Few scenes are powered and inspired by creative competition as electronic music. Inherent in D&B since the dewy eyed days of dubplates: like-minded souls showing off their latest inventions, inspiring their peers to step up and create.
We know this is the case in the UK, and it’s more than evident in the current dominance of the eastern European D&B scene, but does such a hive-minded approach exist elsewhere in the world?
Well it’s certainly happening in Australia, and Plasma Collaborative are the crew behind it. With roots as the country’s largest D&B promoters Broken Beat Assault, they’ve imported the world’s talent to floors and fields all over down under, now Safire and Finna are about to go next level…
“We’ve never had a huge culture of creative competitiveness like over in UK and other cities around the world,” states Safire. “In my opinion the more of this that exists, the more people start to push each other further – essentially creating higher levels of production/output. We’re stoked to be a part of a movement happening in such an artistic city such as Melbourne.”
With a studio as the hub of the project, Plasma promise a whole wealth of cool stuff in the new future. Expect beats, garms, art, video content, sample software and loads more in the near future. But first it starts with a killer release featuring Safire, Amoss and MC Ghost’s 4Th State (original and Icicle Remix) plus Gamma’s 2012.
Naturally it bangs. It’s due in the first week of February 2014 AND we’re giving it away exclusively on Drum&BassArena!
Here’s a cool video of theirs. Find out more on their website and Facebook then read what Safire has to say…
Plasma Launch Sequence – 13.12.13 from BBA on Vimeo.
Plasma Collaborative… It’s much, much more than a label, right? Tell us everything!
Plasma Collaborative is a creative platform that allows artists and musicians to express their creative works to the world. We wanted to create something new that isn’t afraid takes risks in a new environment. We are a group of friends – artists, musicians, audio engineers, fashion designers etc from Melbourne…. We’ve always seen so much talent around us & needed a way to bring it all together. We decided to form the collaborative as this would give us a way to expose our works to the world. The concept was to create a collective made up of various components…A (Record label), Apparel (Products hand made in Australia & locally produced with quality materials), Digital Media Production (Music Videos, Audio Production Tutorials, Sample Packs etc) and a studio facility based in Melbourne. This kind of platform would give us freedom to work freely within our creative sector… now that it exists the scope is endless moving forward.
The name suggests a living, pulsating, sprawling organism that has a life of its own…
Yep! Plasma is an organic in the universe: every star/sun we see is in a state of plasma… We loved the concept as it’s chaotic, random and direction is undefined. We are formulating our path although we like the idea of an undefined direction… Our vision is really important to us and we’re now giving ourselves the opportunity to go anywhere within our creative environment.
The music studio aspect of your project sounds really interesting and suggests a sense of a movement, am I right?
I guess you could say so! At the core of what we do, our strength is audio and music production… It was our first found love and fundamentally where the project is built from. The studio focuses on boutique analogue equipment with very high quality signal chains. We’ve got various bits of mastering grade outboard equipment and we’re now beginning to offer audio services worldwide. We’re want to create a positive environment that aspiring producers can be a part of while having access to some really nice equipment… we have an online mixing/mastering service which allows people to upload files through site and have works completed via correspondence
I’m imagining a hive of activity where artists from all over the world can enjoy when they’re touring. The studio’s output changing vastly each day. Like some type of Melbournian utopia…
Definitely…We’ve started to explore production workshops with artists we tour through BBA events. When DLR was here last we orchestrated an audio workshop with local producers – it went really well. We want to create a place that encourages creatives and like mind people to gather inspiration and progress within their creative work. When touring artists are in town the studio is always bound to get a good rinse out! Icicle’s here next, he’s the first release of our label – ‘Plasma 001 and we’ve got a 5 show toured planed for him in Aus/NZ this NY, so everything is coinciding really well
What inspired this ambitious project to start with?
About a year ago we began building the concept of creating a platform that allows us to express our creative works to the world. We wanted to build something that allows us to take risks in a new environment without any limitations. We feel now is a new time… there has been a lot change and shift in awareness around the globe over the last few years & we want to express this in our artistic form. We needed a way to bring it together and form a collective! Now that the platform exists it will allow us to work freely within an environment that has no limitations and gives us total freedom to explore new creative potential!
Sample packs, tutorials, content, garments, music… Is there anyone in Australia running things at this level in D&B?
I don’t think so… we wanted to come with a concept that is different. A lot of people thought it was quite ambitious to cover such a wide field of products although we have enough people with relevant skill around us. I don’t think there’s any drum and bass labels in Australia releasing vinyl (sorry if I’ve missed anyone here)… but, I guess more so working with high profile artists. We’re also making our apparel from raw materials, we have a fashion designer on board & has been working with us to develop our own t-shirt cut the year, we sourced the highest quality fabric we could find & all produced locally.
It all stems from your hard work with Broken Beat Assault experience, right? (Or are they totally separate?)
Although separate entities BBA & Plasma are very much connected, We started BBA just over 10 years ago.. it is an events management and touring agency across the South Pacific primarily focused on all things DnB in Australia & New Zealand. Our Broken Beat Assault events are known for high end production, cutting edge decor, sound & visuals, this being due to the core members of BBA who between us cover a vast range of the key elements – DJ’ing, Sound production, Stage & event management, visual animation and of course the positive vibes! This lead us to our new project – Plasma which represents a collaboration of our artists aswell as a selection of like minded artists from around the globe, Plasma is a vessel for artists to express their talent through a range of music and art mediums. In short BBA looks after all things touring and event based, whilst Plasma incorporates all things creative including the record and clothing label as well as a high end sound production and mastering studio. So the answer would be yes, Both projects are to an extent intertwined which all stems from our passion for DnB, electronic music and arts.
As BBA, can we call you one of Australia’s biggest importers of global D&B?
Well over the years we’ve definitely hosted events for hundreds of UK and international artists in the world of D&B, when we look back at rosters from many years ago right through until current rosters there’s not many that haven’t graced a BBA stage! We’re always looking to find a good blend of artists that we tour which represent both big names and and big shows aswell as putting together smaller, less conventional tours for upcoming artists that we’re feeling their music and want to help them grow and achieve their vision.
Being in operation for 10 years you must have made friendships with every D&B person possible…
Yep, we’ve made a lot of good friends throughout the industry, whether it’s a main act, an agent rep, press contacts, promoters or a punter on the dance floor… the wicked vibes that resonate within our events and project to all of the people involved in the music all around the world and it’s the core reason we continue doing what we do. Our website for events is viewable at http://brokenbeatassault.com
Back to Plasma, you’re clearly launching with a statement of intent – Amoss, yourself. Gamma and Icicle all on one release. Wow. Tell us everything…
Yes definitely, Icicle is a good fired of ours and we’ve really enjoyed working with him over the years. We we’re stoked to receive the remix from him for 001. Amoss are really good guys and making great music… Gamma has been making so much good music at the moment, everything he’s sending is wicked! Gusto, we’ve always enjoyed his rhyming skills & vocal tones which we first heard through his work with DLR. No doubt we’ll be working with these guys moving forward
We’ve got some great stuff planned for the next few releases, again artists we’ve worked with and toured in the past + a load of great up & coming products 🙂 We will focus on the strongest music for vinyl although as time goes on we hope we will be unrestricted to certain genres & tempos.. we’re into anything from 140, minimal, deep house, half speed, hip hop, Ambient etc
How about the physical copies, the special ones with the art print… Tell us about that!
Anyone that’s visited the site will see that we have a large emphasis toward artistic qualities within all the works. Within the project we’re planning to run ‘series’ of Plasma products… Concepts & artwork will be consistent for throughout a release – vinyl, t-shirt, art prints + various cool accessories. It may not be the case for every music release although for various releases this is will be our concept and will falls under our limited edition ‘Artist Series’ of works
Will Australian vinyl fans get the lion’s share of these special packages? Or are you sharing the wealth, so to speak?
No not all… We’ve set the project up to cater for a global market. Our website will be shipping all of our products worldwide! In fact… our vinyl will probably reach EU before it gets to Aus! No doubt we’ll be back in EU next year and we’ll have a load of new stuff for everyone to see… 🙂
And what’s next? Give us your plans for future domination!
As mentioned earlier ‘Plasma’ is chaotic, its direction is undefined although intelligently formulated… We’d love to get more recognition in the fashion industry once the dust settles a little. We’ve got a lot of cool plans in the works! Our first hooded Jacket is being made at the moment from a waterproof nylon material… We’ll be in production with that in the beginning of next year!
Music will be at the forefront of our agenda although Apparel, Digital Media (Sample Packs, Tutorials etc), Studio work & any various creative avenues will no doubt be providing us with plenty to do over the years to come!