Thursday 9 January 2014

Radioactive Sandwich Interview



Unsatisfied with the cuisine on their home planet, the members of Radioactive Sandwich relocated to Earth and began cooking up some tasty delicacies that they could share and enjoy with the population of their new home. Combining the freshest breaks and bass, along with some psychedelic spices and marinades, Slice One and Slice Two have been serving their morsels for over 9 years, with no end in sight.

Radioactive Sandwich has released 6 albums, a plethora of singles and EPs, and remixes for Tripswitch, DJ Rap, Kelly Sweet, Angelique Kidjo featuring Peter Gabriel, Simon Collins featuring Phil Collins, Chanel, and many more.


1) How did you meet and who were your inspirations to create your style of music?

We met around 2001-2002 through mutual friends. We grew up in the same area, but went to different schools. Julian (Slice Two) had been in metal bands and was writing electronic music on his own for a few years, and Loren (Slice One) had studied classical music and was a bedroom DJ. Eventually, Loren asked Julian to show him what he used to write tunes, and the Sandwich was born from there. This was back in 2004. Julian grew up on metal and industrial, but slowly moved towards more electronic stuff like Hybrid, Shpongle, etc., as he grew older. Loren was a big house and hip-hop fan (along with classical music). We kind of brought all our influences together to create what we have today. 

2) You've re-mixed tracks for a number of artists most notably Angelique Kidjo and Tripswitch. Given the opportunity who would you like to re-mix or work with most?

Julian would die a little bit just to sit in a room with Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails). NIN is, by far, his favorite band. Besides that, he'd love to work with Simon Posford, The Mars Volta, and Rodrigo y Gabriela. 
Lore would also like to remix Shpongle, to get some insight into his crazy productions. Other than that, bigger name groups and unique producers like Sigur Ros, Telefon Tel Aviv, Apparat, they all have a unique sound and great production.

3) Could you tell us about your studio set up and are there any particular pieces of hardware or software that you can't live without?

We run very similar studios. We both use FLStudio with all the same plugins and sample libraries. Using FL, we're easily able to compile tracks to send back and forth to each other (we currently live 2 hours away from each other). We're big fans of AudioDamage effects and Native Instrument stuff (Massive, FM8, Absynth, Reaktor).  Our hardware includes a Korg MS2000BR, Nord Lead 3, Virus C, and a bunch of other random bits and pieces. In the end, we definitely couldn't live without FLStudio. For Julian, he LOVES his Kaoss pad collection. He has a KP2 and KP3 chained together that he mounted in a briefcase for use in live shows, though it's slowly been making its way into our tracks. Loren recently moved and had to downsize his studio to a laptop, so working in the box with the Native Instruments synths (Massive, FM8, Reaktor) has been great. They are versatile and easy to use.



4) You have a new E.P. coming out in March what can fans expect from this new release?

Erik (DJ Rikam of Eclipse Music Festival fame) saw us play at Open Mind Festival last summer in Canada and loved our set. He just started a new internet label called Tech Safari Records and asked if we wanted to release something with him. We wrote 3 new tracks for it. The idea behind the release was to go from more organic electronic with the first track (a nice groovy dubby piece), and have the EP build to a much harder and faster more electronic track (a crazy psytrance diddy). Along with that, we have remixes from Globular and Tron Sepia, 2 kick ass artists, to round out the release. Overall, it's going to end up being an exciting ride for listeners. One of the new tracks can currently be heard in our RadiOzora mix we did at the end of 2013 (https://soundcloud.com/radiozora/radioactive-sandwich-xmass)

5) Are you planning to take Radioactive Sandwich on tour this year?

We will be playing 3 shows in February (2 in NYC, 1 in Baltimore), and we are planning on being at Eclipse Festival in Canada near the end of the summer. We are currently looking to get more gigs in North America, as well, so if any readers are booking gigs, feel free to hit us up! 

6) Are there any new artists you think will be making an impact in 2014?

We've found that, in electronic music especially, "new" artists are guys that have been around for a while but are just finally getting their stuff heard more often. Globular and Supersillyus are really starting to get good names for themselves, and we can see them having a pretty big year. While their release came out last year, Darkside is doing some crazy stuff and touring a lot, so they'll probably do some awesome stuff this year, as well. 

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Sunday 5 January 2014

Akasha Experience - Lostwithiel E.P. Review




Artist: Akasha Experience 


Title: Lostwithiel E.P.


Label: Dubmission Records


Released: Out now on bandcamp ... 10th February the rest



Behind the musical mysteries of Akasha Experience are a dedicated duo of psychedelic adventurers, spreading their dub infused sonic spores across the aether.
Influenced by world, ambient and sounds in nature, their psychedelic stew has found favor around the globe, with releases on Audio Ashram, FreeSpirit and Dubmission Records, and tours across Europe, New Zealand, Australia and the US.
This E.P. is a precursor to a tour of Australia next month. Not to be confused with Akasha or the Akasha Project I've previously found their blend of psy-dub to be high quality, which the big guns aside stands out from many of the artists producing psy-dub in recent years.
The E.P. blends together bouncy and dubby basslines with plenty of dirty squelches, eastern strings and vocal samples. In fact the female vocal on the last track a re-mix of Quanta's "Quazilimbo" is very familiar but I can't place it at the moment. It's a wonderful sample regardless and suits this slow slice of low frequency bass and dubby sequences. 
It's hard to pick out a stand out track on the E.P. as there's no songs as such and they're all interesting in their own right. "Shanti Planti"for example is a bit more upbeat and the gyspy violin stabs give it a quirky feel alongside well chosen female Indian vocals and spoken word samples. While the dubby sequences are utilised at all the right moments and skillfully take you on little journeys. The title track although similar in many aspects begins more gently and has more of a desert vibe I guess all you can do is have a listen and judge for yourself. 
Review by Woodzee.