Mikal – flanked with transcontinental cohorts Nymfo and RIOT no less – has recently resurfaced with a new trinity of tunes for Headz, as fresh and precision-honed as they are floor-effective.
Check the lead tune, ‘Where They At’ for yourself, and imagine this full force coming at you on a decent rig…
I hear you’ve been busy?
Let’s just say I’ve been indoors for a long time writing my album.
We’ll come back to that, but first I have to ask about the collabs here with Nymfo and RIOT, when did you make contact?
It all happened quite quickly really.
We sent the stems back and forth via email. Nymfo and I have worked with each other before. We wrote ‘Clear’ together for my Immaterial ep last year.
It’s been so easy and fresh to work with both RIOT and Nymfo that we’ve just carried on writing together and we’re already working on new material.
How did you meet RIOT?
I met RIOT because my other half knows him and she introduced me.
He’s a DJ, producer and one fourth of Buraka Som Sistema.
Tell us more about this, and about the track you worked together on, ‘Control of People’?
RIOT is one of the pioneers of the Zouk sound which Buraka Som Sistema a Portuguese based band are renowned for. The easiest way to find out more about them is to watch their Off the Beaten Track documentary
I really wanted to have a go at using D&B sounds in that format and RIOT is a drum and bass producer too. I created a folder of sounds and samples and sent it over to him to get the project started.
After a few days he came back with the basic structure for ‘Control of People’, I added more sounds and finished off the arrangement.
‘The Chosen’ really slays, when did it come into the world? Love the layers of sound on this, of different types and that bass riff is wicked… it all moves and shifts, transitionally.
Cheers, glad you like it! I can’t remember exactly when we got started on that one. It was a work in progress tune for a while but we got it finished not long after I finished my Immaterial ep.
I hear you’re planning an album for Headz? Any sneek peeks?
Yes it’s planned for release this year, not sure when exactly yet. I’m doing a mix for Friction’s radio 1 show and there will be one track on there, you’ll have to hang on for a bit to hear the rest!
What tune’s in your head right now?
EPMD ‘The Big Payback’. Playing in the background too!
httpv://youtu.be/5BZuE4y9V0E
Where They At
BSS image by Goncalo F Santos
