What’s that noise? Drilling up from deep underground, Violation has been causing rumbles for some time now… well they’re bound to with affiliate heavyweight militants such as Warmachine, Bomh, Talabun and with rumours of incoming work with the likes of Homemade Weapons and Displaced Paranormals. Christ! Where’s the sandbags!
Time to catch up with label soldier Gareth – the War Machine himself – but first things first…
AKA this, AKA that… I always get a little confused about who does what in the Violation camp: could you break it down sir?
When it comes to the Violation, Stu AKA Bomh is everything tech, basically: he does the mastering and everything web-related whether it be building or maintaining the site. I deal with the label management side and we collaborate on scouting for talent and signing new artists.
I’d like to take credit for it just being the two of us but a lot of work is put in by the guys at Cygnus Music who have helped us out amazingly since we started.
On to the music, your new Violation release ‘Shaman’ and ‘Warria Dub’, well: they’re bangers.
Thanks, well I’d wanted to start working with vocalists for quite some time and heard Sol AKA Talabun (pic below).
On another track I was very taken by his unique voice and showed him the backbone to ‘Shaman’. We then later exchanged some ideas about the direction of the track as I wanted to make it radio-friendly but still not break from my sound. He laid down the vocals in the studio. He’s based in Russia and we were very pleased with the overall support and feedback we received.
Can you talk us through ‘Warria Dub’?
‘Warria Dub’ is a cracking track from Skru.
Skru is from…
He’s Greek. I could tell from the first time we heard it was definitely something we had to sign. The whole swinging bass and tribal percussion vibe is something I’m a big fan of. Dub Phizix and Chimpo including it in their Fabriclive mix just cemented it.
Is this a departure in mood for you guys? The style
I’d say diversifying was something we were always going to do honestly.
What styles do you normally gravitate towards?
Stu is more into the techy deeper stuff and I’m more into the minimal more experimental 170 so we will continue to release the music we believe in and listen to.
When did you guys first start Violation?
We started in Christmas 2012.
Has the label progressed as you intended?
Definitely starting to shape the way we wanted. And with a few things we have scheduled in for this year we feel were going in a positive direction.
What sorts of production shifts in general in D&B are you sussing?
For me I’d have to say it’s more guys that are doing something different and actually taking a risk than living off a preset.
Ha ha, cool. So could you name five new artists or tunes killing you.
Tokyo Prose ‘Songbird’
Royalston ‘Arps Of Fury’ but the whole album is great
KLAX ‘Rufio’
M-Set featuring Hannah Eve ‘All My Loving’
Dan Blackout ‘Ranger Dub’
What about some any-genre classics?
Anything from Photek Rings Around Saturn to Stevie Wonder ‘Superstition’.
How do you check new music? I’m struggling to remember radio in general this good for a while…
Yeah same radio hasn’t been this strong for a while. I tune into to Bailey on Ministry of Sound every Tuesday without fail now and the Rinse podcasts are my ‘go to’ otherwise. Other than that always like to have a look through soundcloud to see what’s new.
What exclusives you can tell us?
I have just last week signed two tracks to US label Metaphysic Audio which will be a vinyl/digital release towards the end of the year. I’m currently working on new solo material and also collaborating with Release (Viper/Horizons) and Dan Blackout (Image Muzik) on other projects. I have a few favourites as you’d imagine but varies in genre.
Back to Violation, what news sir?
Violation-wise we have a few things to look out for this year including singles from M-set and Hannah Eve, Voyage (emcee Recordings), Robustus and Identified, M-Soul and S27 to name a few.
As War Machine I have a tune out on the Storm Driller ep via Cyclone Recordings.