Let’s kick off the week with a slice of raw drum & bass brutality courtesy of Audio Danger Records.
Their latest EP, entitled You Are Now Leaving The Future is a five track exercise in forward-thinking, dancefloor-focussed damage. Boasting shades of tech, jump-up, jungle and rolling, it features two tracks from the label’s key player Coda plus contributions from exciting new additions to the Audio Danger family like Version, Bassface Sascha and Cabin Fever.
We reckon it’s one of their most comprehensive, not to mention rugged, D&B releases to date. Don’t take our word for it, though, here’s an audio flavour…
Heavy, right? We thought we’d give the label boss Jimmy Danger a call and see what’s popping.
What’s the story behind your name mate? You weren’t born Jimmy were you?
Haha, no! When I was young people down the street called me Cheeky Jimmy Walker. It stuck. I was Jimmy Geezer for ages when I never took things seriously. Danger actually came about through doing silly things.
What type of dangerous/silly things?
Haha! Well the things I can mention include rollerblading and skate competitions. I’ve broken so many bones. My knees, my wrists, I’ve had stitches many times…
Hold up… Your knees? Massive ouch!
Big time. I broke my tibia and had to have to keyhole surgery on it last year. I was doing a job making loads of furniture and carrying it all about. It turns out I’d been walking around, doing all this heavy work with a fragmented tibia, torn cartilage and a cyst for over two years! It was painful but I did get three weeks off work…
Ha! So, You Are Now Leaving The Future… Nice concept. Brutal beats. What’s behind the theme?
Coming up with concepts is always tricky! You Are Now Leaving The Future suits the EP; there are elements of old skool techniques but it’s also quite futuristic. Are you leaving the future to go to the past or are you leaving the future to go forward? I really like that idea.
It’s actually inspired by quite a famous piece of graffiti near me on the A14, as you’re driving out of Huntingdon. He’s done all sorts of versions of this like Are You From The Future? He’s done them around the country and I’ve got all the artwork, they’ll be the theme for some of our EPs that will be coming out this year. Sadly some idiot has painted over this one with ‘Big Dave’ which is a bit of a shame.
Sad face. Let’s focus on the EP eh? Proper peak-time missiles!
Yes! Hype and Hazard and a lot of the big guys have been supporting Coda for a long time. Actually one track came off the EP because Mampi wanted it for Charge.
You can’t say no to Mampi can you?
No way! I can’t hold Coda back from an opportunity like that.
Tell me about Cabin Fever, this is their label debut, right?
Yeah, they’re great, I’ve been a fan of them for a while now. I did a radio show with them on Origin and was blown away. About 75 per cent of their sets are always dubs, they are such hard workers! They touch a lot of genres, from liquid to techy. We snapped up Life Forms straight away, it’s got such a unique vibe. It’s been played on BBC Introducing recently, actually.
Nice. Now Shodan VIP was first aired on our very own D&BTV wasn’t it?
Yeah we played a very early version on an Audio Danger showcase on D&BTV. Risky heard it and instantly wanted it for a Drum&BassArena compilation. We gave it to him straight away!
My favourite Audio Danger D&BTV memory is the legendary 200th show. Your lyrics were a breath of fresh air at 10am!
Oh man that was good fun! I stayed over at BMK’s gaff, we had an early night and got up early for the show. It had that mad ‘up for work’ vibe I used to get when I was a roofer. We cracked open a tinnie after the set and everyone had been up all night; it was a mad, mad vibe in the studio. Unforgettable.
Let’s talk about Skuff’s album you released last year, Destroy Everything. Your first album release, and a hip-hop one at that. Quite a bold move. Quite scary, too, I’d imagine…
Yeah it was. The whole idea for Audio Danger was for it to be a multi genre label with hip-hop and dubstep but not a lot caught our ears outside of drum & bass. Then Skuff came through this album, we had a few meetings and decided we were a good fit. It’s such a good album. We won third best hip-hop album in the Word Play awards, it was on BBC Introducing, it was one Radio 1Xtra, it was also a discovery piece on Radio 1 so it did really well. We got another great video coming up from it very soon, too. So watch out for that. I’m really proud of it; it’s got some incredible talent on it.
Any more albums or interesting projects lined up?
I can confirm we’ve got something coming up from Dirty Dike. He’s making some big noises in UK hip-hop with his Return Of The Twat LP that he’s touring round the country right now. He’s an old mate from back in the skating days. He’s making mad beats right now too. There’s also something from these guys called Animal Music coming up too.
Sounds interesting. Let’s wrap up with a few light-hearted quizshots… What’s the most dangerous thing about running a label like Audio Danger?
Haha! Well I guess the most dangerous thing is falling out with friends. Trying to keep business and friendships separate can be tricky. Also trying to make bold moves in the scene. I’m just one guy – this isn’t exactly dangerous! Actually, that guy who crashed his car listening to drum & bass in Bristol. I can’t confirm this one hundred per cent but I have it on good authority he was listening to an Audio Danger track.
Ha! Okay, you are now leaving this interview. What’s coming up after You Are Now Leaving The Future?
It’s not 100 per cent confirmed but it will definitely be drum & bass. There’s a lot of things being discussed at the moment, especially in conjunction with our sister label Switch. Stay tuned for more information on that. We’re also launching the new EP at The Fez Club, Cambridge this Thursday so come down and help us celebrate it if you can!
You Are Now Leaving The Future is out now on Audio Danger. Listen and download.