Benjamin Goode meets Marcus Intalex and DJ Lynx to talk beats, bass and what the future holds.
In conjunction with drum and bass collective A Bunch of Cuts, we give you one dithering inept and awestruck spoonfed interviewer and two very busy black hearted gun men who go by the names of bigger man DJ Lynx and the mighty, mighty Marcus Intalex. Lynx is creating waves with his atmospheric, high quality production and trailblazing attitude to drum n' bass while Marcus Intalex needs no introduction. The grumpy old man of drum and bass who will never fail to bring a smile to your body, drops some knowledge on us.
Ravers: Silly hedonists or disciples of a valid cultural phenomenon?
Lynx: Well, however you look at it, rave certainly is a cultural movement and it has been for the last fifteen, twenty years. But I think, in the generation that we know, what we could call rave music as a whole is definitely a cultural phenomenon and there is every proof of that through the amount of people that go out raving every week.
Someone once said that drum and bass ain't nothing but a tempo and that genre is elastic. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
L: I would agree drum and bass is a tempo and that's it. Because I think if you have one constant [having to write a song around 170 bpm] but everything else is variable, then there is certainly a lot of scope, and it's surely very exciting? There are obvious niches within drum and bass but I think they should be proud of each other, all under the Drum and Bass banner which, as a unit, is very powerful music.
Where to next, and are we leaving vinyl and the demands of the dance floor behind?
L: Drum and bass is at the pinnacle of where it's been. You see artists like Chase and Status producing for Rihanna and all sorts of huge artists so finally it's has been given the credibility it deserves.
Marcus Intalex: It's not that we are leaving vinyl behind; it seems to me it's slowly getting phased out by the people who are choosing to buy the music. It's definitely a decreasing market – drum and bass is a minor form of music and there is not a lot of money – so as label you have to find other ways of income. Does that allow us to be more experimental because there is less manufacturing costs? Yes I think it does. Will it mean that everything will change? Yes I think it will.
The way drum and bass started and developed was because of technology, computers and samplers. I was one of the first DJs to start using Solero and Final Scratch – I like what technology does. Some people prefer the analogue sound, and to have a tangible product in their hands. I'm not bothered: I just want to hear exciting, good and new music. I love mp3 – it was one of the best things to have happened to music in many a year.
Upcoming projects that you are excited about?
MI: I'm in the middle of writing an album and going on tour...
L: Big things for me this year, like starting my own label called Detailed Recordings. The first release will be April and it will be a track called 'Keep it Low', with Kemo and Alix Perez. The label is going to be really individual because it's going to open doors for mass multi-collaborations online, so I will be uploading parts to some of my tracks where people will be able to add and change and re-upload their own ideas to it. In effect people won't be remixing my song they will be part of the original composition, and I don't know of any other label doing that in drum and bass at the moment. So it's going to be a real interesting label – a good experiment if nothing else.
Desert Island Discs?
L: Erm just from what I am feeling at the moment it would have to be... 1. 'Only Love Will Break Your Heart' (Neil Young) 2. 'Off the Wall' (Michael Jackson) 3. 'Knock Knock '(Mike Slott) 4. 'Buffalo Stance' (Neneh Cherry) … that's a good amount.
MI: Oh God no, I'm not doing that, it would be torture. If I am stuck on a desert island with just five tracks I would rather not have any music at all. I would learn to swim mate, seriously, or die.
Photo by Gethiroshima
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