As we hyped this time last month, Octane & DLR are currently looking down the barrel of their biggest project to date: their début album. Not content with just stringing together a series of bangers, though, they’ve created something of a monster. 17 tracks strong and oozing atmospheres, textures, tempos and tones, Method To The Madness goes way beyond any expectations… And we’ve got an exclusive minimix right here!
“This is the first time anyone’s heard any of it,” grins DLR. “I really hope people will enjoy it. There’s a lot of things that people will instantly love but there’s a whole other side to us that might shock.”
Shock in the best possible way, of course. Following their own musical passions and influences, Method To The Madness conjures up shades of hip-hop and captivating creative leftfield beat work, laced with the intricate techniques they’ve already showcased in their Cymatic material.
“We want to represent our love for all music and not do the standard ‘straight up D&B album’,” he explains. “We want to say ‘look D&B artists aren’t just capable of making D&B!’ We’ve always been making this stuff. Some of the ideas have been lurking since our first ever singles but we nailed a particular style that people associate with us so when we’re releasing 12”s we feel a certain pressure – by ourselves, labels and fans – that we should be releasing the tracks that have given us the profile we’ve got. It’s not right to confuse people.”
Their philosophical approach goes right through the whole album making process. The tracklisting, he insisted, was arranged by Dispatch boss Ant TC1 as he knew both he and Octane were far too close to the project.
“We can’t hear it like someone who’s first hearing it,” he admits. “We’re too close to it. Ant put it together, and even without trying we’d made all these endings and intros that fit together perfectly. I never could have put that tracklist together like that! We hear the individual elements, it’s taken us two years to get to this, but you hear the full tracks.”
This approach even goes as deep as the artwork, which they commissioned from an Australian artist Nate Trapnell whose work they spotted on an Aussie promoter’s wall last year.
“It was sick,” he says. “So when it came to the album I really wanted him to do the artwork. I knew he’d smack it. He’s so different, it’s all custom made for us. We just gave him some clips and he came back with the perfect art work. I didn’t want to ruin his perception of what it’s about. He completed the project for us!”
And what a project it’s shaping up to be. If this minimix is anything to go by, the full piece of work is going to blow a lot of people’s minds. Watch out for the full release late August on Dispatch. Until then, enjoy these eight minutes of total insanity
