Blu Mar Ten, Seba, Paradox, Outrage and not forgetting Binary Feedback’s very own Hue Jah Fink!
ARTIST:
Maztek
Matteo Cavo aka. Maztek, embraced upon his music career at the young age of 13 as a lead guitarist and percussionist.
Born and raised in the heart of Italy, Rome, at 18 years of age he became fascinated with electronic music, specifically Techno and Drum and Bass. He decided to take heed and began to compose not only Drum and Bass but also Electro, Grime and Dubstep tracks and played out in the Italian underground scene.
In 2005 Maztek formed the label ‘Subculture Records’, which captivated a wide audience internationally as a vinyl and digital label and has had releases from artists such as, N.phect, Future Signal, Proktah, Malsum & Sleeper Cell.
You can hear Maztek’s releases on ‘Subculture Records’ as well as many other labels such as, ‘Contaminated’, ‘Close2death’ Germany’s ‘Basswerk’ and Italian labels ‘Modulate’ and ‘Transistor Technology’.
As well as heaps of releases from the man himself he has also collaborated with a number of well known producers such as Aeph, Optiv, Sleeper Cell, Dabs, Billian, N.phect and Malsum, to name a few.
Following his work with Binary Feedback, one of his biggest releases yet, Intiman ft. Foreign Beggars, ‘Hit That’ (Maztek remix) and ‘Straight to bad’, have caught attention to many world wide, supported by all major Dj’s, Ed Rush, The Upbeats and State of Mind, amongst many others.
In 2011 he became the official producer of Dope D.O.D., a hip hop crew based in Netherlands and he made a remix for an Italian band called “Subsonica”, “Il Diluvio Maztek remix” has been released by EMI.
Beyond this huge release in 2012, Maztek signs releases to the mighty Renegade Hardware and Hospital. Maztek is clearly hot property and is ready to proceed this long passionate career!
ARTIST:
2 Kilo Mockingbird
Formed in 2008, 2 Kilo Mockingbird is duo featuring the vocals of Ella Sopp and drummer/DJ Billy Pleasant. Using influences from rock, dubstep, punk and drum & bass make up the unique foundation of their music. They perform live regularly in their hometown of London and in 2010 headlined the Wageningen Festival in Holland. Most recently they’ve had their music in a episode of the Sky TV series ‘What Did I Do Last Night’.
Billy started in Los Angeles as a session drummer for the Dust Brothers‘ label Nickelback Records. He has also been DJ-ing DNB and other bass-heavy beats around the London party scene for many years, as ‘Billy The Kid’. More recently he has been pounding the skins for the band Gold Future Joy Machine.
Since working on the 2 Kilo Mockingbird project, Ella has also been attracting the attention of various music producers. Maztek was so impressed when he made the Pair A Dice dubstep mix, that he immediately snapped her up to perform on his album. Savage Rehab have also been working with her, and also many top notch collaborations with internationally renowned house music producer Tom Eales.
ARTIST:
Savage Rehab
Hailing from Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, Savage Rehab are a back to back production outfit covering the full spectrum of Drum and Bass and Jungle music.
They are building a steady reputation for not only their versatile productions but also performing together with their MC ‘Gigante’ on five turntables and two mixers. They often mix at blistering pace, sometimes getting through as many as 55 tunes into an hours set! They have taken a residency with Jungle Jam at The Mint Club, Leeds, where they can be caught every first Friday of the month showcasing their dexterity and latest dubs.
Following the release of their Tech Treatment EP on one of the US’s premier DNB/ dubstep labels – Section 8, Savage Rehab signed to Bryan Gee’s V Recordings in the summer of 2010. Because of their versatility they’ve had releases on various labels inside the V camp, as well as getting snapped up for remix work by a plethora of high-profile and underground labels throughout the world.
“I first got to hear their stuff from Roni Size who passed on a CD and told me to keep a eye out… A year later they’ve had releases on V , Liquid V and Chronic… reason being is they’ve got it in them to produce music from tech d&b to liquid, jump-up, jungle style and minimal also.. What I love about these guys is their music always sounds like they’re having fun and seeing them perform definitely confirms it with their energy…”
BRYAN GEE, V Recordings
ARTIST:
Cosmology
From the first warm and evocative tinkle of the ivories on his 2009 début “There’s a Saying”, I knew that Oxfordshire based Cosmology was onto big things. Following a couple of single-track signings to Plush Recordings, he was commissioned to return with his first four track EP “If Love Would Bring” which displayed a wealth emotional colours and musical possibilities.
His production and composition style reminds me very much of mid-nineties DnB. Not through mawkish nostalgia, but by developing great musical ideas and courageously defying ‘me-too’ genre stereotypes. Cosmology reminds me of an excellent cook, from seemingly basic sample and synth ingredients he has the knack for boiling a musical idea down to its pure essence, and delivers a beautifully presented and nutritional dish with a refreshingly unique taste that lingers gracefully on the palette.
No surprise then, that he has tracks being snapped up by various other taste-making labels including Fokuz, Soul Deep and the legendary Good Looking.
Cosmology is certainly one to bookmark and keep your ear on – else you may be missing something pretty special.
ARTIST:
Dave Stitch
I am uncomfortable with self promotion and talking about ‘Dave Stitch’ in the third person. I have no desire to present myself as an electro ninja assassin or be photographed against a backdrop of industrial decay. I have no intention of declaring my music important, groundbreaking or any other buzzwords plucked from the current lexicon.
I write music electronically. I have done since 1997. Interweb search engines point at some of my music, more is available on request.
I am also one half of the live act ‘Treen’, a sampler/synth-based squadron of electro ninja assassins.
ARTIST:
Roman Candle
Roman Candle are Phil Winter and Will Huckerby.
Phil Winter :
My first outputs emerged in the mid 90s under the name ‘Summit’, recording and playing live with the ‘Law and Auder’ crew – including Luke Vibert , Bedouin Assent and Rising High founder Casper Pound. This resulted in an album on Rader records and various 12″s with remixes from Nightmares On Wax and the Karminsky Experience amongst others.
After a few years touring Summit, DJing took over, playing spacey ambient and glitchy micro house mostly to German and Spanish audiences.
The early to mid 00s found myself working with the band ‘Tunng’, and also hooking up with the ‘Expanding Records’ crew. In 2005 I joined Tunng full time , countless tours and collaborations followed (festivals – you name it we’ve played it.)
Recently any spare time has been wonderfully filled with the development of new projects. Roman Candle of course, also ‘Wrangler’ featuring me, Benge and Stephen Mallinder of Cabaret Voltaire. The other is ‘Lone Taxidermist’ where I’m joined by Natalie, Hjordis and Will of Roman Candle.
Will Huckerby :
In the late 90s I gravitated to The Foundry in East London, where I regularly played live as experimental solo electronic project ‘Kwerk’, as part of the collaborative A/V project ‘Konstruct’, in the punk/garage band ‘Rocket Machine’, the experimental extreme project ‘Not A Number’, the live DNB group ‘Sinister Sound’ and numerous joyous collaborations with the Konstruct, disco.r.dance, noise=noise and Moon Palace crews. The germ of Roman Candle could be traced back to this period.
Having focused on documentary field recordings for my M.A. Digital Art, I’ve since traveled Europe and parts of Asia gathering and composing with the sounds that surround us in our daily lives. This has fed into the Roman Candle sound.
I have also collaborated as a Sound Designer/Composer with a variety of theatre companies (including ‘Poems To My Other Self’, an independent theatre group based in London), played the drums for 3 piece Jazz band ‘Empire Hotel’, and recently re-emerged in the guise of Bobby Cherry, a retired darts athlete who is currently treading the boards of the Working Men’s Clubs of the North of England, at least that’s true in my imagination
ARTIST:
Unsound System
Established in ’88, Unsound System are a long-term collective of types who will be going all the way. And when they get there, the sound will be fully turned on. From London squat freedom to the open beaches of Italy, Unsound have reclaimed space and partied relentlessly. This latest foray into less ephemeral reality is welcomed.
This manifestation of the Unsound vibe will be used to help finance a low impact land reclaim/community project in Italy . …I don’t think we’re gonna change anything by writing and singing(sic) songs, but by getting active and beating the fuckers at their own game while land is still cheap enough to buy it. It won’t be for long. As the super rich get more and more, pretty soon they will own everything. Land in the UK is anything from £1000 an acre to buy. In the eyes of this system you will own it. Abroad land is also relatively cheap. We ain’t gonna get it by squatting it. The clampdown is on, robocops beating the crap out of demonstrators with impunity. Killing people no problem, even stitching up M.P’s – the lawmakers, ahahahha and the lawmakers themselves making laws for themselves – Give it a few years and the super rich will own it all. A million pounds an acre within twenty years. Bought with fractional reserved non existent money. The land is all there is.
This project is set up to continue building a low impact land based community in Southern Italy. The 2.5 acres of land that is part of this project has now been fully organic for ten years and is slowly being replanted as a food forest. Unsound System innit.