It’s time, once again, for Positive Vibes: a chance for artists to share their sunny side and let us know what tunes truly make them buzz… No matter what type of mood they’re in. Today we’re chatting to Xtrah, a man who’s seemingly unstoppable with his blisteringly stark and devilishly dark releases right now.
After his killer double A on Modulations earlier on this year comes Harsh Reality. A tag team tear-up with Foreign Concept, complete with a killer sample from Terra Firma’s Khyber Smirnoff, it’s been brewing in the big guns’ bag for a few months and is now available on Critical’s obese Sequence Two EP.
“We only finished it four months ago. It was a very quick turn around, Kasra’s on it like that!” grins Xtrah, or Yasin as he’s known to his mates. “We made it nice and quick too; couple of sessions and that was it. I’m very proud of it. Being on the same release with artists as big as Enei and Spectrasoul is a very good feeling!”
And once you’ve checked that. Look out for future sizzlers from Xtrah. Forthcoming vibes include a remix of Break’s Something New on Symmetry, more collabos with Codebreaker and a remix of TeeBee. Naturally there’s plenty of Xtrah beats bubbling in the Critical cauldron, but in a standard D&B manoeuvre, Yasin’s lips are sealed.
“I’m not sure what I can confirm so let’s just leave it at that for now,” he chuckles. “To be honest I’ve just moved into a nice new studio but it’s mad getting my head around it. It’s a nightmare; I’m used to making tunes in a noisy house with kids running around but in silence? Man, it’s nuts!”
Before we leave him to get his head around his new laboratory, we prised three super positive vibes from him. A far cry from his deep and dark releases, this is an extra side to Xtrah. Enjoy…
Gotye – Somebody I Used To Know
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY
“Well this is a bit of a guilty pleasure. He’s certainly not drum & bass! His whole album is really, really good. It’s new but old sounding, he does it all himself with samples and makes multi samples out of instruments and it can’t help but fail to put me in a good mood. His whole album Making Mirrors is amazing but this is a particularly good one. It’s quite a big tune man. Wicked vibes.”
Prodigy – Voodoo People
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DYwrMbemG4
“They never fail to put me in a positive place! Just knowing what they were making the tunes on blows your mind a bit. Pure simplicity. Nothing fancy or over technical, just raw vibes; get the vibe down and nail. Know what I mean?”
Empire of the sun – We Are The People
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN5X4kGhAtU
“Are these a guilty pleasure? I don’t think so. Making the type of music I make, I think people expect me to just be sitting in a dark room listening to death metal all day! That’s not the case, man. I listen to normal music a lot of the time. I think they’re a wicked band and this is especially good. I’ve never seen them live. I’d like to; they’d be perfect for those hands in the air, rocking out. Perfect festival vibes. Oh man, you’re almost making me wanna go for a cider now mate!”
Critical Presents Sequence Two is out now. Listen and download here.
