Looking for strong, full-bodied beats? A saucerful of secrets? Stuffed animals on swings? Look no further. Earl Grey took us into the totally stirring recent output on Inperspective.
Hi, how’s it going, you’re based in Manchester? tell us about the more underground D&B scene in the city and what nights to check out?
Safe! Yeah Manchester’s doing alright these days, there is some decent variety knocking about. My personal favourite is Amented (shouts to Foz), which caters for those of us that crave amens, jungle and choppage. Then there’s Relapse which tends to cover the more techy/neuro kind of stuff although their lineups can be pretty hard and breaky too to be fair.
Hannah Djinn has recently started putting on Formless for who I guess you would call the heads; very deep and very dark. The first night was pretty rammed out and I’m well looking forward to the next one in April. Ruff Cutz are doing some cool parties in Fallowfield too.
Tell us about the linkup with Inperspective, do you go back?
Yeah Chris got in touch with me through Myspace, back when that was a thing, and eventually had me down for Technicality at the Rhythm Factory in either 2010 or 2011.
To be honest, being a total newcomer at the time and never having played a night of that calibre nevermind outside of the local area, it was pretty exciting for me. Even just being on the same lineup as Breakage was a bit like… wooaah.
What sort of influences do you have in general with D&B?
My first real exposure to D&B was probably the Acid Rain EP on Planet Mu. Hearing breaks being used like that, and without a 2-step rhythm was a bit of an epiphany at the time, so I guess a lot of my influence comes from that style of drum work. I’d rather listen to something with a breakbeat so that’s generally what I try to aim for in tunes.
Into the ep, can you take us into Karmic Sprain and when the tune arose? And to what does the title refer?
Yeah both tunes were from a few years ago actually.
The drum breaks are from a 70s prog rock tune which pretty much sets the mood really. I can’t really remember, but I think at the time I’d recently sprained my ankle, and was probably thinking about karma generally.
The working title might even have been ‘Karmic Bitchslap’.
Take us into ‘Dorsiflexion’ and what inspired the tune.
I’m pretty sure it was just hearing the drums on Breakage ‘4Me’. The main strings/xylophone sample is from the soundtrack to a really old BBC nature documentary, and the title is named after the motion that your ankle makes… see previous mention of spraining.
I have zero background in science or medicine I just like the sound of the language and I’m really into naming tunes after weird obscure stuff like that!
Where do you produce, do you have a set up where you live that has been shaped through time as it were?
I’ve only ever really worked from a bedroom setup up until moving into my current place nearly two years ago, so I’m lucky enough to have a separate room to produce in these days but it’s not treated or anything.
Mostly it’s just a laptop running Ableton, and a lot of crate digging, although I did get a hardware sampler and a mixer a while back which I am trying to use more, as long winded as it is.
What track of any time/genre is in your head right now that makes you feel good?
Despite its association with internet memes, lately it’s been Home ‘Resonance’. Proper heavy heart vibes.