Part Two: 4 Years of Ruffnek Diskotek w/ Atki2 and Dub Boy
September 10
(download)
Binga: So what's going to differentiate Ruffnek from Karnival?
Dub Boy: Ruffnek is a very eclectic party. I think the way it will work is we'll do Ruffnek down at Cosies every month. The crowd they have are really into their reggae, dub, dubstep and roots - dancehall too, but making sure we don't neglect the dubwise sound. Karnival going be dancehall, bashment, funky, kuduru - wave your flag, blow your horn get rowdy-music. We also do Monster Bass which is our big showcase thing at the Black Swan, which is kind of all the above under one massive roof!
Atki2: And for Monster Bass, we've now got Mungo's as sound system in residence, so it's their bi-annual trip to bristol with the system.
Binga: They're fully bringing the rig down with them?
Dub Boy: Oh yes, vans full of 20k's-worth of sound system - its insane! I've heard a lot of good sound systems in my time and Mungo's is up with anything I've heard.
Atkit2: And with that system we had to get Mala down - he's the man with the sub bass.
Dub Boy: It really is one of the best systems in the UK. It's up there with your Channel Ones, it's better than Iration, it's better than King Earthquake - I've heard all those systems, I've been seeing them all for years. It's maybe not as good as Shaka's - that probably remains the sound system experience to top them all, but I would say it's as good as anything I've heard, Shaka excepted.
Atki2: We've also got Warrior Queen & Heatwave for Karnival...
Dub Boy: And Dusk & Blackwdown, which we're quite excited about.
Binga: What are they going to play?
Dub Boy: Grime and funky mate! Rowdy vibes!
Atki2: Plus Murderbot, Monkey Steak...
Binga: Which leads nicely on to the label... Steak House records.
Atki2: The other aspect of my music-making career is with John Hanuman - we've been doing a project called Monkey Steak for a while now, doing different styles at different tempos, and we thought it wa time to get a label a together.
Binga: What's the Monkey Steak sound? If it's been varied, is it settling down now?
Atki2: I don't know about it settling down per se... It does tend to mirror what we're interested in and what we've done with ruffneck. At the moment production wise, funky and soca is what we're making mostly so there is a parallel line going on.
Binga: It's a good look getting that tune on Toddla's Fabric CD...
Atki2: I heard the mix for the first time this weekend - it's great! One of the first ideas we had for describing what we do was Ruffnek Beats & Rude Boy Pop, so I love that Toddla T mix, it's dutty pop music with big basslines. An absolute honour to be on that mix.
Binga: The first release on Steak House is by Mr Gasparov and Octapush, right?
Atki2: We hooked up with those guys about two and a half years ago, Mr Gasparov had seen us play in Bristol, cos he was at Bristol University for a while, and he got us over to play his party in Porto. Then abotu a year later we played at Boom Festival with him and Octa Push. They're both from Lisbon, their sound is pretty unique - we love it, we've had the guys over to play and so we thought we'd do some tunes from them for the first release.
Binga: What are the releases after that?
Atki2: 002 and 003 will be Monkey Steak, then yours, or yours then Monkey Steak - we're not sure of the order yet!
Binga: What's the Monkey Steak release like?
Atki2: One half soca, one half funky, but it's also got that Tigris riddim from Toddla's CD.
Binga: Are you doing to do any producing Tim?
Dub Boy: I think that cos I used to play in lots of band when I was younger, I've never really got on very well with computers and the whole concept of making music by pressing buttons rather than playing an instrument has always been a bit foreign to me. Everyone's told me for years and years that you need to produce if you want to get anywhere, and in the last 18 months I've realised that, so the intention is to start producing but it's a very slow process getting there!
Atki2: Tim and I have done a tune together, called Tiger Flower...
Dub Boy: It's got a Grievous Angel remix - it's coming out on a label called Idle Hands out of Rooted Records as a semi anonymous thing.
Atki2: You've kind of given the secret away now though!
Binga: Tim, Do you still collect reggae and dancehall vinyl?
Dub Boy: Yep I still buy vinyl, but not so much dancehall these days, cos it's just not coming out on vinyl.
Binga: It's not coming out at all half the time - it feels like it's impssible to buy.
Dub Boy: I would say it's easier to steal dancehall and bashment than it is to buy it, which is ridiculous. I still buy roots and dub on vinyl - most of that stuff is European now and it still comes out on vinyl so i buy that. When I play at Cosies that's my monthly vinyl session, that's where I get my sevens out.
Binga: I love playing vinyl, but it does get frustating turning up to clubs and the decks don't work or aren't set up properly.
Dub Boy: I had that at the weekend. The first night the needles wouldn't stop skipping no matter how much i fiddled with the tone arm, and then the next night it was feeback - I had to have the bass down low. But its daft cos a lot of people play with Serato so why don't the clubs look after their decks better?
Binga: I think with Serato it seems like you can get away with worse set up decks; provided the tone single comes through it kind of works - I've seen people play off Serato on decks that I wouldn't want to play records off.
Dub Boy: But then, from a promoters point of view, I've had so many people playing with Serato, and i reckon two thirds have problem of some kind or another. I've kind of gone down the CDJ route recently.
Binga: Something I've been thinking about recently is now that CDJs are the default sound in clubs, I wonder if everyone is just getting used to stuff that sounds overly bright - records have a natural roll off at the top end, so is everyone just getting used to brighter and brighter sounds and mixing the tunes brighter and brighter?
Atki2: I've been thinking about the same thing. Tim and I played in Falmouth recently and we were playing on this home made rig with an incredible sound, really deep. I played off laptop for about 90 mins, and it was nice, sounded great, I was happy - but then Tim played a steppers tune off wax and the response of that system - I don't want to dramatise it too much, but you put that record on and it just sounded amazing - it was like there was something about the combination of home built sound and vinyl which just had a warmth to it, and that brightness sounds cold after it.
Binga: Anything you want to say to wrap this up? Upcoming things of interest?
Dub Boy: I'm off to Montreal to play for Poirier over there, and we've got Poirier and MC Zulu coming over here...
Binga: Zulu was amazing at Glade! All the Karnival stuff is at the tube right? It's a pretty tiny venue, must be quite hard to make it work financially?
Atki2: Yeah but i think the point of doing stuff in a small venue is it's not about making money - we like small, busy, rowdy clubs with an atmosphere. I've gone to big nights and really enjoyed them, but all my favourite memories come from being in a hot, sweaty, tiny space, hearing some really interesting music that I didn't expect to hear, surrounded by people and vibes.
Dub Boy: It's all about small spaces!
Posted by bassmusic
