Subsine Collective

2008-05-08T18:04:00.000+01:00

Subsine @ The Night Owl

2008-04-28T17:48:00.002+01:00

Subsine are plleased to announce that we will be hosting a new night for Wednesdays at The Night Owl Club, High Street, Cheltenham.

Every Wednesday, 8pm - 1am, £2 on the door.

We'll be kicking off with a night of Dubstep from 2 step to half step, the emphasis well on the BASS for this one!

From then on every wednesday, we'll be bringing you the best deep vibes music...

Week 1 - Dub / Dubstep night.

Subsine held the first Dubstep only night in Cheltenham last year and our DJs are gaining recognition within the wider Dubstep scene. We hope to provide Cheltenham with the Bassiest night in town!

DJs - Asusu (Essencia, Bath/Motion, Bristol), Advocate & Autopsy (Resonance, Reading/Darkland Recordings), Malwav (Exegene Recordings, Darkland Recordings), Poyser (All over Gloucestershire!)

Week 2 - Chilled House / Trance / Techno.

Throughout the mid 90's, Cheltenham was among one of the most popular nightclubbing destinations in the UK, with clubs like Time regularly hosting the biggest names in the House and Trance scenes. Then the cheese and gimmicks set in. We aim to recapture some of the more blissed out, chilled vibes from a still extremely popular scene with a classic and new selection.

DJs - Andy Webber (Birmingham), Macker (Ajuna Beats)

Week 3- Dubstep / OldSkool Garage / Minimal Techno.

Expanding slightly on the template of week one, we aim to keep proceedings nice and deep. One for those who like to get lost in music.

DJs - Asusu, Malwav

Week 4 - 70's Funk & Soul / Bassline / UKG / Hip Hop & Live PA's.

Raising the energy levels for the end of the month, we keep things on a funky tip, along with various related performances from local talent.

Hosts - Action Jackson, DJ Cool, Ticq, Jadee & Musik Child

Hope to see you there! More updates and flyers as they happen!

peace
malwav

Malwav. Interview

2008-02-18T20:32:00.002Z

Fresh from outfitting his new "Ceylon Asylum Studio" in order to obtain infinite analog delay feedback, Malwav ponders signal routing and gets excited about Bristol...alot, in the latest of our Subsine Collective interviews.

Questions supplied by Asusu.

1. Ok, then - Malwav. Who are you, where do you come from and what do you get up to other than making music?

OK, so. My name is Michael Wintle, Malwav is my main production alias, although I go by Malevolent Wavelength for any DnB that I do. I shortened Malevolent Wavelength to Malwav cuz I was just too lazy to keep writing it and it's a mouthful to say as well, which ain't good. Born Gloucester, spent my childhood in Berkeley, hung around Bristol constantly when I was a kid, a place that continues to inspire me, moved back to Gloucester and currently live in Cheltenham with Heather, my girlfriend. West Country through n through, innit!
When I’m not making music, I drink tea, sometimes even when I am making music.
I tend to be fairly selective these days in terms of going out, so in the past year or so I’ve checked Massive Attack, Horace Andy, Soulfy, Skindred and also the Ashton Court Festival in Bristol, which will be sadly missed. And of course, I’ll always try and make time to go to Subloaded and Teachings in Dub down in Bristol! Aba Shanti-I top ranking!
I also like watching Sci-fi, my favourites at the moment are the Ghost In The Shell SAC series and the “re-imaging” of Battlestar Galactica. I love hanging out with Heather and doing nothing or eating!

So, you're a founding member of the Subsine Collective - can you shed a little light on what motivated you personally to start this?

Well, it was more of a case of, why not! Having completed the Music Tech course at Gloscat with many of you, the coolest thing about it, I thought, was that although we all came from different musical scenes and perspectives, we were all very much open to each others sounds and in the end influenced each other a lot, as well as producing some interesting collaborations. So, coming to the end of that intense time of feeding off of each others creativity, it’s like, well, now what? I just felt that we still had somewhere to go with all of this. I approached you (Asusu) and Matt (Advocate) first, with a view that maybe we could release a one-off CD or something, featuring our Dubstep productions, and it’s just grown from there. Both you and I took influence from the way Exegene operated, so that was our original template. I always loved the way that Exegene was always an artists label, where everyone felt involved in some way. So it’s the idea of Subsine having an autonomous, democratic approach to running an independent label, where all decisions on the direction of the label are done by discussion and consensus, everyone’s as involved as they want to be, working on individual projects or collaborations while still having support as a collective.
The concept of having a “no boundaries” approach to genres and releases on Subsine, purely came from our group discussions, and is something I’m really excited about.

3. You've got two d'n'b releases under your belt on Exegene and Darkland - how did these come about? Any tips for those who want their stuff to be heard?

I was actually involved with Darkland for quite a long time before Exegene. When DJ Sinister started up the Darkland Drum n Bass forum, I was one of the first members. “Era of Despair” I wrote especially with Darkland in mind, while the b-side was a remix I did of “Conspiracy”, originally by US producer Deadly Habit. If I remember rightly, Deadly put up the samples of Conspiracy for a remix comp on the Darkland forum, and I was the only one who did something with them!

The Exegene release came about after I posted Latin Roulette on the Subvert Central forum. Cube from Exegene heard it and that’s it really!
As for tips, I guess just put yourself out there, but remember to be modest. The internet’s really opened things up, it’s presented so many opportunities but there’s just so much music out there, so really it’s still all about creating personal links with like-minded people. The way I see it is, I only make music for me. If someone else is feeling it, then cool! Hopefully the Subsine Collective will help with that, it’s hard to get noticed on your own, but collectively, you never know!

What are your plans for 2008, musically? Anything in the pipeline?

I’ve been working on a few tracks at the moment, mainly in conjunction with the music production course I’m doing, so that’s more of a case of stretching myself and trying out new techniques. Other than that, I’m really getting into versioning, and I‘ve been setting up my studio especially for that purpose, so expect some exclusive Malwav dubs from the Subsine heads! There will be some more of my own productions, but I’m fascinated with taking other peoples tracks into new directions. I’m working on some beats for rapper Jadee and a few other people, but really, I see this year as a chance to refine and consolidate my own sound as a producer and record other artists.

What is your musical background? You've been around longer than myself, and have had a lot more exposure to different types of music...

I guess when I was a kid my parents vinyl collection fascinated me, from The Beatles and Otis Reading, to Holst and Bach. I’ve always tried to listen with open ears. OK, put it this way, the first album I ever brought (on cassette!) was an album by George Harrison, closely followed by Public Enemy and then a 4 tape pack of Reggae greats. So I think it pretty much all stems from that combination. Sitars and other unusual sounding instruments, in your face drums, and bass! At school I had a friend who was really into electronica stuff like Tangerine Dream and Vangelis, so I liked that kinda stuff too, then when the rave scene came along, everything kinda fell into place. I really started feeling music around 1991, all early Reinforced Records, Shut Up And Dance, Suburban Base, Tribal Bass and Moving Shadow, as well as getting hold of tapes of Stone Love dances. The moment when I knew music really had me, was when I heard “Killa” by Smith & Mighty on a Bristol radio station. That track just blew me away! From there, I followed the emerging Drum’n’Bass scene, again based around Bristol, catching a lot of the Full Cycle parties. Going out at that time was based around Techno/Hard House/Acid Trance on Thursdays, Drum’n’Bass on Fridays, whatever looked cool on Saturdays and chill out mixes on Sunday! Along side that, I’ve always had a weakness for Metal such as Sepultura and Deftones, blunted Bristolian beats, Indian classical music, Blues, hell, I’ll listen to anything! Never really understood Opera or Wagner though...

Who (or what) inspires your style of production most?

That’s a good question what I don’t gotta clue how to answer. I think it’s drum patterns, most nearly all my tracks start with a particular beat. Whatever I’ve been listening to last. Like, I’ll listen to the Deftones and want to do a track using a similar drum pattern from a particular track, but sped up for DnB, or listening to and finding out about Indian classical talas and wanting to do something in a ⅞ time signature. Hearing Tears For Fears on the radio and wanting to do something with that break. Everything else just hangs off of that, and again, just usually whatever sounds I’ve been checking at the time. My drums tend to be quite up-front in the mix, I think that stems from Public Enemy, Gunshot and the like. I dunno, I try and listen to anything music wise, so I’m usually just inspired by whatever I just listened too!
I think we all find our own production style eventually, we all hear music differently I guess, so that must come out in the way we put sound together. In terms of producers I admire, I’d say Paradox, DJ Krush, Amon Tobin, King Tubby, Hank Shocklee, PJ and Smiley, Rob Smith, Nelee Hooper, Steve Albini, well, there’s a fair few!

I know that, like me, you're very fond of sampling rather than using synths. What sort of methods do you use to source them?

Vinyl. Next!

Hehe, nah, although sampling vinyl is definitely a fetish of mine, recently any thing’s fair game. I’m really not a fan of synths, sometimes they’re useful, but I’d never rely on them. Last year I made a decision to ditch pretty much all of the softsynths and samples that I had previously downloaded and start from scratch to create my own unique little collection of sounds and textures. I get a real buzz from recycling sounds, whether sourced from vinyl or self recorded foley. Recently I produced some amazing bass tones by recording the feedback produced by my reel-to-reel routed back through the desk. I guess being from a sampling culture, I’m more interested in sound and texture rather than notes and harmony when it comes to making music. Saying that though, I’m really into recording live instruments at the moment too. For instance, if I want the sound of a flute, I’ll find someone who can play one and make them play what I want! I brought this crappy plastic wind organ made in the 70’s, off of Ebay the other day, just because it sounds like a cow! I’d rather use and record something with a unique sound like that, than use a tweaked preset on a synth.

8. Recently you've added some vintage effects units to your studio setup. Isn't it a lot of hassle to have to send your tracks out to use them?

Not really, I’m reconfiguring my setup at the moment specifically to make use of outboard and on-the-fly mixing, dubwise stylee! I’ve got a 16 track mixer, so I can send 8 submixed tracks out of Logic using the MOTU Ultralite, perform a mixdown on the fly incorporating effects, and record either onto tape or back into Logic. I find automation very useful, but I just want to be more hands on and capture a nice ital vibe when mixing.
Without getting into the whole Analogue vs Digital debate, hopefully I can make good use of both worlds. Ultimately it’s just all about signal routing, the biggest hassle is that I need more cables, and now I’m tripping over them. Most DAWs such as Logic and Cubase support the use of external hardware anyway. If you’ve got multiple ins and outs on your audio interface, then it’s just a case of routing the sends and busses within Logic or whatever. It can be a headache initially trying to figure out the signal path and there has been some head-scratching moments when it looks right in theory, but you still can’t hear anything! It’s just an excuse to twiddle some knobs at the end of the day! Again, it’s the sound and vibe that I’m after, rather than it being technically nice.
My fascination with vintage equipment stems from one of the same reasons why I still love vinyl. it’s just the fact, that even with a record that’s over 50 years old, you can still play it. The same with hardware, if it’s been looked after. It’s like with Technics turntables. They’re basically the same design as they were in the 70s. You just can’t say the same with software, as it’s so dependent on a particular operating system. Again, I’m not saying analogue is “better” than digital, its all tools at the end of the day, to use how you see fit. Use whatever you can to achieve the sound you’re after.

The drums on 'Capture The Ideas of The Gods' sound great - really punchy. Give us a little insight into your method of drum programming and how you achieve that sound.

Thanks for saying so! That track came after my decision to get rid of all my downloaded samples. I wanted more control in how I obtained and sampled drum loops and samples and, yeh just make them bigger and punchier from source. That break came from the City Of God soundtrack, that I picked up on vinyl. So the chain was Technic SL1200 mk2 > Tascam XS-4 > Mackie 1604 VLZ > DBX 266XL Compressor > Atari GX4000D reel-to-reel (recorded well hot for tape saturation), then back through the DBX 266, I think, to be recorded into the computer. So, that was all about adding multiple small amounts of compression, being careful not to overly squash the sound. The sample would have been sliced up manually, separated into individual tracks (kick, snare, hat, etc…) to make EQing easier and sequenced within Cubase back then, I’m Logic now, tho it makes no odds really. The snare and kick I think were compressed again, as well as some light compression on the drum buss. Just a lot of compression really! I would never do that much compression on an overall mix, but it can be used creatively on individual elements of a track.
Recently, I’ve been sourcing my drum hits by recording a real kit, but that’s more a case of getting the sound right at source, through mic placement. Then I’d compress the hell out of it!

To round off, could you take us through the steps you take to create a finished track?

Haha, I hate finishing tracks! Damn you, you’ve found my weakness! Yeah, creatively sometimes I find it hard, but technically, I think I’ve made some progress. In the mixdown, it’s just about balance which I think is fairly instinctive, although I tend to mixdown really dark, as much sub as I can get away with, upfront drums and usually hardly any top. I have to make a real conscious effort to work on the hats and any other high frequency stuff. Just how my ears are I guess! I tend to adjust levels as I’m writing the track. I’m also experimenting with parallel compression at the moment, which is interesting after Chris’s comments about the amount of over-compression at the mastering stage that goes on. Parallel compression retains much of the dynamics in a track. Mastering is such a science in itself. The theory is one thing, but it takes years and years to be anywhere good at it.

Ceylon Asylum Studio - Sunday Sessions

2008-02-10T20:55:00.000Z

Malwav's new studio set-up is now up and running...

although if your looking for nice, sterile and clean signal paths for your recordings, this ain't the place to go! 70s delay, spring reverb and tape saturation is more the vibe! Focusing primarily on dub versioning, off-kilter beats and heavy, heavy bass, as well as recording DJ mixes, the studio will be open on Sundays from 2pm - 7pm. Unfortunately, the studio cannot accommodate band recording, but is perfect for recording vocals and solo instruments.

Feel free to give Mike (Malwav) a call on 01242 699924 or drop an email: malwav@blueyonder.co.uk

fiyah!

Asusu Interview

2008-02-10T20:44:00.000Z

Currently spreading dubstep vibes across the Bath and Bristol area with his back-2-back DJ sets with fellow bass reprobate Trigger, as well as dropping bare dubplates of his own, here Asusu shares his take on sampling, going deaf after Subloaded and, err... gay marriage. Questions supplied by Macker.

1) What got you into music? Is there any particular point at which you thought "hey, this is for me!!!", or was it something that you gradually got into over the years?

My turning point was when I started to write lyrics at about 13, so there was a definite start - I can still remember the first time. I was really into my hip hop and rap, and loved the whole sort of scene, which lead me to buy a pair of decks shortly afterwards. It wasn't really a serious thing until I got to the end of school and was at the point where you have to start thinking about what sort of direction you want to head in. I hadn't done a music GCSE, but I took the plunge and went for the BTEC music tech course because I couldn't see myself doing something I didn't enjoy for a living.

2) I'm not particularly big on dubstep, so I don't suppose you could shed some light on it for me. What is it about the genre that you like so much?

This is a toughie! I liked dub before dubstep (Scientist in particular), and when I heard Burial's album it combined these skeletal beats with beautiful melodies and the omnipresent dub test tone. I didn't really rate a lot of the other stuff very highly at the time, I think it was the older dubstep and a lot of the Kode9/Spaceape tracks that got me interested in that. I love the fact that it's such an open genre - you get 2-step vibes, wobbly half-step, techno and really bare minimal stuff. I think that's the main attraction for me, you can listen to a dubstep set and it's constantly changing throughout. Of course, we can't forget the thrill of hearing it in a rammed club on a huge system. It's great to be able to skank out like that, I hate trendy clubs where they play r'n'b and you only go to get wasted and try to pull.

3) Who are your biggest musical influences? Are there any unusual ones, perhaps some that you might not want to admit even?! Go on, you can tell us!

Well, Aim is the artist that got me away from the more commercial US hip hop - he's still my favourite. It's the music that brings back memories of growing up, he makes great funky beats and melodies that I aspire to. Boards of Canada too - they have a very similar effect and a really distinct sound. I started to really experiment with samples when I heard what they did. Another is Amon Tobin, the Splinter Cell OST completely blew me away when I heard it. I admit I don't listen too a lot of d'n'b (if you'd label him as such), but that album was so adrenaline fuelled at points, and really slinky and sly in others. It's not repetative at all, but constantly changing and fresh. As for dubstep - Burial. I came across the scene when I was mainly listening to downtempo electronica type stuff, just really deep music. I couldn't have got into dubstep through any other artist. I'm really rinsing Darqwan's stuff at the moment too, as well as Headhunter. I'd be a bit embarassed to admit to listening to Jehst nowadays, his new stuff really doesn't stand up to his first few e.p's which inspired me more than any other mc. My unusual taste would maybe be Weather Report - they made jazz fusion, it's so funky and great for sampling.

4) One thing that's always amazed me about your productions is your sampling ability. I've known you take a sound and turn it into something completely different, as if by magic! Like the time you made those horns sound like a rhodes, or bird song used as a bass! How on earth have you learnt to do this?

Well, most of my favourite artists make kind of lo-fi sounding stuff, stuff that's difficult to make with synths. I guess part of that is to do with the use of analogue equipment, but sampling from vinyl is a common theme throughout most of the artists. I can't play any instruments either, but I like recording them when I get the chance.Of course, I come from a hip hop background as well, so when I first started to produce it was instinctive to sample. A lot of it's experimentation with filtering, pitch shifting, modulation and just general processing. I find that samples are a lot more pliable than synths, you start off with such a complex waveform so you're not limited to all the obvious synth sounds - if I use a synth, I'll usually bounce down the sound and put it in to my sampler because I can do more with it. I've just started to dabble with Max/MSP too. It's a bitch to learn, but well worth the effort because you can basically build synths, samplers, processing units and just about anything you can imagine to you're own specifications. What really appealed to me is that you can pitch shift audio to unimaginable speeds that other programmes simply can't reach.

5) What do you hope to get out of subsine & where would you like to see it heading in the future?

I think the initial aim of subsine was to spread dubstep to places where it hasn't infiltrated yet - such as Gloucester. I personally want to play a lot more in Gloucester and help to forward that myself, even in Bristol there's been a few people come up and ask what is we're playing. Since we started to discuss possibly releasing other forms of music, I guess that's where we're headed for the future. For the moment though I think pushing ourselves into the spotlight is the most important thing. We have a few contacts here and there, but we need to make our name locally first. It's a prime location for dubstep, because even though it's small, it's got a big d'n'b and garage (mainly grime) following. I think people will definately rate it, we just need to show them the way with a phat system.

6) Are there any genre's that you'd like to try your hand at producing, but haven't got around to doing so yet? If so, why?

Minimal Techno. I started listening to a little bit - mainly the Deepchord stuff - after I heard some dubstep compared to it. It's the only 4/4 stuff I can stand to be honest. They've got the whole lo-fi thing going on with the white noise they use and the delayed chords are one of my favourite ever dubby sounds. I'm not sure whether I'll ever give it a go because you need to be able to immerse yourself in a music form to produce it properly. I don't think I could simultaneously produce dubstep and minimal techno, just like I've lost my touch for hip hop. There are always elements of my favourite sounds cropping up in my music, but I can't just switch styles from track to track. For the moment I'm going to stick to dubstep, but within the next year I want to fuse dub, garage, electronica and downtempo hip hop together. It's hard to find your sound, but I think these are the styles that will come together to form mine. I've also been working on some more spoken word lyrics - kind of like Tricky - so they might crop up somewhere along the way.

7) It's pretty safe to say you like going to live events - what one's been the most memorable and why?

Subloaded 6, 'cos I couldn't hear anything the next day! Well, not much anyway. I accidentaly blew a speaker because I couldn't hear what I was doing, and partly due to a dodgy crossfader on my mixer as well. Surprisingly, we spent most of the night downstairs at Teachings In Dub. They had a proper old school sound system clash, and we only managed to tear ourselves away for a little bit to watch Vex'd and snatches of other sets.

Cool, I know you're a tech head, like myself - what equipment have you got your eyes on, and what would you love to have if money were no object?

Well, software wise - Kontakt 3, Logic 8 and Max/MSP (I'm running the 30 day trial at the moment). I know you hate Logic and Macs, but I'd love one of the new i Macs to run it on too (4GB ram!). Since I can't afford the hefty price tag for Max, I might get PD instead which is a free version that's apparently just as good. It's designed by the same people too, I think. I've been wanting a portable recorder for the past 6 months as well. That'll probably come out of my next chunk of student loan, I've got my eyes on the Edirol R-09. I just received a second hand pair of Technics 1200 mk 2's in the post not 3 hours ago, only to find that they're in a far from satifactory condition. So now I have to go to the hassle of sending the bloody things back and scouring ebay for another pair. I'd like to get a little bit more outboard stuff, a compressor and a tape machine maybe - I'm really envy Malwav's setup.

9) What are your views on gay marriage?

I told you not to ask!!!

08' Update

2008-01-18T22:16:00.000Z

Just a likkle update,
Bedlam Breaks 6th Birthday Party @ Carling Academy, Saturday 9th February. Lots of big d'n'b names with dubstep in the 3rd room in association with Drop Records (featuring myself).

Also check out Kernelcore Modes Bass Olympics mix (Reload Radio), featuring 'Serrom Khen', see tracklist below for details.

http://rapidshare.com/files/84210831/kernelcoremode_13.1.08.mp3.html

1.southern - untitled
2.asusu - serrom khen
3.helixir - subadub skunk
4.numaestro - fantasmas
5.l-ow - lost valley
6.wedge - trak 4
7.hektagon - running thru
8.rsd - firewall
9.slt mob - horror
10.luke envoy - mugen
11.bionics - dubcore
12.spherix - blackwood
13.ekaros - pitch
14.blackmass plastics - rock head skunk
15.darkstar - lilyliver starkey rmx
16.darkstar - lilyliver

Asusu

Plugs

2008-01-15T18:14:00.001Z

Here's a few plugins for you lot....

oh....ive got kontakt, FM8, Komplete (downloading), Ableton Live, Waves Mercury, Absynth, EZ Drummer, and a load of other stuff...but its all 300mb +....so if there's any special requests, just let me know.

Plugin Download Link: http://www.sendspace.com/file/abszei

Plugin List:

Dr Device
Dubstation
Musicrow Valve Preamp (nice)
Ohmforce Experience
Ohmicide (5 band distortion unit...you can distort individual frequency ranges!!!)
Antares Harmony Engine (5 band vocal processing)
Antares Auto Tune (High End Pitch Correction Unit)
Nightmare Machine
Delta Series (multiband distortion/filters/delay/blah)

Have fun!

Advocate

Eh?

2008-01-15T15:36:00.000Z

Does any cunt use this bastard blog?

Subz - aiiiiiii - n

2008-01-09T11:20:00.000Z

new year festivities!!!!

'ello to all subsine peeps...happy new year from reading....

Advocate has finally got some tunes sorted!! Malwav has the...wavs, and will hopefully be delivering then to people's doors with a friendly smile soon =D

Business as usual....

1) Beyond the pattern - stealing tibetan ideas from malwav helps to create drum n' bass

2)Dedicated - minimalist dubstep for yor perusal -

hope you enjoy...

also, been bouncing ideas around with Autopsy and sound surgery...excellent stuff...keep your eyes peeled!

oh....and if you dont have Audio Damage's Dubstation plugin, then you need it....

gimme a shout and ill put a sendspace up?

big shout to all the subsiners....

nice interview chris! ya basta'

Advocate

Macker Interview

2008-01-07T22:08:00.000Z

In the first of a series of interviews with various Subsine heads, Malwav talks to Macker about his influences, compression and drunken antics!

Hello Chris! So, music. What’s it all about, then eh? What got you into this malarkey?

Honestly, it's pretty unclear to me what got me into it all. I distinctly remember being completely uninterested in all the music my friends used to play at school but just going along with it anyway, as you do at that age. Then at around year 8 or 9 I remember starting to hear a few dance music tracks, which although I thought were amazing at the time - they seem pretty cheesy to me now. A few tracks that stand out from that time were Darudes "Sandstorm" and Watergate's "heart of asia". I also remember hearing a dave pearce show on radio one on sunday evenings which had a few memorable tracks such as tiesto's "suburban train" and mauro picotto's "like this, like that". Soon after I began to buy trance music compilations and research a bit more into the genre - this was the age where 56k modems had just become old news and people were moving onto broadband! My first CD was this one; http://www.discogs.com/release/349600

As I’m getting on a bit, I’m old enough to have been out and about in what many consider to be the “Golden age” of Trance and Hard House from 1994-6, and to me your tracks seem to hark back to that time. Not in an overtly copycat way, but you’ve captured that vibe so perfectly, I’m thinking of classic Way Out West, Hybrid and Sasha in particular. Was this a sound that you were conciously striving for or did it evolve naturally for you?

Well as it happens, probably some of the oldest trance I know is '96, tracks like Salt Tank's "Eugina" and so on. I can't honestly say that i've strived to make my sound like that as such but rather I often try to give my more "summer-ish" tunes a kind of balaeric vibe, which inadvertantly shares the same vibe as the tracks from that era. I don't know if I have a sound of my own yet to be honest, like i'm not sure that I could give someone my records and have them say "oh that's blatently one of mackers productions", but i'd certainly like to reach a stage like that.
For you to compare me to the likes of sash & way out west & hybrid is pretty bloody flattering to be honest! Thank you!

Musically, who has made the biggest impact on you, and where do you tend to draw your inspiration from now?

The biggest musical impact on me is without a doubt Ferry Corsten. I can't say much for the direction he's taken his music nowadays (although he has come out with a couple of superb tracks recently, notably "beautiful").
He was never afraid to try new sounds and take trance off in a new direction, and somehow he always got away with it whereas other artists just get absolutely slated (sometimes rightfully so, sometimes not) for changing their style - but he always managed to pull it off! I think he is without a doubt the king of trance, and it never ceases to amaze me how often I hear his tracks on television and when i'm out & about, yet hardly any of the general populous know of him!
Recently though, hybrid have been a massive influence on me, not because i've just discovered them (i've known them for ages), but simply because only recently have i taken the time to really sit down & give their music a proper listen and in short, it's nothing short of absolutely stunning.

You've worked on some great remixes and have produced some amazing tracks with various vocalists. Tell us about how you approach a remix and working with other people.
I'm glad you think they're great! When approaching a remix, I like to have had a brief from someone telling me what style or direction they want me to take it in, and if I think it wont work i'll suggest something else.
Generally I like to always have a midi file handy! Bloody useful things they are. Aside from that, a few key samples from the track will do me just fine - I like to create a lot of the sounds myself so i'm not a big fan of using parts that have already been made for me - i'm a synth tweaker through & through!

You've turned down offers of remix work before haven't you?

I have turned down remixes a few times now, most notably was the time "Lost Language" approached me to remix a track from "Tilt's" album. If you're into trance, you'll appreciate that this kind of offer is no small thing, Tilt (John Graham, Andy Moor, Mick Parks & Mick Wilson) are a big name in trance, and so are the people behind it - most notably Andy Moor, who is an absolutely superb producer and John Graham (aka quivver).
Anyway, to cut a long story short I was told that I could remix any track from the album - so I picked "new day", a really nice track that I feel I could've definately done something with, but was then told I couldn't do that and that I would have to remix a track called "electronic poledancer".
Now those of you that know me will know how much I despise electro, and this was fairly electro sounding - and they wanted me to do an ambient remix of it! Put simply, if I had done it, I know for a fact that I wouldn't have been happy with the end result and certainly wouldn't have wanted my name to appear on it, so I decided against doing it. I still stand by my decision and think it was the right one, let's face it - electro is shit.

Having taken the same Music Tech course with you, one of the things that I think struck everybody on the course, was the cleanness of your mixdowns. Can you give us some insight in how you achieve this? Any more tips and tricks you care to share with us?

I think the problem with a lot of artists is that they get their whole track down and leave the mixing process until right at the very end - I firmly believe in mixing the track as you go along. Also, I know quite a few producers on the trance side of things that do absolutely piss poor jobs on their mixdown and ask me to master it, thinking that i'll be able to sort it out. A shit mixdown will always be a shit mixdown, regardless of who you get to master it.
Also, there's a huge focus on "compression" on online forums, it's the new buzz-word in production and although i'm well aware that it is entirely necessary, I think that a lot of todays aspiring producers use it far too much - and don't even get me started on limiting. I can't remember the last time I used compression on an individual track, it's such a rarity for me. I tend to stick cubases "magneto" tape emulation plugin on the master channel to beef up the signal a bit, and POSSIBLY have some slight compression added after that, usually with a ratio of about 1.5:1.
EQ is another key to a decent mixdown. If you have a sound that isn't anything to do with your bass end - use a high pass filter or low shelf eq on it to take away all of the low frequencies, they are what muddy-up a mix and take up a lot of space, so if you don't need it - get rid of it.
Aside from that I think one more thing to keep in mind is that in a lot of productions you can end up having an awful lot going on all at one point in the track, but just how many of the sounds you've got going on can you actually hear? If you can't hear it, take it out and use it elsewhere in the track instead.

I happen to know you’re a big techy geek! What gear is exciting you at the moment, and do you have a favourite bit of kit? What would you like to get your hands on?

I'd definately like to have a mess about on the Roll Music Super Stereo Compressor, which is basically a mastering compressor, and I think it's the sticker on the back of it that I fell in love with, it reads; "over compression ruins music"!
Also, I'd still love to have a go on the Access Virus TI. I had a go on it at sounds expo, and it sounded great, but sadly I didnt have long enough to nerd around on it.

You’re an extremely active member of the trance.nu forum. How do you see the web affecting music scenes at the moment?

Well it's great, producers from america can share porn with producers from europe.
The internet does have it's up and down sides. The upside is that it's so easy these days to get your music out there and promote yourself, and really get stuck into the whole music thing. But the downside is that a lot of shit gets released by labels that have very poor quality control, and also that (this is particularly apparent in the trance scene) DJ's all sound the same these days. People used to go out and browse record stores online and on the high street to find their new records that they were going to play in sets, but these days with the abundance of big renowned DJ's on internet radio stations - everyone just copies their tracklists and we end up with everyone raving over the same bloody tracks all the time.
I really would like to see Armin Van Buuren (the biggest culprit) stop his ASOT (a state of trance) show. It's absolutely massively popular, but I feel it's not doing any good for the scene as a whole.

What does being involved with Subsine mean to you? What are your hopes for the future?

I hope this label will always stay a close knit community and that we will consistently churn out one quality release after another. I'd like to see the whole thing take off and gather an avid following of fans that will always support us. I think it's a wonderful thing that we have come together to do this not for money, but for the love of music and everything music related. I'd love to see the label at least break even on every release so that we can carry on doing this.

It’s pretty safe to say you like your partying! Is it safe to share some stories?

Oh jeez, let's see... there was the time I had to be carried home on my 18th, there was the time my best mate Dave got punched in the face when he danced with a lesbian and her girlfriend got a bit upset about it. There was the time I woke up after a night out with a broken wrist and absolutely no recollection of how it happend. There was the time I (stupidly) downed half a litre of vodka and somehow (so i've been told) still managed to polish off the 12 bottles of beer i'd stashed away earlier. Then there was the time we went to birmingham to see Airwave and just as we got out the taxi at the club, i placed a can of stronbow beneath the tire, which exploded over everyone as he drove off, and on the same night my mate broke a glowstick in half and showered the dancefloor with the glowing, probably radioactive contents of it. There was the time I got on the night bus back home and was too drunk to see out of the window, so I had a quess at how long i'd been on the bus, and ended up getting off about 3 miles from home. The list goes on and on and on. Also, if you ever see me getting kicked out of a club, you can be almost certain it's because i've been drinking on the dancefloor.

Is there any questions you think I should've asked, or anything you want to add!?

Hmmm, to be honest I think you covered it all pretty damn well! I love you.

Cheers Chris!

Interview conducted by Malwav 07/01/08

New Years Greetings!

2008-01-06T15:32:00.000Z

Just that! Happy zero8 and all that!

Big tings for the Subsine Collective as we're set to present to you a string of diverse, quality music throughout the year...

A couple of updates in the download section of the website...

first and foremost, a Xmas pressie from Trigga!!! the Lurker...a dubstep mix representing old and new vibes...Trigga's got bare selection!

secondly, Malwav has himself a Dub session, bringing you the sounds of King Tubby, Scientist, Horace Andy, Tradition, Prince Far-I and more...

head over to www.subsine.co.uk/downloads.html to download the mp3's

Also, just a reminder if you're down Exeter way on Friday, January 18th, you can catch Trigga supporting Skream @ the Hub. Gonna be a big night.

peace and much love

Asusu representing Dubstep vibes NYE

2007-12-16T17:21:00.000Z

Subsine's very own Asusu will be seeing in the New Year down Bristol, spinning Dubstep at Motion's NYE bash...

31st December New Years Eve 2007 Essencia @ Motion, Bristol

3 rooms of music playing Electro/Drum & Bass/House/Dubstep/Dance/Breaks/and more...

Tickets available from: Motion, Bristol/Bristol Ticket Shop/Drop Records, Bath

Essencia info line: 07923359687

Expect to hear some Subsine dubplate business from Asusu himself and Extrovert.

Trigga Supporting Skream In Exeter

2007-12-09T19:13:00.000Z

Subsine head Trigga will be playing a set at the next Breaksphere night down in Exeter.

BREAKSPHERE proudly presents the 1st Year Anniversary of Dubstep with the return of the world's finest dubstep dj/producer, 1 year after his first visit in January 07, on Exeter's first dubstep night.
It's @ the Hub on Friday January 18th, so come celebrate with us! we bring you the one like...
SKREAM!!
He's had a countless string of big tunes which have helped define the dubstep scene, such as Midnight Request Line, Warning, Check It, Chest Boxing, Make Me, Dutch Flowers, Stagger, Sandsnake and remix work including his versions of Roots Dyed Dark, Punisher and Splurt. The man keeps churnin them out, with Dark side of life/Tearful dreams just out, and Skreamizm Vol.4 dropping, the man's unstoppable!
+ Support from Breaksphere residents,
MYSTERY
ILLOGIK
MERLIN THE MOUTH MAGICIAN
COMPO
TRIGGA
THE GENERAL
RETOX SOUNDSYSTEM
Tickets available now for just £5 @ the Hub, or £5 + bf from Reform & Solo
This night will sell out so get your tickets early!

Oh...

2007-12-07T11:42:00.000Z

and i just listened to rexton calm by extrovert....its a tune and a half!

Advocate? Eh?

2007-12-04T13:22:00.000Z

Oi Oi!

so...who is this advocate chappy anyways?

god knows...

due to regularly being fucked in the ass by pc/hardware/monetary issues.....i have been left with not a single bit of music making equipment....doh...

not all is lost, however!

the machine is in the repair shop...so expect at least 3 new tunes (well....not really new....shh) sometime next wik. Can't be havin all these whippersnappers embarrasing me with all their shiny tunes....

also....big props to a producer named Autopsy...we just met and are workin on some stupidly dub step of dark proportions....future subsine head?? possibly =D

so just a friendly hello from the land of Reading....i'm down but not out....

Advocate,

"The Protegé Of Platinum" coming early 08

2007-12-03T18:39:00.000Z

Yo people, just updating you on some information regarding me at the minute...

Im at work at the moment with my first project, im real excited with it so far because everyones going to be involved in some way or another, the executive producer is myself and production comes from Malwav himself, Asusu, Macker, Sykes, Musik Child and it will feature a range of artists such as Blade Andrews, Sykes, Musik Child, Joker, Smoki, Eclipse, Lyrix and even Malevolent Wavelength and yes the one time return of Asusu formely known as Native Flux!!!

The CD will be out early 2008 so make sure u get a copy! the first single will be out and available for download soon also so keep checkin the subsine website for further info!

Il be back soon to update you all

Your Favourite Rapper

JaDee

Subsine website updated

2007-11-30T23:45:00.000Z

well...just that, really!

Head over to www.subsine.co.uk for some updated artist bios and pictures...

November's been a month for planning and laying down the groundwork for 2008...

Ticq and Asusu's been hard at work trying to find us a venue for the next Subsine event after a few disappointments...a few possibilities in the pipeline...
The Demo CD's starting to take shape, so hopefully you'll be hearing more from Subsine on the net and radio soon...
Asusu and Trigga held down the vibes Brizzle way the other weekend, guesting in the chillout room dropping some nice Dubsteppage...
All the way over in Hawaii, Malwav's DnB track "The Alchemist" got an airing on long time supporter, MetaLX's radio show on Itstooloud Radio...find the archive here: http://metalx.dreamhosters.com/ITL_Radio_2007-11-16.mp3

Some things to look out for...

A few new Mixes to come from Malwav, Asusu and Trigga during December, showcasing varied styles of Dubstep...
January will see the first mp3 release from Asusu, an EP featuring Subsine favourite "6AM Dread". Also Jadee will be releasing his Subsine Mixtape featuring the vocal talents of himself and other guest MCs from the Glos area, (rumours of the one-off return of the legend that is Native Flux?) and production from a number of Subsine related producers.

's all for now...keep it locked
peace
malwav

"Worries" gets play!

2007-09-20T00:25:00.000+01:00

Just wanted to give a shout out to DJs Donnie Rosco and Stacks for giving forthcoming Subsine release, "Worries" by Malwav an airing on their Bassbin radio show tonight.
http://www.blogger.com/www.powerfm.org

You can catch their show featuring Jungle, Drum n Bass and Dubstep, every Wednesday - 8.30pm - 11.30pm GMT (that's from 9.30 in the UK and Ireland peeps - on account of daylight savings time or whatever it's called)
http://www.powerfm.org/wwwboard/ (boards, tracklists and archives on here as well as direct links to the show)
or.
Open Windows Media Player and insert:
http://live.powerfm.org/asx/powerlive64k.asx

You can chat live with them in the studio and with any
other listeners rubbing each other up the wrong and right way.
http://www.chatzy.com/351049598093

www.subvertcentral.com

Many thanks for the support guys.
Malwav

Asusu meets Malwav inna Subsine Dub Session

2007-09-17T15:48:00.000+01:00

Bless up Subsine heads!

here's the product of a little Dub session we had the other day...

not sure of the tracklist as we were just pulling out records as we felt like it! Anyway, many classic cuts from the likes of King Tubby, Scientist, Prince Far-I, Steel Pulse, Mad Professer and many more...

The mp3 is will be available for download from the Subsine Download page: www.subsine.co.uk/download

enjoy!
peace

Subsine Studio Mix Vol 2

2007-09-10T09:41:00.000+01:00

hey guys!

Here's the latest installment from the Subsine camp, courtesy of Malwav...proper varied dubstep flavours on this one...
grab it here...

http://www.subsine.co.uk/subsinemixvol2.html

Also available for download/streaming on our Virb page:
www.virb.com/subsine

tracklist:
Fallen (Vex'd rmx) - Distance - Planet Mu
Cut Card - Goth Trad - Deep Medi Music
Rocka - Kion - Clandestine Cultivations
Arigato - Quark - Ranking
Anathesiac - Vaccne - Hot Flush
Like Sun - Toasty - Hot Flush
Tense Past - Gatekeeper - Punch Drunk
Well Done (Headhunter's rmx) - Martin Buttrich - Four:Twenty
Gud Money - DQ1 - Tectonic
Circulate - 2562 - Tectonic
The Grind - Peverlist - Punch Drunk
Broken - Martyn - DAT Music
M/A..ximum Reespek - Darqwan - Planet Mu
Aqualung - Scuba - ABUCS001
Get Loose - Fracture & Qualifide - Compound One
Tomb - Gatekeeper - Skull Disco
Coerced Futility - Malwav - Subsine Dub

Many thanks for all the kind comments for Vol 1, hope you enjoy this one too!
Cheers me dears!

Subsine meets Rhapsody

2007-08-30T09:17:00.000+01:00

After our first club night, a (biased) review from Subsine affiliate Asusu. Time to brush off those literary skills...

The second outing under the Subsine banner was at Bohemia in Cheltenham - possibly (and more than likely) it's first dubstep night. It basically came about through a bit of pot luck at our local record shop and Malwav's shady connections.
To be brutally honest, the forces of nature/god/satan were aligned against us on this one, but we pulled through. The first time round it was cancelled due to the floods, and second time round was bank holiday weekend and reading/creamfields festivals were taking place. We kicked off with a lil' bit of dub, and then progressed on to some earth rockin' dubstep courtesy of myself and Malwav. Dubplates were ordered especially, and boy did those speakers rattle...
Ticq heated things up with some abstract lyricism, which lead on to a live PA from JaDee and LT Sykes . Although we initially didn't think he'd make it, Advocate himself arrived, bringing some dirty d'n'b that got feet moving. Under wraps, I'd been shitting it for a whole week prior to the night, but it was all cool when it came round. Fun was had by all, and one or two actually looked like they might be interested in hearing some more of this dubstep business. We've hit n'ham now, next stop: Gloucester...

malwav current dubstep ten...

2007-08-29T22:21:00.000+01:00

no order...just what I'm feeling...

Answer (DJ Pinch rmx) - Henry & Louis feat Tony Tuff - 2 Kings
Dead 2 Me - Darkstar - 2010
Broken - Martyn - DAT:Music
Cut Card - Goth Trad - Deep Medi
L-Wiz - Centurion - Dub Police
Well Done (Headhunters rmx) - Martin Buttrich - Four:Twenty
Redrum - Cyrus - Random Trio Productions
We Both Are Lost - Paradigm X - Dubplate
Promised The Future - Asusu - Subsine Dubplate
Coerced Futility - Malwav - Subsine Dubplate

cheers me dears
malwav

Subsine invades Winston Churchill Gardens...

2007-08-29T16:59:00.001+01:00

Subsine Collective invades Winston Churchill Gardens
Cheltenham 14th July 2007

This Cultural Fun Day, organised by the Cheltenham Community Rangers was our first event under the Subsine banner. Officially we were there to run a DJ workshop for the kids, but it was also an excuse for us to play music loud publicly, and legally, in the sun!

Loverly sunny day to play some heavy Dub and Dubstep sounds from Asusu and Malwav, and Macker played a wicked Trance/chilled out House special guest set, which was perfect for the hot sunny afternoon. Jadee Sporadic also performed a live Hip-Hop PA of some of his new material. Not many people around us, but the whole place could hear us anyway, even above the main stage arena!

Big thanks to James from the MCDP (Music Cultural Development Project) for providing the PA and Wayne and the other Community Rangers for letting us make noise at his event!