‘In Bulgaria dust from the ceiling was spilling down behind the decks but luckily the roof didn’t collapse… ‘
Amoss have delivered something typically unmissable in the form of their weighty, heinously good new
release on Dispatch, also featuring Fre4knc. They’re crunchers… they’ve dug deep.
This release has given me a big smile, it’s blazing! When did you guys start work on it?
‘Hold Back’ is the track which has been sat around the longest, hiding in a folder for at least two years now so it’s such a good feeling to finally get it out there. The other two tracks are much more recent.
‘Oxide’ with Fre4knc was the follow up to the first track we wrote together, called ‘Vortice’.
So how’d ‘Oxide’ come to be?
It began with some stems and a pretty solid idea from Bertran and grew into a kick heavy, grungy track from our end.
It’s always fun working with Bertran as we both feel so inspired by all of his sounds: it’s like being given the best ingredients for a meal and then to let us cook up whatever dish we like ha ha, probably the best way to put it.
Tell us more behind the spirit of the collab?
The collaboration came about pretty quick after hearing and playing his track ‘Tubular’; we instantly fell in love with his sounds and the intensity he created in such small phrases, the way he arranged his tracks became a big influence for future tracks of ours so naturally we had to ask if he wanted to write some music together.
We now actually have five collabs and counting, our styles bounce off each other really nicely and its fun to get super techy with both sounds. He was over in December for his debut UK gig for Flexout Audio and stayed with us over the weekend where we wrote our third track together, currently titled ‘Animal Rain’ but we will see if that sticks.
Straight away we were quick to get started and managed to get the track ready in two days before our sets that weekend.
Back to ‘Hold Back’ I love the beats and it made me wonder if you guys are drummers or if one of you is? I feel some Photek in this too, but it is entirely your own.
Andy is the drummer; he made all of the drums on Kontact’s Abbey Road drums. Its amazing how you can create a drum break in software and with a little processing, get it to sound like a real live drummer in the studio. A lot of our recent work features a lot more break orientated tracks and the Abbey Road drums are always a base layer for creating natural feel to the groove.
The track takes massive influence from the Photek and the Prototype years, we wanted to keep the same drum break and percussion feel that he did so well alongside modern growls, distortion and arrangement.
Where do you guys produce, do you have a studio? Have you got a pic?
We’ve been living in a new place with a group of friends for almost a year now and it had a spare room at the top which the guys graciously let us use for studio space (below), we also share the room with our housemate Fearful.
It’s a nice space in there, enough to get quite a few people in so it’s perfect for working on collabs and our Cranium Sessions podcast.
(see at end)
Back to the ep & Skittles there’s this fab techy vibe, real ‘strontium’ flow to it. I know you love the 90s vibe, from a previous chat.
The track has been really well-received, it’s the kind of track I always want to draw but it has to stay till near the end of our sets.
The first time I played it on a proper system was in Bulgaria and dust from the ceiling was spilling down behind the decks but luckily the roof didn’t collapse. We wanted to create more of a relentless arrangement for this track, no matter where we put the breakdown it just didn’t sit right.
We played around with loads of ideas and came to the fact that it didn’t need to slow down in pace that much at all, there’s hints of a breakdown hear and there but then drops back in again.
So tell us more about gigs: playing the ones you like…
We’ve both always enjoyed the smaller more intimate venues, sometimes when stood on a larger stage you loose that energy and movement that the crowd is giving off. One of our favorite nights we have played is still Tiefklang in Germany. It’s quite a small room with a lot of energy; they have a red bulb hanging above the decks for anyone to swing when they’re loving a track and that thing didn’t stop swinging all night, we hope to play there again in the future.
What D&B is hurting you right now, name five?
Bredren ‘Red Powder’ (Arkaik Remix) (check session at end)
Gerra & Stone ‘Plates’
Mako ‘Candle In The Wind’
Jubei ‘Congo’
DLR ‘The Author’ (feat. EBK & Gusto)
One more…
Borderline ‘Complication’
Who are your allies in the scene, who do you check, hang out with and get inspired by?
Obviously Fre4knc is ally number one right now ha ha, not forgetting Arkaik, we have two tracks near completion with him. We’ve also been working with Gerra & Stone and are nearing completion of our second track together. Close affiliations, we have our housemates Chris aka Fearful, Flexout Audio label owner Tom.
We also have strong connections with the Diffrent music affiliation and north London’s In:Reach.
What other stuff inspires?
A lot of inspiration at the moment is coming from ambient works from artists such as Murcof, The Haxon Cloak, Tim Hecker and Lorn. I admire the drums and breaks as much as Andy does and I listen to a lot of jazz and funk… there’s nothing like hearing jazz drums played live to give you a boost to get in the studio and write new and diverse rhythms.
To sum up, how would you describe the ‘Amoss’ take on D&B, what you want to put out there?
We’re still striving to push all our influences and ideas out there in our music; we have been working hard in the studio over the past few months lining up some more releases alongside Dispatch Recordings and various other collaborations.
We always mention in interviews how we have such a broad spectrum of influences in drum and bass and other genres, myself and Andy both have different music influences, which works well working in the studio together.
There’s a lot more to give and in talks at the moment about the prospect of an album, but that may still be a few steps down the line.
But when the time comes we want to create more than just a dance floor album and create a project with not just the D&B listener in mind.
And what you got happening for us after this release?
After this will be our Shadow Theories EP on Dispatch Recordings featuring three original tracks, one featuring vocalist Viv May and the piano talents of C Tivey, and another collab with Fre4knc. A couple of the tracks we have been playing for almost three years so it’s refreshing to finally be getting them out there.
AND any shouts, Amoss?
Big shouts to Drum and Bass Arena for the words, Ant TC1, all Dispatch Recordings crew for support and inspiration, Gerra & Stone, Arkaik, MTWN, Different Music, In Reach Crew and anybody who listens and enjoys our music
Amoss Cranium Session
Amoss pics by Chelone Wolf
Oxide/Hold Back/Skittles
