Easy guys, how are things?

You know how it be.

What is Anti Long?

A state of mind. The whole Anti-Long ethos is manifested in our partnership, which offers press services for record labels, website and graphic design, as well as a nice line in T-Shirts Essentially and primarily – a zero tolerance approach to fucking about.

Why did you start it?

We came across a set of statistics that outlined how 1 in 5 people are affected by casual Longness on a daily basis and less than 1 in 20 will think to report it to the authorities. Longness is an epidemic – the music industry especially is suffering from a real crisis at the moment, and with the government too preoccupied with their own long endeavours, we thought we’d shoulder the burden personally and start putting wrongs to right.

Where do you want to take it?

To the very top. Cameron, we see you.

You have close ties to the more experimental side of Manchester’s Electronic music scene with the PYC Sessions blog and I know you’ve done nights with that. However, will there be Anti Long nights to come?

We’re thinking more about seminars and self help tape packs before we concentrate on club nights, but those PYC boys (www.facebook.com/pycsessions”> have a couple of very exciting things in the pipeline, which we’re assisting with, so keep watch for big news coming soon.

Any shout outs or the like?

To everyone who knows the dangers of living long. To 45hz for keeping it real. To anyone who’s ever looked to the sky and screamed “WHYYYYYYY” while being longed off; to anyone who’s ever waited all day for a “guaranteed” response to something, or been stuck at a train station for three hours because their mate overslept then left the house without their phone – we feel you.

Anti Long Site
Anti Long T-Shirt Store
Anti Long Facebook

The EP can be downloaded from the Love Sick store on Surus by clicking here.

Love Sick Facebook
Love Sick Soundcloud

Ryan/Arktrix

The collaboration between Distance and Tunnidge is the stand out track of this release though. Starting simply with a moody atmospheric pad, hi-hat pattern and percussive hit that sounds like someone chinking a wine glass before a speech, the mood is set; Creeping and dark, it reminds me of some of the moodier drum and bass tracks that have surfaced over the past few years. Low passed bassline interweaving through a percussive heavy drum section that would destroy the hardiest of sub huggers in the dance.

This release really shows how both producers are now at the top of the game for this dark, deep and sometimes very angry side of Dubstep.

Listen to clips and buy the release from the Chestplate Surus Store

Tunnidge Soundcloud
Distance Soundcloud

Ryan/Arktrix

In his own words, its a homage to all those of have supported him over the past year. In our words, it is massive.

Easy Tony, how are things?

Things are really good, just working on hard on beats

Talk us through the Sweden trip towards the tail end of last year if you would? The MakeItGood/FatKidOnFire lot organised a sort of package trip out there with you guys didn’t they? Did it go down well?

You mean “The Rum and Orange Excursion”? Ha! The Sweden excursion towards the end of last year was actually a brain child of mine from early last year that I couldn’t get off the ground on my own. I was asking the guys for more involvement from the UK side of things and just couldn’t get all of it together.

After a few chats with Wil from FKOF it was becoming obvious he was up for getting involved in the Bastards project. We had a few meetings in London with TRPR (One of the Swedish leg of the Bastards main team) and agreed who would do what. Wil got together Make It Good and FKOF and went to town on the PR getting together all of the blogs and forums to feature the links to the night. TRPR, AA, Kalle got the flyer, website and video sorted.

The deal was book your flights yourself, tell us your coming and we will book shuttle from airport, hotel and you get free entry to the night all for £100. We didn’t have loads of uptake but we had a good tribe of us from the UK up bright and early at Gatwick Whetherspoons for a pint!

The night itself was really good, Pure Vibes and Rum. Killawatt and Thelem both brought a mad selection, AA dug into the vault for a selection of the finest. Musically the night was flawless.

2011 was pretty kind to you in terms of your Djing and production, what do you have stored up for 2012?

You say it was kind to me but 2011 was the toughest year for me musically man. I lost my residency with Urban Nerds, was getting 1 booking every 3 months and had to change my name as I was getting copyright infringement letters. Seriously, last year was a madness. The three things that saved 2011 Started producing in Aug/Sept last year after Benton had been telling me for months to get to it. Outlook was my catalyst and re ignited my love for what I do and the people I have around me now.

2012 is looking really good. I joined Subculture Artists, I have my first release out in January on Innamind with the “Oxygen Shadows” E.P and then this. I have been wanting to do one for ages for you guys. Things I have stored up and in the pipeline, got a few more releases coming (1 on Innamind and 1 hopefully on New Moon confirmed) loads of Collab work Benton, Perverse, Organics, Occult, Pheral, Widowmaker, Catacombs, Formless. Half of these have been started, and of course my own prodcutions, DJing all over (Feb 4th for Bastards 2nd Birthday in Sweden with Joker and Tunnidge is the next big one) Not forgetting the Radio show on Rood.fm 8-10 Monday’s. 2012 is looking healthy.

What happened with Urban Nerds then?

I had some of the best nights/experiences with the guys at Nerds, They opened doors for me to play in that at the time where hard to open. But as with all Multi genre nights its hard to cater for a resident who is so niche. The guys could tell this and they began pushing some of the other residents alot more. As the night grew my position got smaller. It was kind of the obvious thing so when it happened their where no hard feelings.

I’ll presume the copright infringment letters were to do with your old name and a certain US hip hop DJ? Do you have any advice for those who may have to deal with those types of letters and lawyers in future?

Yes man it was the name thing, It wouldnt of got to that point but I went about it in earlier correspondence with his manager like an idiot. Sort of saying do you worst I wont change it and then 1year later it all came to a head. It was kind of a blessing because it was like 1 month after the Nerds stuff so I took it as a chance to reinvent myself. If I could give any advice think about your replies to people, I made it a tad worse for myself. Seek advice from others, and you can do a subtle name change so like Plastician did from Plasticman. Dont think the worst. I just saw the positive in it and re-invented myself, fresh start.

You mentioned a lengthy list of collaborations there. What is about the process that keeps you going back for more?

Its how quickly I am gathering interest man, I am getting shouts from all over the place and its making me feel like I’m reaching out to people who like what I am doing and about. The collaborations mean I open the doors further and get a chance to work with people who’s work I admire and it will in turn improve my technique and ability. Like i said, six months producing and I have my tunes being played by so many people I admire within the scene.

We talked the other day about the way people carry themselves on the internet and how attitudes and egos can destroy the good intentions of people. How do you keep yourself grounded when the hype picks up?

I guess a reality check of who I am and what pisses me off. I don’t take myself to seriously, Everyone who knows me knows about Carrots and the Distribution of and that’s kind of me.

Opinions are their for others to make, I don’t write my own press releases and I try not to mention every bit of PR about me unless its relevant like a release (GET MY INNAMIND RELEASE FROM JUNO! Shadows Formed EP) or about being on radio that night. I try to let what I do get talked about rather than me shouting about it. A humble approach you know. If someone likes what I’m doing and they post it on a forum or Twitter I know I have done the right thing, but constantly throwing my brand of propaganda in people’s faces isn’t clever and it’s a way of switching people off.

Less is more, so I guess I don’t get involved by only letting the hype that’s relevant grace the eyes and ears of my fans and admirer’s. Although I wont front it, I do occasionally snap and have a little vent but then its back to business as usual, hence how we got onto the conversation the other day. If you’re good or unique be proud of it and rep yourself.

DON’T Gas about how amazing your over inflated opinion of yourself is, it’s not a good look. Carrots and the distribution there of.

Any thanks or shout outs mate?

I’ll start off with yourselves really. Thanks for this chance man, been one on the list for a while. Benton, Verity (Carrot Distro) and the rest of the SubCulture Artists, Fish for giving me a platform (RoodFm Boys especially Smooth 8till10roodfm Slippers gang, Bigup the Bizzle), Carl Johan and My other Swedish Bastards, Getdarker (Lee and Jay), Dan District & Sleeper, Jeremy at Innamind Records, Mack over at Moonshine. Wil FatKidonFire and everyone who has repped my productions this year Youngsta, Joe Nice, Organics, JKenzo, Thelem & Killawatt (Too much support and this year), Bunzero, Demon, Anex, T!, FosterDub, Catacombs and Raad for improving Carrot Distro. And anyone else who has repped this past 12months THANKS!

Carrots, Rum and Orange and music for the Chest.

Content Soundcloud

Sleeper, alongside District is one of the newer signings to Distance’s Chestplate imprint. Following on from the release of District’s 3.5 Grams release in the latter half of last year, Sleeper steps up to fore with three tracks of undeniably impeccable Dubstep.

Zombies ominously sets the tone from the first bar with a dark choral pad and shuffled hi hat pattern. An angry, tumultuous bass line forms the backbone of this track and it would be enough to suffocate you through the right sound system.

Scanners almost comes across as the more tame and reigned in version of the aforementioned Zombies. Sleepers trademark drum sounds and use of dub techno styled chords draw you into a hypnotic, head nodding roll out complete with a delayed sample which the tune bases its name upon. If Zombies was the heavy handed brute with a machine gun, this is the assassin of the three tracks. Restrained, yet equally deadly.

Youngsta championed track Narrow starts with white noise atmospherics and a lone bleep steadily increasing in volume almost beckoning you towards the speakers. Beats and bass intertwine serpent like, waiting for the right moment to fully attack as droned washes stay masked in the background ambience. All the while, snare hits provide a satisfactory crunch as Sleeper brings down his auditory swords upon unsuspecting heads.

CHST015 Sleeper – Zombies/Scanners/Narrow by Sleeper____

As a first release through one of the most well respected labels within the darker end of the scene Distance has proven that his instincts upon signing Sleeper were well founded. All three tracks show extreme skill in the areas of space and pace and restraint, which are three things a lot of producers in this scene often over look. Its going to be very, very interesting to hear what comes next from both Chestplate and Sleeper himself.

Ryan/Arktrix.

Buy the release via Surus here and get Narrows as a free download.

Sleeper Soundcloud

The main thing is though that without you guys reading, we’d be just another blog floating in the internet ether and for that we’re forever thankful.

J:Kenzo, Antics, Benton, Syte, Asa, TMSV, Arcane, Watson and Loft Party Records, Widowmaker, J-One. District, DJ Foster, Blind Prophet, Pressa and everyone else who has helped make the blog what it is this past year thank you and Happy New Year wherever you are.

2012 will have some big things happening on these pages, just wait and see!

If it doesn’t move your chestplate…

Ryan & Oli.

Catch Sleeper & District’s debut B2B set behind the decks at FWD>> on the 8th of December, and with Distance, VIVEK and J:Kenzo completing the line up you would quite frankly be an idiot to miss it.

Sleeper – Untitled (Download)

Sleeper Soundcloud
Sleeper Facebook
Sleeper Twitter

(This is a late post, as this event is tonight, but if you’re in the area, please do head on down. – Ed)

PYC Sessions

Inspired by a range of genres from the 808’s and lean of hiphop to the twisted rhythms of hard Drum and Bass luminaries Noisia, Black Sun Empire and Spor, Perverse were drawn to production through their collective love of bass heavy music. Purveyors of intensely dark and uncompromising eyes-down beats, their sound is exemplified by a precise control over chest-caving sub frequencies and a minimal sparseness of construction reminiscent of early Loefah or Kryptic Minds. Whilst their musical influences are notable, Perverse bring their own unique and refreshing take on the sound, with a repertoire of versatile riddims infused with intelligent syncopation and vivid atmospherics. 
45hz caught up with Brett and Alex for a chat…

45hz: Easy guys, thanks for joining us. It has been an exciting few months for you, what has been the highlight so far?
 
Gaining the support from people we respect and follow such as Youngsta, J Kenzo and Biome etc. has been a huge highlight for me, everyone we have met through this has been so down to earth and really nice! Also getting a vinyl release is huge, I can’t wait to get our stuff on wax. Our sound has just been snapped up by people and I’m really happy about it, we never thought we would get as far in such a short period of time.
 
Considering you have been making beats seriously for a relatively short period of time, your productions are already being supported by some of the biggest producers in the scene. Did you expect things to take off this quickly?
 
Absolutely not! We still get a warm feeling every time we hear someone play our music. The feeling of hearing someone you look up to play your music is a feeling you’d never get sick of. Everything has basically been in 6th gear and it has taken us a bit of time to get used to, not that we are complaining of course.

How far away are your current production levels from where you would like to be?
 
Recently we have had people tell us we have our “own sound”, I guess being in the bubble we don’t really notice it. Over the last few months we have come to feel much more comfortable with our DAW and the software we use to re-create the ideas we have in our heads and put them to paper, so to speak. We have always strived to have a clean cut sound and we finally feel we are moving in the right direction of that.

Tell us a little bit about how you work as a duo, do you work remotely or in person? Do you ever get on each other’s nerves?!
 
Brett: Well, we spend close to 40 hours in the studio together every week, most nights without fail. I think in some cases which I’ve been part of there hasn’t been that “chemistry” in the studio which Alex and I have. Both of us are basically on the same page, its often I’ll suggest a change and Alex will say he was about to say the same thing, or vice versa. I think we are both totally open to each other’s ideas and trial and error are a big part of that, sometimes an idea works and sometimes it doesn’t and that goes both ways. 

Alex: Brett has covered most of what i would have said. I tend to do the more technical side of the production, as i have worked in FL for a year or two and know it inside out. We will just sit and bounce ideas of each other and generally the tune just writes itself until we are happy with it. As Brett said we are both willing to make changes and try an idea out, we just work really well together.

What do you do to relax when you need to take a break from music? 

Both of us have girlfriends and social groups outside of music. Recently to be honest the motivation to be in the studio has been far too great so we have spent a lot of time in there. It definitely takes over haha.

What are you listening to outside of bass music at the moment (if anything!), any recommendations?
 
A: I have a really diverse taste in music, I can appreciate many different styles. Depending on my mood i’ll listen to classic rock, underground hip-hop, Trip-hop and downtempo. I really like music with emotion in it, something that makes you feel something in particular when you listen. I like a lot of music as long as it is not mainstream or fake.
 
B: To be honest my taste goes anywhere from classic rock to hiphop. My parents were really into 60s /70s/ 80s music so i grew up listening to a lot of that. As a teenager it was a lot of hiphop and rock / metal and basicly anything that caught my attention. I’m open to most things within reason. I can’t stand RnB and some electronic music.

It’s amazing what can be achieved with the sophistication of sharing and internet services in today’s world, in terms of collaborating and getting your music heard. Are you guys settled in New Zealand or do you have any plans to head to Europe at some stage?
 
Neither of us were born here, and even though we do consider New Zealand home we definitely feel the need to travel. It’s hard seeing all of those insane lineups in Europe where you have about a year’s worth of acts for us in one night. New Zealand definitely has small but strong scene but we feel we need to be where the action is happening at the moment which seems to be Europe. It’d be insane to meet all these people we chat to and have met over the internet face to face, everyone seems so down to earth and on the same wavelength and we are always keen to meet like-minded people. 
 
You are about to feature on the inaugural release of New Zealand based Innamind Recordings. Tell us a little bit about that, and how did that link up come about?
 
We’ve known kursk the owner for about 10 years now, even though we lost touch for a little while it was actually music that got us speaking again. He had an idea to get a label going and we noticed he had a lot of passion and was in it for all the right reasons not for money or for recognition, but for the love of the music and bringing people together. We’re probably much more excited to be involved with this as most of the people featured on the first release are really good mates of ours and it is a huge honour to share a release with them.
 
The Shaded EP on Bassweight Recordings is nearly out, and undoubtedly you will be working on getting more of your music out there. What would be your dream label to release on and why?
 
There were a few mastering issues with the Shaded EP so it’s not out yet but we’ve had a great response from it, a lot of people are really excited and we’re asked when it will be available daily. For us that dream label would be BlackBox, very few labels have such a consistent rate of amazing releases, in fact there isn’t one on there we can fault. 
 
The mix is a serious collection of beats, featuring producers from all across the world. How did you go about putting it together?
 
One night we had a jam of some new tunes we’d recently received and decided to record it, the impromptu mixes always seem to flow much better. It’s an absolute pleasure to play the work of artists we look up to and our friends.
 
Finally, anyone you would like to shout out or anything else coming up you want to mention?  

We’d like to make a mention of the vinyl release we are involved with, we can’t say much more other than we are really excited about it and we can’t wait for people to find out what tunes they are. (editor note – tunes are large and so is the label hypehypehype)

Mention : Youngsta /  Biome / J:kenzo / Mosaix / Subreachers / Disonata / Truth / Tellez / Jack Sparrow / Seven / Olie Bassweight / RDG / JB / Catacombs / Knowledge / Verity / Collision /Content / Nanobyte / PistonsBeneath / Widowmaker / Versa / Rowl / Anex /Beezy /Olie Bassweight/ Shredexx / DCult / Demon / KillaWatt / Ipman / Las / Formless / NoMan / Percept / Gantz / Arktrix / Kursk / Boot / Sook / Droid Sector / 3rdEye / Occult / Inkarv / TMSV / Triky / Glyph / JSL / RUF / Kaiju / Ghost Note / Tallan / Arkotypes / ARtroniks / Duckem / Reamz / Server /Distance / Sleeper / Jay5ive / Crisis / Compa / AJP / Loxy / War / Pale / Overlook / Reza and anyone else that is supporting us and accepting us in any way shape or form.

Sorry for the huge list but we feel we owe a lot of these people a real mention as they have all contributed to pushing us in some way.

Download the mix here.

Perverse Soundcloud
Perverse Facebook

Contributed by Oli

For months punters have been feverishly pestering the promoters of Kent based Dubstep night Dubbed Out to return to the Fort Horsted Military Fort in Chatham. When it was announced a few months ago they were to return for Halloween weekend the fans were understandably excited.

Every DJ smashed their way through their sets in what proved to be one of my favourite venues yet. Most notable for myself however, was the ender brought to the table by Bannerworx. It was definitely something different, but the crowd reaction was surprising. If you were at the Outlook launch party they threw earlier this year, you’ll know what we’re talking about, but for those of you who don’t…enjoy. – Arktrix