Time for a long-overdue update to the Watchlist, where I list artists and labels who have proven themselves worthy of close attention. And it’s also overdue to give some recognition to those who are forcing forward the field of drum&bass, so this time around the focus is primarily on them…
Before we get there though, let’s deal with the other artists making their way onto this exclusive list. First up is Opiuo, one of a good handful of Aussie guys who are breaking new ground in the midtempo glitch-crunk market. If we’re being brutally honest, Opiuo’s sound is so instantly recognisable and unique, that sometimes it seems like he’s recycling his own tunes a little too much… but nonetheless he deserves recognition as the fattest thing to happen to midtempo since VENT’s Bear Crunk.
Sensient has been around quite a while, but until recently I only owned one of his rare forays into breakbeat. That all changed on seeing him live at Ozora this year. Deep, driving, maxi-minimal, hypnotic, and uber-squelchy, this is another artist with a totally unique sound. It doesn’t necessarily easily fit into a mix, but it deserves to be shoehorned in wherever possible.
We have two new players representing psybreaks — not just that, but progressive psybreaks, the very genre I most want to hear more of in the world… At the lighter end we have Blazer, keeping it rolling, hypnotic, techy and trippy. At the heavier end, still very psychedelic but rising more to a electro/tech-funk/acid mentality, is Triple Agent, whose music I have been very excited about from the beginning but initially dissuaded me with a psychotic tendancy to have odd bars with odd numbers of beats right in the middle of the mixin/out zones. He hasn’t abandoned this trope entirely, but has calmed it down enough that his tunes are now mixable (thanks Luk!)
So then, we turn to the drum’n'bass…
There are two main subgenres of dnb that I’m all over at the moment: blissed out daytime progressive, and gnarly twisted psychedelic neurofunk. One label in particular has been promoting excellent examples of both styles, and generally pushing the envelope, and that’s Hospital Records’ experimental baby brother Med School. Meanwhile two smaller labels that have also been consistently delivering the goods are Mindtech (generally on the twisted tip), and relative newcomer Offworld (generally on the proggy side).
Of all the artists on that progressive, sunny-afternoon vibe, it’s LM1 who most beautifully combines emotive melody with kickass rolling beats, precisely engineered and produced to perfection. If you’ve downloaded my mix Chilliquid Drum’n'Bliss you’ll already be familiar with the power of his tunes, and Frontier remains my absolute favourite track in this style of the past few years. So far…
If there’s an artist or label you think I ought to check out, let me know… get in touch via the contact page
Categories: News, Recommendations //
Tags: dnb, midtempo, psybreaks, watchlist
Heads up y’all… this Tuesday 17th August on Psymusic Radio I’ll be joined in the studio by special guest Jon Ward aka FAT MANDY aka MR FASTER.
Fat Mandy LIVE PA – awesome interstitial psychedelia… Jon ranges across tempos and genres with an original melodic and squelchy style… you’re gonna love it!
plus Mr Faster DJing alongside yours truly, psytrance vs psybreaks vs progressive and more. Frankly, anything could happen…
Put it in your phone. Write it in your diary / on your hand / on the wall. Do not miss this.
The details:
Tue 17th Aug 19:00 UK time
Go to http://www.psymusic.co.uk/forum – from there you can tune in and say hi in the shoutbox.
Categories: News, Radio Shows //
Tags: live, progressive, psybreaks, psymusic, psytrance, Radio Shows
Yes yes, Adam Re:Creation has kindly asked me to play alongside him next month at the mighty Elysian Project in London. We’ll be spinning on a fat psybreaks and psydnb/neurofunk type tip, though I suspect we may hop around the genres more than that 
The night offers three rooms with a hugely diverse range of music from both live acts and DJs… click on the flyer to see it full-size.
Sign up on the Facebook event page. If you want any more details, full line-ups etc you can get them on the Elysian Project site.
Note that early bird tickets are available at £7.50 for a few more days. It’s £10 on the door, which is pretty fantastic for an all-nighter!
Hope to see you there
Categories: Gigs, News //
Tags: club, Elysian Project, flyer, gig, London
Short version: I’m doing next Saturday on NSB (10th April), instead of the one after (17th).
As you ought to know, Quexotic Adventures, my fortnightly show on NSB Radio, is partnered with a show from those brillo Brightonians the Slackers Convention. If you haven’t yet checked it out, I suggest you do: if you share some of my taste in progressive, psybreaks and/or chunky techno, you should find plenty of tasty choons to chew served up by LuQas, Pav and friends.
Anyway, due to various plans, schemes, plots and conspiracies, not to mention those villainous wildcards Happenstance, Serendipity and Inability To Be In Two Places Simultaneously (despite all the advances in quantum chromodynamics), we’re swapping over the 10th and 17th.
So the final schedule for April is:
3rd: Quextal (you missed it, archive here)
10th: Quextal
17th: Slackers
24th: Slackers
Normal flip-flopping pattern resumes in May until further notice!
Categories: News, Radio Shows //
Tags: nsb, quexotic, Radio Shows, slackers
Yeah I can stand being in a line-up like this….
Categories: Gigs, News //
Tags: festival, gig, glade, psy, psymusic
Bit of gig news for you. This Saturday you can catch Quextal on another visit to the hallowed halls of The Hobbit in Southampton for Psychedelic Saturday. Not exactly sure what genre(s) I’ll be playing yet, but it’s a fairly safe bet that psybreaks will be in there prominently… nor am I sure what time I’m on, but I advise getting down early anyway because it’s free entry before 10pm!
The other little bit of gig news is that I’ve been booked to play at this year’s Glade Festival. I’ll be in the PsyMusic tent, which was consistently one of the best stages last year and I understand is going to be larger this year. Having been to almost every Glade as a punter, I’m vibrating with excitement at the chance to spin some tunes there – thanks to the PsyMusic crew for making it happen, and I hope to see loads of you there
Categories: Gigs, News //
Tags: festival, glade, psychedelic saturday, southampton, the hobbit
It’s my huge pleasure to welcome RE:CREATION into the studio for Tales Of The Interstitial this coming Tuesday 16th February.
Adam Goodlet has been known for some years for his top quality psytrance productions as one half of EPHEXIS, but has recently been proving he can create psybreaks of equal distinction as the “Peak” in RMS & PEAK. Now under his solo projects ATOMIC SPECIES and RE:CREATION he’s continuing to push the psychedelic envelope across the genres… so a suitably Interstitial guest then Check out some of his productions over on the Re:Creation Soundcloud.
Tune in Tuesday evening from 7pm GMT, on PsyMusic Radio!
Categories: News, Radio Shows //
Tags: interstitial, psybreaks, psytrance
I’m starting to line up a series of special guests to appear on forthcoming shows, and I’m delighted to announce that the first of these will be a return appearance of the man like Digital Fist. If you caught his previous guest appearance on Brap FM you’ll know he’s a man of fine taste in glitchy electrobreaks and hypno-dub techno. As he’ll be joining me for Quexotic Adventures on NSB Radio this coming Saturday, it’ll be the breakbeat side of this equation that we’ll be exploring, so we can expect the likes of Jnr Hacksaw, Ion Driver, Bass Kittens, Si Begg and Wrexx in his bag, plus plenty of surprises and some hot exclusives… set your alarms now, you won’t want to miss this!
Quextal vs Digital Fist part deux: 19:00 – 21:00 GMT, Sat 30th Jan, NSB Radio. Don’t forget to join us in the chatroom!
Categories: News, Radio Shows //
Tags: digital fist, electrobreaks, glitchy, psybreaks
A warm welcome to four fresh recipients of a coveted space on my Watchlist. The three new artists — Vibrasphere, Magitman and Khainz — all earn their place for services to chunky progressive techno… while the label Disconekta has been pushing some rather tasty glitchy breaks and tech-prog from the likes of Sensient and Grouch; excepting those, I haven’t liked the majority of their releases so far tbh, but they all have a certain sensibility which strongly suggests it would be wise to keep an ear on them, so their presence on the Watchlist is deserved on that basis.
This month’s up and comers — artists that are on their way to joining the Watchlist if they keep up the good work (or if I dive into their backcats and am suitably impressed) — are Drugstore (mainly solid driving techno, but check out their track Gaia, which impressed me greatly…); Grouch (of Disconekta fame); Mad-Tek (deep, dubby and driving electrobreaks); and Opiuo (glitchy throbbing midtempo breakbeat, like a less over-the-top Tipper).
Two radio shows coming up: this Saturday (16th Jan) on NSB, and the following Tuesday (19th Jan) on PsyMusic, both kicking off at 19:00 GMT. Hope to see you in the chatrooms!
Categories: News //
Tags: disconekta, drugstore, grouch, khainz, mad-tek, magitman, opiuo, site news, vibrasphere, watchlist
This was supposed to be happening later this month but has been brought forward to tonight. After two years of playing regularly on Brap.FM I’m leaving so I can devote more time to my shows on other stations. Brap never took off audience-wise, although I did appreciate the musical freedom it gave me to hop around genres…
With that in mind, tonight’s show is going to be a complete free-for-all. I have nothing specific in mind to play, so it’s your chance to get in the chatroom and send in your requests during the show! I’ll be in there from 7.30pm, the show starts at 8pm.
Categories: News, Radio Shows //
Tags: brapfm, void radio
