It’s a Rep Your Roots Special!
Another Rep Your session, but this one comes with a twist… Usually a platform for the community to big up a slice of their most influential musical moments, today’s blog comes from Major Look, the new outfit from Crystal Clear and Stapleton.
“We’ve performed as Crystal Clear & Stapleton for so long so now it’s like we’re starting again!” laughs Mr Clear. “So we’re trying to introduce ourselves to as many people as possible and let people know who we are. We’ve upped our game a bit and our sound is really taking shape. We’ve wanted to take our music to wider audience for a long time. This is just our way of doing it. We could’ve done what we were doing forever but sometimes you have to take a step back to move forward. We really want to take it fully live, and do something different.”
For a taste of their new found flavours, check their new single Never Hold Us Back. Out next week it’s the follow up to the equally banging Hush Ya Gums which is available right here
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v90p9bZC1eY
“Our tastes have changed,” says Clear. “We’re into everything from grime and rap to house and electro. It’s all featured in our radar and we want our freedom to do what we want to do. It’s a question of which direction we want to take it in.”
One thing’s for sure; their sizzling electronic roots haven’t left them. Crystal Clear takes us back to 1996 when he caught the D&B buzz…
“I started getting into the tune by a mate of mine’s brother. We’d see him come back from those big outdoor raves and we thought ‘what’s that all about?’ He bought this AWOL live CD with a tune called The Hunter by DJ Biggs.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIpfkfHoV88
“The CD had the crowd recorded so it was like we were in the rave! Hearing the reaction to when the bass came in was incredible! I was coming from a rock background and it was like nothing I’d ever heard! So we started tinkering on the decks, some shitty old Kam beltdrives. If you can mix on them, you can mix on anything! After a bit of tinkering with the jungle on them I started raving at parties like World Dance. I remember going into the main room for the first time and being blown away. They’d spend as much on the lights as they would on the soundsystems. Seeing Hype smash the rave up and Stevie Hyper D and everyone, I was like ‘I’ve found my place!’”
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWvY9kA8A4M
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP_aP5KnTh0
“Set Speed on V, Reach Out on Playaz…. This really was D&B’s golden era. I was working in a record shop at the time; Nine Bar Records, in Epsom. I remember hanging around and waiting for the collection of white labels to come in on Fridays so I could have my cut put aside for me. I had a show on Shadow FM which is where I first met Zen and Twisted Individual. I remember having the records and not being able to wait for the Sunday show!”
Never Hold Us Back is out next week on Cold Blooded Recordings