Ben Settle, one of the most prominent figures on the d’n’b scene, began his musical career working with Nico Sykes of the No U-Turn label. Together they wrote tracks such as “Bludclott Artattack” and “Guncheck”, as well as the album “Torque”, which is generally considered a techstep classic. Before becoming immersed in d’n’b, Matt started out as a teenager at Spiral Tribe parties, studying other artists’ material and occasionally playing house and techno.
In 1998, debuting with the single “Medicine” / “Punchbag”, the duo put every effort into launching a new label, Virus. It also released tracks by artists such as Bad Company, Sonic & Silver, Matrix, Fierce, Ryme Tyme, Trace and Ram Trilogy, but the label’s most successful releases were Ed Rush & Optical’s “Wormhole” and “The Creeps”, as well as “Sleepwalking” by Matrix, the project of Jamie Quinn, Matt’s brother.
The new album has a rather unusual title: “The Original Doctor Shade”. “It’s the title of a science-fiction book,” Matt explains. “We liked it because the concept of ‘shady’ is close to us.”
“The concept describes certain people, some places in Amsterdam, and a whole lot of things in general, with many possible meanings,” Ben adds. “We couldn’t simply call the album ‘Shade’ or ‘Shady’, because that doesn’t sound right and doesn’t convey the mood of our release. But ‘The Original Doctor Shade’ implies something more. It also suits the album cover, which depicts human entrails: organs on metal stands, tied with wire to speakers... In other words, things that not everyone would want to look at, such as someone’s ear hair or something along those lines.” Charming, isn’t it?
Only a short time had passed since the previous album by Optical & Ed Rush on Virus had been released. “When the album went to press, the newest tracks were about two weeks old,” Matt says, “while the oldest one, ‘Hacksaw’, was about 14 months old. We devoted quite a lot of time to the vocal part of the album, which took us around two months. For that, we had to call on Ryme Tyme and MC Darrison several times.”
The Scratch Perverts took part in the track “Get III”, adding their distinctive skill with scratching. “We only worked with these guys a few times, but I’ll never forget when we all holed up in the studio and they staged a scratch battle especially for Ben and me!” Matt says excitedly. “They took turns one after another, and it was just amazing!” Ben continues. “We watched them work so brilliantly with feedback, and it was a real pleasure to gain access to those sounds while making the track!”
But despite some collaboration, the new album by Ed Rush and Optical is not a product of joint work. “We’re working on a track with J Majik at the moment, but I think we’ll release it as a single,” the friends admit. “It might even bring the Infra Red and Virus labels together. So although people such as Ryme Tyme and The Scratch Perverts worked with us on two tracks, Ben and I put everything we had into all the remaining material. Think of the collaborations as a way of slightly broadening the range.”
“And that’s not a bad thing, because the album became more varied precisely because of things like ‘Bullit’, for example,” Ben says. “I think it’s a very powerful track, because you can lay vocal samples over it, and I think that would work really well.”
Unlike the other tracks, “Bullit” cannot be called a serious composition, and it is more filled than any of the others with funky and retro moods. Where did the idea for something like this come from? “Originally it was a short section of a track in the style of ’70s or ’80s disco, something like a little intro,” Matt explains. “We sampled it and made a complete composition. At first, the idea was to make something bright and danceable, without any hint of darkness or anything like that. Besides, the bassline is quite weighty and can hardly be called light: it contains elements more reminiscent of street music. This is the most pleasant of all the tracks, with the least aggression. Although ‘Get III’ is still my favourite track. Sonically, it’s the heaviest thing we play! ‘Hacksaw’ is highly rhythmic and sounds techno-like, so if you’re playing somewhere that mainly plays jump-up, you can easily start your mix with ‘Hacksaw’ and you won’t go wrong. I think different music is needed for every occasion and every mood, and this album is exactly what’s needed, just like the first one. Wherever we played ‘Wormhole’, we always fitted into the overall atmosphere with tracks from it, or at least with some of them.”
Ben nods. “In this respect, the new album really is very similar to ‘Wormhole’,” he says. “It’s like your own pair of turntables, which you can confidently take to play at any club, knowing that the equipment won’t let you down.”
“While working on the second album, we tried to realise all the ideas that came into our heads; we wanted to experiment with house and breakbeat. This time, it seems we managed to create an album that will fully show what it can do!” Matt says.
House Nation
The track “Smarty Pants” on the album, with its typical house sound, is somewhat surprising. It’s not at all what you might expect from these guys...
“We’re not trying to make house that sells by the million; we’re trying to reach the underground market, because that’s where we were born,” Matt explains. “The important thing is that we remain honest with ourselves, regardless of what we do. If we make house, we know exactly how much criticism we’ll have to listen to afterwards: recently we played a house set on Radio 1, after which we received piles of letters reproaching us for it! The people who wrote them can go to hell, because I devoted the first four years of my career in the music industry specifically to house music, and that can’t be changed. We have the right to play what we want, and no one can forbid us to do so.”
And how did other DJs react to the new album? “The track ‘32/8’ turned out to be a pretty good club track,” Ben says. “I’ve already heard it from quite a few DJs over the past few months.”
“Oh yes! It’s a strong one!” Matt agrees. “With powerful bass and a great sound. This track is named after our old 32-channel mixer. We called it that because we started out on one like it, then went through about six mixers before returning to a new one of the same kind. When we bought it, ‘32/8’ was the first track made on it, and it was a total blast — an absolutely fucking amazing mixer!”
Ben: “Different DJs prefer different styles, but with this album you can go anywhere: play something from it in one place, something else in another, and, most importantly, know for certain that it will work everywhere. Doc Scott, for example, really feels ‘Bullit’, while Andy C and the Ram crew truly understand ‘Get III’. In short, everyone will be able to find what they need.”
Catch Virus
Let’s move away from the album and talk a little about the label itself, Virus. What about Sonic & Silver? Is it true that an album may be released soon featuring their latest single, “Rocket Launcher”? “Yes, basically, if they prepare all the material for the album, there’ll be no problem; we’ll do everything we can!” Matt says. “The guys already know, so the offer has come from our side, and now it’s up to them. We can’t say with complete certainty yet that they’re going to release an album, but there are some pretty decent tracks we’ve already heard that could certainly be included on it. We’re ready to work on this project without neglecting the others. My brother, for example, is going to release a single soon.”
Tracks released on Virus, mainly by Optical & Ed Rush, are built from many original sounds from analogue machines, such as the 303 and 909 (Roland bass and drum synthesizers). Matt explains in more detail: “Yes, we stick to our fundamental bass sounds. You can take an 808, for example, and if you know how to work with it, there’s a good chance you’ll find something truly special in it. For a very long time I used my Emu sampler; I can work on it with my eyes closed. But in fact, we don’t worry about being especially original with our bass sounds, because we know exactly which ones really sound good. You can take a hundred bass samples, and only five of them will have low end that sounds exactly right for drum and bass. Many people try thousands of different sounds, but not all of them sound as they should, because their top end may be good while the bottom end falls apart. We personally don’t want to take risks in that respect, so we use genuinely fat low end throughout, then layer something on top to create a specific character that is distinct from all the others.”
Everyone knows that all the output on Virus has a distinctive sound. The main thing is not to overdo it, as many musicians do by making the sound too beautiful and losing its roughness and rawness in the process. However, Optical & Ed Rush seem to know where and when to stop and leave things as they are.
“We try not to alter the original sound whenever possible, because I think it’s easy to lose your way,” Matt says. “For example, my brother Matrix is genuinely good at house; there can be no talk of shortcomings or unfinished work. But if he makes drum and bass... Oh, I’d rather not hear it! In my opinion, he cleans up too much, losing all the roughness of the sound in the process. Although some people actually like that, I don’t blame them. It just proves once again that my brother and I are different!
You can spend weeks working on a single sample: ‘If only I could get rid of this frequency component in the sound...’, but in the end you’ll simply wear yourself out. In that case, it’s better to stop immediately. And if the track sounds completely bare, and after listening to it for the hundredth time it seems that something is missing, then keep working!”
What does Virus expect in the future? Can we count on more releases of this quality? Judging by Ben’s confidence, we think we can.
“For the next seven years, we’re fully prepared,” he notes. “We don’t release large quantities of poor-quality material or pile more records onto the already overcrowded shelves of music shops. Although our release schedule is actually quite busy — we’ve even been criticised for that — I sleep much more peacefully at night knowing that we’re dealing in quality product rather than churning out accepted standards.”
Matt: “It seems to me that, in order to make genuinely good music, we have to be the best. I believe that with all my heart, otherwise why do it at all?! We simply want to be sincere about what we do, and we’re not trying to sell everything at all costs. Take, for example, the vocal part for ‘Bullit’: it’s 100% our own creativity, with not a hint of pop. I hardly see any good lyrics written for drum and bass tracks — there’s a real lack of quality at the moment. Fine, you have vocals and everything you need, but the lyrics should contain some meaning, say something to the listener. I think this applies to the whole R&B field: most musicians don’t pay much attention to whether their song lyrics have any meaning. By the way, universally available sounds arranged into a pleasant melody and a basic set of phrases are nothing compared with Leftfield.”
“Our perpetual problem is when people from other record companies approach us asking us to work for them,” Matt continues. “But when they come to us hopefully with their proposals, the only answer is to explain that we can’t go into the studio and make what they want. Everything we play is fairly dark, and the lyrics are more like the confession of a madman!”
Author: levona. Translated from the Russian original published by mixmag.ru.
