WORDS | John Murray Hill
Track: Nosher [Baron’s I Know
A Little Spot Remix]
Artist: Total Science Did Baron’s prehistoric Mac struggle under the dinosaur-weight of ‘Nosher’?
Label: C.I.A LTD 004 “Yeah,” Baron admits. “It got ridiculous. Right near the end of the tune, because
Year: 2003 I had so much shit going on, I had to disable my screen saver, the desktop
picture; literally everything to try to get some power back. It was defi nitely very
Despite various producers sharing beats and basses like Amens and diffi cult to bounce the tune down because it crashed repeatedly. It seems mad
Reeces, once in a while a track comes along made from these base to even think that I worked like that. It would be impossible now.”
elements adding up to more than the sum of its parts. Say hello to the
undisputed, towering D&B classic that is Baron’s ‘Nosher’ remix. What was the core element to ‘Nosher’ remix’s success? “I think the fact that
it was a lot louder than everything available at the time,” Baron decides. “I
What was Baron doing imminently before he created his anthem? “I’d just think that I was one of the fi rst people, apart from Dillinja, out of the new
come back from Miami actually,” he recalls. “I went in April of 2003 and fi gured, generation that was really trying to maximise volume.”
afterwards, that I wanted to make something that really went off. A lot of the
new Hazard stuff had just come out and everybody was going nuts about it, Now everybody does it. “I mixed ‘Nosher’ down so many times, literally fi ve.
along with Fresh’s ‘Signal’. It seemed like the ante had been upped to a whole It took a day per mix. I would cut a plate, play it out, see what it sounded like,
new level. I asked Quiff and Smithy if I could remix ‘Nosher’. Smithy wasn’t go back and remix. I knew it was a big tune, because the fi rst time I played it
really up for it and Quiff, with that in mind, just gave me the disc one night.” everyone went absolutely bananas, as if it was something that was known,
and I was thinking to myself... ‘That’s a bit fucking weird...’ Back then I was
To get one over on his friend? “Haha! No, he just gave it to me because
he thought I could do a good job. In the early part of my career, Q-Project
helped me to progress my sound in the direction I wanted it to go. So I took “It made me acutely aware
the ZIP disc away. I laid out some beats and made the intro which, to be
honest, wasn’t that different from the original. One day I was just pissing of how powerful one piece of
around and played in a bassline. I remember quantising it, going out and
making myself a drink, coming back in and thinking to myself... ‘Fucking music can be”
hell! That’s a monster of a bassline! How the fuck did I come up with that?’
making stuff that was alright, it wasn’t amazing.”
What technology was behind Baron’s magnum opus? “I had Logic 5, and a Baron’s early material was loved for its quirkiness. “I wish I could make
500 MHz Apple G4.” stuff like that that went off now, but it’s very diffi cult. I really enjoyed the
reaction of ‘Nosher’. My biggest records like ‘At The Drive In’ also went off,
This puts into perspective the relative age of ‘Nosher’ remix. “I’ve got an but never like that.”
8-core 3.2 GHz now and to think that I worked on a G4... I remember getting
that 500 MHz Mac and seeing Fresh down at Swerve and saying to him, ‘I’ve Baron must have found it rather strange to hear Andy C play his remix
got a new Apple, do you think I’ll be able to do anything on it?’ He was like, at the Coronet on a Bank Holiday party in 2003, having not given him
‘Yeah, we made ‘Shot Down On Safari’ on a 400 MHz.” the tune personally. “Quiff gave it to Andy,” Baron concludes. “Quiff was
looking at me like, ‘Yeah! This is wicked!’ After that, everyone was after it.
By Baron’s calculations, his new computer is 3.5 times more powerful I remember Grooverider coming up to me at a rave and saying, ‘That tune
than his old one: “They reckon processor speed doubles every 18 months is absolutely ridiculous’.”
[it’s rumoured that Intel have got a 16-core processor due for release
in 2010],” Baron opines. “I was using a 24-track analogue Mackie desk. You’ve got to start somewhere. “Indeed,” Baron concludes, “and the ‘Nosher’
Q-project had the same one, so he told me to get it so that I could test my remix was absolutely 100% the starting point for my career in terms of
mix-downs round his place. I didn’t use any outboard, just a computer, getting booked and receiving recognition. It made me acutely aware of how
desk and set of speakers.” powerful one piece of music can be.”
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