Burning brightly over the past years Mutated Forms have provided some thrilling, challenging & elusive D&B moments: part super-gully, part dizzyingly euphoric, and never off the radar of a certain Grooverider. Why? Because the music is pretty astounding live. Check the remix of ‘Glory Days’ aaaaaand the notorious ‘Wastegash’… we’ll come to that. Mutated Forms are a part of a brill comp dropping on Spearhead soon entitled TEN alongside the likes of Robert Manos, Kubiks, Seba, Nymfo, Netsky, S.P.Y… but for now let’s see what’s been happening.
Mutated Forms: what’s new?
We’re going great! Me (Artjom) and Zub have recently become a duo… a UK based production duo to be more precise. So no more confusion there. We’ve just released our first sample collection for Loopmasters.
Our next release is going to be ‘Need The Time’ on the TEN album on Spearhead and most importantly we’ve signed an album deal with Spearhead with an EP being just round the corner.
So tell us about ‘Need The Time’: what inspired it?
The fact that we got tired of making 120-130 stuff as Undercut and really felt like giving D&B another bash after a much-needed holiday mainly.
Apparently it started as a garage style beat under our alias, but I don’t remember that. Kind of felt like making something on that oldschool liquid/old Hospital records vibe and people seem to like the track. Can’t wait for it to come out now!
How did the linkup to Spearhead come about, going back? The TEN comp is big.
We’ve worked with them quite a lot in the past. I think we have released two singles and two remixes with Spearhead before. Back then the label was BCee’s hobby on the side. Ever since he started doing it full-time the label has grown so much it can now easily be called one of the biggest and main labels in D&B. I think everyone can agree there’s plenty of great music in their back catalogue.
We were weighing up options for the album ever since we got the famous kick up the arse from Chris who motivated us to started doing an album.
Got to play at two Spearhead nights recently and these were easily some of the best D&B nights we’ve been to in ages.
Then what happened?
On one severely hungover afternoon after a three night bender we made a mission to Norfolk and finally popped down to the Spearhead HQ. Sat down, had a great chat with Steve BCee and his plans made perfect sense for us. Pretty much made the decision amongst us there and then. Us having the luxury of speaking a language he doesn’t understand… but gave it 24 hours before finally confirming that we’re gonna go for it.
So tell us more about the ep?
Just sent the premasters for our forthcoming EP off to Spearhead. Apparently this is coming out scarily soon. After that we’re just working hard to get the album ready.
I genuinely believe the EP is shaping up to be one of the best Mutated Forms releases to date.
Glory Days (Netsky Remix)
I know you’ve always been about tearing down walls and having fun with D&B… I’m still hurt not only by ‘Wastegash’ but the remixes too and I think I recall Rockwell dropping some of those on the radio and it sounded so killer.
‘Wastegash’ was a lot of fun. J started as a purposely horrible wobbly dubstep track, made it as a joke, in one night. Only used six channels in total. The title was inspired by a conversation I had with my mate James Stanza, who explained a confused foreigner what the word means.
We spoke about ‘Wastegash’ in the past…
I remember. I kept thinking that site is called ‘Fried My Little BRITAIN’ for some reason. Must have watched a lot of ‘Little Britain’ at the time.
Rockwell will always be a big inspiration to us: one man who likes to push boundaries and you can’t go wrong with his ridiculous engineering.
Speaking of, what production tips would you impart?
We both have pretty basic studio set ups. Both believe that it’s more about your ability to use the DAW of your choice than the amount of toys you have in the studio.
As for tips – patience. Have some bloody patience and work on your craft, your tracks and your mixdowns before sharing the track with everyone on the internet.
What things inspire you in D&B right now?
I like a lot of the stuff on Shogun Audio, Critical, obviously Spearhead and BMT Music… Kimyan Law’s album was killer. The latest various artists album by Hospital was great.
Calibre will always have a special place in our hearts… couldn’t find a less cheesier way to put this, sorry.
DRS & LSB ‘The View’ (feat Tyler Daley) is probably my favourite track at the minute. I love that chorus so much!
What are some memories of the recent past in D&B that you have? Inclusive of road stories.
For me personally, doing a little tour in New Zealand in 2011 with Ben Drumsound, Phaeleh and Tali was a massive highlight. I’m yet to see a country half as stunning as NZ!
There was a gig we did in Turin, Italy for a wicked promo group called The Dreamers that reminded us how fun it actually is to do gigs around Europe and what it feels like when you see people your music actually means so much to that made us take our music more seriously and what gave us hope for the future of Mutated Forms. This needs to be read out whilst listening to sad/sentimental music in the background.
Funnily enough, that was also the last proper funny story I remember!
Go on…
We got back to the hotel, probably a strong 9/10 on the shitfaced-o-meter, drank the remaining beers from our mini bar, pre-ordered a cab for 7.40. Both set several alarms to make sure we don’t miss our cab and flight and went to bed…
I wake up in horrible agony, screaming as I’ve had a really bad spasm in my right calf. Looked at the time –7:40! Turns out I’ve set two alarms to every single day of the week, except for Sunday. Obviously, this was a freakin’ Sunday!
Ran to the receptionists’ desk, he confirmed that the taxi is outside and that Zub hasn’t left his room yet. Knocked on this door, he gets up looking like shit and starts giving me grief about not waking him up. He slept through three alarms!
We had to pack all of our stuff in like two minutes. Went to the airport, I limped it to the gate, so yeah…
The morale of the story is: leg spasms, officially more reliable than alarm clocks!
OK, any shouts and stuff you’d add?
Shout out to my housemate Matt ‘Kanza’ for pretty much turning my life into a weird version of Peep Show. Shouts to Stanza for making me look at mixing from a completely different perspective and letting me be his embarrassing entourage and many fun gigs in the past.
Shouts to Chris Blu Mar Ten for inspiring us to start writing an album, shout out to Steve BCee and Spearhead for becoming the new home for said album. Shouts to Tom & Dave who run GRAM for linking us up with some pretty cool stuff in the past and shouts to my mum for raising such a bloody legend!
