Branching off ever further into the myriad of new sounds coming out of the UK underground seems to be de rigeur for blogs these days, and while we’ve fully enjoyed being part of the crowd, we still keep our ears to the bass bins to stay on top of what’s going on in the realms of our first proper love, straight 140 bpm dubstep.
Kaiju are purveyors of that sound. A pair of producers dependant on the dread, spaciousness and sublow weight that first attracted me to that sound. With music forthcoming on Kryptic Minds’ Osiris imprint, we asked Kaiju to put together a showcase mix of their material for us, featuring some of their bits which you’ll be hearing a lot more of over the coming year. You can stream through the Mixcloud player below and download from the link below that, be sure to check even further down than that to read our Q+A with the duo.
DOWNLOAD KAIJU – PYCMIX010
My Nu Leng – Bubba Ho Tep (Kaiju re edit) (Mindstep)
Clarity – Close Break (Kaiju re edit) (Osiris dub)
Kaiju – Sniper Situation (dub)
Lomax – Artisan (Kaiju re edit) (dub)
Kaiju – Lone Wolf (dub)
Kaiju – Centipede Style (dub)
Kaiju – Atomic (dub)
Kaiju – Old Man (dub)
Kaiju – Snaggle Puss (dub)
Kaiju – Double Dragon (dub)
Kaiju – Belcanto (Osiris dub)
Kaiju – Carpark Crush (dub)
Troy Gunner – Nuclear Arms (Kaiju re edit) (PYC download soon come..)
Who are you and what do you do?
Kaiju is two people, Jamie and Paul. Jamie is a designer by day, having created branding for Black Box and other notable labels. Paul is currently fucked with back problems and spends his days making noise.
How/when did the Kaiju partnership form?
We met via drum and bass and started throwing some 140 ideas at each other. Jamie had some bits signed by Osiris and needed a new moniker so joined forces with Paul and formed Kaiju.
What’s your creative process like?
We live in different countries so we both tend to start ideas off and then bounce stuff down and swap projects as it were. Jamie tends to do the final mixdowns once we’re both happy with whats occurred.
Any favourite synths/hardware/software?
Jamie – I love Logic and run a pretty simple set up. My favourite bit of kit is probably my focusrite liquid mix just because it makes everything sound lovely. Synths wise I quite like my old Virus b rack synth but I also love a bit of massive.
Paul – I’ve been using Sony Acid more or less since I started and mostly use its own plugins so don’t know what I’d do without it. My most used plugin is probably Antares Tube, its awesome for saturation and adding warmth etc. Synth wise I don’t really use anything outside massive to be honest.
How would you describe your sound?
It depends really, we can be really quite dark and spacious, but then we also quite like our garagey vibes. We try to change it up and make sure we have something fresh and different each time.
What/who influences Kaiju?
Always an interesting question, dub wise it’s got to be people like Kryptic Minds, Icicle, J:Kenzo, The Deep Medi sound. We’re also liking the new influx of garagey style sounds coming from the likes of Synkro and Kahn.
There’s a Kaiju remix of a Troy Gunner track in the making, how did that come about?
Troys been sending us bits since the very beginning, and we’ve always supported him where ever we could. He asked and we obliged, we loved the original (Nuclear Arms -available for DL here) so it was an easy decision to make.
What would be your four desert island discs? (two each!)
Jamie – Frederic Robinson – Laughing At Clouds (Diffrent music) & Queensway – Sexual (Blu Saphir)
Paul – Pedestrian – Hei Poa (Push & Run) & Warren G & Nate Dogg – Regulate (Def Jam)
Which producers are you feeling at the moment?
Dubstep wise people need to watch out for Perverse, Shadowfax, Anex, Eleven8, and Gantz to mention a few. Otherwise Troy Gunner, Frederic Robinson, Fybe:One, Queensway. Too many to mention!
Any releases on the horizon?
We’ve got a release coming on Osiris in March next year and are in talks with a couple labels about some other bits so we’ll keep our fingers crossed.
What does the future hold for Kaiju?
Who knows! We’re just happy to have people playing and liking our beats and we appreciate every single listener…Peace!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kaiju/216885571719660
