Us Against The World: Words From The Artists

Spor

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Sep 10, 2003
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Final Reckoning
Us Against The World: Words From The Artists

As part of the Us Against The World Project for Barcode, we thought it would be interesting to get the artists involved to talk a bit about the tracks they produced and about the label. With so much anonymous music being produced in the scene, it seemed a prime opportunity to provide people with a little more insight into the minds of the creators…

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Us Against The World: Album Sampler
1x 12" (Out Now)
A // Chase & Status - Wizard Killa
B // Ewun - Guntalk

Us Against The World Long Play
4x 12" vinyl / 2x CD (CD1 mixed by Evol Intent / CD2 Unmixed)

Vinyl Tracklisting:
A // Infiltrata & Demo - Us Against The World
B // Spor - Way Of The Samurai
C // Evol Itent - Edge Of The Earth
D // T.Z.A - Violence
E // Psidream & Pacific - In Effect
F // Counterstrike - Gateway
G // Evol Intent - Horns & Halos (Ewun Rmx)
H // SPL - Realize


Infiltrata & Demo - Us Against The World

‘Us Against The World’ (ft. MC Dre) is a track that means a lot to me in more ways than one. On one side of the coin, it was a tune that connected the northwest USA with the southwest USA D&B producers, with Demo & MC JFK from Seattle, and myself & mc Dre from Los Angeles. On the other side of the coin, it is a song about the tale of a love for family so overwhelming that it manifests itself in a song without any words. It was originally an untitled tune, but MC Dre decided to record some lyrics to it, and Chris (label manager) encouraged us to put some more meaning into it. To make the story even more complicated, mc Dre's Dad died of cancer the night we were recording the lyrics of it, so when we drove home from the studio, it felt as if it were literally us against the world.…Barcode is an outlet for producers from all around the world, who share a common goal of being part of the trouble on vinyl family. It is the logical next step of progression of renegade hardware, incorporating more artists from around the world, rather than just England, and it is relatively the roughest jungle label around. US against the world is not just the title of our track, nor is it just the title of the album, but in a few words it is a microcosm of how we as D&B artists feel in this genre.


Spor - Way Of The Samurai

Once I heard from Chris we were producing a Barcode album and heard the title and concept, I felt like something cinematic and hard-hitting would fit well. I set about collecting and processing samples that I thought would add atmospheric as well as percussive effect to the track, I went through a variety of sources and recorded some myself. I'm always keen to give each track its own individual feel as much as possible, so I worked on each element in turn once it was roughed out to make sure everything flowed and complimented those around it, the whole thing kind of evolved over time. I've always liked the contrast you can get through juxtaposing certain sounds, I did my best to exploit this with 'Way of the Samurai' - for example the deep processed vocals against the synth in the intro (created in Reaktor). I've never been hugely into rolling out a loop for 6 minutes - I did my best to keep WOTS engaging throughout. Hopefully I pulled off an epic sound with a strong character.


Evol Intent - Edge Of The Earth

"Edge of the Earth" is a tune we began working on last year. Enemy and Knick began the intense main riff using heavily distorted bass noises produced by Gigantor (the product of feedback filtered through the mixing desk). The formula for this tune was to have an epic intro that breaks down into absolute nastiness for the main drop, after which a maniacal second breakdown hits before finishing out the song. As 'Edge of the Earth' progressed, the idea that came to form was a theme for the apocalypse: as if you're drifting up towards salvation only to be returned to the throws of hell on Earth. The catastrophic vibe of 'Edge of the Earth' seems like something that is approaching by the day, in tune with the current state of greedy politics in the world, especially here in the US.


T.Z.A - Violence

This tune is one of my favorite creations so far. It was written at a point in my life when I needed to get a lot of things off my chest. "If i only had one choice...I'd be violence". Its my own personal anthem against all the bullshit people put us though day to day. I want people to feel a release after they listen to it - like they just beat someone down or took out all their frustrations. It’s basically a vent from the day to day bullshit.


Psidream & Pacific - In Effect

We just recently got a house together and merged our studio equipment and "In Effect" was the first collaboration that came out of it. We've known each other for years through going to the clubs, but have lately and let our ideas collide. Separately we have pretty distinct styles that have similarities, but are very different. It's cool to see that when we work together, a new vibe comes out by fusing our influences, and doesn't get lost in the green haze that is our studio. As artists, we're both at the point now where we conceptualise the vibe of the tune before we write it, so we have a clear idea of what we want to accomplish. With "In Effect" we really wanted to explore the combination of deep and cinematic elements, with a tougher, more futuristic street-wise sound, which is why we chose that vocal. We also wanted to accommodate the DJ's with the structure of the track, so we decided to skip having a second breakdown and rolled it out into techno territory, which we hope will make the tune a lot of fun to mix - double drop business!


Counterstrike - Gateway

Gateway came about after Chris from Barcode asked us to do a track for the album. We wanted to come up with something hard, technological and deep - the 3 things I have in mind when I think about Barcode. the inspiration behind the song is wormholes, and how they can lead to other dimensions or alternate universes. Originally the song was called "Pure Evil" and sounded completely different. The breaks were dope but the rest of the song was just not quite there for us. We left it for a couple of weeks and then we went back in on it. We found some dope metallic and EBM sounding samples and they just seemed to fit right in there along with the snarling new bassline - add a few break switches and it was sounding much better. at first we were still a bit skeptical about the song but when i dropped it in London and the club went absolutely apeshit I knew we had a killer.


Evol Intent - Horns & Halos (Ewun Remix)

The Horns & Halos Remix is the first official remix I've produced. It's definitely one of my favorite Evol Intent tunes to date and I was really excited when I was asked to remix it. I've worked on collaborations with the Evol Intent guys and I can say from experience that it's difficult to match the intensity of an Evol Intent track. So, I was faced with a big challenge, and was a bit nervous when I began work.
As most people already know - Horns & Halos is an angry, heavy, insane tune. To me, the only direction I wanted to go with it was: angrier, heavier, and more insane wherever possible - so my approach was too really freak out the filtering and edits in the tune, while trying to maintain the same vibe as the original. So expect the unexpected with this, I really gave it my all and paid extra attention to detail. This tune was a great challenge, an honour, and a lot of fun to remix and I think it really shows in the final. Watch the second drop!


SPL - Realize

"Realize" was a tune that I had initially produced almost a year ago. Earlier this year I thought it might be a good idea to rework some of my old material and this one stood out to me as a candidate because I just can’t get enough of the vocals. I wasn't really happy with my original version and after updating it I pretty much threw everything out except for the intro and breakdowns. I kept "Realize" pretty simple - letting it be one of my more dance-floor oriented tunes to date, just taking the main bass hook and drum pattern and rolling it out from there. I have been on such a switch tip lately so it felt good to do something simple and banging, while still have strong key elements to make it special. It has a super dirty sound to it, just rough and in your face, with a "fuck you" attitude and beautiful vocals to boot. I am happy to have "Realize" as my Barcode debut, and more than glad to be a part of the "Us Against the World" project. Big up Barcode...true beats against the system.


COMING 1ST AUGUST 2005
 
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that's quite an interesting angle getting input from the artists. Was good to see how they all felt about the upcoming album, which will definately burn things a new asshole.
 
Massive respect to EWUN for remixing an Evol Intent tune and making it sound angrier, heavier AND more insane. That's some big fucking shoes to fill but, fair play, sounds like Ewun's pulled it off with style. Looking foward to beatin up on the weak minded with that one.

Barcode :respekt:
 
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