STUNNA: TOP FIVE

Radicall - Early Autumn

Squash - Blackboard Jungle

Edward Oberon - Crawl

Kharm - Everything's Relative

Stunna + Kubatko - Broken Rules (Operon Rmx)


DJ STUNNA
(BBS Bookings / Defunked / Vibez / Chicago, IL)

www.djstunna.com

MAYHEM: TOP FIVE

Noisia: Stigma (Vision)

Dementia + Misha: Overdose (SLR)

Hive + TeeBee + Calyx: Salvation (Violence)

Cern: Eye Dream (Aesthetics)

Psidream + Pacific: Throwback (Nightfall)


DJ MAYHEM
(BBS Bookings / Shadow Law Recordings / Atlanta, GA)

http://www.myspace.com/mayhemslr

BBS BOOKINGS PRESENTS DJ CLEVER PODCAST

It's been a while since I've been into this many drum & bass tracks at one time and I've owed Chris at BBS Bookings a podcast mix since June. I sat down one Saturday around noon and put this mix together. The tracks range from dubplates, to classics to catalog and forthcoming Offshore titles.

Polar - Uneven - Warm Communications
This is my favorite track from the forthcoming Polar LP, which is absolutely amazing. Polar fans will not be disappointed, the LP is solid start to finish.

Hi-Lar - Back on Trip (LXC Rmx) - Offshore
A recent Offshore B side, LXC is certainly one to watch. His Alphacut label always takes big risks and he is a great engineer, so his tunes always sound so crisp.

Instramental - The Dead Zone - Darkestral
Taken from what is to be Darkestral #5. Instramental are killing it right now. They take it back to some No U-Turn business here and it's lethal.

Physics - Dreamworld (D Bridge Rmx) - Blindside
D Bridge has such a knack for blending the hard and smooth together. This track is a great example of his ability to do that. I also dig the hip hop vocal snippet.

Thee Darkestral - Remote Value - Dub
A dub from the man behind Darkestral. This track is great and is the perfect balance between minimal and funky. No idea if this will see the light of day, but I'm hoping so.

Ed Rush, Trace, and Nico - Mad Different Methods - Nu Black
Classic. If you don't know, then get to know.

Martsman - Disharmonic Anti Anthem - Offshore
Next up on Offshore from Martsman. It's a banger.

Calibre - Sokitume - Signature
Calibre's ode to Jonny L and apparently played by Andy C, the one sheet states. It is a great little techy roller that I can't get enough of.

Dissident & Engage - LHC - Dub
If I could choose the future for Offshore, it would be Dissident. He doesn't know it yet, but hopefully this track comes out on OSR.

Polar - High Voltage - Warm Communications
Another gem from the LP. A bit more melodic and feel good, but still edgey enough to remind you who made it.

Martsman - Klikoucha - Offshore (A Side of OSR021)
This track has been through many changes, but this is certainly the best version and will be a great 12" for years to come.

Sileni - Twitchy Droid Leg - Offshore
Perhaps the most notable track in the Offshore back catalog. It is still unique and sounds as fresh as the first time that I heard it after all these years.

Martsman - Untitled - Dub
Who knows. I don't even think Martsman knows what will happen with this.

Deep Blue - Soho Code Version X - Offshore
Another classic. Deep Blue is a god in my eyes. This track is pure class.

Dissident - Society of Silver Skeletons - Hotshore
STOP THE PRESSES! This track is the most notable and original and genius piece of music on Offshore since Twitchy Droid Leg. Just listen and only then will you understand. If you don't, just repeat until you do.

Martsman - Some Minimal Business (LXC Refix)- Subtle
A little piece of hot fire from the Subtle Audio LP. Perfect closer, super deep and thought provoking.

That wraps it up. I hope that everyone enjoys the mix. Be sure to check out www.offshore-recordings.com and www.djclever.com.

By DJ Clever (Offshore Recordings, Breakbeat Science, NYC)

DJ Clever, BBS Bookings Podcast #15:

http://www.bbsbookings.com/podcasts/bbsbpodoctclever08.mp3

EVOL INTENT: ERA OF DIVERSION

A modern civilization on the brink of collapse, its inhabitants lulled into a false sense of security by reality TV while its government plunders its resources, waters down its Constitution and engages in a deadly war. Into this surreal reality - imitates - sci-fi scenario, hot Atlanta-based drum & bass production crew EVOL INTENT sounds a wake-up call. If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, perhaps it’s only fitting that the way back be facilitated by EVOL.

“ERA OF DIVERSION,” EVOL INTENT’s 19-track debut artist album, stands out not only for its courage to be socially relevant but for the depth and range of the production talents of this powerhouse trio. The lyrically informed by hip-hop and punk, the 19 tracks encompass dance floor d&b, free-form d&b, IDM, hip-hop, punk, and even dubstep.

Moods range from the apocalyptic vision rhymed by MC J Messinian (Planet of the Drums) in “The Foreward,” and the heavy artillery, alarmist Rage Against the Machine-esque “Smoke and Mirrors” featuring the incendiary Aaron Bedard of Atlanta hardcore punk band BANE, to the existential glitchy experimental electronic noise crackling with intellectual energy in “Double Glock,” to dance floor destroyers like the sly shout-out to d&b messageboard DogsOnAcid.com, “Dead On Arrival,” to the sweetest, most ethereal flights of hope and possibility in “I’m Happy Your Grave in Next to Mine,” “The Oscine’s Lament” and “Maybe We’ll Dance Tomorrow.”

Formed in 2000, the industrious EVOL INTENT can boast releases on prestigious d&b labels such as Renegade Hardware, Barcode, Outbreak, and Human, as well as creating their own Evol Intent Recordings label with its own distinctive artist roster. Dieselboy, America’s foremost d&b DJ and founder of Human, commissioned EVOL INTENT to execute a mix of Human tracks for the critically acclaimed concept album, “The HUMAN Resource.” EVOL INTENT was selected to be part of Grammy Award-winning avant garde fusion pioneer and master bassist Bill Laswell’s celebrated d&b album project “Inamorata.” Their discography also reveals EVOL INTENT as prolific high-profile remixers.

Other EI milestones include the signing of “5:30 pm” by Turner Broadcasting for an [adult swim] “Bleach” anime promo shown on Cartoon Network (“It felt awesome seeing the promos on TV,” says Gigantor), and having two tracks in the “Need for Speed” videogame soundtrack. Look for EVOL INTENT live PA’s (first was in Baltimore in April), a new clothing store including designs by The Enemy and VNMBLK, and their video for “Maybe We’ll Dance Tomorrow” with animation by J. Beckmann.

BBS News tracked down the ever-touring GIGANTOR, KNICK and THE ENEMY via e-mail at various positions around the globe to get the scoop on EVOL INTENT’s latest release:


BBS News: How did you come up with the moniker, EVOL INTENT?

Knick: I just sort of spit it out one day. We had started the project and just needed an identity. I originally wrote down “Evil Intent” and then I changed the “I” into an “O.” People think the whole ‘Evol spelled backwards is Love” thing is intentional, but it really wasn’t. It was a happy accident.”

BBS: There are photos of fans holding up giant yellow EVOL INTENT foam rubber hands - what was up with that?

Gigantor: Haha. Generally we try to come up with something to market our branding at Winter Music Conference every year, and that’s where the hands started. We first had the “Number 1” hands, and last year we did the middle fingers. I hope we didn’t disappoint people this year too much since we were pretty tapped out with the record release and didn’t come up with any silly WMC promotions.

BBS: Does Evol Intent have a typical methodology for creating tracks?

Gigantor: Usually one of us starts a tune then sends it to someone else. For the most part, many of the tunes on Era of Diversion were started in Reason, but lately we’ve been getting into Ableton Live. We send the tunes back and forth between the three of us until we feel like something is finished, then I mix it down in Logic Pro on my studio machine. We tend to have anywhere from a couple to eight or so tracks in progress at any time. We always have several files that are floating about between us.

BBS: How did the theme for ERA OF DIVERSION come about?

Gigantor: We all pay attention to politics and the media, and generally we were feeling pretty lost at the general state of things over the last seven years. I guess a breaking point was stepping back and looking at the world and what’s going on in it, and then turning on the TV news, be it Faux News, CNN, MSNBC, nightly news on a local network, etc., and seeing sensationalist stories on the flavor-of-the week celebrity taking precedence over what’s really important.

Perhaps it’s the quest for ratings. Perhaps people are just stump dumb thanks to pathetic education standards these days, who knows? Either way, we felt like in America people are being robbed of their perspective on the real world, not to mention losing their rights and liberties. If we had a better informed populace perhaps we could reverse this scary trend. We figured what better way to make a statement and have our collective voice heard than to have the “Era of Diversion” as the running theme for this record?

On a more basic note, AJ gave a tune the working title ‘Era of Diversion,’ and we liked the name a lot and felt it summed up the theme we were going for.

BBS: How did you and J Messinian (James Fiorella, Planet of the Drums) create “The Foreward,” which sets the stage for ERA OF DIVERSION?

Gigantor: Messinian did his own lyrics. We sent him the track. He cut the rhymes and sent them back to us to drop in the tune.

BBS: How did your collaboration with the California prog rock band The Sound of Animals Fighting come about?

Gigantor: We previously remixed a tune of theirs called “The Heretic,” and asked them to collaborate with us on a track for this LP. We started the tune, “The Curtain Falls,” exported the parts. They loaded them up, played parts, then sent the parts back. Upon getting the parts we mixed the tune and it became what it is.

BBS: What was the inspiration for the dreamy montage of early jungle sounds in “South London”?

AJ: This was actually a song I started years ago. One day I was going through old files and dug it up, showed it to the other guys and we decided to update it and put it on the album. It was definitely inspired by the early jungle days of chopped up breaks and sub bass.

continued...

Evol Intent: Era of Diversion continued

BBS: How did you work with Cypher Linguistics on “Death, Lies, and Videotape”?

Gigantor: I think Nick initially started this beat (sounded a bit different in the beginning), and we sent it to CL. We knew CL through the hip-hop crew Dropbombz, whom we’ve all worked with at various points in Atlanta. CL wrote this awesome rhyme for the tune and cut his part with AJ in Atlanta. After dropping CL’s rhymes in the tune, it evolved some more and became what it is now.
 
BBS: Your collaborations with Ewun – “8-Bit Bitch” and “Odd Number” – how did these work?
 
Gigantor:  Spor did the fantastic remix of “8-Bit Bitch.” Initially the tune was released on an Evol Intent Recordings 12”.
 
BBS: How about Vicious Circle of London and “Odd Number”?
 
Gigantor: “Odd Number” came about when Andrew from Vicious Circle was in town and we started a collab with him, and then we sent it back and forth between the three of us, and of course, Ewun, as well.
 
Knick: Yeah, Andrew from VC was in Atlanta and he and I started on the tune. Ewun came into town shortly after that along with Gigantor and we cranked it out fairly quickly. Once AJ got a hold of it we were able to wrap it up fast. That’s one of my favorites on the album.
 
BBS: What’s the story with “Smoke & Mirrors” with Aaron Bedard of BANE?
 
Gigantor:  AJ started a loop with some heavy half-time drums and sent it to me and Nick. We started working on it, then Nick came up with a bad ass guitar hook. We recorded it into the computer, then loaded it up in samplers in Reason on top of the beat AJ initially sent. After we had more of the tune formed, we flew Aaron into town, and he cut the vox for the track.
 
AJ:  I’ll add a bit more detail about the pre-collaboration. I’ve always been a fan of BANE and one day on the DOA [dogsonacid.com] messageboard, Aaron posted in a thread about the hardcore punk bands and said he was in Bane. Turns out that he’s a huge d&b head and even spins d&b. We started hanging out when Bane came to play shows in Atlanta and formed a good friendship, and the idea for the collaboration developed out of that.
 
BBS: Who came up with that killer hook on “Dead On Arrival”?
 
Gigantor:  AJ came up with the killer lead. After exporting the parts off his machine, the tune was reassembled/rebuilt in Reason. We actually recorded the sample you hear in the tune ourselves. It’s a re-creation of the “A Man Fucked with My Father Tonite, I Put Hin In His Place,” thread on the popular d&b Web forum dogsonacid.com.  Since we’ve posted on this forum most of our career we felt this was a good nod to DOA.
 
BBS: “I’m Happy Your Grave Is Next To Mine” and “Maybe We’ll Dance Tomorrow” are beautiful, in contrast to some of your harsher tracks. What are the stories for these?
 
AJ:   Both of these titles came to me simultaneously in a dream on the night of June 25, 2007. I can’t recall if they were good or bad dreams. The only memory is a Post-it note with these two sentences scribbled upon it. For me personally, the vibe behind “I’m Happy…” is being completely helpless, like watching the world around you fall apart but you’ve already fought so much that you just give up and observe in a melancholy state of mind.
 
BBS: Whose idea was the CD graphic of the radio tower?
 
AJ:   Mike came up with the idea for the radio tower after we brainstormed on what would make a great image to convey media spin without being too obvious or cliché. So combining that with the hypnotic circular rays represents a corporate brainwash/hypnosis via their media outlets. I designed all the artwork. http://www.evolintent.com/hires
 
BBS:  What feedback have you gotten on ERA OF DIVERSION?
 
Gigantor:  We sorted a lot of people we look up to with the LP and it’s been overwhelmingly positive! When we posted clips of the non-d&b tunes on our Myspace page I expected more hating in the d&b community, but so far everyone’s been really into the different tracks.  
 
BBS: How did you come up with the monikers for your non-d&b projects?
 
Gigantor: I’m known as Computer Club for my electro-house project. This is named after one of my terrible nerd secrets: I was the president of my computer club in high school. I got named Gigantor because I’m a big dude. It was bestowed upon me during a radio interview with my first band when the station manager called me the Gigantor bassist.
 
Knick:  I do Ludachrist, a mash-up project, with another producer, Ewun, and we both just agreed on that for a name one day for some reason. It’s kind of stupid, but it’s awesome at the same time. That’s what I like about that project. We can just have fun with music that everyone knows and not take it so seriously.
 
AJ:  Treasure Fingers, my electro-funk alter ego, came about after thinking about how awesome it would be to have fingers made of treasure. I wish it had some deep meaning behind it.
 
BBS:  What are you most proud of about ERA OF DIVERSION?
 
Gigantor:  Wow. Hard call for me. I’m pretty proud of it from an engineering standpoint, making all of those songs flow together and nothing sounding out of place was a beast of a task. Songs I’m particularly proud of:  “Maybe We’ll Dance Tomorrow,” “The Curtain Falls,” and “Dead on Arrival.”
 
Knick:  I’m proud that we actually finished it!  Haha. I’m really proud of the fact that we didn’t restrict ourselves at all. We put together each song without worrying about what people in our niche scene would think. When we were able to relax and not let pressure be a factor, things just sort of came together and I’m really happy about that. It means that it’s genuine.
 
AJ:  My proudest moment would have to be the second snare hit in the 47th bar of “Smoke and Mirrors.” It took us months of takes to nail that and when we finally did, it was like the second coming of Christ. Everyone was just beyond excited. Even the Goth band in the next studio space came over to celebrate.
 
BBS: What new releases does Evol Intent Recordings have coming up?
 
Gigantor:  We released EI012 which has SPKTRM’s “Timeline” on it, along with a collaboration we did with Arsenic called “Real Talk.” After the LP we have EI013 which is a collaboration 12” with Dutch d&b master Eye-D, and after this is released we are going to release Ewun’s highly anticipated EP “Wun Nation.” Yes, it will have the long-awaited “Phonetap,” as well as a lot of new stuff. I’m definitely excited to see this one come out. All the tunes are huge!
 
BBS:  Is Evol Intent Recordings still intent on recording rock and hip-hop acts?
 
Gigantor:  We would love to get more into producing other acts. HELLO, WORLD!  WE CAN PRODUCE ANYTHING!

Tracklisting
1. Foreward, The - (featuring J. Messinian)
2. Era of Diversion
3. Curtains Fall, The - (featuring The Sound Of Animals Fighting)
4. South London
5. Death, Lies & Videotape - (featuring Cypher Linguistics)
6. Odd Number - (featuring Ewun/Vicious Circle)
7. Awkward Rhythm of the Dance
8. 8-Bit Bitch (Spor Remix) - (remix, featuring Ewun)
9. I'm Happy Your Grave Is Next to Mine
10. 5:30 PM
11. Reality Check - (featuring Ewun)
12. Smoke & Mirrors - (featuring Aaron Bedard)
13. Mutiny
14. Double Glock
15. Dean on Arrival
16. Gunpowder Plot
17. Middle of the Night
18. Oscine's Lament, The
19. Maybe We'll Dance Tomorrow

Meet the Faces of EVOL

THE ENEMY aka AJ aka Ashley Jones (left)

I was born in Oklahoma and lived there chasing tornadoes, eating cattle and admiring the Great Plains until I moved to Atlanta in 2002. With no tornadoes to chase, my new hobby became drinking sweet iced tea in Nick’s basement.

I picked up guitar from my dad at a very young age, then saxophone in 5th grade and quickly moved on to percussion for middle school and high school marching band. I also started making hip-hop beats in middle school and then pulled a big switch, got really into punk/hardcore and played in a few bands. I took a couple years of piano during high school, but no other formal training past that. I usually just pick up an instrument or piece of equipment, apply basic music theory, and mess around with it until I figure it out. I also made a solo rap album when I was 13, no joke! All the beats were off a Yamaha QY10 sequencer, and recorded into a cheap 4-track with an even cheaper microphone. I remember one of the stand-out tracks was ‘Bounce Them Basketball Bootys.”

My high school music phase started out with a split between gangsta rap and hardcore punk, and ended with experimental electronic and drum & bass.

I was always drawn to different stuff so when I first heard the drum programming and production style of trip hop and older jungle, I was hooked. I was a really big Tricky fan when he first came out. Portishead, Massive Attack, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, were all pretty influential to me in my teens.

I think I’ve attempted almost everything under the sun. I’ve had some good opportunities to produce commercial music for advertising agencies, so whatever they would request, I would make it. My main focus is, of course, drum & bass, IDM, hip-hop, and funky electro house.

GIGANTOR aka Michael Diasio (center)
 
Many moons ago I was born in Richmond, Virginia. I pretty much grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, since my family moved there when I was six. I currently live in Birmingham, in between living in Atlanta and my quest to move out west.
 
I played in a couple punk and rock bands. Mostly I played bass and guitar, but I can also sing, play keyboards and program a mean sampler.
 
I listened to a lot of industrial, punk, and rap in high school. In college I was more of an indie rock guy, but as time went on I started getting more and more into electronic music, starting with more experimental styles (Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, etc.). I had liked electronic dance music since high school, but didn’t really dive into it until I started DJ’ing.
 
The itch to start making it came when I went to college and started getting into the experimental stuff. Since I was into industrial since I first heard it, I had often goofed off with making electronic music, but back in those days there were no software options to do really cool sampling/virtual instruments, so you had to have racks of expensive gear to get what are basic tasks today completed. I started buying keyboards and audio equipment, pretty much whatever I could get my hands on, and dug deep into MIDI…those times were interesting. Fruity Loops pretty much just made loops and Cakewalk 9 was the rage for MIDI and basic audio. :P
 
I like to think I could engineer just about anything, but I have produced hip-hop, rock, electro-house, and of course drum and bass professionally. I have made a few really, REALLY bad trance songs, but not many have heard them…YET. :P
 
 
KNICK aka Nick Weiller (right)
 
I was born in 1979 in Italy. My family had been there a while but we packed up and moved to Atlanta before I was a year old. I spent 18 years there, then moved off for college. I returned to Atlanta in 2001 and moved out to Los Angeles in early 2007. I’ve been here since then, naked.
 
My mom put me in a piano class when I was really young. I hardly remember that, but then in elementary school I picked up a viola and eventually a guitar. Thanks to my sister, I got into punk music at an early age. I started taking my guitar playing more seriously, putting together little garage bands in middle school, punk, metal and whatnot. Then in high school I started playing in a few bands, mostly playing punk, ska and fun music in general, and then I had a big hip-hop phase. Somewhere along the line I picked up the drums as well, although I’m a bit rusty these days.
 
I started broadening my horizons in high school, but I still had a love for aggressive music, so by then I had a really nice collection of music, current and older. Once I got to college I discovered genres like drum & bass and IDM, and re-discovered Radiohead. I’m a huge Radiohead fan.
 
When I moved to college I was a real introvert and had a hard time meeting musicians that I could get along with and play in bands with. It was going slow and I eventually went to a rave. I heard some really hard drum & bass and it just blew my mind. I liked the idea that I could learn to DJ this crazy music and start performing music again. I really just got deep into it after that for the next five years or so. I practiced DJ’ing all the time and then I met Gigantor. He had a firm grasp on production and he got me started with simple music programs and I just kept pushing myself hard ever since then.
 
I’ve experimented with a lot of different stuff. I started out with drum & bass and then got into IDM pretty heavily. I really enjoy doing edits, and obviously the other guys feel the same way. I don’t know if it’s A.D.D. [Attention Deficit Disorder] or what, but I just love the details that go into making a song. Anyhow, I still play my guitar so I’ve done a lot of music where I incorporate live instrumentation into an electronic environment. I’ve done my share of musical doodling.  
 
Links:
 
www.evolintent.com
 
www.myspace.com/evolintent

PLANET OF THE DRUMS, Bedrock, Baltimore, MD 9.18.08

Messinian + Dara

LG Concannon + Dieselboy

Lisa Suit, BMC, + Dieselboy