In recent years Lost Souls have established themselves as one of the dominant forces on the London club scene, holding regular parties at Public Life as well as outstanding one off events across the capital. Now head honcho Antony di Francesco takes the brand to the next stage with the launch of the Lost Souls label. Techno and dubstep provide the foundations of this new imprint that looks to fuse these two scenes with the help of some the the most exciting producers and remixes out there.
The debut release comes from German duo Misc. an act who have released consistently outstanding music on labels such as Kompakt, Resopal & Klang Elektonik. When not in the studio they are key players on Europe’s live techno scene with an act that has been building an every increasing level of support for the sound of Misc.
The ‘Chemosphere EP’ is built around two original recordings, ‘Chemosphere’ and ‘Hooked’ with remixes from Bristol dubstep don Headhunter and techno wunderkind Perc.
Opening cut ‘Chemosphere’ is an intense percussive techno workout with a relentless bassline, swirling fx and spastik-esque snare rolls. A heads down piece of warehouse wizardry that ticks all the right boxes and pushes every button correctly!
Next up is Headhunter’s reworking of the opening track. An intro of dubby delayed electronic stabs leads smoothly into broken beats and a pulsing bassline. Spaced out dubstep with a techno twist, this is bound to please both camps in equal measure.
Next is Misc.’s ‘Hooked’, their own take on the sound of dubstep. This is a high tempo, dark tinged affair that draws you in from the opening bars. Simple vocals chops and metallic stabs sit over the skittering percussion and rumbling bottom end to create a atmosphere ladened cut.
The penultimate track sees Perc set about rebuilding ‘Hooked’ into a tough techno monster. This is a no holds barred version that goes straight for the jugular and is reminiscent of classic R&S. A standout remix from one of the UK’s top techno talents.
To round things off there is a digital exclusive in the form of ‘.TXT’ a spaced out dubstep track that takes on a distinctly ambient sound.
A great package from a great act and a debut from a label that you can be sure will be making waves over the coming months and years.
We interviewed Misc. about their perspectives for this upcoming release…. a minimaland.com exclusive. Enjoy!
Minimaland.com – Hi guys, how are you!? Tell us a bit about this new work released on the newcomer Lost Soul.
Misc. – Hi there! This release shows the whole of what we mean by the name of MISC.! With this record we go from techno to dubstep-like music and back. It is great that Lost Souls is open to this concept of putting our MISC.- music into another genre-frame. The great remixes of the techno-/ dubstep- artists vice versa the original-tracks is also part of the concept of crossing the genre-borders.
Minimaland.com – “Hooked” and “.Txt” are completely different from what you normally produce. How was it to create this dubstep tracks?
Misc. – Lots of fun! It was great to work on something different than techno again. We used to produce and release Drum& Bass in earlier years with our outsfit monophace (which probably didn´t quite make it to the UK). So we do have experience in producing break-beat-music. For us it was a bit like going back in time, but with the latest production-technique on board!
Minimaland.com – Where do you usually find inspiration to create music?
Misc. – Everywhere! No, that’s actually really hard to say. We do, whatever we feel like and do not question it THAT much. What we do not do is copying off other people claiming it´ s ours, that´ s for sure. We go the hard way of finding out for ourselves. Even if we feel after some time it´ s total shit. It´ s everything in the process of making music, releasing it and the perception of our music by other people that comes back to us and inspires us to go on and maybe do something original.
Minimaland.com – Who are/were your main musical influences?
Misc. – We first started working on Drum&Bass like the early “No U-Turn” and such. But at the same time we listened to the Techno by people like Wolfgang Voigt or Richie Hawtin, because in the small student town we lived at that time, nobody would even care about different genres. To anybody else, all was weird electronic music, he!
The mixture of these two antipodes (with a little oldschool Hip-hop added) could be called our foundation, if you like.
Minimaland.com – The fact that you are a duo makes it easier to produce?
Misc. – Easier and harder. Harder, because there´ s often fights about nearly every detail in a track. This goes as far as microseconds of decay for a snare… oh my. On the other hand it´ s a lot easier because you get to decide faster and you´ re not on your own. Sometimes one us would be insecure about a detail. Then, most of the times, the other one would be able to take a decision. So there´ s less of these nerd-gets-lost-in-opportunities- and-never-finishes-the-track situations…
Minimaland.com – Your music is very eclectic. You have one of the most considered acts in the world. How do you manage to hold on to your roots, staying out of the so called “new trends” of techno/minimal and at the same time being so successful?
Misc. – We don´ t have any master-plan to achieve this. That are just our personalities. We are basically not able to act any different from where we started years ago. We like to do our music, that´ s it.
Minimaland.com – It was already in August 2005 that you released your last album! When can we expect a new one from you guys?
Misc. – We don´ t have any plans to produce a new misc. album soon. The time is not right right now…
Minimaland.com – Can you give us some tips for this year: Artist, Label or anything to music related
Misc. – Artist: Benga; Label: PERC TRAX and we suggest www.dubstepforum.com not really a label, but great music is on there for FREE!
Minimaland.com – Favourite music at the moment?
Misc. – Anything that´ s not your typical Berlin-minimal- afterhour- ketamin sound, apart from Volksmusik, of course.
Minimaland.com – What Is harder? To produce a music or to remix a great original one?
Misc. – There´s no real difference. Could be hard in both cases. Maybe the more we like the original the easier a remix becomes. But even that is not always true. Sometimes a bad or weird original- track turns out really great (for us).
Minimaland.com – Vinyl or Cd?
Misc. – Both is fine. We´ re not categorical at all. Although we still do like the idea of proper releases. These may be 12”es or albums that are really thought through by the artist and not just collections of tools. Today this is obviously getting less and less important because everyone just downloads single tracks as files. It´ s all like a big remix nowadays!
Minimaland.com – Where do you like to play the most?
Misc. – Wherever! Really. When there is good response from an audience (and a good PA, maybe… thank you! ) we´ re all good! We had good parties almost everywhere. Sometimes places we have never been, are more exciting beforehand, but then we return to Berlin or London and it´ s great again, too… One will never now before…
Minimaland.com – What Will the Future Bring From You?
Misc. – We want to be able to produce more crazy music for the world, if the world wants us to. And we can only hope to be able to continue this life we´ re living and loving for a long long time!!
Minimaland.com – Thank you for this nice interview guys, wish you the best for the future, keep up doing some unique techno music, here in minimaland you are one of our favourites… cheers!
Usefull links: http://www.myspace.com/lostsoulsmusiclondon
Rls date: 10.09.2008
LS#001
a1 – Chemosphere
a2 – Chemosphere (Headhunter remix)
b1 - Hooked
b2 - Hooked (Perc remix)
Already supported by djs like Adam Beyer, Barem, Paco Osuna, Joachim, Xpansul, Someone Else, Jorge Savoretti, John Selway, Chloe and Polder, among others.
