Issue 30 / August 2011 EXCLUSIVEINTERVIEW
DRUM & BASS / BREAKS / DUBSTEP
www.guestlist.net
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ARTIST OF THE MONTH Skrillex
The global commotion is underway with sounds to shake your solar plexus
Dubstep is overrun with extreme, oscil- lating bass, but none so appealing as the consistently forbidding ruckus of Skrillex. Sonny Moore is the Dubstep and Electro House producer from Los Angeles who successfully transitioned from his role as frontman of post-Hardcore band From First To Last to Electronic music boffin, whose finely-honed tracks feature ferocious depth charge drops in the same league as Bar 9 and Chasing Shadows. His debut EP, My Name is Skrillex, was released last summer and he has been going from strength to strength ever since, accumulating a deadly arsenal of tracks such as ‘Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites’, ‘Rock n’ Roll (Will Take You to the Moun- tain)’ and remixes of Benny Benassi, Rob Zombie, Nero, Robyn and Lady Gaga. 2011 is becoming a pivotal year for Sonny, having already borne witness to his successful
ALBUM OF THE MONTH
Icicle - Redemption ICICLE
HAZAL @guestlist
Hey man, how’s it going? Have you been doing any festivals recently? Not too many festivals but lots and lots of gigs. I brought out a new album at the beginning of the year and set up a live show recently which has been going really well. I played one last weekend which was very well received. Just generally very busy.
Have you got any favourite spots at all? Any favourite crowds? Sometimes you get a bit more of a reaction and sometimes a bit less but it’s hard to pick a favourite. There are some that stand out like Star Wars in Belgium - it’s amazing. A huge
One of the friendliest producers we’ve come across, Icicle met us at the Star of Kings where he talked gigs, Holland and the age of Drum and Bass
crowd and always a massive reaction, but generally there are a lot of good places and it hardly ever happens that I don’t enjoy playing.
I bet it must be good to go back to Holland, back to the homeland? Yeah, it’s great to go back. It’s difficult, though, what with the music scene, although I’ve been there twice this year and sold out both times so it felt really good.
Nice! How do you feel about how liquid has de- veloped recently in Drum & Bass? Well it has always been a terminus, I guess someone just needed to give it a name. If you think about the sound, it has more musical depth; it’s not all about the drop, more about the
melody. It has evolved, become more ‘techy’ I guess, just as I’ve gone a lot more ‘techy’. I still like to keep some musical content, though, it’s not just about the drops and the big build-ups. It’s developing, it’s moving and that’s a good thing.
Cool, who were your favou- rite artists back when you were getting into produc- ing and DJing? Back then I was almost a bit purist, then afterwards I got into the Golden Era of Drum & Bass as I like to call it. The ‘98 cyber stuff, like Optical and Metalheadz. Outside of that, though, I’ve always had a lot of Techno influence.
What would be your dream collaboration, with either a DJ, or an artist or a pro- ducer?
That’s a difficult one. Anyone I like? I want to do something with Miles Davis. Although it might be a bit hard practically!
We have a few special Guestlist Network ques- tions for you now. What would you do if you were invisible for a day? Cool! What would I do... I’d plan a massive heist and rob a bank!
If you could fill a swimming pool with anything what would it be? My own swimming pool? I’d fill it with... I want to say money or gold but I’d come off sounding really wrong. I’m going to say custard so I could see if it’s actually possible to walk on it like they say. You can’t swim in it, it’s too heavy apparently.
Have you got any cool,
secret gigs coming up? Anything in the pipeline? I’ve got some really cool gigs but they are massively advertised. There is a tune by Commix and I that people have been asking me about for a long time called ‘Ultra Clean’ and it’s actually coming out! I can confirm that it’s coming out, we gave in to popular demand.
Cool, great to hear that! It was amazing meeting you, thanks very much.
We take a look at the latest album from one of Shogun Audio’s newest recruits
Chech Icicle out alongside more of the Shogun Audio entourage at Cable on the 20th of August
Jeroen Snik, better known as Icicle, is a recent addition to DJ Friction’s acclaimed label and brain child ‘Shogun Audio’. Since breaking onto the UK Drum and Bass scene in 2008, Icicle has gained respect as a hot producer and DJ and his debut release with Shogun Audio, ‘Spartan’, encompassed his direction as a seasoned producer of deep, dark and futuristic Drum and Bass. His col- laborations with like-minded DJs including Alix Perez and Noisia have only highlighted his potential within this subgenre, so it was no surprise that Icicle’s latest EP, Redemp- tion, was received with huge appreciation. The artist’s clean and melodic style is in full force on this record, with deep, rumbling vocals from Robert Owens working neatly alongside a structured percussion to deliver what is a promising morsel from an excellent album to come.
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