3024-002

Martyn - "Natural Selection // Vancouver"

3024-002, distr. by ST Holdings
out in June

dBridge - The Gemini Principle

In the mid 90s, I trooped to London to experience what drum 'n bass was all about. We stayed with friends in the Peckham area and on one night we drove to the Leisure Lounge. It was raining the way it only rains in London, a sort of "half-rain" and it was late so the only people I saw in the streets were of the 24hour kind. There was a scent of samosas and I observed the multiple layers of the metropolis, the cheap shops on ground level, the billboards of major companies above it, and the expensive apartments and offices at the very top - in true Blade Runner style. Dillinja's "Threshold" played on the car stereo and for me this was a defining moment, these rainy melancholic chords and haunting voices combined with the aggressive beats and enormous bassline were the soundtrack to this city. The music describes the environment, and the person in that environment.

I am sure everyone has had similar experiences and uses these to define what one likes to find in music. The new dBridge album "The Gemini Principle" brought back the feeling of what I love about drum 'n bass. The amalgamation of fierce and sad, of aggressiveness and melancholy. The album however is not a description of London in 1995 however, it is very much 2008, and it is very much dBridge.

"I've been lucky enough to be a part of jungle/drum 'n bass from its conception, first as a raver then a producer," Darren White aka dBridge responds when I ask him a few questions for this blog. "I've seen it when it's been at it's best and worst and even though it sounds cliche drum 'n bass back in the early nineties was when it was at its most innovative for me. We were being taken seriously as a musical genre, famed musicians were amazed by what we were doing, I don't think we even realized what was going on. I think the tunes back then had a quality that couldn't be denied and to this day they still stand out."

dBridge's departure from Bad Company and the birth of his own imprint Exit Recordings in 2003 already saw him take on a more experimental and musical side of drum 'n bass: "Since I've been going solo I've had this fear of my music not being played by dj's because it didn't seem to conform to some standard that had been established in the scene. I've done loads of tracks over the years that haven't seen the light of day cos I'd finish it and think 'whats the point in giving this out, no one's gonna play it'. I even had some dj's confirm this with comments like 'I love it, I just can't play it'. This frustrated me for a long time, I wasn't sure where I stood anymore,"

He continues: "So I found myself going through old tunes that used to hurt me so much. I had to listen back to what it was I found so good about drum 'n bass and why. Tracks like Krust - Future Unknown; the arrangement and string section in that tune physically pains me, so heart wrenching; Ed Rush and Optical's use of brooding tones and melancholy keys, Matrix's drum patterns, Dillinja's ability to fuse dark and light. These are just some of the things that influenced and inspired me from within drum 'n bass. It was listening back that allowed me to move forward and realize that making DnB and music was never meant to be about pleasing anyone but myself, you can only hope people like and get what it is you're doing."

"The Gemini Principle" as an album is a very personal statement about drum 'n bass music as a genre, but the track titles and lyrics, the order of the songs, certainly show more than one meaning behind the music: "I'm a Gemini first off, also I have a running theme through my work which is connections, yin and yang, black and white etc. So The Gemini Principle is based on this theory. I have a statement on the artwork which basically explains it and me. "The Gemini Principle is driven by the compelling need to connect objects with one another to form ever greater links. Their job is to experience a diversity of sensations, thoughts and encounters so that they can create systems or theories of knowledge that are then disseminated to others".

dBridge - "The Gemini Principle" is out on CD and vinyl on 19 May on Exit Recordings.
(all artwork taken from the album, illustrations by Katharine Sanderson)

Beatportal Interview

(Martyn interviewed by Daniel Cole for Beatportal 9 may 08)

What took you from the production world of drum & bass into dubstep?
Lol. Can we not start with a different question?

So why 3024? What does it mean?
The label is run by myself and graphic artist Erosie. We’re both living in different cities now but we both used to live and work in Rotterdam, Holland. 3024 is a Rotterdam zip code, so we took that number as our starting point for the label.

Similar to that of 2562 then!
Yeah, we just like our numbers here.

How has the Dutch music scene, aside from zip codes, influenced your style of music?
Well, I grew up in Eindhoven, and lived in Rotterdam for five years, both cities are techno and drum & bass strongholds in Holland, so I am quite sure this has influenced me. Especially Eindhoven, which back in the day had ties with many Chicago and Detroit artists through labels as Djax and Eevolute, and various clubs and DJs in the city. So, in the early 90s / mid 90s I saw many of those people play and brought their records.

Wow. Your music tends to blend one style of music into another, and draws inspiration from all angles, but which style do you think reciprocates best with club audiences?
Well, I think what makes music interesting is when an artist incorporates his/her influences and translates it into a unique sounding style. Although it might sound a tad arrogant, I’d like to think of my music as “Martyn music”.
I try not to think of it as dubstep or techno, or house or drum & bass. This way I feel more freedom to make the music I want to make. Does that make sense?

That’s quite an accurate description of your sound.
That’s why I wanted to skip the first question.

Do you think there will be people who will try to emulate the “Martyn sound” in their own work?
Perhaps. If by emulate you mean make it better, then that would be great.

On a different note, how did your relationship with Marcus Intalex come about?
I used to promote drum & bass events in Eindhoven, and he played for us a few times. We got along possibly because of a similar background and when I started producing a bit more seriously he was one of the first that picked up my music. Besides him being a musical inspiration to me he’s always pushed my sound and advised me. So he’s been important on many levels.

He seems to have pushed a lot of people’s music styles in new and more creative directions. But finally, what beckons for the future of 3024?
There will be a new 12” out soon, ‘Natural Selection’ / ‘Vancouver’, then another one after the summer. In the meantime I’m laying down ideas for a bigger project, but what that is going to be and how its going to sound and look is still a bit of a mystery!

FWD>> & Rinse at the End

23rd may sees the return of FWD>> and Rinse.FM to The End in London. Blackdown already wrote a wonderful blog about the history of FWD>>, so I leave you by saying I'm happy to be part of this extravaganza of forward thinking music. Hope to see you there.