Besides his sound, M.I.K’s attitude has always made him stand apart in our eyes and he’s never short of opinions in interviews. So, ahead of his set this Friday with Barely Legal, we caught up with the man himself to find out what’s been moving in his world and to pick his brain on the grime scene.

Arctic first came to our attention with an eski influenced track called Three Stripes, it existed on his soundcloud for merely a day before disapppearing. Then we heard Shook a devestating slice of percussive grime that rumbled your body in all the right places. It was shortly after that, through Only Vibez, we discovered he was also making some straight out house bangers and we realised it was time to find out more about the hawaiian pizza loving producer. So with his debut 12" coming out on Coyote Recordings next month we give you Five Minutes with Arctic.

Who are you and where are you from?

I'm Arctic, 25, a dj/producer and hawaiian pizza addict. I live in Melbourne, originally from Birmingham, UK. I also co-run a grime event called '50/50' - Melbourne's only dedicated grime night.

What's the scene like in Melbourne?

How does it compare to living in the UK?

It's just as on point in terms of the sounds coming through, the club nights & raves each weekend. We have crews running big soundsystem events, local producer listening events, art & music exhibitions, warehouse parties and a bigger and better bar scene then anything I've experienced in England. 

Being so far away from the UK does mean the international acts aren't as varied or consistent (for obvious reasons), but the overall vibe in the clubs are the same. People get the music and really appreciate it. For example, I play a residency in a bar called e55 in the city, where I play from 7pm til about 1am and can play whatever I want - whether it's old UK hip-hop, grime, garage, funk, soul, whatever, it's always appreciated. 

How did you get into producing?  

I got into producing through my brother Pete, who makes dnb under the name Harvest. He's been making tunes for a few years and has released on labels like Playaz & the DNB Arena comps. We both got into jump-up dnb from early and occasionally made the odd dubstep tune, maybe 3 or 4 years ago now (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Cl-BcMKgek). I started taking production seriously around 2010, just after I moved over to Australia 

Before production came djing - I must have started mixing around 2007/08. Both my brother and I grew up playing in bands before any of this though, for atleast 2/3 years. 

I have always been influenced by darker music, so I guess there is that element in my sound. The techno & acid influenced bits came about from listening to shows like Hessle & Numbers over the years. I love all kinds of music and try to make a bit of everything. Lately I've been writing some hip-hop & garage with Kozee, it's nice to keep things varied. 

Going to Dimensions Festival last year was a real eye opener too. Seeing guys like Objekt for the first time was pretty special and definitely inspired me to make more music around 130bpm, something that would bang on a system. 

Are you a fan of the tech and deep house influence that has been dominating the Bass scene recently?

Haven't taken that much notice really, there's so much coming out these days. I've always been open minded, anything creative and made for the love, it's all good!

You've got a single forthcoming on Coyote Records, How did that all come about?

Coyote came about after hearing the TS7 release (COY002). I always liked TS7 and his early bassline but hadn't heard much of his recent stuff until I heard his promo mix on the Coyote soundcloud. After checking out COY001 - Mella Dee, I really dug the direction of the label and figured it was worth a shot, so I dropped Tom, the label owner an email. 

I've always loved early UKG/grime and I guess hearing all these news guys putting their own twist on the old style kinda got me inspired too. So I just started sampling old school clashes and within a day or two, came 'Shook'. 

I sent over a bunch of tunes but I think 'Shook' is what stood out the most. Tom was really feeling it and after listening through some more tracks, asked if I'd be interested in releasing with him. Big up Tom, can't wait to get the EP out there.

What was your inspiration behind 'Go On Then' the track you've given us as a free download?

I made 'Go on then', as a kind of homage to Skepta. I was listening to some of his old sets and in particular his show with Logan, Jammer, Riko & Earz from 05. It got me hype and so I put the tune together that night really!

Who else are you rating at the moment, is there anyone we should be checking out?

Most of the guys that Dusk & Blackdown have been repping on their show. Breen, My Nu Leng, Wen, BD1982, Artifact, Sentiment, X5dubs, Riffs, Ghostek - all making wicked tunes. Strictface, Juzlo, Mirrorstate,  Able8, Dellity - just some of the aussie guys killing it too. 

What's next for you after the Coyote release?

The Coyote release will be dropping mid-June. After that I've got a single forthcoming on a compilation cd by Diskotopia and then a 12" which I can't wait to announce.  

Shouts to everyone supporting!

Words: Will Bunch

On the 10th May Below The Line & ENK have decided to team up for one hell of party, bringing the freshest dose of bass you will find in Brighton. First on the bill we have the 4X4/Garage legend that is 'DJ Q' supplying the dancefloor killers. Next up we have the new first lady of BBC 1Xtra, & Old School aficionado 'Barely Legal' alongside the cakey-est MC in the Grime scene at the current time 'M.I.K', This is a 100% certified MAD TING.

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In the Arches:

DJ Q [Local Action/UTTU]

DJ Q has been a staple name in the UKG scene for many years now. Whether it be Bassline, 4X4 or 2-Step, Q manages to smash any club to ridiculous proportions. After a 7 year stint on BBC 1Xtra, Q is now focusing more on his productions than ever with constant releases on labels such as 'Local Action' & 'UTTU' as well as working on a LP that is due for release in summer.


M.I.K [Family Tree/LOTM]

M.I.K has had a busy year with various singles including 'MORE' & 'Cake' and his work with his peers from 'Family Tree', 'Faze Miyake' & 'Merky Ace'. As well as all of this he also featured in Lord Of The Mics 4 in which he sent for 'Stay Fresh' member 'Pressure'. He is sure to destroy LIFE with his self proclaimed 'Cakey Flow' and ultra-hype bars.


BARELY LEGAL [BBC 1Xtra]

Barely Legal is one of the hottest names in Grime & Garage right now, with a residency on Mistajam's 'Daily Dose' mix on 1Xtra aswell as smashing last years Outlook Festival she is definitely one to watch.


Support from:

DOM 877
L.Z B2B MOONY
ALORS CORS 
DUBLOKE

Event Page

£2 Before 12am w/ Names on the wall
£5 NUS/£6 After 

LIFE Club Brighton
159 - 161 Kings Road Arches, BN1 1NB Brighton, United Kingdom

Alors Cors

L-Vis 1990 - Ballad 4D
Mumdance & Logos - In Reverse
Walton - Homage
TC4 - Alpha
MssingNo - Skeezer
Sugur Shane - Buddah Vs Sugur
Samename - Make It Hot At Nightfall (Nguzunguzu edit)
House Of Black Lanterns - You, Me, Metropolis
Ital Tek - Hyper Real (Deft Remix)
Autre Ne Veut - Ego Free Sex Free

Dubloke

House Of Black Lanterns new album, Kill The Lights, is released on Monday May 6th and can be pre-ordered here.

As one of our writer's, Etch has always had something interesting to say. Whether battling against the 4x4 takeover of bass music or handing us a review of something stupidly fresh, he is always on point. As a producer he had the resolve to push things forward rather than follow the trends of the season. This foresight has landed him a debut release on Keysound recordings on part two of the Keysound Allstars series, due out May 27th, and sees his name appear alongside Visionist, Walton and Fresh Paul. Tomorrow night we look forward to him djing alongside Trim and Tessela as part of our club night, so we figured it would only be right to grab him aside for five minutes and grab a little chat.

How long have you been making beats?

Quite hard to say, theres this sort of long gap between making noise and making beats, I started messing with software when I was about 12-13 (I’m 20 now) starting with Ejay, then FL3 and then the harder stuff like Cubase. But I don’t think it was til I was about 16 that I actually sat down and started writing proper beats

What kind of music did you first get excited about on the underground spectrum?

Drum & bass 100% and more experimental/harsher stuff like Breakcore, I came from quite a metal/rock background initially (before that it was all hip hop) so obviously the darker more abrasive stuff is what I enjoyed most. Technical Itch, Limewax, Gein etc... And then there was Venetian Snares, Bong-Ra, I:Gor, Eiterherd etc... But then it was dubstep that really really got me excited, I first heard grime and dubstep around the end of 2006/beginning of 2007. I think that really got me to get my head down making music because up til then all the dnb guys were proper studio heads, but with grime and dubstep it was like people were making effective music filled with vibe with virtually no studio toys.

If you were explaining your current style to someone who hadn't heard it, how would you describe it?

Quite hard... I try to just grab elements of everything I like and mix and match them, I feel like my music is almost like piecing together a puzzle of the history of UK dance music. I think it’s much easier these days to say the bpm you produce at, genres always seem to get bashed about and fought against. So i produce between 130-140. I guess what people notice most about my tunes is the breaks and homage to jungle and hardcore. Dare i say post-jungle haha. Nah.

You've got a full on arsenal of material to release, what confirmed releases have you got on the horizon?

So I’ve got ‘Scattah’ forthcoming on Keysound as part of Keysound Allstars Vol.2 out May 27th, I hope to be working towards more stuff with Keysound in the future. Also getting mastered this week is my first solo EP on Soundman Chronicles, a little whitelabel series of 300 presses, recently put out a Gantz and J.Robinson 12”. So yeah it’s quite a busy year so far!

Keysound is clearly a huge look. How did you hook up with Dusk and Blackdown initially?

I just started sending them tunes and one thing lead to another. I dunno if Blackdown remembers actually but literally about 4 years ago i sent him a really bait ashanti garage remix hahah, got no reply of course, so i sort of went away and found myself stylistically a bit more. But yeah they’ve been really supportive so far! I think the kind words of Wen also assisted me in getting noticed by Dusk & Blackdown

What are your thoughts on their work with Keysound and their ethos? 

Yeah I love it, I first head of Keysound in about 2006, and then I heard the Burial remix of Crackle Blues and just fell in love with their work, I think it’s the albums they put out that really do it for me though. The LHF and LV albums are some of my fave albums of all time I think. But yeah I really like their approach to the music they put out, it never follows a trend or a certain style you know? I mean you can tell it’s a Keysound release, but it’s not like where you associate them with a particular genre, I really like that.

We loved the article you wrote for us about the Rise Of The Breaks. It's something we've been harping on about for a while, anything more you want to add about why now is the right time for it? 

Ha yeah, to be honest it’s probably just my loosing fight against how incredibly over saturated UK dance music is with basic 4x4 stuff at the moment. But since that article we’ve had Deadboy experimenting with breaks, I’ve seen more and more DJ’s work jungle into their sets. Mixmag did an article this week called “Jungle Is Massive... Again”. It’s exciting times where I can go clubbing and not be bored within the first hour. You can tell people are getting into it more too. I saw a wicked producer last week called Romare, and for the first 20mins it was pretty average house, people were just nodding their heads, but then he switched up to a more breaks thing then onto footwork and people LOST it!! It was great to see.

In terms of older artists, eras, labels and tracks, what would you list as your key influences?

I think any producer post-2006 would be lying if they weren’t strongly influenced by Burial, both his albums and EP’s were life changing for me. Also all dubstep 2003-2006 I absolutely loved. Obviously I was brought up on drum & bass and hardcore through my mum and uncle, so I love like Full Cycle stuff, Metalheadz, Reinforced. Think my favourite label of all time is Moving Shadow, they’re just untouchable. Garage particularly the 2-step side of garage I take so much influence from, El-B, Ray Hurley, Steve Gurley, Chris Mack, Mike Millrain, anyone who could make slinky cold beats basically. I’m really into Warp Records and Planet Mu too. They’re almost like the two pillars of electronic music. Love Boards Of Canada. I’m also massively into hip hop, the more rugged stuff like early Black Moon, Onyx and obviously well into Madlib and Dilla, early 00’s Timbaland is wicked too. So yeah it’s fair to say I’m influenced by ALOT, I try to reference it in my production as much as possible.

What other artists do you particularly feel an affinity with/ inspired by right now?

There is SO much good music around at the moment. I’m in such a privileged position at the moment where all of the music I’m really loving and influenced by is produced by people I consider my peers. It’s almost like I’m not even following the big labels as romantically as I used to because all the real shit is on my doorstep, haha. People like Gantz, Wen, Epoch, Sepia, Atlas just making really forward thinking music that are mish-mashes of everything I love. Also Breen, Filter Dread, Name_pending, Fresh Paul. I’m probably forgetting so many... In terms of producers that i’m not really affiliated with I’m really feeling and taking a lot of influence from Romare, Tessela, Preditah, Dawn Day Night, Dub Phizix, Om Unit, Machinedrum... Quite a lot really!

Words: Will Bunch

Interview: Dickie Davis

We’re back at Life for a rather special session beneath the arches. Joining us on the 26th will be one of the most unique talents the UK scene has to offer, TRIM. A highly original MC with his own distinctive style and attitude, Trim has been deep in the grime scene since its earliest inceptions. After moving away from the likes of Wiley and Roll Deep to focus on his own prolific series of mixtapes, Trim has gone on to create some truly outstanding productions with the likes of James Blake, Mark Pritchard and Dusk and Blackdown. 

Making a welcome return to Below The Line is one of our favourite DJs right now, TESSELA. A genuinely forward thinking and diverse producer, responsible for high-explosive club bangers and on-point sets that are laced with dubs and gems. If you haven’t lost your shit to his latest release, ‘Hackney Parrot’, sometime in the last year, you probably haven’t been in the right raves. 

To complete the line up we've got a BTL debut from ETCH, a local producer who’s explorations of grime, dubstep, breaks and jungle have brought him to the attention of long-time tastemaker, Dusk and Blackdown. He’s about to unleash a slew of heavy-hitting releases on labels including Keysound. With a long list of DJ support including My Nu Leng, Barely Legal and N-Type, we see big things for this dirty crate digger. 
In support will be Below The Line’s resident ninjas, Dubloke & Alors Cors, bringing their choicest selection of garage, grime and bassbeat cuts. 

Room 2- Boat Drinks: 
A new firm on the Brighton scene that embodies the spiritual and musical ideals of the great Boat Drinks’ philosophy. Whatever the weather outside, you’ll find a commitment to sun-laced tracks spanning soul, disco, funk house and hip-hop. Music for boats. 

With love from The Guardian and The Independent you know this one is going to be hype.

Doors – 11pm – Late
£2 Guestlist before 12
£5 Nus / £6 all night

Below The Line resident, Drum Clinic co-host, top-notch selector and all round great guy, Murder He Wrote has been flexing his abilities as a producer for a while now. With remixes under his belt for the likes of Mwen, Nils Frahm and BTL headliner Trim, it is with great pleasure that this week we see the release of his debut EP, 'Your Code', on Skint Under 5's. 

Being a fan of Amy Winehouse's first album 'Frank', as well as avidly following the releases from Hypercolour's recently formed sister label Losing Suki, I was initially attracted to Forget Me Not by their EP's title track 'Stronger Than Me', featuring a Winehouse sample from her track of the same name. However, the real interest for me surfaced in the second half of the EP. 'Big Tings' has all the grooves of a Huxley production, with 'Shower Scene' style chords which sink into a rolling bassline; undoubtedly a simple formula but it is in their very simplicity that this tune works, it's here to get our heads nodding and does nothing less.

The infectious vocal refrain 'I dont know, where the story ends, for me, but I know where the story begins', sweetly sliced from Mary J Blige's classic No More Drama, has been circulating around the household ever since we got our hands on the EP, and with such an instantaneous appeal, it seems likely that this one could be a dancefloor anthem. Closing off the EP 'How Long' brings Tessela to mind. A steppy number which exhibits the artists' backgrounds in drum and bass production. 

With the amount of dance music we all consume, it's hard to make a lasting impression with a house tune anymore - at least personally I will admit to having become a little blase about the countless new house/garage/bass producers I see rampaging across soundcloud. 

With this in mind, it must be increasingly difficult for new artists to get their name heard, and at such a tender age, and with such established artists to their name already (Dusky, Maya, Jozif) it's great to see the Hypercolour family are looking outwards, inviting newcomers to their constellation of imaginative artists, passionate about the music they produce. 

'Stronger Than Me' EP is out on Losing Suki on now. Big Tings!

Words: Lauren Bush

There's something very exciting happening on the outskirts of the Grime scene at the moment. It's something we touched upon in our chat with Glacial Sound boss Paul Purcell and has been at the forefront of our attention for a while now. Key elements are being re-appropriated, slowed down, twisted and mutated, forming something that has all of the hallmarks of Grime but is something very individual in its own right.

A prime example of this is the new 12" from Goon Club Allstars. A label with as much indebted to Grime as to US club music, they dropped a mission statement mix earlier this month for Hyponik and have releases forthcoming from MssingNo and Island. Their debut release is a limited vinyl only press with each side containg a vibrant reanimation of a classic Wiley track. Moleskin takes on, a personal favourite of mine, Ice Rink whilst on the flip Samename refixes on Colder. Injected with the lethal does of Balitmore House and ramping up the energy levels of Ice Rink to dizzying heights, Moleskin's Edit is certain to do damage in the dance getting heads new and old moving in unison. On the flip, Samename takes things even further looping Colder's haunting stringline and combining it with the ever omnipotent 'Ha Dance' sample leaving hurtling us wildly back across the dance calling wildly for the spin back. While these originals of these tracks have their own special place in in Grime's hall of fame. We can't help think that these latest versions will be equally at home in the hall of fame for whatever this mutant re-appropriation becomes.

Goon Club Allstars is out now on limited 12" available from all good record stores or straight from the goons themselves.

Words: Will Bunch