GENIEDUBS006 ELEMENTS: Earth

Hi SG,

I would like to congratulate all three artists. I enjoyed all 4 tracks with nods to the past presented in a very now way. Really nice break work, especially from Evasion, loads of flavour and detailed work! Loved the dark atmosphere build and soundscapes by Miek with filthy Dom & Roland nod drop!
Loved the break patterns and quirky leads from Scartip.

It would be good to here from the artists about their individual journeys when developing the tracks. Their approaches and challenges along the way. This is a really important D&B community, let’s celebrate it!

A massive well done guys, a big thumbs up and hope a label pricks up their ears to these lovely creations! Best wishes, Matt.

Matt wrote:

Hi SG,

I would like to congratulate all three artists. I enjoyed all 4 tracks with nods to the past presented in a very now way. Really nice break work, especially from Evasion, loads of flavour and detailed work! Loved the dark atmosphere build and soundscapes by Miek with filthy Dom & Roland nod drop!
Loved the break patterns and quirky leads from Scartip.

It would be good to here from the artists about their individual journeys when developing the tracks. Their approaches and challenges along the way. This is a really important D&B community, let’s celebrate it!

A massive well done guys, a big thumbs up and hope a label pricks up their ears to these lovely creations! Best wishes, Matt.

Thanks Matt appreciate the kind words!

I can give you a bit of a rundown on each track and also generally what led to me to this style etc.

Closer

I’d been listening to a lot of Sully and Jungle with quite long emotion filled intros and wanted to create something influenced by this style with my own stamp on it, I spent alot of years purely making liquid dnb and have also loved making soundscapes/evolving melodies (Someday I can see myself making 20 minute ambient tracks with some hardware synths or something hahah), I chopped up and layered a break to begin with to some flow with the drums, added some pads and thick sounds and worked on the inital drop 808 pattern.
Past this point I will try and flesh out a full idea for the tune in a couple of sessions, even if I end up taking bits out and changing the layout I like to go with what is in my head early on. I often think I switch up the styles too much in tracks and I think for DNB sometimes this was true, but Jungle really lends itself to expression and creative freedom in my opinion.
I got to that point and the track sounded pretty good but honestly without the feedback from Sample Genie the mix would have stayed a little lack luster – so the version you are listening to there is somewhat of a collab. I added some more mid/range elements and improved the mix tenfold over a period of a few weeks before the final product you hear there! 🙂

Computer Talk
I’d been listening to alot of Photek with a dash of old Rockwell and again got inspired by the flow/chaos in the beats.
I sliced up multiple breaks for this one, not even sure how many but it’s probably the most complex drum break I’ve ever created in all honesty, sample creation really made this track what it is above anything else, I removed a number of drum layers as I wanted it broken up not overdone.
From the start I wanted this track to go from sub focused to all out chaos on the second drop which initially it was and still is, but following feedback from Sample Genie I spiced up the first drop a little bit more – An example where I got too caught up in the artistic vision for the track and disregarded catching the attention of the listener within the first few minutes maybe. The mixdown was pretty close from the start on this one, it was mainly layout adjustments and taking some vocal samples out which were a bit over used.

General

As mentioned a little bit above I have been making more Jungle influenced music for a little while now (BPM anywhere from 157-166) and personally I’m enjoying producing a lot more than I was trying to create super chiselled DNB, I still have some dnb tracks that I’ve made recently which I think are good tracks but I think my strengths as a producer come in story telling/expression rather than engineering and super sharp mixdowns. I’m still a fair way from where I would like to be production wise but this was a nice little boost and reminder of the progress we make as artists!

Hope this helps in some way, feel free to ask me any specific questions either on here or PM etc.

Thanks for the detailed overview, really interesting to hear mate! There’s always a real balance between getting the idea down whilst ensuring the mix down is on point. I totally relate to the Photek influence and sound scape making. You’ve done a great job with these mix downs and always great to have a bit of pressure and feedback to work with. Really appreciate your response and love the direction your heading in. I’ll be dropping a tune in for feedback very soon called Strange (working on some SG feedback) feel free to comment. Best wishes, Matt.

Hi people,

Hope you’re all good! Below is a little insight into how my track featured on this EP…

‘Lets not waste any’ was inspired by a track from an Imanu set which had chaotic amens and a strong, prominent melody.

It’s a combination of jungle and neuro influences, something which is consistent in my productions. The top line was created using a Kontakt instrument called lo-fi glow and the drums were created from a Buunshin sample genie pack.

The track has since seen support from the likes of Bailey,, Foreign Concept, Noisia and Nymfo to name a few.

Hope you enjoy it!

Scartip.

Big ups everyone great work

Yeah appreciate the wok man. keep creating.

Hi Scartip,

Thanks for the insight into your track and fantastic you’ve had so much support from some top artists. Really like what you’ve done with the breaks and top line. Best of luck, Matt.