ARTIST:
Hue Jah Fink?

STYLE:
Metamorphic Breakbeast.
Exploring sounds and textures from the spectrum of dance music, ambient and beyond. “I’m no pigeon so don’t put me in a hole”
Expect a broad output.

BACKGROUND:
Hue Jah Fink?s training ground was with a Commodore Amiga in ‘91. Completely self-taught, he recreated the techniques he heard on tracks and applied them to his own ideas. While today's younger computer musicians have a wealth of proprietary software tools ‘on a plate’, Hue Jah Fink? developed his own unique effects and editing techniques which gives him the edge over the 'plug-in' generation.
In the late 90’s he was a resident DJ in the backroom at The Brunel Rooms, as well as at various free parties across the south-west.
At the dawn of the century he moved to London, playing at commercial events such as Raindance, and at underground raves, especially for the sound-systems Headfuk and Unsound. Also revealing his more abstract material on London's only arts station, Resonance FM, assuming various guises.
Influences:
Electronic and rave music pioneers, those people that have made an undeniable impact to the scene by developing ideas and designing new genres.
LTJ Bukem and Co in the early 90s, Art of Noise, Future Sound Of London, Mark Pritchard, Mixmaster Morris, Prefuse 73, Flanger, Cinematic Orchestra, also Tori Amos, Kirsty Hawkshaw and loads of other stuff.

BINARY FEEDBACK:
This is a chance for Hue Jah Fink? to work with a number of talented dance music artists and musicians. Hue Jah Fink? is at his optimum when collaborating, and being the artistic director for a music label is the perfect vehicle for that. He is very honoured to have Kirsty Hawkshaw on-board for the first release, ‘Out of Reach’.

PRODUCING SONGWRITERS:
Hue Jah Fink? has just started working with a fantastic young singer-songwriter that combines mature and poetic lyrics with great piano arrangements. He’s keeping details minimal till they’ve laid down a few more tracks. He's also teaming up with various existing writing teams in various genres, providing his creative and technical talents.

STEREO MASTERING:
Some of this has been for commercial releases, but also for producers who want maximum dance-floor impact for their gigs. His experience as a DJ, as well as working closely with party sound-systems and PA equipment manufacturers, mean Hue Jah Fink? has a pretty good idea of what works over a ‘phat rig’ as well as a more intimate reproduction system.

SHORT FILMS:
Enjoying the change of pace and encouraging his unique attention to detail, Hue Jah Fink? has been involved in some select short film projects. A recent work is the Hekate Films short ‘Up’, directed by Daniel Moss. His audio input has a wide scope, whether through technical tasks like audio restoration, dialogue editing or ambience effects, as well as the more obviously creative areas like sound design and music.

ARTIST:
Kirsty Hawkshaw

After meeting with the trio OPUS 3 at the dawn of the early 1990's, the track 'It's A Fine Day' from the band's first album 'Mind Fruit' became an international Billboard #1 hit.

After being sampled by Orbital for their original 1992 track 'Halcyon', Kirsty would contribute to the tracks 'Halcyon & On & On' and 'Lush'.

From there, Kirsty would contribute to the work of some of the pioneering talent that emerged throughout the 90s electronic scene, working with Steve Hillage and Rachid Taha, and Global Communication's Mark Pritchard (aka Harmonic 313, Troubleman) who produced her album O>U>T which is now available on her store www.kirstyhawkshaw.com. It was Mark who's technical expertise, production skills and musical insight would help Kirsty to finally achieve what she had been aiming toward for sometime, an album of her own.

Her first solo album 'O<U>T (On Ultimate Things)' would be released in 1998, a deeply personal, introspective and moving album that was a turning point in her career. Taking a stand, the album encapsulated everything that Kirsty's life to that point embodied, and became the foundation for what has transpired since.

Having contributed four tracks to Tiesto's first two albums, with 'Urban Train' and 'Battleship Grey' gracing his debut album 'In My Memory' and 'Walking On Clouds' and the title track 'Just Be' on the follow up second album, she has also worked with such names as BT, Swayzak, Way Out West and Hybrid.

Kirsty continues to surround herself and work with some of the best creative talents from all walks of life. It's this that lays testament to her dedication to helping nurture new talent and give back to the scene which once nurtured her, working with artists like Ulrich Schnauss, Sleepthief, Mr Sam, Loverush UK, Paradox, Seba, Tenichia and Whisper Audio.

ARTIST:
Maztek

Matteo Cavo aka Maztek’s began his musical career playing in bands as a lead guitarist and percussionist. At the age of 18 years he discovered his passion for electronic music, particularly techno and drum and bass, and began to produce and perform tracks in the Italian underground scene.

The sound of Maztek is supported by DJs such as Ed Rush and Optical, Optiv, C4C, Axiom, Prolix, BTK, Cern, Masheen, Matrix and many others.

To date, his productions have been released on Basswerk, Trust in Music, Close 2 Death and Binary Feedback, as well as Italian label Modulate and his own label Subculture. There are also forthcoming releases on Vampire, Sudden Deff, Icarus Audio, and Scripture.

His latest productions have been recognised by Knowledge Magazine for which he has released an exclusive interview and mix, as well as IDJ and DJ Mag.

ARTIST:
2 Kilo Mockingbird

Interview:

Soaring high above the dubstep seas littered with overused reggae samples and copycat synth sounds, vocalist Ella and DJ/producer Billy spread their wings and seek to bring simple, effective songs back to the dancefloor.  We speak to Billy 'The Kid' Pleasant from 2 Kilo Mockingbird about their new release on digital label, Binary Feedback. 

How do you define 2 Kilo Mockingbird musically?
We try to put a soulful stamp on what we’re doing.  A lot of stuff gets lost in computers these days.
When you add a human voice you can break free from that a little bit.  We also use a good, old fashioned piano.  Although we don't actually record it much, we gravitate around that throughout the whole process.
Of course sometimes you want a totally tech-ed out song, and that's a beautiful thing too.  We try to meet in the middle of all that.

What are your most important influences?
Definitely Punk, because of its raw energy and simplicity.  We don't sound like punks but we got that same principle behind us.
Ella and I both like a lot of Country, again the structure is simple but it's the strength and honesty in those lyrics. A lot of people get on the microphone and they just want to show off and make a bunch of noise.  We're not into all that attention seeking, status bullshit.
And … we LOVE DUBSTEP, ha ha! The deepest, naughtiest dubstep and also a bit of DNB, you know? That's what gets us out of bed every day.

Tell me a little about your backgrounds.
I started in Los Angeles as a session drummer for the Dust Brothers' label Nickelback Records.  I spent so much time in the studio, watching them on ProTools and picking up how to make, chop and edit beats.  I've also been DJ-ing DNB around the London squat party scene for many years.

Ella’s been singing since her early teens but she's never been involved in bands.  I think that's a good thing because she's not been jaded by all the politics.  She loves DNB and Dubstep and found a way to sing and write for it.  I meet a lot of musicians that can write but throw them a DNB or a Dubstep beat and they say "What am I supposed to do with that?"  Ella knows what to do!

What inspired the tune ‘Pair A Dice’?
I don't wanna speak for Ella too much, but I think she's saying that out of all this crazyness in life, the madness people go through in their relationships, can we just have a piece of something good, a piece of paradise? Is that too much to ask?
I don't think she's asking for two swimming pools, a sports car or a mansion, just to have a nice weekend, you know?  Something to help get through the week.

Pair A Dice was kind of a weird accident where it works when you’re just chilling at home, it's a nice quiet song, but then… you play it on the dancefloor and it smashes it there as well!  I don’t understand it but there's chemistry in making tunes, and it's funny how some tunes just have that crossover appeal.  I hope we can keep getting lucky and hitting that every time.  I’m sure we won’t always get there but we're sure gonna go for it.

How do you guys present yourselves live?

2 turntables and a microphone.  We're really enjoying the hassle-free simplicity and we're quite happy that way. It's not self indulgent, we just wanna make people’s hips swing!  It's as primal as that.