For our second installment in the Lifetracks series, we've selected one of the most promising new producers to emerge from Bristol in the last few years, Wascal. With a handful of releases already under his belt on his own Wascal Dubs label and the classic Hollowpoint on Hammer Records still a favourite amongst many discerning dubsteppers, Wascal looks set to capitalise on a busy year spent producing with a slew of releases lined up to take him to the next level. We asked him to pick a range of tracks that have been important to his growth as an artist, and then we sat down to chat to him one fine summer evening.

B: Evening Wascal. How's tricks?

W: The sun is out, work has finished for the day and I'm armed with a cup of tea and a rollie. Life is sweet!

B: LOL liking the positive attitude! Summer seems to be having some difficulty getting going this year...

W: Yes, mainly at evenings and weekends too! At least it was out for St. Pauls carnival though, makes all the difference at things like that. To be honest I've been cooped up indoors finishing tunes through some of the nicer days this year, my studio tan is strong.

B: Those 60w light bulbs really do the the trick huh? What's been getting cooked up in the lab then, anything imminent for release on the horizon?

W: Quite a lot coming up in the next 6 months by the looks of things. Bit of an essay coming up:

Superisk - Eva Takada (Wascal mix) on Time's Audio Banquet label which has been doing the rounds as a 320 for some time. Headhunter played it at FWD a few months back which is good to know. That's going to be MP3 only.

Wascal - Overstep b/w SLT Mob mix on Halo (12" etc): Basically future garage trance step. It's better than it sounds on paper I swear! That hasn't gone out to anyone except SLT & Bunzero so expect to hear it soon.

Buckfunk 3000 - High Volume (Wascal mix) (12" TBA). Si emailed asking if I wanted to remix any of his old Fuel stuff and I jumped at the chance as him and Tipper are heroes of mine. Took 6 weeks and is probably the most complexly edited tune I've made. Si's sorting out the label for that so more info on the way.

Clustered b/w Nephilim rmx on Betamorph (Digi), tech-dubstep that's been doing the rounds for a bit backed with a remix from Hollywood based Nephilim.

Wascal - Don't Forget on Cymbstep (12" etc), my second release on the dubstep sister label of Cymbalism, US Based tech dnb label. Crunchy breaks and string section business.

Finally Wascal - Glisten Up and an un-named one that's gone out to a few people as Junglish. Better name on the way! These should be coming out on Cut La Roc's Rocstar label - details are scarce at the mo, only confirmed it today.

I'm also working on an album but keep getting all the best bits signed so its half done AGAIN lol. Doh!

B: Lot of Bristol producers working on albums right now, sounds like 2010 will be the year of the LP! Do you consider yourself more of an "album" or "single" artist then?

W: Singles to be honest. Doing an album would be good to get more music out to more people, but I very rarely listen to dance albums in one sitting so it's a bit hypocritical really. I'd love to do something like that, but I find myself covering a lot of bases so its tricky! Right now its a collection of 140bpmish dubstep, 2step, techno and jungle and I'm working on making it sound like a cohesive album.

My favourite dance albums are ones that takes you on that (cliched) journey, Exit Planet Dust for instance - most of the tunes on there stand up on their own but the way it progresses keeps you locked in.

B: Chemical Brothers a big influence for you then? You've featured a classic track from them in your mix...

W: They were a huge influence around Exit Planet Dust. I was playing a lot of guitar in my early teens and ended up going to Phoenix Festival in 1996 with the intention of seeing all sorts of bands - I ended up seeing Jilted-era Prodigy on the Thursday, Hardfloor & CJ Bolland, Goldie and co on Saturday then Chemical Bros last thing on the Sunday.

As a 15 year old it was a massive eye opener, people were blatantly having a whale of a time without a guitar in sight. I chose F**k Up Beats for the mix because at the time it was about as far from widdly guitar as I had heard and set me on the path of making sub-par beats on an Amiga with Octamed. That weekend was the beginning of the end for my rock guitarist career lol.

B: Interesting you say that because this mix is strictly electronic, you don't harbour any influences from your past for rock or metal?

W: Not really, as a teenager I listened to quite a bit of Blur, Radiohead, RATM, Senser, Pavement, Ben folds etc - whatever was on the evening session while I pretended to do homework, but none of that really carries through to my music.

I'm no lyricist and I found the wholly instrumental aspect of dance music appealed to me - nothing worse than a great tune being ruined by a miserable lyric imo. Take Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others by The Smiths for example - possibly the best instrumental they did then you've got Morrissey moaning about girls mothers over it, kills it for me.

I've always listened to the music more than the lyrics, even from when I was really young listening to my dads Hendrix LPs. Hendrix is one of the few influences I've taken from rock - the sound sculpting and production blew me away when I first heard the remastered versions on headphones, total pioneer. Nowadays I'd reach for motown or old r&b as something non-dancey to listen to rather than rock, that stuff is gold.



B: So you've cited that Pheonix Festival moment as a bit of an epiphany for you, but you've included some killer old skool tunes here that existed before that time, especially my personal favourite Close Your Eyes. It seems that kind of proto-jungle breakbeat hardcore definitely feeds into your own style of production...

W: Yeah definitely a big influence on me. I love the crunchiness of the breaks and the ADHD approach to arrangement on those era tunes, its like the producer went 'right! bored now! next idea' and changes up all the time. There's really not enough of that around, and I love fidget for bringing that back a bit. I get bored very easily and when it comes to DJing if the tune doesn't switch up after a few minutes I'm not going to play the whole thing.

I came across that Acen tune on an old rave compilation, Rave 2!!!! Hardcore or something like that - after seeing the light at Phoenix Festival, I used to go to this 2nd hand store, Kellys Records in Cardiff Market, and root around for hours looking to educate myself on what I had missed, I had no Internet back then and only pocket money to spend so you really had to root around. I bought that album because it had The Green Man by S.U.A.D on it, but ended up playing the Acen tune far more. That ridiculously loud sub note right at the start sold it for me, and it was the first time I had heard hoovers properly. It's funny that all that mental music came out from when I was 10-13 yrs old and grew up thinking stuff like Out Of Space by the Prodigy was perfectly normal music. Listening back its fucking mental drug music!



B: Ha ha!! Think about kids growing up now with Dubstep and Grime as their regular musical diet! Talking about Cardiff, you were involved with Holodeck, the city's finest techno night - is techno something you have a lot of love for? We have some Beltram in here, some DAVE The Drummer...

W: Yeah definitely. I first got a set of decks when I was 17 with my hard earned money from a dish washing job. I went to Catapult with £30 and must have listened to half their stock! I went in intending to pick up the D&B I had been hearing on tapes that were doing the rounds in school (and swiftly learnt my first lesson about dubplate culture), and ended up leaving with an armful of smitten and routemaster techno. I think I asked for 'something that sounds like Josh Wink but harder'. They definitely sorted me out, heh.

From there I ended up going to ID downstairs in the Hippo club and seeing most of the London techno lot at some time or the other. That club was also responsible for my hard house / trance days, as it was a full on rave upstairs back in those days. I haven't picked tunes from that era for this mix because in retrospect they re cringeworthily bad, or at least haven't aged well at all and don't influence what I do nowadays. That was definitely my clubbing honeymoon though, techno and tech trance, 303s and 909s all over the shop!

I ended up playing a set of acid techno on Glastonbury Radio Avalon 2000 by some master internet blaggage, but apart from that I only ever played it at house parties and free parties. Its a shame that hardtek and k took over that scene because it used to be a wicked laugh.

I didn't end up playing for Holodeck till about 2004, and that was D&B mainly but through the epic afterparties I've talked incessantly at DAVE, Jerome Hill, Chris Liberator, Billy Nasty. Poor guys.

I chose the Joey Beltram and that DAVE the Drummer tunes as they're the two extremes of techno i prefer - The DAVE one for the hypnotic synth that repeats ad infinitum and drum layering, and The Start It Up as there's pretty much no notes at all, which as an A-Level music student at the time impressed the hell out of me. I did my A-Level critical study on Techno and got an E. The Irony.

B: Ha ha that's amazing! So how do you feel those elements feed into your music, which is admittedly on a different end of the sonic spectrum in terms of genre?

W: Well there's not so much of it in the dubstep that I've had released so far, its probably more with my mixing. Seeing all those guys at Holodeck every month smashing their way through so many records an hour with reckless abandon definitely inspired me to get mixing faster.

I've got quite a few techno/dubstep tunes I've been sitting on for a bit, not the Berlin vs Bristol axis that people often mention, more a kind of Bristol vs tracky drumcode/beltram/pounding grooves thing. I've got no idea who to send them to though, might put them out myself at some point when the times right, if it ever is!



B: Do it, I wanna hear those bad boys asap!! Switching it up, we've got some pretty fierce D&B in this mix too, where does your experience with that genre come from? Were you getting into that around the same time as techno?

W: Yeah, around the same time as I was getting old rave LPs and things. In NME and Select I saw the name Metalheadz come up quite a bit, so went and bought Platinum Breakz when it came out. I had only really heard the stuff that made it onto the radio - Incredible/Inner City Life etc (and whatever ridiculousness John Peel was playing ) and couldn't remember much from the D&B at Phoenix so hearing that album on headphones was a revelation. Unofficial Ghost is my favourite from that album but its a hard choice to make - the hoovers and the way it switches up win it in the end. The beat from Hollowpoint was sampled from the end of it by the way, then chopped and layered.

The Tribe of Issachar tune on the mix is from back when a few schoolmates used to pass round One Nation tapes of Hype, Mickey Finn etc and that tune stood out for me. The combination of tinny ragga vocal and ridiculous sub never gets old, I still drop that when I can get away with it. Around the same time tunes like Turbulence and Quadrant 6 were also doing it for me.

From about 1999 to 2002 I didn't pay much attention to D&B really, and I missed a lot of the Techstep thing. When I started listening again and heard Medicine remix, I went straight out and bought it and eventually ended up playing D&B full time for years. The funk in the drums and the sub on that tune do it for me, its pretty sparse but any more elements would be overkill. And it has cowbells! I was playing a lot of breaks back before then, but it all got too ploddy and there was next to nowhere to drop the breakbeat garage I was stockpiling except house parties. D&B got me excited about raving again, and I still follow it now to a certain extent.

I picked the Teebee & Calyx remix of Break - Submerged because it was the last D&B tune that got me really excited before the fateful Byte with Search & Destroy and SLT Mob that got me hooked on Dubstep! I had narrowed my tastes in D&B to such a point that I was playing a small cross-section of a small niche of D&B, so to hear those DJs kill a club differently made me re-think what I was doing, it was time for a change. The Submerged remix is pretty much the pinnacle of what I was into though, top notch neuro D&B.

B: Have you began to explore new sources for production or are you still quite keen on using elements from D&B? I recall a lot of people saying you had a quasi-jungle aspect to your tunes when you started...

W: It was a natural thing using jungle/D&B elements when I first started making dubstep, I was coming from that kind of scene and that's the kind of sounds I had lying around. It was pretty liberating having all that space between beats to play with!

I definitely didn't get the whole 'bass and space' thing at first though! I'm still guilty of overcrowding the mix at times. Having S&D and SLT as my first proper dubstep club experience skewed how I heard it for a bit, they both get breaksteppy and have a jungle element at times I think. That night after Byte I went home and made Daily Grind overnight. I passed it to a few Bristol DJs, Bunzero picked it up on Sub FM and it made the top 10 digital releases of the year on the DSF poll that year (oh the dizzy heights he he!), so it worked out well.

I've been writing dance music in some shape or form since I was 15 and I've had a crack at all sorts of stuff over the years, from techno to D&B - whatever I'm feeling at the time. I've built up a studio with a 24 channel desk and 606s, sh101s, Akai samplers and then sold it all to the point where it's just me and a laptop, it's all you need nowadays. Also I've had hard drives die a few times right on the verge of getting stuff signed which has contributed to my sound a bit i guess, it's hard to pick yourself up and write the same thing again so I've generally moved on to something new and applied the tricks I've learnt to the next thing. When I first heard dubstep there wasn't a template as such, so it was the perfect melting pot for what I had learnt so far.

Saying that, I listen to some stuff I did even last year and grit my teeth at the things I'd change now - I think I'm just hitting my stride this year, especially with the Si Begg remix. I'm using a lot of elements from 2step, rave, techno, jungle and house at the moment for my dubstep at the moment. Anything but what is perceived as pure ''dubstep' sounds hopefully!



B: So would you consider your sound to be even 'dubstep' right now? It's interesting you mention Si Begg, as alongside producers like Tipper who you feature in the mix, they've always operated outside the parameters of perceived genres...is that something you hope to achieve in your own sound?

W: Its a tricky one, the stuff I'm making is definitely not straight dubstep but if it isn't what is it? Its around 140bpm and has a lot of sub-bass. When I got into dubstep the template hadn't been defined like it is now, which is a shame in a way.

As for Si Begg and Tipper, well they stood out like sore thumbs from the rest of the Nu Skool Breaks lot, their tunes were dripping with ideas and the production and details in their tunes were insanely intricate (and still are). Its rare to find that in tunes that can also slay a dancefloor. They're pretty much the only producers from that era of NSB that I still play and listen to. I think operating outside the parameters of a genre frees you up a lot, because no-ones expecting anything of you so you can do what you like, you're not expected to play 90 mins of wobbly bangers when you DJ. But that can be a right laugh too.

B: With dubstep becoming more and more fractured into sub-genres, do you find it harder to gain a lot of inspiration from the genre as it is now? There's only a handful of artists from that sound in your mix...

W: In this mix I kept the dubstep to a bare minimum, I do a mix every month on www.wascal.wordpress.com, so thats the pure dubstep covered. I managed to get in touch with quite a few people before they blew up so I've got a fairly steady supply of quality beats, and its good to get them out there, along with stuff from unheard of producers who hit me up on AIM.

I don't find the genre on the whole as inspiring as it was, but thats always been the case for me with music - find a sound, get obessively into it, tire of it because you listened to it too much. The fracturing is inevitable, the difference between the extremes of minimal vibes and full on wobble are too big to sit in one set for some. I just play what I want and get on with it, I'm liking the wave of funky influenced stuff at the moment, its an unexpected direction which is good.

As for the tunes on the mix, the Vex'd tune was the standout one from their Resonance FM mix that was doing the rounds when I first got into the sound. That entire mix blew me away - theres so much space in this tune, especially that it sounds so huge on a rig, totally stripped down and thunderous.

The Peverelist one really came onto my radar at Bloc Weekend 08. He was playing at 5am in a scummy bar in a Pontins we nicknamed Raveschwitz and totally slayed it - I'd heard him in Bristol but not really listened to a whole set, mainly warm-ups. Either way, when this tune came on and when that melody dropped, the whole bar erupted. Seeing people go off like that to a mournful synth line on a minimal techy tune opened my eyes to what can be done with very few elements. It got a rewind and it happened all over again, good times.

TRG came out with so much quality last year it was hard to pick one. The whole Missed Calls EP is fire, proper future garage yet in the same few months he did Oi Killa!, a ridiculout wobfest which smashed it at Sonar in MAH's set, and Less Music which is basicly dub techno. I've got a lot of time for producers who can master so many different styles and TRG is one of them.

As for the future garage, listening to this stuff got me into writing a fair bit of my own, which got me in touch with Whistla, I wrote a tune called The Lesson specifically for his label (with a Rakim sample 'this is how it should be done') as some kind of future garage manifesto. He picked it up and its coming out on his label L2S in August [forgot to mention that on the releases bit whoops!]. Nice one TRG.

B: Sounds good! Ok man I think we're done here! Thanks for chatting to me! What's the final word from you?

W: Well from the other tunes on that mix Timber was a post club anthem for ages when I was growing up so that had to go on there. Jammin' was the pinnacle of breakbeat garage for me, Zinc owned the genre with that tune. Jack got Jacked remix hasn't left the box since I got it and that stuff is definitely getting me excited at the mo, proper genre mashing club music with blatant rave ethos, finally that Zed Bias dub had to go on there because it keymixes with Jack Got Jacked so sweetly and its an awesome remix of a stone cold classic!

Aside from that, got a load of tunes coming soon and possibly a string of gigs in the US in the pipeline so things are shaping up nicely!!

Finally:

DJ's: buy all my tunes twice & rewind them all the way through your sets
Promoters: book me, go on, you know you want to
Producers: My AIM is 'thewascal' and its on auto accept.

Thanks!




Lifetracks #02 - Wascal

01. Acen - Close Your Eyes (Optikonfusion) [Production House]
02. Chemical Brothers - F**k Up Beats [Freestyle Dust]
03. Doc Scott - Unoffcial Ghost [Metalheadz]
04. Joey Beltram - The Start It Up [Trax]
05. Congo Natty - His Imperial Majesty (Original Dubplate) [Congo Natty]
06. D.A.V.E The Drummer - Hydraulix 2A [Hydraulix]
07. Coldcut & Hexstatic - Timber [Ninja Tune]
08. Tipper - Tug Of War [Fuel]
09. Jammin - Hello [Bingo]
10. Ed Rush & Optical - Medicine (Matrix rmx) [Virus]
11. Break - Submerged (Calyx & Teebee mix) [Subtitles]
12. Vex'd - 3rd Choice [Planet Mu]
13. Peverelist - Roll With The Punches [Punch Drunk]
14. TRG - Missed Calls [Subway]
15. AC Slater - Jack Got Jacked (Jack Beats mix)
16. Zed Bias - Neighbourhood (Roska mix)

DOWNLOAD: Lifetracks 02 - Wascal
ALTERNATE DOWNLOAD LINK

FFI: Wascal Website

After a bit of a break from the jet-set lifestyle of local blogging, B365 is back on it - and to celebrate, here's a bumper post to get us back on track with some of the astounding music eminating from this fine city right now.



First up we have to say a big WOAH! to the collective mentalism known as MICHAEL J ROCKS for giving up the amazing Symmetry Breaking mix of their own material. We're not going to oversell it - suffice to say it's some of the best music you'll hear all year - and it's free, so what else is there to discuss?


>>DOWNLOAD - MICHAEL J ROCKS : SYMMETRY BREAKING





Next up is a sick little session off of Pollen Radio with three local selectors going places fast - TIME, SICKMAN D & EFA. This throwdown popped off a week or so back and is well worth picking up - the set is hot and heavy!


>>DOWNLOAD - POLLEN RADIO 12.06.09 : TIME, SICKMAN D & EFA





B365 Favourite DAVE BAIN has taken time out from creating awesome illustrations to take to the decks with his alter ego WAXMOUSE. And the results are suitably fantastic! His first podcast with cohort Pupfish is a great mix up of sounds and styles showing Mr.Bain is infuriatingly talented in two disciplines now...


>>DOWNLOAD - PUPFISH & WAXMOUSE : PODCAST 01





Another month and another absolutely essential mix from WASCAL - this man can do no wrong in our eyes and it's a definite that although his star is on the rise now, next year will be his time to break into the big leagues. Grab this astounding mix whilst you can!


>>DOWNLOAD - WASCAL : SUMMER RAVE UP 2009





GYU is another producer and DJ on the tipping point to stardom, and none can be more deserving than this man - one of the nicest, and most talented guys in the business. Recently he dropped this devestating Dubstep mix which overnight banished all our growing boredom with the creative cul-de-sac the genre is heading down. A must have mix.

Tracklist:

Embrace - 2562
Sweat - Untold
Rain - Breakage
Swords - Leftfield
Speakers Corner - Eskmo vs AntiSerum Mix
Fallen - Distance (Vex'd Mix)
The Knowledge - Toasty (Untold remix)
Killing it Dead - Cosmin TRG (Emalkay Remix)
Rut - Joe
Dante - Untold
Forward Youth - RSD
Juice - Gyu
They Know - TRG and Kontext (TRG BerlinWall VIP)
CCTV - LV feat Dandelion)
Unseen - Gyu
Vancouver - Martyn (2562's Pur Natuur Mix)
Over Here - Appleblim and Peverelist
Upset - Gyu
Losing Marbles - Dub U and TRG (2562 Remix)
Bear Witness - Pangaea


>>DOWNLOAD - GYU : DUBSTEP MIX





Man of the moment JAKES has still been dropping the heat with his regular mini-mixes, and this feels like the time to update the blog with the last two - both firing on all cylinders! No tracklists this time, it's just a straight cop!

>>DOWNLOAD - JAKES : APRIL MINI-MIX

>>DOWNLOAD - JAKES : MAY MINI-MIX


That's yer lot for now, more coming up this week!

Local bassweight badman Wascal just keeps improving in his abilities both as a DJ & Producer, and his monthly mixes have become a real treat. His april mix is no different - a true tour de force through all things bass. Check the tracklist:


1. Wedge - Cabot Circus
2. Gemmy - Bass Transmitter
3. Noah D & Roommate - The Bassman
4. Digital Mystiks - Neverland
5. Submerse - Everything Around Us
6. Sclist - Crude
7. Joker - Psychadelic Runway
8. Ikonika - Please
9. Massive Music - Find My Way (Kode 9 mix)
10. Wascal - Vamp
11. Loefah - Twisup VIP
12. Monsta - Streetfighter
13. Wascal - Clustered
14. Roommate - Conquer
15. Von D - Echolow
16. Slaughter Mob - Dubtripper
17. Kahn - Ward Off
18. J:Kenzo - Cosmo
19. Gatekeeper - Slow Motion Dub
20. Dub U - Space Explorer
21. Zeno - One vs One
22. Twisted - No Mercy
23. Guido - You Do It Right
24. Joker - Do It
25. MRK1 - Realmatize
26. Phaeleh ft Indi Kaur - Rise
27. Jamie Vexd - Saturns Reply
28. DLX - Reset
29. Skream - Love Don't Come Easily
30. Slaughter Mob - D.O.R
31. Wedge & Shadz - Eye On The Prize
32. Jamie Vexd - Radiant Industry
33. Marchmellow - Ouch VIP
34. Twisted - The Superpowers
35. Starkey - Miracles (Jamie Vexd mix)
36. TriFunk - Huntsman
37. Distance - My Demons
38. Intager - Feel No Way
39. DSK - Insulted
40. Level 67 - $100 Block Of Hash VIP
41. Tempa T - Next Hype
42. Whiteboi - Get Lean
43. Benga - Crunked Up
44. EMU & Pawn - Periscope Dub
45. Wascal - Overstep

DOWNLOAD : Wascal - April Mix

Loads of stuff doing the rounds right now so let's dip into the B365 online postbag and see what's bubbling up!



First up there's a fascinating interview with Immerse Records' very own Kidkut on a great blog called Sonic Router. Kidkut has been hard at work releasing some incredible music on Immerse for some time now, but it still feels like his label gets slept on. BIG mistake - Immerse is leaps and bounds ahead of most labels in the same age bracket. There's also an exclusive mix for download too.

READ : Sonic Router's Interview with Kidkut



Speaking of blogs B365 favourite Wascal has set up his own, a dedicated place to download his new mixes and also the odd free MP3 too. Keep an eye on this character as there's big things on the horizon for him.

CHECK : Wascal Blog



Andy Council, who we featured on this here blog not so long ago, has set up an online shop for you to purchase his goodies. Support your local artists! Get on to the site and choose from a range of prints to spruce up even the most minging of homes.

CHECK : Andy Council Online Shop



Punch Drunk has now released Gudio's insane new record, the magnificent Orchestral Lab backed up with Way You Make Me Feel. Two essential tracks right there making it an essential purchase all round.

BUY : Guido - Orchestral Lab 12"



Get yourself down to Cosies on Thursday for Rogue's night Antidote featuring a bonafide living legend in Peter D Rose of Smith & Mighty fame. Details:

Antidote is proud to present..
PETER D ROSE (More rockers/smith n mighty)
DJ ROGUE (Antidote/vertebrae/deadcalmmusic)
BEN-ONE (Vertebrae/ LIVE MPC SET)
DJ ZE (resident rocksteady specialist)
2 quid on the door.
Thursday 5th march @ Cosies wine bar, 34 portland square.



Another month, and another gigantic Sh*t the Bed line-up courtesy of The Blast. This is apparently the last one for a while, presumably to give the other promoters in Bristol a breather trying to compete - this one like the remainder before it will undoubtedly be a roadblock.



If you'd prefer some techno goodness instead then check out the Bristol debut of rising star Sven Weisemann at Tube courtesy of Underscore and Tape. Sure to be a sweatbox session.

Lots of intriguing stuff coming up over the next few days, so stay tuned - but first let's see what's happening this week.


First up over at Bristol Pirate Radio Recordings they've dropped this blast from the past with a Power FM set by JNR and UNO in 1994 - straight up hip hop vibes with some outstanding tracks in the mix.

DOWNLOAD - JNR & UNO Power FM 1994 Set



Fast forward to Tuesday night and Gemmy & Wedge are dropping science on Sub FM alongside MC Scarz, if you can't tune in rest assured BUG will be catching the re-up for you later this week, so keep 'em peeled.


If you can't wait that long for some bassweight action then have a look at this outstanding mix Wascal composed recently for Trillbass Radio :

1. Headhunter - Prototype
2. WAR008 - WAR008A
3. DZ & Rob Cannon - Back To The Dub
4. Sukh Knight - Shooting Stars
5. Norrisman - Big Long Gun (MRK1 mix)
6. JKS - Elevation
7. Zen Militia - Smash The Empire
8. Joker & Rustie - Play Doe
9. Benga - B4 The Dual
10. Sharmaji ft Guilliermo E Brown - Hold You Now
11. Syntonics - Rock Tonight (Bombaman mix)
12. Downlink - 6 Million Wayz
13. Wiley - Wot Do U Call It (Igloo Instrumental)
14. Subeena - Justice
15. Plastician ft Shizzle, Fresh & Napper - Cha
16. Twisted - Dirt Cluster
17. Si Begg - Are You A Big Boy DJ
18. Benga - E Trips
19. Curtamos - Jungle Biz
20. Syntonics - Material
21. Landslide - Dreams & Visions (Compound One mix)
22. Wascal - Decide
23. Scuba - Twitch (Jamie Vex'd mix)
24. JKS - Obliteration
25. Bassist & Triage - Smoke One
26. Benga & Coki - Night (tease)
26. Pinch - Joyride
27. Misk - Tentacle
28. Kromestar - Badman
29. Blackmass Plastics - Suck Your Mum
30. TC - Wheres My Money (Caspa mix)
31. Zomby - Aquafresh
32. Von D - So Many Faces VIP
33. EMU & Pawn ft Werd2Jah - Headshot
34. Elemental & Lohan - Strange Brew
35. Dub & Run - Ghetto 119
36. J Suave - Fog Juice
37. Suspect - Modulation
38. Wascal - Submission
39. Tes La Rok - Do You Know The Future
40. Luthor - Music Gets Me High
41. Rakoon - Incoming
42. Gemmy - BK 2 The Future
43. Vista - Tek 9
44. EMU & Pawn ft Sonic D - Bumbaclot Star
45. Flying Lotus - Roberta Flack (Martyn mix)
46. Suspect - Rotary
47. Luthor - Sins Of Marvin Redon
48. 12th Planet ft EMU - Control (Skream mix)
49. Wascal - All I Need

Large indeed, and another example of why Wascal is rapidly becoming an essential connection in the rise of the new breed of producers taking Dubstep and bass-heavy sounds in exciting new directions.

DOWNLOAD - Wascal : Trillbass Radio Set



Something that's definitely exciting BUG this week is the long-awaited re-opening of Arc Bar, now to be called LAB (Live At Bristol). Arc was a pivotal venue in the initial success of many club nights and its eventual demise after a long decay was a sad sight to witness. Back in its glory days it held many great memories for BUG; the bizarre decor and mish-mash of personalities that the place attracted made it the location of many a truly odd (but fun) night's adventure. Despite many shortcomings including dodgy electrics and even dodgier pints, the knockabout charm of the venue helped carry its success for many years until the rot set in and mis-management and events leaving in their droves saw to it's closure.

The rumours of it's re-emergence have been touted for the best part of 2 years, and it's encouraging to know that the team who've finally succeeded in getting back on it's feet are some of the crew behind the original Clockwork. Word reaches us they've done a fair bit of work on the place, but haven't altered too much of the decor which made it such an unusual space. The opening party is this Friday and it's always a good day for BUG when another underground venue opens to showcase quality music in the city. More information on the nights due up there will be coming soon, so keep checking back this week.



Also on Friday the always excellent Teachings In Dub separates away from its highly successful partnership with Subloaded to take the foundation shaking bass to Trinity with the mighty Jah Shaka Sound System. Definitely going to be a sell-out so get there early!



The big event this weekend however has to be Dissident on Saturday, which is sure to be another ram-out session at The Black Swan. The line-up is massive, and the vibes in a Dissident rave are always outstanding.

Main Room - Drum & Bass

Calyx_Momentum
Doc Scott_31_Metalheadz
Cause 4 Concern_C4C_Hardware
Jubei_Coded Music_Shogun
Incite & Breach
Noisy Boy

MC's SP & Mantmast

Room 2 - Dub Step / Breaks

Headhunter_Tempa
Black Mass Plastics_Combat_Rag n Bone
Search & Destroy_Destructive
Forsaken_Soul Motive
MLR
Wascal
Smiffy & Golgot

The Black Swan, Saturday, 31/01/09
Tickets £7/£8 on the door.
Available from Rooted & Bristol Ticket Shop.

STUART WILKINSON - ROLLERCOASTER

BUG considers it a good day when Bristol living legend Stu Wilkinson drops a mix on you, as those days are few and far between. The Empathy and Digital promoter and all round top house DJ has sorted us out a right corker here, a perfect solution to the headaches of NYE with some beautiful shimmering house and techno to get your brain back to some sort of normality. Superb.

Tracklisting

1. M83 "Dont Save Us From The Flames" (Gooom)
2. Charlie May "Midnight" Adam Parker Vocal Sample (GU)
3. Skylark "Too Much Information" Manuel Tur Remix (NRK)
4. The Timewriter "Flicking Pages" (Plastic City)
5. Jim Rivers "Mirage" (Simple)
6. Minz "Chinese Drip" (Quatrieme Records)
7. Pindrop "Madhouse" (Bedrock)
8. Fairmount "Down The Rabbit Hole" (Trauum)
9. Ormatie "Twisted Years" (Hope)
10. Komytea "Helikopter" (Fq Inside)
11. Jim Rivers "Empathy" (Bedrock)
12. Oliver Koletzki "Music From The Heart" Alex Dolby remix (Hell Yeah Recordings)
13. No Brainer "Orange" (Misfit)
14. Jurgen Paape and Boy Schaufler "We Love" (Kompakt)
15. Longview "Will You Wait Here" Ulrich Schnauss Mix (14th Floor Rec)

Samples

- Butch "1000Lords"
- Gui Boratto "Haute Couture" (Kompakt)
- LJG

DOWNLOAD - STUART WILKINSON : ROLLERCOASTER MIX



WASCAL - JANUARY 2009 MIX

Wascal drops these crazy mixes month in month out virtually with absolutely no drop in quality - plenty of styles and sounds on offer here amongst 43 tracks. No wonder he's fast becoming a DJ in demand across Bristol.

DOWNLOAD - WASCAL : JANUARY 2009 MIX



WEDGE - BRISTOL XMAS DUBSTEP RADIO EXTRAVAGANZA

Bit late on this due to the festive season but on Wedge's Sub FM show back in December pretty much the cream of the Bristol dubstep crop passed through to smack down serious duplate pressure and the results are firing! No tracklisting on this one but check the participants and you should need no further encouragement to get downloading!

PINCH (Earwax, Tectonic, Subloaded, 'king of bristol dubstep')
RSD (Punch Drunk, Smith & Mighty etc)
APPLEBLIM (Skulldisco, Applepips, FWD)
HEADHUNTER (FWD, Tempa, HENCH fam)
JAKES aka Papa 'Ench (Legend)
PEVERELIST (Punch Drunk, Subloaded)
WEDGE (HENCH, 3.5, League of the shamed)
KOMONAZMUK (HENCH, Mode, Combat)
WHITEBOI (Whiteboi audio, Combat, Mode)
GATEKEEPER (Skulldisco, Punch Drunk, HENCH)
ATKI 2 (Monkey Steak)
FORSAKEN (Soul Motive, Punch Drunk)
SUPERISK (Sureskank)
WASCAL (hammer, omg)
GEMMY (Punch Drunk, HENCH)
THINKING (Reduction)

MC's

MC SCARZ
MC SHADZ
MC GRILZA
MC KOAST

DOWNLOAD - WEDGE : BRISTOL XMAS DUBSTEP RADIO EXTRAVAGANZA

As promised, here's the first segment in our 2008 awards. Aside from the winner, the remainder are in no specific order, but have all been deserving of praise this year.



BEST NEWCOMER 2008 - HYETAL

Hyetal really came into his own in 2008, with We Should Light A Fire featured on the opening segment of Mary Anne Hobbes’ Rise Up Bristol special, and a whole big bunch of net buzz getting the underground salivating. Given his next level production, it’s no wonder. With the bubbling wash of synths and ectopic beats introducing the aforementioned track, its clear Hyetal has creativity in abundance when building atmosphere and groove.

Gold Or Soul has had a lot of praise too, and it’s unsurprising given its warm yet melancholy melody. This is what’s key about his work - the melody in each piece is so assured and he's able to weave beats around big sonic ideas with an assured touch that is lacking in other producers. The rhythm is never overly saturated, as evidenced in Pixel Rainbow Sequence, as good a track as you'll hear anytime soon with its chattering of bleep signals sounding like an off-world call and response from some long forgotten space station.

It’s a given that 2009 will be his year. With beats due to officially drop in the Spring and a groundswell of support for him growing every day, it’s a genuine pleasure to see such a talented local artist making huge leaps in music. BUG caught up with the man himself for a quick chat.

B : Why the name Hyetal?

H : It's just a word I found somewhere. It represents where I come from and my favourite weather conditions for making beats.

B : How did you find your way to Bristol?

H: I moved to Bristol about 5 years ago. Some of my friends came here for Uni. I got a job in a record shop and followed them down.

B : You have got a lot of hype right now...how's that feel to know so many people are into your music?

H : Yeah seems a few people are starting to take notice. It’s cool.

B : Your style seems separated from the usual glut of samey producers... What are your roots in music?

H : I played bass in rock bands for years, but always had quite eclectic tastes. I properly got into hip-hop when I was about 15 and found the sampling element really interesting. I started seeking out old vinyl for breaks and sounds. This introduced me to load of amazing music, especially early electronic stuff like Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream. I had an MPC and used to make sample based beats; I didn't really try to make anything with computers until I started a music tech course a few years ago.

B : How would you describe your style?

H : Melodic, bass driven music.

B : Who has influenced your music in the past?

H : Loads of stuff really, tons of musicians, producers, films and books. I guess a turning point for me making the music I do at the moment, would be when I first heard 'I Luv U’ (Dizzee Rascal). I was massively into Timbaland and I thought it sounded like some mad Timbo beat made on the cheap with loads of distortion. Someone told me it was grime music, so I checked for the Rephlex compilation called 'Grime' when it came out that year. I found some more tracks from Plasticman and MRK 1, and went down to see Slaughter Mob when they played in Bristol in 2005. I was pretty much hooked after that.

B : Which artists are inspiring you now?

H : I've been listening to some of my old CDs recently. Boards Of Canada 'Music Has The Right To Children' and Stereolab 'Dots And Loops' have been played a lot over the last month or so. I'd love to achieve somewhere near that level of production one day. Always digging as well, picked up some acid folk stuff, Pentangle and Incredible String Band, that's very inspiring melodically. More contemporary stuff I'm feeling would be Donnacha Costello 'It Simply Is’ got that on the recommendations of a friend and its sick. Dubstep-wise I'm always checking for Martyn, Mala, Kode 9 and Peverelist.

B : What equipment do you favour to make music?

H : A mixture of stuff I've collected over the years and Logic. I've got an analogue synth and some guitar pedals, gonna get some more hardware soon.

B : Whats next for you?

H : I have a couple of tracks coming out on Formant recordings early next year. There's a few other releases lined up that are probably too early to speak about, as well as collaborations and remixes with some sick producers.

B : Give us a top 5 (of anything).

H : Top 5 90s computer games

1) Streets of rage 3
2) Street Fighter 2
3) Sonic
4) Mortal Kombat
5) Mega Bomberman

I was a Sega kid.


PHAELEH

Phaeleh has had a lot of love on this here blog, and in our opinion is one of the brightest talents to emerge from Bristol in years. Like Hyetal, his approach to production seems to work off a template that he plucked from a faulty flux capacitator light years in the future. He's a master of imposing mood and texture into a track, and more importantly seems to know intuitively when to let a sound breathe in its own space, indicated with tracks like the insidious swing of Low.

BUG likens his tracks to the Invisible Soundtracks series that was released on Leaf many years ago, the idea being songs specifically composed for non-existent films - Isolate conjures up the end credits to the aftermath of a fatal samurai battle, whilst Virus is the sound of a frantic chase through the neon-lit rain-soaked streets of a future Tokyo. Any producer who can spark up your synapses like that is deserving of praise, and including his fine work this year with his label Urban Scrumping as well as his own beats, we’re really looking forward to a good 2009 for the man.

DOWNLOAD - PHAELEH'S 2008 LIVE SET
DOWNLOAD - PHAELEH'S ELECTRONIC EXPLORATIONS MIX

TIME

2008 was the year that Time really impressed BUG, with an impeccable work rate that has led him to progress further than a lot of other people in this city who talk the talk, but don’t back it up with the product. His output this year has been phenomenal, and what’s even more interesting given that fact is the depth of quality in his work, which is second to none.

Whether its the sweet memories of reggae soundsystems past in Echo Park or the mutated R&B licks of Jeri Curl Boogie, Time has a beat for every occasion. The Line sounds like something off an old Tombone release, and wouldn’t be out of place in the discography of an offkey Techno producer like Tim Paris. Also a technically gifted DJ, we expect to see big things from TIME in 2009.

DOWNLOAD - TIME : AUDIO BANQUET 5

GUIDO

Guido is the one who’s tipped by most to come up hard in 2009 – and when considering his work is so strong, it would be a travesty if he didn’t. Everybody should have heard Orchestral Lab by now, the stuttering strings powering the erratic beat along with grandiose urgency, and his set of work is certainly getting him props from the big hitters like Pinch and Mary Anne Hobbes, who rightly showcased Beautiful Complication recently, which for BUG was one of our favourite songs this year, everything about the track is just so ridiculously on point, be it the vocal, beat, melody...it sounds like abstract shoegazing mixed with twisted R&B in a nuclear reactor. We simply cannot wait to see what he dreams up next.

DOWNLOAD - GUIDO'S MIX FOR HIGHRISE CLOTHING

WASCAL

Wascal was another BUG favourite this year, a seriously badboy DJ and a wicked producer to boot. Tracks like Submission, which sounds like a maudlin eulogy to his imaginary fallen Cantonese Ninja brothers, or Hollowpoint with its saw-toothed bassline and skittering percussion show his propensity for big ideas in each track that are about a million per beat. Wascal deserves a much wider audience for his work, and we hope 2009 we see him achieve that.

DOWNLOAD - WASCAL'S WINTER BASSWEIGHT MIX

BELLA

Bella was a real newcomer to the Bristol scene this year, and a real revelation for BUG. A cohort of Time, she has an incredible affinity with atmosphere and building mood in a track, with the resonating synths of Ficuzza sounding like Mantronix on acid, or Matsue Castle coming on like an ancient shogun speaking in tongues. A real one to watch - Bella has serious raw talent and will be definitely getting some props in 2009.

REKORDAH

If you listen to the nonsense that some of those who are supposedly “in the know” churn out, then you'll know the latest word on everybody’s lips is Wonky. Every producer who has a slightly off-key sound that’s a step away from the set paths of other genres is now lazily being classed with this frankly stupid moniker. Rekordah could be classed as wonky - or even worse Glitch Hop - but neither of these terrible phrases does the sheer insane majesty of his beats justice. Peanut Butter Dreams is the sound of an MPC in meltdown, Candy Flossin' a copy of Super Mario Bros played backwards in an oildrum. Wafer Crunch is our favourite though, the debut track in a genre we will call Mogadon Krunk, just to be awkward and to sound like we’re down with the underground. Regardless of names, we predict big things for this guy in 2009.

DOWNLOAD - REKORDAH'S MIX FOR HIGHRISE CLOTHING

SICKMAN D

Consept aka Sickman D had a good year in the '08. Another producer with a high work rate, his progression from month to month has been a real pleasure to witness. Sickman's tracks like Follow and Bubblin B have energised many a slow day for BUG, the latter coming at you with some serious Omni Trio style vibes mashed into off-kilter garage rhythms. Specialist also mines the 90s D&B melody sound bank and is all the better for it. If there’s any justice in the world Sickman D will be getting heard by a lot more people in 2009.

PLIMSOULS

We've raved on and on about Plimsouls this year, but seriously - the man is a genius. Beautiful production with an ear for a melody like few can hope for, and an unashamedly pop sensibility, his sound is like sunshine injected directly into your eardrums. Whether it’s the old tracks like Rebecca and Make Your Own Mistakes, or the newer remixes and songs like 103, Plimsouls’ musical evolution is speeding along like a juggernaut, and dragging us with it in it’s wake. Outstanding.

PLODOCUS

A consummate production genius, Plodocus has a background in ambient that belies his approach to building textures in tracks like Glimmer, but its an approach that pays rich dividends in Eshto or Quench The Gloom, both of which remind us of a more upfront Bola. 2009 will hopefully see him bring us more tracks like these with their vivid mix of styles.