In his Remixes ep, Callide has somehow managed to bottle something not only pretty infectious but pretty metaphysical too: a vibe. The vibe that you seem to get really close to the booth in the club, when people are doing their best to claw that record back to the edge, screaming at the DJ, bouncing off the walls and LOSING it in general. The System Shock main man donned his white coat and accompanied us deep into the high-energy particle accelerator (callider?) itself: behind the remixes…
These array of remixes and input in this is amazing: it cuts right to the point! So what was the selection process where you got this together, in terms of the remixers?
Thanks. I’d been sat on the Dominator and Vapour remixes for quite a while, and having recently arranged a remix for a remix with DJ Hybrid, I thought a remix project would be a great way to start the year.
’88 Track’ was something that was played loads on Radio 1 back in the day. Some D&B trivia for you: I sampled the orchestral intro on ’88 Track’ from a dodgy porno someone sent me of two massive women fighting in a pool of baked beans: hence 88 track, 88 = 2 fat ladies.
Dominator hit me up back when I released the Bass Face EP and said how much he was liking ‘A Way To Get The Answer’ – which is a crazy tune. He was making quite a name for himself at the time so offered a remix. I steered him towards the darker side of his sound and he did a sterling job with it.
We passed it to Grooverider as an exclusive for about a year and he gave it heaps of plays on Ministry of Sound.
In the feedback I received for this ep, Dominator’s remix was the favourite for heads like Dillinja and Bailey and that’s exactly the heads this remix was pitching for.
DJ Hybrid has done nothing but impress me with his fresh take on jungle and dark rollers. His output is high and the quality and creativity in his production is superb. He runs both his labels through our company Cygnus Music and from time to time I hear some of the more upfront and rowdyness in his tracks.
I asked him to remix ‘Inferno’ which is one of my biggest tunes on the label and asked him to go extra hard with it. The results speak for themselves and I’d love to hear more of this from him on the label.
‘Ecstasy Rising’ is my ‘cult classic’ tune which really rocked the scene just when Dubstep was blowing up, striking one of the biggest debate on UKF, is this drum and bass or dubstep? It’s clearly a Drumstep into drum and bass tune but it was funny reading the comments from the dubstep newbies trying to ‘claim the track’.
Modified Motion’s remix was a personal dub made back in 2010 and encapsulates a slice of that era of jump up, so we had to made sure this got released seeing that people have been calling for it for years!
Finally the lead track ‘The Gun Man’ goes to my producer of choice right now, Kitcha. His production reflects every thing that I like and look for in drum and bass music, big, brash, anthemic and with heaps of influence from my favourite years in the scene… 2004 – 2010.
‘The Gun Man’ became a 1Xtra anthem on Crissy’s show and being the only tune to take the Ace of Club features two weeks in a row, Kitcha smashed it on System Shock with his last release with MC Rafta: this tune had to go to him.
There’s some seriously heavy vibes on here… how have they worked live, and where have you roadtested them?
Each remix has a particular time and place in a DJ set, and if you drop any at the right time, they’ll cause absolute mayhem in the dance. Aside from the Kitcha and Hybrid ones, I had the others for years and collectively they’ve been played on 1xtra, Inno in the Sun, Rinse, Radio 1, Ministry of Sound and everywhere in between. The EP has been on the D&B cicuit on promo for the last five weeks and the DJ support ranges far and wide across the scene.
Does this effectively showcase what styles and attitudes you dig in D&B in general?
It certainly reflects the sound and era I like to represent on my label. A lot of people used to say that my music was too hectic, my view was that they simply weren’t ready for it yet. Looking back, yeah my music used to be pretty hectic and wasn’t for everyone, but it was designed purely for the dancefloor and nothing else.
As for what style I dig in D&B, I listen to about nine hours a day of it in the office, and enjoy every single style and sub genre. Part of my job at Cygnus is to scrutinise peoples music through my PR channels. In fact I spend about three hours doing this every day and I’ve been called the Simon Cowell of D&B.
And it has nothing to do with how high I wear my trousers.
What’s your gut feeling about the direction things are taking for the 2015? I reckon there’s some killer ‘hard’ beats out there.
Deep down I’m kinda stuck in my era and think that the days of Pedulum, Dillinja, Roni Size, Adam F, Fresh and the likes were the most creative days in the scene. That being said the soundscapes and technical ability of some modern day sub genres is mind blowing.
Some subgenres seem to go in an ever-ongoing circle of reproduction whilst others push the envelope to uncharted places. For me the most exciting producers in the scene are Gridlock, The Upbeats, Kitcha, Prolix, DJ Vapour, Peshay – wait and see what’s coming in 2015, Insideinfo & Intraspekt, but also from time to time a completely new producer will come along and change everything.
I think 2015 will be a particularly interesting year as we have so many super brands now, putting out heaps of content and all competing for the same audience, I think we need specialist labels like System Shock to go against the grain and stick with the ethos they started with. As long as fans and DJs are prepared to keep searching out new labels and looking through the layers for different labels and new producers it will always be strong and healthy.
What’s a sneak peak for the label this year? In terms of artists and live-ness?
I have heaps of great music lined up with exclusive material from DJ Vapour, Kitcha, Replicant, Bad Blood, Macky Gee, Myself and quite possibly a cheeky little some thing from Peshay. I’ll be keeping a close eye out for new producers who have the ‘System Shock sound’, so please if you’re out there, send music to aim djcallide!
