12th Planet, photo: Caesar Sebastian

Kelly Frazier: Let’s talk about the link between dubstep and heavy metal.
12th Planet: Metal and dubstep are like cousins. They are like bastard cousins. Traditionally, there is no link between metal and dubstep. Dubstep comes from England; it comes from garage and dub reggae but I think the tempo, which is around 140 bpm, is reminiscent of a classic straight metal breakdown. I think that’s why the metal people kind of gravitated towards it, then appreciated it and then turned it into new metal. Bands like Asking Alexandria, Hollywood Undead, and Korn, they were doing dubstep years ago and now it’s like you can do your own thing and nobody cares. It’s just about the music. People just want to hear what they listen to.

Even drum ’n bass has similarity to speed metal.
Very true. It’s kind of like the chugging bass line and 8th note triplets. I come from a guitar background, playing in metal bands, punk bands, and reggae bands all over the place. I have a deep appreciation for the art, to be skilled at one’s instrument and to be dedicated to it. The virtuosity.

What are you working on these days?
Right now it’s the first time in my career where I have no goal, no end game. I’m just writing. I wake up and write some music. I don’t know what I’m going to do with it.

I just want to get back to when I was young, like 18, 19 or 20 years old, when I wasn’t making music to become famous or to keep my credibility. I was just making music because I wanted to make music. So, I’m going to take that approach for the next year or two and figure it out from there.

How do you feel you can get back to that emotive part of it?
I’ve been a professional producer and DJ for the last 12 years of my life. I’ve gone through multiple genres and became jaded being on the road and doing the grind. It wasn’t until the last two or three years where the scene got appreciated and developed. The shows got better, hard ticket venues started bringing in DJs. It wasn’t at some shitty rave in a fucking abandon warehouse with no security and no bathrooms. It’s proper now. All that stuff re-inspired me to keep going.

How do you keep a love for your art when the music that you are doing is pumping in so much money now?
It comes with integrity and your personality type. Some people’s goals are monetary and for some it’s just to be appreciated and respected. I think I’m kind of one of those people; I just want respect. I’ve been making music just so people are like ‘Yo, dude! That tune is sick’. Hell yeah it’s sick, I spent like a week on that shit learning techniques that are in ‘2027’. That’s my mentality. I think that’s where I keep my integrity – I’m proud of what I make and what I’ve accomplished. I’m going to keep going because I don’t want it to stop and I don’t want it to end, ever.

What’s your feelings about current dubstep in America?
It depends on the market. Without getting too political, I think it’s really just based on the artists. It’s not about the dubstep ‘brand’ anymore, because none of the real dubstep dudes play a full set of dubstep. It’s just about their music. Right now, I think it’s about whatever is on the listener’s iPhone or iPad. They identify with those artists. It’s more about the individual fan and whether or not they are willing to buy a ticket to go to that show. Whereas, when I started, the movement was about supporting the dubstep movement, or the drum ’n bass movement. It didn’t matter who was DJing and, because there was so few numbers of fans, if there’s a show everyone supported. But now that it’s so broad, it’s more about the artist as opposed to the genre. It doesn’t matter. I don’t think dubstep has gone away or trap has become so huge. I think it’s all the same and just depends on how good the artist is.

12th Planet, photo: Thesupermaniak | www.facebook.com/THESUPERMANIAK

Do you think there are any artists that are trying to get away from the dubstep pigeonhole?
Yeah, I’ll give you the best example for that – Skream. He wrote an article in the Guardian about how dubstep is dead, and this is coming from the guy who guy who created dubstep. Its not like he’s saying dubstep is dead, he’s just saying that he’s tired of making it. He’s tired of hearing it when he goes out to the club because he’s been doing it for 10 years.

Someone like Benga who said he just wanted to be an artist… no specific genre.
Benga’s new album is kind of a collection of everything but the majority of the tracks are at 140 bpm so they are at dubstep tempo but they illustrate different approaches to the tempo. He’s always done that on his albums I think. It’s about trying new things and getting the crowd and y our fans to respond.

Where do think a lot of these artists will go next?
To put out tracks that aren’t dubstep and to have acclaim for putting those tracks out. People such as Kill The Noise and Skrillex put out an EP, and even myself, where you have one dubstep song, one drum ’n bass song, one 4/4 128 bpm song, maybe a moombahton track, or a hip-hop thing. Try to show the spectrum. Even Destroid, which is like the new fucking hybrid metal dubstep combination. When you listen to their album, there’s like 128 bpm songs, there’s drum ’n bass, there’s drumstep songs, there’s straight metal songs. It’s all across the board.

There’s no real pigeonhole other than due to the ignorance from people who don’t know the artists.

In Rolling Stone, deadmau5 caught some flack about what he was talking about. What’s your thoughts about artists that pre-program sets vs. live DJs?
To me, I really don’t care. I guess I’m half and half. Without trying to be hypocritical, I have a respect for the artistry and for the artists who are trying to present their music the best way they can. They can have the crowd engaged with them and their unique style. Not everyone’s a DJ. People come from bands and they never touched turntables. I come from a DJ background so I’m more excited to see DJs and way they do it, but hats off to anyone who has the balls to get up on a stage and perform their shit and make the shit and get dissed for it or get praised for it. I respect that beyond everything.

You do have people that have big light shows and everything’s pre-programmed but how else are they going to present their music? They have to earn a living.
You can’t freestyle when you have giant robots in the back of your set.

Relevant Links

12th Planet SoundCloud
12th Planet Site
12th Planet Facebook
12th Planet Twitter
Kelly Frazier Twitter
 

 
Interview by Kelly Frazier
Images: Thesupermaniak, Caesar Sebastian, ‘Crispy as Fuck’ image by The Supermaniak Maria

Vienna Time Lapse 2012 / 2013 (Hyperlapse) from FilmSpektakel on Vimeo.

On the technical side of things, the 16,023-photo time-lapse was taken using two Canon T3i’s, one Canon T2i, four tripods, one Gorilla tripod, a Pocketslider and Magic Lantern. And once it was shot, creators Thomas Pöcksteiner, Piotr Jablonowski and Fabian Orner had to spend 48 hours post-processing the photos and 40 hours editing the final video.

Courtesy of DL Cade from PetaPixel.com

Image: gencept.com

Image: jonathanmh.com

Image: gencept.com

Image: youtube.com

Images courtesy of: youtube.com, gencept.com, jonathanmh.com

image: soundisstyle.com

Skrillex further teamed up with Damian Marley to make a groundbreaking collaboration ‘Make It Bun Dem’, blending reggae and dubstep in ways nobody thought was possible — it’s currently charting on 5FM. Other hits on rotation on 5FM are ‘Breakin’ a Sweat’ with the surviving members of The Doors, demonstrating considerable growth in terms of production style and diversity.

Skrillex will be gracing SA shores on the following dates presenting three raucous nights of wild revelry.

Friday 1 March at Ostrich Farm in CPT – Doors open 6pm
Saturday 2 March at H2O, Wild Waters in JHB – Doors open 12pm
Sunday 3 March at the Wavehouse in DBN- Doors open 3pm

image: doandroidsdance.com

image: rukes.com

The Competition

We have a double ticket to give away for each city, so there will be three winners! To win, simply follow these three steps:
 

• Like Electric and one small seed on Facebook

 

• Join either The Skrillex Mothership SA Tour – Ostrich Farm, Cape Town, The Skrillex Mother Ship SA Tour – Wild Waters, Johannesburg or The Skrillex Mothership SA Tour – Wave House, Durban Event page on Facebook.

 

• Follow Electric Music and @onesmallseedSA on Twitter. Tweet @onesmallseedSA, telling us why you should win, remembering to include the city you live in! (i.e #JHB)

 

• Skrillex – a good or bad thing for dub step? Comment below!!

 
The three winners will be announced Wednesday, 27 February at 17h00!

REMEMBER the more you comment, Tweet, Facebook and shout from the rooftops the greater your chance at winning!
 

 
Images: rukes.com, doandroidsdance.com, soundisstyle.com

12th Planet

Whether headlining his own tours or playing alongside heavyweights such as Skrillex, Skream, or Datsik, 12th Planet is constantly in motion and loving every minute of it. Recently, one small seed was able to catch up with 12th Planet, who was backstage set up with his mini studio working on a remix for Porter Robinson, during the Detroit stop of his The End is Near North American tour to talk about what else, dubstep.

It seems like, when it comes down to it, a lot of the dubstep artists that are enjoying success right now have a bit of communal respect for one another. Speak more about the importance of that.

Imagine being a part of workforce or going to work everyday and hating everyone at your job and especially your boss. Except, it’s like going to work, and there are no bosses, but it’s like everyone’s homies. Like some people have different salaries than other people, but at the end of the day, it’s all love and it’s a good time. When you are on the road all the time, you run into similar people constantly so you might as well be good with them because you damn sure know you are going to see them again.
 

You are one of the original ambassadors of American dubstep. How did you get into making this sort of music?

I started out producing and DJing drum-n-bass. I heard the music out in England and I was like ‘Yo, what is this? It’s like slow drum-n-bass’. I came back and was put onto this dubstep stuff. I heard this BBC show, Mary Anne Hobbs. She did the Dubstep Warz radio set with like Burial, Skream, Benga, and DMZ. All these guys I got to put a face to the name and a name to the music. I went to the DMZ three-year anniversary over in England and that shit was nuts. It changed my life. I had never seen so many nationalities in one place reppin’ this underground music.

Do you think the mass growth of dubstep in the states will give a jolt to the other forms of electronic dance music?

I’m not sure, because dubstep was always the third or fourth option room at a party. Before that, it was drum-n-bass, and before that, it was hardcore. That’s where it gets most of it’s appeal is that the majority of the people that listen to it are kind of like ‘us against the world’ mentality and ‘strength in numbers’.

That’s why dubstep is come as you are. Just come to party. It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, black, white, Mexican, Asian. It’s just all about good vibes and good times no matter how you dress.

I’ve read that Skream is one of your main influences and he remixed Control for you. How was it to connect with such a talented artist?
 
It was one of my first releases and we signed it to the Juan BassHead’s label down in Miami and he was really good friends with Skream. At the time, Skream was like my idol. Skream was like ‘I like the track and I want to remix it’.

I was like FUCK, are you kidding me? It made my fuckin’ 2-3 years!

It made my career really because from there, a lot more UK people started paying attention to my stuff.

words: Kelly “K-Fresh” Frazier
images: 12th Planet

Tyron Kuypers, aka DJ Bruce Willis??, discusses the evolution of the electronic music scene in Cape Town. Since founding the popular Arcade event with Danna Gordon in 2006 to showcase a new electro music genre they were introduced to via the internet and from other musicians returning from overseas travels, Tyron’s style has come full circle back to his drum ‘n bass roots.

Since the bittersweet conclusion of the Arcade brand in 2010, which during its three year reign celebrated the marriage of electro with drum ‘n bass and focused on the party as an all-encompassing perceptual experience with ornate decorative themes, Tyron has moved on to some exciting new initiatives. Brick City is a platform he launched in 2009 with Graham Kennedy for up and coming artists to play live sets, and has propelled the careers of many successful Cape Town DJs.

Tyron dubs Cape Town as a creative universal hub, acknowledging tourism growth, the 2014 World Design Capital award, and the rise in social media and marketing as factors that have pushed the scene forward.  When it comes to the rich development of local electronic music, we think Bruce Willis?? has earned himself a fair credit as well.

Relevant links:

Underground Exchange Art Exhibition
Indidginus Sofa Surfer Album Launch
International Reggae Day
Zula Bar Relaunch
PH Fat Worldwide Success Tour
London Street Photography Festival 2011 presents Vivian Maier
Win a signed copy of Velocity
Splitscreen: A Love Story

Indidginus – Sofa Surfer Album Launch from one small seed on Vimeo.

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Location: Mercury live
Music: ‘wobble and buzz (feat raggasoulja and 7ft Soundsystem)’
Indidginus
Produced: one small seed productions Shot/edited: jaco lambrechts

The purpose of this piece is thus twofold. First off the bat, it aims to profile Riot Squad, who I sincerely believe to be the ‘next big thing’ coming out of Cape Town. For such a young group of guys, their production is of an immensely high standard and it’s only a matter of time before the world catches on. Secondly, this piece aims to demystify (at least in part) the song production process from conception through to execution. We’ll deal with that a bit later on though.

Mike and Kyle’s musical backgrounds could not be more different, but as is the case with so many glorious pairings, their differences complement each other brilliantly. Mike’s musical education began at a young age thanks to his piano teacher/gran, and he’s been evolving ever since. Little Mike was just eight-years-old when his gran moved cities and told him that he had to find a new instrument, as the piano teachers in the area did not meet her stringent criteria.

Walking into a music shop, Mike’s eyes were immediately drawn to the flute but, due to his short arms, this endeavour was not to be. Eventually settling on a trumpet, Mike began to play in a ska band in Grade 10 called Cause of Conflict. Jozi was experiencing a ska revival at the time thanks to genre mainstays Fuzigish and Hog Hoggidy Hog. Cause of Conflict was riding the wave but their promising career was cut short due to internal politics and so the group promptly disbanded. It was then Slipknot’s self-titled debut album that brought about Cause of Conflict’s next shift in musical direction; with the band instilling both a love for the harder stuff as well as inspiring an instrument change – drums and black metal beckoned with new band Saurion. But, the foray was short lived…  All band practices degenerated into drunken revelry and little practice was actually done.

Mike achieved moderate success with his next band Egregore who played a slot at metal festival, Mother Fudd.  However, regular visits to Midrand super club Truth allowed the love for electronic music to take hold and Mike’s fidget persona – Mini K – was born. Self-taught on FL Studio, his productions were picked up by as many as 15 labels around the world. Post-Mini K has seen Mike play everything from electro to tech-house before settling on his true love, drum ‘n bass.

Hailing from Durban, Kyle Maclean’s musical background could not be more contrasting. With little musical experience to speak of, Kyle moved to Cape Town in 2008 and fell in love with electronic music. Inspired by watching his friend spinning vinyl in his room, Kyle taught himself how to DJ on a Numark IDJ2iPOD that he had bought on a family vacation to Hong Kong. He hasn’t looked back since.

Kyle’s first gig was at an early Brick City event at Mercury at the peak of jackin’ house and fidgets popularity, where he caught the ear of Cape Town Alive who started booking Kyle to play at all their parties. The big break came about when Kyle took up residency at Club 91’s Saturday Electro nights where he was also responsible for running the night and booking acts. After booking Mike for a gig, the pair met for the first time in what would prove to be a fortuitous twist of fate.

As a collective, Riot Squad formed (officially) when Mike and Kyle were both attending music production courses at the Soul Candi Institute of Music in Cape Town. Born out of a shared passion for producing world class music, the pair decided to join forces. Their first studio project was to remix Fedde Le Grande’s ‘Back and Forth’ for an Australian competition, and the track pricked ears up around the world. Their next effort was the Blockbeats Records electro banger ‘Making you Move,’ which made Beatport’s Top 10 ‘must hear’ list and further raised their profile internationally.

With their tracks charting well, it was clear to all in the Cape Town scene that these boys deserved respect. Considering that their first gig was held at a packed Electric City event at Cape Town’s renowned live music venue The Assembly is testament to this. Things kept rolling for the boys and they were soon approached by Frederic Mooij to remix a track on his Eternal Elect CD, alongside some massive industry names such as Calvertron and Kelevra.

Thanks in part to Assembly’s regular Friday night Discotheque parties, the Cape Town  electro scene took off in a big way with new DJ’s popping up almost every week. This led to a saturation of the scene and prompted Riot Squad to change genres from electro to drum ‘n bass, as the latter continues to rapidly gain momentum in South Africa. The Illumination EP ( featuring tracks ‘Illumination‘ and ‘Northern Lights‘) was the group’s first attempt at producing a genre other than electro, and the breakbeat EP was quickly picked up by Loud Room records. When Illumination was signed, it showed that the ability to produce in a different genre was most definitely there. Their focus now shifted to their next EP, which would be the group’s first attempt at producing dubstep. And, this is where I came in.

As a fan of electronic music, the process of producing a song has always fascinated me. When jamming to a banger in a club, I would often think about how that song came to be playing through those speakers there and then. What processes did it go through? How was it made? These and other deep, pondering 4am-type questions occupied my mind on the beer-stained dance floors of Cape Town. Profoundness aside, the answers I sought could only be found by getting down and dirty in the trenches (although in a music studio, there is admittedly very little dirt and/or trenches). I needed to witness the process first hand, and as luck would have it, Riot Squad was just about to shift gears and get cracking on their new dubstep EP. This provided just the opportunity I was looking for, so it was all systems go – my quest for musical knowledge began.

Filled with excited anticipation, I showed up at Mike and Kyle’s house on a gloomy autumn afternoon, with my laptop and trusty notebook at the ready. The Riot Squad engine room, as it were, is located in Mike’s bedroom where he has everything necessary to produce. First and foremost, no producing can be done without a high-speed computer. Throw in a Nocturn 49 Novation Midi Keyboard and some Yamaha HS50M monitors and we’re good to go. Program wise, Riot Squad have been producing on FL Studio (previously ‘Fruity Loops’) but are looking to make the transition to the more respected Cubase. In the production world, FL Studio is looked down upon like an ugly stepsister. To get world wide respect, it’s pretty much vital that you use Cubase. Whilst technically trickier to negotiate, it delivers a far brighter sound due to its vastly superior algorithms. It’s all very scientific.

Most tracks begin with the drum line – the essential beat keeper, which without the melodies would be lost. It’s almost like the shepherd herding the sheep (sporting names like ‘Intro’, ‘Vocal Part 1’ and ‘Chorus’) into one coherent pen. Or sty. Or wherever it is one puts the sheep (in the non-Australian context). Being a dubstep track, the tempo is set at the standard 140 beats per minute and the song builds from there. After conception comes composition, followed by arrangement and song structure. The latter determines where the verses go, how you bridge to the chorus and so on. (All of the above would constitute the production phase of the track, after which comes post production.)

When a song has been laid down in its raw form, it’s still a long way from blaring out Fiction’s speakers on a Friday night. The post production phase is a highly specialized field and requires professional sound engineers and analog equipment. This is the stage whereby the levels (or ‘volume’ to us laymen) are adjusted, the song is separated and compressed, effects are added (such as reverb or delay) and the track is panned. The EQ also needs to be adjusted to remove any unwanted frequencies. Most of this is pretty technical and is the stuff of sound engineering lectures, so I won’t delve too deeply into it. Needless to say though, it is important to get it right. Riot Squad entrust their post production to former lecturer at Soul Candi, Willie Els – himself an established DJ/Producer under the moniker Pziezzo Electric. Riot Squad decided to call the track ‘Modify’ to signal the musical metamorphosis the group is currently undergoing as they experiment in finding their style.

After mixing and mastering, the track is now a finished article and ready for distribution to record labels. The age of the internet has drastically altered this whole process. Gone are the days when young upstarts had to burn cds and methodically send them off to labels one by one. In the age of facebook, soundcloud and twitter, the process is much easier and doesn’t even require leaving the bedroom. Using their soundcloud link, Riot Squad deposited the link into label’s dropboxes where label bosses can access it as and when they want to.

Throughout their respective careers, Mike and Kyle have built relationships with numerous labels around the world on which they could easily sign the new EP, but that goes against everything Modify stands for. After a careful submission process whereby only the labels that matched their ambition were chosen, the track was signed to UK based label LU10 who clearly recognized quality when they heard it. With a big label comes major marketing and an existing client base of label devotees. The labels job is to promote, market and distribute the track through mediums such as iTunes and Beatport. As an original track, the artists share the proceeds on a 50-50 basis with the label. When a remixer is involved, the original artist and the remixer split 50% of the proceeds between them (so it’s all fair like). The industry definitely isn’t a money spinner (at least not initially) and the guys will only see some sort of dividends as many as six months later. Like most passions, you’ve got to be in it for the love!

Modify offers something different to the formulaic, paint by numbers dubstep that’s flooding Beatport at the moment so I feel lucky to have been a small part of it. Massive thanks to Riot Squad for allowing me into their world and giving me the opportunity to document the process.

Without further adieu, witness the melodic dubstep monster that is Modify. Big ups!

Modify (Original Mix) (LU10 Records) by Riot Squad (South Africa)

Words By: Cameron Duncan

Pictures by:  Cameron Duncan and Adriaan Louw

Skism: One Night In Cape Town from one small seed on Vimeo.

one small seed suspected that the night would be a big one from the onset – SkisM’s larger-than-life presence could be felt the moment stepped through the Domestic Arrivals doors at Cape Town’s International Airport; a booming smile the undoubtedly travel fatigue and we were ready to go.

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We rolled with the jetsetting two-stepper eager to soak up as much of his rock ‘n roll persona as possible. From the airport to Woodstock’s Eastside hotel and then finally to Mercury Live for Rubabdub where we caught his live set and got in a few words backstage, one small seed TV brings you the highlights of SKisM=’s night in Cape Town.

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Location: Cape Town international airport
Upper eastside hotel
Mercury

Music: ‘rise of the idiots’
‘power’
Skism

Produced: one small seed productions
Shot & edited: jaco lambrechts

director: sarah claire picton