‘I am a drum freak and tend to spend ages on breaks and Taelimb usually makes those disgusterising Reeces and basses’
Who could argue with the methodology?
Time to get properly submerged [or elevated, depending on your perspective] with the new ep from Taelimb and Conscience. Turns out it’s the label’s half century too. About which the label said…
‘Flexout Audio has gained a reputation standing for pushing deep, clean, dark drum and bass with a strong ethos to never be pigeonholed. After nearly five years since the first release FLXA001 from Tru:tek featuring Kasra and label bosses Retraflex the label has reached a milestone in its 50th release. The honour of the 50th release was given to the label’s two staple artists Taelimb & Conscience.’
We got the lowdown about their 4 track EP A Clean Cut, a total dual flexout of an interview it was too.
Hey. The tunes are sooooooo good!
Thanks bro! Glad you like them.
And from the ep, when did ‘Chasing Pads’ come about?
About 500BC.
But no seriously, about two years ago – the final version is about the 6th version we did.
It started out as a mellow-ish tune that I – Conscience – brought round to Taelimb’s and there is literally only one reverse shout in the final version from the original!
It’s morphed between being an Amen tear-out with a Reece to what it is today. We’re happy with the final result though!
I love the space in the sound, the ‘sound design’ the works, so where do you guys collab? It’s a mental vibe on this.
We tend to do the final production and mixes in Taelimb’s bedroom however ‘Chasing’, ‘Tied Down’ and ‘Close’ were all started by Conscience in his kitchen! We often start with an idea of a tune knocked up quite quickly – maybe even up to like 10 tunes that we put in a shared folder online.
We bounce the ideas back and forth until we end up with something we are both into! Then its about booking time to work on them together.
Most of the tracks on the ep are a result of working together at the same time which can mean it will take a long time to finish tracks as our schedules are so tight.
We tend to spend quite a while on the sound design – ‘cos we’re geeks – but I sometimes have to tell Conscience to STOP and actually make some music and get an arrangement going…
What’s it like to work together, what sort of stuff goes down?
Really easy! We both know what we want and work in similar ways – we often have the same vision for the track and instantly know when we have the right elements… ‘cos we’re dancing about the room!
We are into similar styles of D&B and rate production as much as a really “good tune” production isn’t everything – it also helps that we’ve known each other for coming on 15 years,
I am a drum freak and tend to spend ages on breaks and Taelimb usually makes those disgusterising Reeces and basses.
He’s a bit of DON! It works well, we think – we tend to balance each other out so that lends itself to a productive working environment.
I really love ‘Close’, the synths on this, the place it takes me: feel like I’m in an old house in middle of night. What inspired?
Ooh an old house in the middle of the night sounds chilly – be sure to wrap up warm or you’ll catch your death.
Cheers again for the feedback.
I made a version of ‘Close’ in a day. I wanted to make something with an old skool feel to it and with a vocal, and to sit with my other releases ‘U Make Me Feel’ and ‘Without Sleep’. I sent it to Tom and he really liked it.
Taelimb was into it too and we decided to collaborate on it, darken it up a bit.
Taelimb layered a lot of the pads and added some sick bass sounds and I think we finished it in another day or so….and then spent a few months tweaking it here and there after hearing it on a few sound systems and realising it needed MORE BASS!!
So, this is 50 releases on the label! How cool? What does Flexout mean to you?
Conscience: I’m f*cking stoked: it’s a real privilege. FOA put out my first solo release and now for this – so cool. Much respect to Tom and the crew!
Taelimb: Yeah me too, love being involved with the Flexout crew! Everyone involved is so talented and we all get on really well! Flexout have already brought through a large number of artists that have gone on to do great things and to be part of the family means a lot to the two of us.
Looking at their back catalogue – so many sick releases – and it feels like its picking up even more momentum right now – expect BIG TINGS going forward!
What live activity is in the works?
We’re available most weekends but not November 13 as we will be playing at the Flexout Audio night with Survey, Amoss, Fearful, Dexta, Neve, Philth and Retraflex – a sick line up – at Silver Bullet in Finsbury Park.
Every time I listen to this release I get more, just a wash of emotions, tons of thoughts: in my headphones it’s this microgalaxy of sounds, but then wander what it’s like through a live PA? What sort of intensity do you go for, live?
We’ve heard all of the tracks from the ep on relatively big systems now… but would still like to experience hearing them on a massive set at a festival like Outlook. That’d be sick!
Conscience’s remix of Shiver and MTWN’s ‘Falling Down’ was dropped by Bredren at StarWarz – it would have been sick to be there for that!
About playing out – It depends on what time we are playing and what room. We have done a few room two gigs and they can be great as you can experiment a little more and go a bit deeper on the selection. It can also be easier to connect with the crowd.
For Flexout we usually try to pull something out of the bag and kill it as much as possible – but again it really depends on the time we are playing… gotta respect that.
Either way we will drop dubz -testing time!
And we will play a whole spectrum of D&B flavas but try to keep it all mixed really well so it flows!
Back to the ep, ‘Tied Down’ is really like nothing I’ve heard in D&B, the flow, the drama… it sounds sort of snapfrozen from the past but so futuristic too.
Really appreciate that mate! On this one we tried to make a progression on our first joint Flexout release ‘Public Eye’ that came out last year on the Logarithmic 2 EP.
What’s a lasting memory of a Flexout night?
Fre4knc killing it, Amoss killing it, Fearful killing it – just basically everyone killing it all the time – those nights are sick! – and the first time we played for Flexout last year- BIG NIGHT!
Tell us about the cover art of the ep?
Taelimb: It’s black, with a turquoise circle ha ha. BIG Up Charlie – he’s been doing the FOA artwork forever and its sick.
Conscience: It reminds me of Alien… or Prometheus. I love it.
Name some artists that inspire you of any time. Or, if you wish, just right now.
We both have a vast array of musical influences from Ennio Morricone to Metallica.
For D&B right now = Arkaik, Amoss, PTRCL, Philth, Fearful, Bredren, HLZ, Mauoq, Fre4knc, Survey, Shiver, MTWN, Hyroglifics, Tephra & Arkoze, Cid Poitier and LokDon, Homemade weopans – we could keep going… these guys are killing it!
Final shouts?
Massive shout to Retraflex and all the FOA family! Big love! Gotta shout to the FatBack Records crew, Dean Ogre Barrett and Tiffani Juno – look out for Tiffani’s ep early spring next year – also featuring a collab with me and Conscience – non-DnB. And to D&B Arena – long time Big in da game.
Thanks for chatting to us.