Robin Ball Mix (July 2010)

The latest mix on Groove Pleasure from your host Robin Ball

SATURDAY 29TH MAY, SOCIALEYES AT CORSICA STUDIOS......

Just incase you didnt get all the information from here, facebook, twitter etc - here's all the info you need to know about the next Socialeyes party taking place at Corsica Studios this Saturday 29th May.

Justin Robertson / Max Cooper / Colin Dale / Robin Ball play the Groove Pleasure Room where you'll hear the finest in techno, electro and tech house.

Meanwhile Elite Force / Bar9 / Rob Sparx / Robin Beats play the Groovepressure room selecting dubstep, breaks, beats and bass.

Doors open 10pm till 6am

Advance tickets are £10 - get your tickets now from HERE
Tickets will be £13 on the door.

Join the Facebook Fan Page to keep updated, and invite your friends at the Facebook Event Page.

SOCIALEYES DJ MIXES

Part of our series of mixes running up to the Socialeyes party tomorrow:

Groove Pleasure mixes from Justin Robertson & Max Cooper:  http://samurai.fm/groovepleasure

Groovepressure Mixes from Elite Force, Rob Sparx & Robin Beats http://samurai.fm/groovepressure

Inteview with Elite Force

Q: You are well known for being diverse in your production style, blurring boundaries between breaks, house & techno, and Your latest LP “Revamped” has a strong breakbeat vibe to it but on a few of the tracks you have mashed the breaks up with dubstep which worked really well, can we hope to hear more of this in the future?

A: Yes I expect so, I've always had really broad tastes and I’ve made a conscious decision to create a lot of breaks tracks from both my own sets and the Revamped album, which has lead to me really extending my musical palette. People are *far* too judgmental about music and what is and isn't 'allowed', and I have no time for that whatsoever, I'd much rather dwell on the positive, and that's what the album was all about ... just doing music I liked regardless of what the self-appointed tastemakers say. It seemed to work pretty well and I was especially pleased that the dubsteppy stuff went over as well as it did.

Q: What styles are you playing most in the clubs at the moment? Or does it change from club to club / country to country?

A: Absolutely it does yes, although for me personally probably not as much as it used to. Most of the tracks I play in my sets are re-edits, remixes and mash-ups, and increasingly those are what people are coming to see me play, so I'm leaning more towards setting the agenda musically rather than pandering too much to stereotypes (within reason of course!).

Q: Does the fact you are known for different styles of music complicate things when it comes to choosing what to play at your gigs?

It does a little, yeah, but I kind of like that. I spend a good deal of time before every set analysing my tunes, looking for new runs of tunes especially for that night, working new bits into the sets and looking at the context of the night I'm playing at.

Q: In the breaks, dubstep and d&b scenes there seems to be a lot of short dj sets being played where as house and techno djs normally play longer, why do you think this is and which do you prefer?

I don't really get the short set things - for me it has a detrimental effect on the dynamics of a night (everyone tunes up and smashes it with the BIGGEST, LOUDEST tracks they have) and that effect ripples out into the production process, especially in those genres mentioned, where every track has to be bigger & badder than everything that's gone before. It also moves producers away from developing any real depth or craft to their sound, so I would personally take a 3-hour set over an hour set any day of the week, as long as I'm not playing at a MEGARAVE where people's attention spans are somewhat limited!

Q: As a dj do you play records, cds or are you computer based?

These days it's CDs and has been for at least 4-5 years now. With the flexibility that editing software gives us now, I kind of see most tracks I buy or get sent as raw material to be manipulated into something that's custom-made for my sets ... I am looking at possibly doing something with a laptop at the heart on some of my forthcoming DJ sets, although the main reason for that would be the syncing with Visuals rather than anything else.

Q: If you were going to have a night off and go out to a club which artist / dj would you like to hear?

Honestly? I wouldn't go near a club on a night off, but when I do get a chance to check out other DJs at festivals and WMC, I tend to go for people like James Zabiela, Ben Sims, Marco Bailey, Laurent Garnier ... technically brilliant and just passionate about the music they play. I really enjoyed seeing Sven Vath a few times on tour in Australia a while ago - inspired track selections and just compulsive to watch.

Q: What projects / releases are you working on at the moment?

I've just finished a remix for Vandal which will be coming out on his 'Benefit' Recordings in June and a couple of Zodiac Cartel remixes for A.G.Trio and I have a double remix pack coming out of my 'Law of Life' track which will be dropping in two parts, featuring remixes from Miki Litvak & Ido Ophir, Access Denied, The Loops of Fury, Zodiac Cartel, Nom de Strip and Mike Hulme. The singles will be out on U&A in June and will also feature the bonus track 'Feel The Pain'.

Next thing for me is preparing a whole new round of re-edits and mashups for the summer festivals (I'm playing around 10 of them I think). I'm also very close to committing to a *massive* video game scoring project, which if it comes off would lock me down for a few months.

Q: Do you get time to listen to other music and if so what music do you take inspiration from? What else in life gives you inspiration to make music?

Aside from big guns like Underworld and The Chemical Brothers who still set the bar for me both in terms of live sets and quality albums, if I do listen to music outside of electronic stuff, then it's usually quite a long way removed ... recently been loving the Dead Weather stuff, but I'm as likely to listen to minimal classical as I am to System of a Down.

Q: How does your production process work?

Start with beats, move onto bass garnish with toplines / vocals, arrange, mix, Bosh, Done.... Except the reality is usually a shedload of technical issues, program crashes, software glitches, interruptions on phone / email / label business, lack of clear focus on the endgame. What I have learnt to do over the years is to work through the shit and once I'm in the middle of doing a track, I really have to finish it before I can focus on other stuff.

Q: Do you use any hardware in your production or is it all made on computer?

A mix of the two. In-the-box alone just doesn't do it for me, especially given the fact that most soft-synths just don't give you the hand-on 'vibe' that you get from hardware (and that includes real mixers with real faders as well as synths).

Q: What makes a good party for you?

An open-minded and up-for-it crowd, which usually stems from having great residents who understand how to build a night (rather than kicking your face off from the minute the doors open). Great sound & lights aren't a bad idea too, but really it comes down to the people. 

Interview by Robin Ball

Elite Force joins Bar9, Rob Sparx, Justin Robertson, MaxCooper, Robin Ball, Colin Dale, & Robin Beats @ Corsica Studios, London, Saturday 29thMay


BUY TICKETS HERE!!

THE MAX COOPER INTERVIEW!!!

Q: You released some great music in 2008 and 2009 which has raised your artist profile, has this changed your life in any way?

A: Yeah I’m more or less doing music full time now, which is great to have the time to do it properly – writing music is very time consuming, it’s hard to get started when you have other commitments as I’m sure a lot of producers out there will know. And now I get strange people offering me high class prostitutes. Or sometimes low class. Which are obviously refused.

Q: You have carved a name for yourself as a deep techouse / techno producer but I believe as a dj you have played different styles in the past?

A: I’ve played all sorts yeah, I have a lot of different musical interests, and don’t like to get pinned down. I used to be all into turntablism, scratching and juggling and all that, which unfortunately doesn’t fit over the sort of music I’m playing now, hopefully I can get back to that somehow in future.

Q: Can we expect to hear some different production styles in the future or are you a 100% purist now?

A: I guess I’ve accidentally answered this partly with my last answer – you can definitely expect some new styles, especially for my album which I’m working on now.

Q: Do you get to cross genres in any of your current dj sets?

A: Yes, my recent mixes up on FTVS and Fabric sites for example, include de

ep house, modern classical, dubstep, electronica, techno and minimal. I’m all for crossing genres and keeping things interesting.

Q: If you were going to have a night off and go out to a club which artist / dj would you like to hear?

A: One of my favourite producers who would play in a club is Stephan Bodzin, who I still haven’t seen out. But to be honest most of the people I’d go out of my way to see wouldn’t play in clubs – Max Richter, Philip Glass and Helios for example.

Q: Harmonisch Serie, Stochastisch Serie and Chaotisch Serie are three of your latest releases on Traum, please explain these names and the concept behind them?

A: The names and concepts are all tied into scientific/philosophical ideas which I find interesting, and which influence my productions and which the videos for the tracks were based on.

Q: What projects / releases are you working on at the moment?

A: I’m doing remixes of two of my favourite artists – Minilogue and Ryan Davis at the moment, plus working on album tracks and a new 12inch EP.

Q: Do you get time to listen to other music and if so what music do you take inspiration from?

A: I mainly listen to modern classical and melodic electronica, so things like Max Richter and Helios as mentioned, and Jon Hopkins, Deaf Center, Olafur Arnalds.

Q:  What else in life gives you inspiration to make music?

A: Science, philosophy, art, nature – I find these things almost inseparable from what drives my music.

Q:  Did you take inspiration from anything when you made the superb “I”?

A:  That track was supposed to be called “i”, but the small letterness of the name got lost in translation somewhere along the line! The name was supposed to refer to the self (i.e. “I”), as well as the square root of minus 1 (i.e. “i”), because the inspiration behind the track was to represent something personal in an electronic form.

Q: How does your production process work?

A:  It varies from track to track, but the best work happens when I start with a clear concept or emotion to try and represent, and work as accurately as possible to that theme so that its message is most clearly conveyed in the resulting track.

Q:  Do you use any hardware in your production or is it all made on computer?

A:  Strictly software for me! I would love to have some real synths, as there is definitely something to be said for the analogue sound in its dance music effect, but they are expensive, and I’ve focused my studio expenditure on maximizing sound quality so far – acoustic treatment and monitors etc.

Q:  As a dj do you play records, cds or are you computer based?

A:  DJing is mainly CDs, plus the odd vinyl, much more fun not to have to worry about a computer when possible, always causing problems those pesky things! I have to use one for my live show though of course. Someone pointed out recently that in spite of the fact that I do all my music and science on a computer, I am in fact a technophobe.

Q:  What makes a good party for you?

A:  Pass the parcel.

Interview by Robin Ball

Max Cooper joins Justin Robertson, Colin Dale,Robin Ball, Elite Force, Bar9, Rob Sparx & Robin Beats @ Corsica Studios inLondon on 29th May 2010. 

Robin Ball live tonight

Robin Ball will be Live in the mix tonight from 10 to 11pm at Online Studios for Area 38. Check it out.

Groovepressure question Rob Sparx.

Groovepressure question Rob Sparx.

Q:   Your album “Trooper” was released in 2009 to great reviews and has raised your profile on the scene, tell us about your history in music up until the album? 

A:  I'm a classically trained double bass player with a bit of jazz knowledge too, as a kid I had lessons at the Royal College of Music, I started playing at 8 and by 18 I had a Grade 8 distinction and had also got quite good on the guitar and piano but by this point dance music had pretty much taken over and its been mainly synthesizers, computers and decks ever since. I've always been into lots of different genres of music, when I was very young it was live music mainly Indy/rock/metal but by the time I first started producing at 16 my main influences were dance artists like Massive Attack, Prodigy and Leftfield and labels like Metalheadz, Good Looking, Ram and Virus.

I got a lot of my production knowledge through being mates with Twisted Individual & Zen and I used to go smoke with them, Gdub, APB and Dubchild at the Formation studios, I picked up lots of techniques watching these producers at work. My first 20 or so releases were mainly drum n bass - in 2004-2005 I released a load of DNB tunes on Grid, Zombie and Up Yours and also a few tunes on Formation, Propaganda and Z-Audio. I ended up falling out with Twisted for a few years and got bored with the way the jump up DNB scene was going so I tried to get into the deeper, darker and dubbier side of DNB which originally influenced me but predictably I had difficulties with getting most of my output released so I changed direction and got into other genres of music and worked on improving my production techniques.

I used to go to college with Loefah, Mala and Coki and I knew in 2003 that they were working on a new genre that was like deep garage but the first time I actually heard it was when in 2004 Mala passed a cd to my house mate Tunnidge with all the early DMZ stuff on. I really liked the sound and I started experimenting with the genre although mixed with techniques I'd learnt from DNB so hardly purist. By 2007 Z-Audio were getting into dubstep and released the 2 Faced Rasta and Independent Life on DUBTING which both did pretty well, that’s when they asked me to do the album and dubstep, garage and breaks has been my main focus ever since then. 

Q:  How do you feel about the album now? 

A:  I actually finished the album in 2008 and it wasn't released until over a year later so I'm pretty keen to do another one to be honest, it took me ages to write some of the tunes on there and I'm happy with it and think it still sounds fresh but I'm very keen to start another one as my production has moved on a long way since then and albums are a good chance for me to write music that’s more soulful and interesting to listen to not just to dance to.

Q:  Has the release of the album changed your life in any way?

A:  In the last year or so since album promo started I've been outside of the UK a lot more times than in my whole life before. I've played gigs in Poland, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Israel, New York and Puerto Rico and I've got forthcoming in Ukraine, Budapest and a AUS / NZ tour being planned for most of September plus I've done an interview on 1xtra so yea I'm sure the album helped with that a bit.

Q:  You have carved a name for yourself as a dubstep producer but Trooper has a wide variety of influences, so can we expect to hear some different production styles in the future or are you 100% dubstep now?

A:  I might be having another crack at DNB soon because Twisted has asked me to do an album for Grid so that could be a good opportunity to return to producing and dj’ing in that style, which I've been meaning to do for a while. I'd also like to produce some house music with some of the ideas I’ve learnt from dubstep, I’m sure I’ll be doing that soon but how quickly that happens depends on what labels I get to know as I'm not interested in writing any more music that ends up sitting on my computer for years without getting a release, I've had way too much of that bullshit over the years, at the moment I’m sticking to music I can mix with so its being put to some use even if I can't get a tune signed quickly.

Q:  If you were going to have a night off and go out to a club which artist / dj would you like to hear?

A:  I've heard Mixmaster Mike is pretty good at beat juggling and scratching with dubstep that would be interesting to hear!

Q:  Do you get time to listen to other music and if so what music do you take inspiration from?

A:  I like a bit of minimal house, techno and electro or whatever you call it, the good glitchy stuff. I'm liking what Instru:mental and DBridge are doing with DNB at the moment, I still love some of the tunes on Trentemoller's first album and I've taken a lot of influence in the way I use my basses from Justice's chopped bass style. There's a pretty big dub influence from the classic producers like Lee Perry and King Tubby in my music especially the drums.

Q:  How does your production process work? 

A:  It’s different every time, I find its best to have drums first but often this gets in the way of being creative, sometimes I’m just messing about making a new preset or listening to some samples then I get an idea and that one preset or sample becomes a whole tune pretty quickly.

Q:  Do you use any hardware in your production or is it all made on computer?

A:  I've got a Moog Prodigy, a guitar and access to a pogo stick electric double bass but everything else is software

Q:  What projects and releases are you working on at the moment?

A:  I've got the 5th releases on both my labels (Sour Grapes & Migration) out next month, there’s also a Proptingz remix of Windscreen Sniper coming out on Z-Audio soon and I'm working on material for other dubstep labels and the Grid album.

Q:  What are your ambitions in music?

A:  I'd just like to get some really good vocalists and write music that’s more accessible but still with integrity, not sellout cheesy shite with no shelf life. I'd like to do a vocal project with an electro sound like The Eurythmics or New Order mixed up with all the crazy dance techniques I’ve learnt over the years but to be honest I could work with a whole range of different sounds and vocal styles, it would really depend on the vocalist.

Q:  The sales of vinyl have been dropping for years but compared to a lot of other genres dubstep has kept selling record units, as an artist do you get more sales from vinyl, cd or download?

A:  Its still vinyl despite shit sales, but digital formats are definitely catching up.

Q:  As a dj do you play records, cds or are you computer based?

A:  At the moment I’m playing 1/2 set vinyl 1/2 cdjs - I was purely cdjs for a year or two (after many years of just vinyl) but now I try to play vinyl where I can.

Q:  What makes a good party for you?

A:  A longer set on a quality sound system to a packed club who actually like dubstep and don't just want to hear spazzy filth.

Rob Sparx plays alongside Bar9, Elite Force and Robin Beats on Saturday 29th May @ Socialeyes, Corsica Sudios, London. In the other room Justin Robertson, Max Cooper, Colin Dale & Robin Ball - http://socialeyesparties.blogspot.com/2010/04/socialeyes-corsica-studios.html