‘We don’t like to look backwards: always looking to the future. But with a sense of apprehension’
Slider & Expose have emerged from the bunker, blinking and rubbing eyes as they adjust to normality, and who could blame them? Especially after rounding up the likes of Acid Lab, Akinsa and Antagonist (the A Team?) to assemble the ominous, oxidised metal structures which comprise the new Future Tense ep on their label, Turbine.
Yet another wicked release here from the TURBINE… the emphasis on the totally unexpected, and a great array of atmospheres. When did it start to come about?
Many thanks Damian. The turbine music releases come together quite naturally really. This one in particular was selected from around eight tunes, the rest of which will see the light of day in the coming months.
All of the tracks had the ability to interchange on an EP but the four we settled on for Future Tense seemed to complement each other just a little more.
The array of guests here is ace, who is here and could you talk us through them?
Absolutely. Antagonist dropped us a few tunes and we loved ‘Lucid’ so signed it pretty much that day.
Acid Lab has always been on point with all his tunes; the man is a machine and probably rolls out a couple of tunes a day!
‘Subversion’ retains old skool sounds but twists them up to give it a more ‘2015’ feel.
Akinsa is a new guy from Brighton who really impressed us with ‘Interstat’, a really well-produced tune with all the right elements on the minimal tip. We can’t wait to hear more from him with a solo EP in the works.
And ourselves, Slider & Expose! We’ll let you guys judge for yourselves but it has a moody feel to it with aggressive undertones. The drums are quite hypnotic and it cuts through nice on a big rig.
The Antagonist tune is f*cking amazing, like nothing have heard before…
Mike Antagonist is someone who’s been repping his particular style of dnb for quite a while now.
We actually released a few of his first releases on the rotate EP pt 1&2 a couple of years back. ‘Lucid’ is a monster, with its sinister string intro and heavy drop it is bang on what we are into for Turbine Music.
And no he hasn’t sampled the Reece from ‘Shadow Boxing’!
What’s some films or TV you’re into? I get such great mental imagery from your music/releases that I feel there’s a connection.
‘Kitchen Sink’ films like Saturday Night, Sunday Morning to the more darker films of today. We watched a film called Piggy the other day, a vigilante story, sort of Dead Man’s Shoes but even darker.
The thing about British Films at the moment is a lot have been made on small budgets with often fantastic results.
I did a day’s extra work on a film that was shot in Hull: a great insight into the hard work it takes to get a film made.
Speaking of dark films, could you take us through your tune ‘The Wrath’? Is the title inspired by anything similar?
It was actually a working title that we ended up keeping. It came from a four line lyric we originally recorded but subsequently removed.
We decided the tune stood up without the need for the vocal track.
The process for the tune was quite quick looking back. We had the main hook laid down in a few hours and we gave it a fresh mixdown and arranged it a few weeks after. One of those rare occasions where it all just clicks!
Tell me about how you guys approach at production & what’s your setup like?
Well, we have changed our approach a lot over the years. We work apart a lot then bring the ideas, loops and the like to our main studio.
Alternatively we may just go straight into the main studio together and start something from scratch. It’s a cliché but must say that we rarely go in with the intention of starting something dark, something minimal, a roller and so forth.
As a starting point it could be a sample, a break or a lush synth sound or a recorded vocal and it evolves from there. 99% of the time, a final tune will sound nothing like the original loop it came from which I think most producers will agree with.
We tend to start stripping things back after layering tons of ideas and have found Ableton’s workflow is key to that.
We work pretty fast, just can’t think of anything more boring than working on a snare for an entire afternoon before you have even made a loop!
Getting something down to get our head nodding comes first, the graft comes later so to speak. Set up wise, it’s mainly software-based.
Can you give some examples of what you use?
VSTs – can’t live without the FabFilter Pro-Q, also anything from 8dio for great-sounding cinematic strings – but we run our mixdowns through our soundcraft desk and compressor to warm up the sound, we have lots of hardware bits & bobs that have used and still use.
Working a mix with hardware and pushing the sound is something we enjoy and it has obvious benefits. we also have a tasty record collection that goes from jazz fusion, krautrock through to soundtracks and everything in between. We use that daily for sourcing samples and inspiration.
What D&B in general is killing you right now, what names are hitting the spot?
A lot! From people like Skeptical, Blocks & Esher,Ulterior Motive, Calibre, Ivy Lab, Mikal, FD, Break.
To artists we’ve worked with at Dust/Turbine. Clima, Red Army, Acid Lab AKA Ahmad, Gerwin, Spirit to name a few.
Back to the ep, what inspired the EP title, Future Tense? I feel it’s rather apt with the implied tension and if I visualised it then I’m in some gritty/steely/hi tech interstellar mining craft…
‘Steely and gritty’ is a part of it for sure; when the four tunes came together we wanted a name to compliment it.
We don’t like to look backwards, always looking to the future but with a sense of apprehension. You like to think it’s going to be fantastic in the future but it’s a f*cked up world and that apocalyptic feeling always creeps in!
OK so speaking of the future, what’s next from the label?
Next for the labels we have a Dust Audio 12” in production with Ink, Gremlinz & Ahmad AKA Acid Lab with Slider & Expose, Clima and Red Army tunes on the flip.
It’s an ambitious 12″ but it’s a banger.
Many thanks to everyone who has supported the labels these last few years and big ups Damian and DNBA.