4Dcast #004: Mortal Grey - Phantom Hertz Recordings Special

It’s been too long since the last 4Dcast, and after the success of their most recent compilation (‘The Deep End Vol. 1’) to mark the beginning of a new catalog series of deeper releases, I thought it was only right to get Phantom Hertz (and more recently Gradient Audio) bossman Mortal Grey on #004…

Dusk FM - 4D Show - 14.03.13

Sticking with my promise of uploading every 4D Show from now onwards, here is last week’s - out to those who locked at the time - was a big one..

Tracklist -
-N-Dread – Girl VIP [ICU Audio]
-N-Dread – Oceans Eleven [Smokin’ Sessions]
-Jafu – No More [Soulstep]
-Inkarv – Inner Being [Vulcan Audio]
-B9 & Hadda – Intelex [DUB]
-M.A.K.Z. – Time Difference [DUB]
-Trashbat – Orange Skies Of Days Forgotten [Mindstep]
-Christopher Yikes – Dimensions [Forthcoming Phantom Hertz]
-Lysergene – Aurora [Forthcoming Phantom Hertz]
-P Money – Boo You [Butterz]
-D-Operation Drop – Rhyno [DUB]
-DubApes – Africa Calling (Sparxy Remix) [Forthcoming Bacon Dubs]
-Dead Noise System – Kung-Fu [DUB]
-Juss B – Hide n Seek [DUB]
-Subreachers – Annular [DUB]
-Shu – Lapse [Forthcoming Bassliebe]
-K-Lone – Riviera [Free DL]
-Ribz – Shot To Get Paid [Pitch Controller]
-Ruff Sqwad – Cheque [No Hats No Hoods]
-Preditah – Sword [Earth 616]
-Beneath – Wonz [Keysound]
-Happa – Beat Of The Drum [Church]
-Funkystepz – Bizzaro [Forever Live Young]
-Mak & Pasteman – Do The Same [Shifting Peaks]
-Lamont – Broken [DUB]
-Vaun – Colourful [Redshift-One]
-Nanobyte – Lost Time (Anex’s ‘Push Up Ya Lighters’ Remix) [Hedmuk Freebie]
-Deafblind – Before The Crash [Forthcoming Sub Pressure]
-Mishva – Civilization (Drooka & M.A.K.Z. Remix) [DUB]
-Kong – Learn From Each Other [DUB]
-DubApes feat. The Paranox – Mercy [Forthcoming Bacon Dubs]
-D-Operation Drop – Defection [DUB]
-Dead Noise System – Photon [DUB]
-Creep n00m – Submarine [DUB]
-FJH – Kraski [DUB]
-Duckem – Galaxy VIP [DUB]
-Jafu – Impulse [Sub Pressure]
-Aiko – Black Sand [DUB]
-Drooka – Grail [DUB]
-Drooka – Amun [DUB]
-Drooka – Bandulu [DUB]
-Mishva – Ghosts [DUB]
-D-Operation Drop – 786 [Forthcoming Soulstep]
-Juss B – Ritual [DUB]
-Deafblind – What Everyone Sees (M.A.K.Z. Remix) [DUB]
-Arkwright – Retaliate [Forthcoming Imperial Audio]
-Preditah – Rubicon [Earth 616]
-Tunnidge – Dark Future [Chestplate]
-Distance – No Sunshine [Chestplate]
-Fat Freddy’s Drop – Cay’s Crays (Digital Mystikz Remix)
-Deco – Consciousness Dub [Deceast]
-Mala – Education [DMZ]
-Mentha – Tale [DUB]
-Geode – Aliased Fever [Forthcoming Innamind]
-Lost – Fuzzy Feeling [H.E.N.C.H]
-Swindle & Sam Frank – Toungue Tied [Butterz Freebie]

Available to stream here - http://www.mixcloud.com/MAKZ_/dusk-fm-4d-show-140313/

And download here - http://www.mediafire.com/?a4zv213t6snsn63

- Max -

Dusk FM - 4D Show - 24.01.13

Finally got round to upping the next Dusk FM show in the archive from a couple of weeks ago - this one was big for those who weren’t locked at the time: first hour was a bit of a history lesson - contained some classics/percys of mine from the likes of Distance, Cyrus, Mala, Goth-Trad, Loefah and V.I.V.E.K - second hour was full of the usual freshness..

Apologies about the lack of a tracklist, but can stream the mix here - http://www.mixcloud.com/MAKZ_/dusk-fm-dddd-show-240113/

- Max -

Two features on here in a week must be a new record - I’m always slow at getting round to the interview section, but I hope this makes up for it.. Owner/founder of rising internet radio station Dusk FM ‘Ostra’ provided us with the third installment of the DDDDcast series, and if you caught the mix you’ll know it was a big one - here’s the words to accompany…

D - Easy Fin, how’s yourself today?

O - Yeah, all good mate thanks.

D - First off, for those who aren’t sure – what’s your name and where do you come from?

O - I’m Finlay Reid aka ‘Ostra’ and I come from Surrey but currently based in Birmingham.

D - What got you into DJing in the first place? When did you start?

O - I started DJing when I was about 16. Back then a few mates of mine had just started messing around on a controller and I joined in. About a year later I had saved up for a second hand pair of 1210’s and just went from there.

D - How would you best describe your mixing style? What kind of music do you prefer to play out – strictly the deep 140 sounds? Or do you like to mix it up? (No pun intended haha)

O - Hmm, my mixing style varies depending on what I’m feeling that day and other important factors like the crowd. I do prefer playing out the deep 140 sound and most the time it’s what I play, but I do have a small collection of drum & bass and some darker house, which I’ve been slowly expanding.

D - Very topical question, but which do you prefer when playing out – CD or vinyl? What’s been your most memorable gig?

O - I prefer playing out on CD’s, its simpler, with vinyl there always seems to be a problem, most of the decks at clubs are worse for wear. I prefer playing on vinyl at home, there is something about it! Sometimes I’ll bring a few records to a gig. As for my most memorable set - this is quite hard to choose, they all have left me with good memories, but I think either my first gig which was the 2012 Outlook launch party in Birmingham, it was the first time I had played out on such a big system in a warehouse. Or the Rainbow warehouse showcase, they had a stage on the street, all my mates from home came up and the vibe was incredible. Both events were Seedy Sonics, these guys put on great nights and I owe a lot to them.

D - So you own the new internet radio station Dusk FM (which you’ve kindly allowed me to have a show on as well – cheers for that mate ;)), but how did that all come about?

O - Yeah, no worries man, good to have you on board. I think it was the end of summer when the idea started forming. The thought at first was to give DJs, producers and promoters a platform in Birmingham to go on air and to be a foothold for underground music. That still is the ethos of Dusk. So I asked a few people if they wanted to play and went ahead and secured the domain name and hosting. From there it was a sort of ‘learn as we go’ process. It’s all worked out so far.

D - The deep, minimal dubstep sound is ever expanding, but who would you say your top 3 producers to watch in 2013 are and why?

O -

- Mesck – He makes sick tunes! If you haven’t heard it already check out his recent release and you’ll understand why.

- Format – Yeah again the bits I’ve heard are solid; interested to hear what comes this year.

- Deafblind – Again, the bits I’ve heard are sick. I’m sure we’ll see some cool collabs and nice tunes this year.

D - What are your top 5 most favourite tracks of the last year? And your top 5 most favourite to play out?

O - A lot of these cross over so I’ll only mention 5. There are so many other good tracks to play out as well.

- Proxima – ‘Lie Detection’ (This tune goes off)

- Biome – ‘Shaman’ (Everything he is putting out is good though)

- J:Kenzo – ‘Indaverz’ (Remember first hearing this at cable, again, a lot of what he puts out is great)

- LX One – ‘Losing Control’ (Really liked this release)

- Kryptic Minds – ‘Rule of Language’ (This one’s sick)

D - What does the future hold for Ostra and Dusk FM? Any exciting new projects/shows/gigs you got coming up?

O - Yeah I think so, Dusk FM is taking over room 2 at the next Origins night, 1st February. The line up is huge in both rooms, if you’re in the area you should come down. Paradub needs a mention here too; with MJ Cole booked for the next night on February 8th.

Looking to the future, I hope to see Dusk FM grow. A continuation of the t-shirt series we just launched working with more artists. Perhaps in the future, we will start up our own night. It would be a small and intimate sort of night if we did, but yeah stay tuned for more info on that.

Finally big up to all the Dusk FM family and those that have supported us over this short space of time.

And if you missed Ostra’s mix you can catch it again here - http://soundcloud.com/deepdarkdungeondubstep/ddddcast-003-ostra-dusk-fm-special

Tracklist -
-Widowmaker – Bionic 2099 [Kaium]
-Mesck – No Shelter [Deceast]
-Format – Warpath [DUB]
-Skeptix & Fused Forces – Medusa [DUB]
-Content – Orthogonal [Free DL]
-Asylum – Salvage [Uprise Audio]
-Youngsta – Poseidon [Tempa]
-Soap Dodgers – Contact [Tempa]
-Biome – Shaman [On The Edge]
-Deafblind & Mesck – Light & Sound [DUB]
-Proxima – Lie Detection [Tempa]
-Digid – The Void [DUB]
-Reamz – Atonement [DUB]
-Hiloxam – Rainmaker [DUB]
-Arkwright – Retaliate [Forthcoming Imperial Audio]
-Proxima – Grunge [Tempa]
-Kryptic Minds – The Divide [Osiris]
-Vicious Circle – Hibernation [Crunch]
-Biome & Thelem – Juganu [New Moon]
-Format – Outsiders (feat. Fix) [DUB]
-Deco & Mesck – The Way We Fall [Deceast]

You can also find out more about him and his radio station if you follow these links -

- http://soundcloud.com/finlay-reid -

- http://soundcloud.com/ostra -

- http://www.facebook.com/DuskFM?fref=ts -

- http://twitter.com/Dusk_FM -

- http://www.duskfm.net/home/ -

Interview with Vanity

It’s been a long time coming, but Vanity’s interview to accompany his mix for the series is finally online.. I’ve been a big supporter of Leicester based producer/DJ Vanity (aka Matt Oliver) since I first heard his Phantom Hertz release (‘Fifth Dimention’ / ‘The First Step’) some months back, so it was great to get some words off him…

D - First of all – tell us a bit more about yourself and your productions…

V - I’m an 18 year old producer/DJ from Leicester. I make music around the 140 bpm mark, whether it’s dubstep or 2-step garage - I’ll leave it up for you to decide. I started making music about two years ago now, it came about through a mate introducing me to it and giving me a copy of FL Studio version 6 I think it was. We used to spend every lunch hour at school in the music suite making tunes on Cubase and Reason. I never took it too seriously at this time, we were just making really bad electro house stuff. It wasn’t till a year ago that I started writing tunes that where sounding pretty decent, I was in my second year at College studying Music Technology at this point. I got a cheap Mac and a copy of Logic about 8 months ago and wrote my first track on my Soundcloud which was a remix of Blu Mar Ten’s ‘All Or Nothing’ which is a free download. A month later I wrote another remix, this time of Fetch’s – ‘Just Sit With It’, which is also up for free download. One of my mates at college then introduced me to a pair of producers known as ‘Kryptic Minds’ - I imagine anyone reading this will have heard of the duo, if not check them out! The sound that these guys where making was like nothing I have ever heard before, and after listening to their whole back catalogue I wrote the tracks ‘Fifth Dimension’ and ‘The First Step’, which later went on to be released by Phantom Hertz Recordings in May 2012. I have done a couple of remixes for Kev Willow’s label ‘Viral Beat Recordings’, one of which is forthcoming at the end of this month. More recently I have just released a tune named ‘Shelter’ which is another free download, it features vocals from Charlotte Rawling and has had some love and support from BBC Radio One.

“…this is where music and technology are going in terms of live performance for me, technology now-a-days makes it easy to do anything.”

D - What got you into the deeper, darker dubstep sounds? What inspired you to start DJing?

V - As I touched on a mate from college showed me some of Kryptic Minds’ tunes and gave me a couple of their albums. I then started trying to write this sort of music, it just felt right you know? To be honest with you now-a-days I don’t listen to much dubstep at all, I try and keep myself away from it all otherwise I tend to get too influenced by other producers’ sounds. I guess this way you make it the way you think it should sound rather than how other people want it to sound. I’ve always been a producer first, DJing comes after production for me. I wouldn’t say anything inspired me to start DJing as such, I mean I really enjoy it and it’s a great way to showcase new material to your fans. Currently I’m leaning over more to live performance stuff on Ableton, I love the idea of mixing and remixing tracks live, this is where music and technology are going in terms of live performance for me, technology now-a-days makes it easy to do anything.

D - How would you describe your production style?

V - My productions usually sound deep and dark, I’ve usually been better at making darker sounding tracks rather than chilled ones. Although in saying that, my latest track was quite laid back, so I guess I don’t really have a style in a sense. I like to spend time on my drums; it’s the little things that really stand out in tunes for me. I record a lot of my drums and percussion hits myself with a little portable recorder, I try and stay away from samples when it comes to drums. I like to keep my drums sounding fresh and interesting rather than just using a kick, snare, hats, shakers etc. - that gets boring for me.

D - When starting to build a new track, how do you go about the process?

V - I start with a template that has all my buses and send effects loaded up, which saves me a lot of time. I always start on my drums first, go into my sample library of field recordings and get something flowing. I’ll then move onto pads and atmospheres and maybe some music. Bass would come next, and then the effects. Every track is different but I usually start on the drop or the main 32 bars of the track and then work backwards.

“Dubstep for me is whatever you want it to be, it depends on the individual.”

D - Where do you see the future of dubstep going? Do you think the minimal sound we all know and love will eventually fade away and make way for something new?

V - I don’t know man, I mean who knows? I hope not haha, but no genre stays around forever. I don’t think it will disappear as such - I think the fans will just move on to newer things. I mean trap has been making an appearance in a few of the sets I have been hearing, a few people have even described it as the ‘new dubstep’, which I wouldn’t agree with. People are always looking to jump on the next bandwagon when it comes to music I think. Dubstep for me is whatever you want it to be, it depends on the individual.

D - What new, up-and-coming producers and labels have caught your eye recently and why?

V - In dubstep there’s of course Phantom Hertz; ever since releasing on them myself I have been following their material, the last few ‘Low Voltage’ releases have been amazing! The stuff Redshift One has been putting out has also been wicked, been hearing loads of good stuff from labels such as Artikal Music UK, Echodub, Innamind Recordings, Tribe 12 Music, Viral Beat Recordings, Solace Records and Mu Djina - which is co-owned by Camu, a good friend of mine. If you haven’t heard of Camu yet, head over to his Soundcloud (http://soundcloud.com/camu) and check out his material, make sure you check out Mu Djina’s first release over on their Bandcamp too (http://mudjina.bandcamp.com/), mastered by myself. There are many up and coming artists that are always catching my eye such as Cyntel, SHD, SpiritLess, Nixisin, Musslo, Kismet, Biak, M.A.K.Z., Al-Jabbah, Darj, Zoobi, Camu, Decka, Nutral, PJ, Midnight South, Ajaax, BunZer0, Charlotte Rawling, Disonata, Forensics, Greyscale, Hex, Jafu, Content, Tallan, Mortal Grey and Syte - big love and respect to you all! Also want to say a massive thanks to Liquid Fusiion/Fusiion Mixes, FatKidOnFire, Girl8bit and Mr. Suicide Sheep for all the support!

D - Any new exciting forthcoming projects/releases you can tell us about?

V - Not much going on at the minute, I’ve got a forthcoming remix out on Viral Beat Recordings at the end of the month (October), and a forthcoming Dubstep release which will be out before the end of the year. I have a few collaborations in progress, but nothing too serious as of yet.

D - What does the future hold for Vanity?

V - Lots more releases and bookings hopefully! I’m planning on getting loads more music out next year, I’ve had chats with a few labels to hopefully get a 4 track EP out by May time next year, with a couple of singles released in the meantime. I’m planning on doing more tracks with Charlotte, as well as with other vocalists after the great response from the last track we made together. I also plan to start accepting bookings early next year so you may see my name on a few flyers, one of my mates is just about to start up a night in Leicester too which he wants me to be a part of, so that will be interesting. I’ve also been in discussion with online bass music radio stations about getting regular slots every week, so lots to look forward to in 2013!

And if you haven’t already, go check Matt’s guest mix for the series which you can listen to & download here - http://soundcloud.com/deepdarkdungeondubstep/dddd-mix-series-007-vanity

Tracklist -
-Truth – Don’t Explain (Riskotheque & Marchmellow Remix) [Love Sick]
-TMSV – All It Takes [Box Clever]
-Seven – Evolution [Black Box]
-Sleeper – Zombies [Chestplate]
-Nanobyte – Stolen [Redshift One]
-V.I.V.E.K – Out Of Reach [Deep Medi]
-Nanobyte – Tek - 1 [Innamind]
-Seven – Came To Play [Black Box]
-N-Dread – Hypnotize [M.U.D]
-Icicle – Together In The Dust [Shogun Audio]
-Cyntel – Hysteria [DUB]
-Skream – Abstruse [Tempa]
-Lurka & Commodo – Airtight [Black Box]
-Anex & Disonata – Tiers [DUB]
-J:Kenzo – Ruffhouse [Tempa]
-Tallan – Pivot [DUB]
-Nixsin & Wolf – Guess Who’s Back [DUB]
-Kryptic Minds – The Talisman [Tectonic]
-Vanity – Fifth Dimension [Phantom Hertz]
-Razor Rekta – Loko Motiv [Chestplate]
-Biome & Dcult – Persepolis [M.U.V]
-DJ Madd – The Life You Chose [Black Box]
-Killawatt – 71 [Wheel & Deal]
-Benton – 20/20 [Wheel & Deal]
-Nixsin – Scopolamine [DUB]
-SHD – Magnetor [DUB]
-SP:MC – Trust Nobody [Tempa]
-Cyntel – Rollin [DUB]
-Truth – Haarp [Artikal Music]
-Kismet - Untitled (DDDD Exclusive Download)
-Kryptic Minds & Youngsta – Surge [Osiris Music]
-Fable – Roots [Redshift One]
-Congo Natty – Marcus Garvey (DJ Madd Remix) [FREE DL]
-Kahn – Polar [Electronic Explorations]
-Phaeleh – Orchid [Electronic Explorations]

You can also listen to & download Vanity’s collaboration with Charlotte Rawling, entitled ‘Shelter’, here - http://soundcloud.com/vanityuk/shelter4

Finally, for more info on Vanity and his future releases/projects check these links -

- http://soundcloud.com/vanityuk -

- http://www.facebook.com/VanityMusicUk -

- http://twitter.com/vanitydub -

- http://vanityuk.bandcamp.com/ -

Once again respect out to Vanity and to those who have read this and heard the mix - big up!!