‘We were making recordings of their keys, lighters and other random bits they had lying around. We messed about with them, threw some samples in etc, and got a good vibe going… ‘
Foreign Concept‘s new Make Meals is a startling array of the known and the completely unexpected hot wired into the psyche of anyone that just loves BEATS. Less talk, let’s go in… especially on the hip hop front: more later. This first:
Make Meals really jolted me, actually really jolted me, the title track in particular, buuuuut it all did, it’s trip: can I be boring and simply ask when the ep as a whole started to take shape?
Glad you like it! I’d say the title track took about 6 months in total, from starting the idea, to the odd occasional tinkering, to how it is now. The idea to write an EP around it came from Kasra (the owner of Critical) around February, March this year, and I’d say it was completely finished by May.
Got to ask: are you a big hip hop/trip hop head? I’m also thinking of your ace tune ‘Paper Cha$er’ from last year
Yeah, Hip Hop was definitely my first love growing up, both the US and the UK stuff. I loved the way the producers could flip samples or riffs and just create simple hypnotic grooves out of them.
‘Paper Cha$er’ was my first stab at trying to make a hip hop /D&B hybrid, but I think it lacked a bit of dance floor energy ultimately, whereas with Make Meals I think I managed to achieve more of a balance.
Do you/would you DJ at that tempo btw… how would it ever work with D&B?
I wouldn’t play hip hop during a D&B set as it’s probably too much of a drop of energy , but i have done a couple of straight hip hop sets and really enjoyed it!
What’s some hip hop you would cite as something timeless?
A tough question! In no particular order…
Group Home ‘Up Against the Wall’ (Getaway Car remix)
Jehst ‘ESP’
GZA ‘Shadowboxin’
Reks ’25th Hour’
Pete Rock & Inl ‘Think Twice’
Skinnyman ‘Council Estate of Mind
‘Ask Yourself’ hurt me a lot, that sort of beautiful ‘autonomic’ vibe, that soul…
I’m a big fan of Klax’s music and being local to me at the time I really wanted to get something with them on the EP.
I’ve known Benny Bringa for about five years, and met the other two in Klax, Joel and Ben, through him. I went round to Joel’s house one night and him and Bringa were making recordings of their keys, lighters and other random bits they had lying around. We messed about with them, threw some samples in etc, and got a good vibe going. I took it home worked on it for a bit, sent it back for them to play with, and the whole track was finished pretty quickly.
The Hyroglifics remix is devious: those ‘space’/dub sounds are wicked.
Matt Hyroglifics has been making some great music recently, so it’s great to see him getting recognised for pushing the sound he loves. He hit me up to ask if he could remix ‘Falling Stars’, and he’s definitely flipped it and added his own stamp onto it!
‘The Volks’ made my day, what’s behind the title sir?
It’s named after the club in Brighton where I spent a fair few blurry nights during my time living there. There’s not much of a story here other then the track is the grittiest on Make Meals so I thought the name was apt. If you’ve been to the club you know what I’m talking about!
What’s a tune in your head right now?
Lone ‘Vengeance Video’ as it’s currently playing on my itunes as I write this. His new album is bad!
httpv://youtu.be/EjWfpw9ryWQ
What, if anything, should D&B do more of? (eg: more more more radio shows, more clubs like The End… )
Not to take itself too seriously and remember that it’s dance music ultimately and is supposed to be fun. I think D&B has lost a little of that fun element in the last few years, with producers nerding out too much over compression settings or how many drum edits they can make, rather then what’s just going to make people vibe.
Pic Chelone Wolf
