It’s in the Genes…

The Full Moon parties are back at our Nasimi beach home, and to usher in the new season, we’ve got US house legend Gene Farris down for headline duties, and also welcome in DnB pioneers Globalfunk to be our 2nd room partner.

You moved from your native Chicago to Amsterdam a few years ago – was that to soak up the European dance music scene? What did you learn there?

What a great question and yes actually it was to do exactly that! I learnt that the scene in Europe is first off amazing. And it’s really a major dance community and is really a business, and if you wanna make it in Europe you have to go at it 100% – it’s very serious, it’s very real!

A lot of Chicago DJs have played for Infusion in the recent years, and they all seem to be very connected and friendly – is there a DJ brotherhood in Chicago?

It definitely is in Chicago, we all have a mutual respect for each other in Chi-town. Of course you have DJ drama like in every city, but in Chicago there is still major respect for each other…

America seems to have been bitten by the house music bug in recent times – has that affected what you do, or how people perceive you?

Definitely, Chicago is labeled with this super house mentality, which is fine. But I think it can paint us in the corner and Chicago is so much more than just a house scene, we have everything…

You run your own label, Farris Wheel – what’s your musical mandate, and do you try to keep it pure Chicago house or have you broadened the horizons?

We defintely have put out more kinds of electronic music this year. We had the Chicago techhouse EP by Jerome Baker, and also a edgy, tech EP from Joshua IZ. So we’ve definitely been trying a few things this year as well as keeping it true to our fans at Farris Wheel Recordings.

You run free, online webinar DJ lessons on Youtube, which is a pretty cool thing to do – what prompted you to do it, and have you had any success stories with people who have learnt from you going on to make a career out of it?

Actually we originally made that for the youth in China and now it’s spread out all over the world, which is amazing. I’ve heard lots of cool stories like “Man thanks so much, this has changed my life” and “Yo, I watched this 2 years ago now I’m a resident DJ at a club in London”. Really cool stuff!

You’ve released 6 albums to date – but with the advent of the iPod Shuffle and the ability to download singles, do you think your album output will decrease from now on?

This year I’ve put out a lot of music on Cajual, Farris Wheel, Soma, Haitai Groove, and few other labels. 2011 has been my most productive year in years with almost 20 releases. So the answer is yes it will make me put out more music not less.

And finally, what can we look forward to from your set in Dubai?

It’s gonna be a rocking set filled with house, tech house and techno, very similar to Loco Dice, Dennis Ferrer, and Cajmere. I’m going to rock the party, I can’t wait.

Nasimi Beach Full Moon Party, Love Is Not Enough, Nasimi, Friday October 7, 2pm-2am, Free entrance for ladies and Face cardholders and 50AED for guys from 2pm – 8pm. 100aed for everyone from 8pm onwards.

Written by Infusion Crew – Sunday, 02 October 2011 11:29

For this week OHMcast Inland Knights give us the opportunity to enjoy one set to halfway between theHouse and Tech House is clearly focused on the track and will not stop moving your feet in no time.

Tracklist:
01. Yeshua Murillo – I’m Gonna Make U Mine (Joss Moog Remix) 
02. Ed Mazur – Gravitys Pull (Brett Johnson Remix)
03. Corduroy Mavericks Cosmic Funk – Melondive
04. Ice 7 – point gruuv
04. Olivaffair – Black Rhodes
05. Giom & Joshua Heath – Connection Lost 
06. Larry Fives – This Beautiful Sound 
07. Little Carlos – I Wanna Know
08. Last Night (Art Of Tones Stripped Down Mix)
09. Kaneian – Beef Soulash 
10. Demarkus Lewis – And Ya Don’t Stop (Deez Original)
11. Inland Knights – Do It Again 
12. Go to Work feat. The Pimps of Joytime (Hot Toddy Remix)

Who are you and what do you do? How long have you been a working musician?

Hi. I’m Laurence Ritchie, one half of the Inland Knights.  I run the label Drop Music, and my alias is Larry Fives. I’ve been DJing, producing, and running a record label since the mid 90′s, and I still manage to make a living from it!

What is your educational background? Are there any schools, courses, or books you recommend?

I was trained in piano and music theory as a kid till about 10 years old. Warehouse parties in 1989-90 were quite educational  And 10 years of running and playing at smokescreen free parties around the UK too! All I wanted to do was electronic music as a kid but there were no courses or access to any studios or equipment for me until I was in my late 20′s. Now you just need a laptop and the internet. So I’d recommend that

What hardware are you using?

Mac Pro, Prophet ’08, Little Phatty, JUNO-106, Focal Twin6 Bemonitors, Liquid Mix, TL Audio Fat Track valve mixer, Yamaha NS10s,Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 sound card.

What software are you using?

Logic Pro on Mac, Liquid Mix, Stylus RMX, controllers for the Prophet and Moog.

What would be your dream setup?

A room that was designed from scratch where I could control the acoustics properly, that’s the most important thing. I’d like a Minimoog Voyager, but I’m close with the Little Phatty. I’d also love an SSL Matrix SuperAnalogue Mixing Console, only 15 thousand pounds though!

Can you describe your creative process? Is there a particular routine or schedule you stick to?

I tend to get some samples and layer a few tracks and just jam about until it takes some direction. Then get some synths going, do some sampling, maybe chop them up into stylus remix. When I have about 12 tracks looping, I’ll start to arrange and work more and more into the producing as I go along.

Where do you shop for and discover music?

Mainly the promos sent and Juno / Stompy / Beatport. I really miss the days of going to record shops, A LOT.

What’s brewing in your studio?

I currently have a new album out on Drop Music, House Bound, that’s full of exclusive tracks from various acts including Inland Knights and Larry Fives. And coming up next on Drop is an EP called Head Lockfrom the same said 2 acts. I played around with this track to get a heavy feel to the bottom end like a techno track, but made sure it was still a house track by blending some more melodic looping samples and get a more “housey” feel and switch to a proper house bass line from the techy rumble without losing too much energy. I bussed all the beats through a mastering chain and kept the rest dry and recorded the whole thing at minus 6dB for professional mastering.

Any production tips & tricks you’d like to share?

I always reference to something I’ve written that I know is right on a PA and some thing someone else wrote to keep a broader ear. Then listen on another 3 sets of speakers like the car, house, laptop.

Where can we find you on the web?

Larry Fives (Inland Knights) / Facebook / SoundCloud

The last 12 months haven’t seen the Knights twiddling their thumbs however, in fact they’ve been busier than ever.  Their retrospective album ‘Inland Bites: Knights Classics’ was a huge success at the end of 2010, while Drop Music’s forward-looking ‘House Bound’ compilation, to which the IKs and Larry Fives each contributed a track, is getting people similarly excited right now.  Add to that a Loopmasters sample pack, a single for Trendy Mullet and remixes of Phil Weeks (on Robsoul), Howard Sessions (on Lost My Dog), The Littlemen (for their 10 year compilation) and DustyFruit (on Rebel Hill) and pile it all on top of a hectic worldwide DJing schedule.  The only conclusion is that Larry Fives and Inland Knights are very much still at the forefront of underground house as they have been for the last decade!

Key DJ Support

Catz N Dogz: Inland Knights track is for me!
Tim Green: liking get high!
Brothers Vibe: Both trax are workin’!!
Shir Khan: GET HIGH is fucking cool!
Grant Nelson: big as always!
Luke Solomon: ace …love this loads
Mark Farina: like both! Hot bass line in Larry fives jam!
Miguel Migs: drop, bumpin, funky, dubby underground house bizzz thanks!
Giom: Of course I’ll support these! Really reliable kicking tracks as usual.  Amazing production too.
Phil Weeks: both tracks are nice! will rock
DJ Meri/Rulers Of The Deep: Massive! support
Robert Owens: great vibe love it
Nick Holder: Great music here! Feeling both tracks!
Evren Ulusoy: get high has it’s wicked groove
Hector Moralez: really dig it!
Scope: feelin the fives track!
Werner Niedermeier: Nice release, Get High goes forward n forward. Support
Elmar Schubert: Larry Fives and Inland Knights deliver what they do best - boomtsy boom house that’ll get the crowd jumping
Tommy Largo: like both tunes. will play for sure great artwork too!!
Jay West: the real drop sound, nasty and phat, cant ever get enough of it!
Jazzy Eyewear: Top Notch! IK’s back in action!

Press Coverage

iDJ: “One of the scene’s longest-running and most reliable imprints, defining the boompty-fied, west coast-influenced deep house sound of the East Midlands.”
5 Mag, Chicago: “Twelve years and counting, Drop Music is still a force to be reckoned with.”
DJ Mag review confirmed
De-Bug review confirmed
5 Mag Drop Music label feature confirmed
Deep Vibes Drop Music label feature confirmed

Good luck picking a winner amongst all of the winners in this nine track powerhouse EP from Drop Music. They’ve aimed to combine well established names together with some up and comers and the result is funk, funk and more funk.

I’ve heard a lot of folks open mixes with the Inland Knights track “Do It Again” but I personally like dropping it anywhere other than that. It’s because you don’t know what to expect coming out of the very first breakdown and to me it’s a nice pleasant surprise once the bassline kicks in.

The Sound Diggers have channeled James Brown and claimed possession of the funkiest track of the bunch with “Dynamic”. Close behind is “Turn Me On” by Robert Boogert, a 22 year old from the Netherlands who’s turning the heads of Sonny Fodera and Wally Calliero among others. The drum work on this one is so sick. Kinky Movement’s “De JA Vu” is super duper funky but also kind of has an eighties type of vibe to it.

Freaky Behavoiur’s “Temptation” is primarily funky but it’s also got plenty of sexy in it too thanks to a nice saxaphone riff and a sample talkin’ about booty. I think it’s saying “and that’s a stanky booty” which would be hilarious but I really can’t tell.

Bringing forth the party rockin’ electro vibes are Asad Rizvi, Larry Fives, and Giom. Asad’s Boom utilizes the vocals of R&B singer Mario, which I love. Larry Five’s sampled Missy Elliot on “Make a Move” and this one has already gotten multiple spins from me. Giom does what he does best, no surprises really so yeah you can buy this one blind.

Last but not least there’s Phil Weeks with Jingle Bells, I mean uhh, “Love You More”. No, seriously, there’s jingle bells throughout the whole song. This track just oozes out of the speakers and in a good way. My sick sense of humor makes me want to see some poor little raver child freaking out on a bad acid trip and this being the song that sends them over the edge. It just has that semi-creepy feel to it but it still rocks!

So yeah this EP has been on the market for a couple of weeks, but just in case you somehow missed all the stellar names on it, now you know. And knowing is half the battle. The other half is slanging multiple tracks off this EP on unsuspecting dancefloors. Then it’s game over.

Reviewer Rating: 10/10

Inland Knights and Drop Music is A partnership that has brought,  and still does to this day some  of  the most respected and longest running ‘underground’ house imprints to hit Pa’s and clubs worldwide. With Over 150 releases on various labels including Drop, NRK, amenti, Lost my dog,  20/20 vision, Cheeky, vista, So sound, Tango, Siesta, Block head,

Their Unique infusion of deep/ tech/ funk and Dub/ house has since 98 been Inspiring and moving dance floors and producers and dj’s alike and there’s no sign of things slowing up as  Drop Music is currently on it’s 74th release Which is another Inland knights imprint with a Larry fives track to kick things off.

Gramophonedzie: All tracks are gold! Drop can’t go wrong!
Grant Nelson: IK & Giom spanked it!
Mark Farina: great, Im house bound!
Mousse T: Wowsah!
Tony Humphries: Nice hyped tracks! Full support
Florian Kruse (Kruse & Nuernberg): ACE PACKAGE!!! Pure funkiness!!! LOVE IT!
Miguel Migs: fresh old school funk, nice jams here thanks…
Bearweasel: vintage Drop music sh!t
Nick Holder: Wow! House Bound brings it!
Kolombo: In mg bag! Love it!
Timmy Stewart/Jet Project: Dope from Drop as per…
Andy Ward (Soul Heaven): Bad ass!!!
Quentin Harris (Strictly Rhythm): A friend came over and these three tracks were playing continuously on my computer while we talked. I kept noticing this one track – I took a look and that’s how I got hooked on Do It Again
iDJ: “One of the scene’s longest-running and most reliable imprints, defining the boompty-fied, west coast-influenced deep house sound of the East Midlands.”
5 Mag, Chicago: “Twelve years and counting, Drop Music is still a force to be reckoned with.”
GScene: “And finally there’s the pure magic of ‘Drop Music present House Bound’. Upfront, unbelievably good and right proper house. If you jack, you’ll jack your arse off to this.”

Latest podcast: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/inland-knights-on-air/id398473529

Latest soundcloud mix: http://snd.sc/ouQ2p7

Groove Armada’s Tom Findlay calls them ‘part of the fabric of the British house scene’, and we’ve certainly seen them weave their way through a few club nights in our time. Yes, I Voice catches up with long-timeUK housers Inland Knights (Andrew Riley and Laurence Ritchie) to reveal what’s going down their ‘production hole’ in 2011.

Andy and Laurence hooked up in the early 90s and by the late 90s they were creating their own tunes. Since then, the duo has seen their profile (and aliases) grow together with productions and remixes for labels like 20:20 Vision, NRK, Siesta Music and Om. In the late 90s they also started their own label, Drop Music, which is still going strong with a new album called House Bound (by various different artists) due out this August. Plus the guys have recently released a bunch of samples, entitled Deep Dub Tech House (which does what it says on the tin) viaLoopmasters.

Of course, for many their music speaks for itself. But naturally we wanted to know more about how it’s made. So find out what the guys had to say when we asked them to join us Down The Production Hole…

First can you tell us something about your frames of reference/what you think makes for a high quality electronic sound recording?
Laurence: The important things are you ears, then the room your in and then the monitors. Expensive monitors are a waste of time if your studio room isn’t acoustically treated and your ears are tired. It’s always good to reference other music you like and know well, for referencing. Strangely that’s something we never used to do as our old studio had such a bad sound we couldn’t hear records properly. But over time we actually got used to the room acoustics and could produce an OK sound in it. I always leave my masters at -6b with plenty of headroom for professional mastering. It’s standard… But these days I find no one seems to know or bother and they just ram their music through tracks and similar. Which is OK on a budget but not great for your music.

Andy: Well I think the best way to get a good production sound is to start with high quality sounds in the first place. For instance using a synth sound from source instead of trying to lift it off an old record is going to make your life easier when it comes to production. We spent years trying to make pretty dirty samples sound good because all we had was an Akai S-3000 and a record collection. Now it’s getting a bit easier with ready to go sample packs, etc. Having the samples is one thing, being creative with them is something else! We also tend to reference another recording in the studio, something we know sounds good when we’ve played it out.

What’s your current music production set-up like?

Mac powering Logic Pro

Focusrite Saffire sound card

TL Audio Fat Track tube desk

Prophet 08

Juno-106

Moog Little Fatty Stage II

Focal Twin 6 monitors

Original Yamaha NBS10s

Focusrite Liquid Mix

TL Audio valve compressor

Alesis Micron

Akai S-3000 x 2

Yamaha 02R desk

Waldorf Pulse

Korg MS2000

Some outboard equipment (Valve EQ+Compression)

TC Finalizer

JBL monitoring with Mackie sub
***

What is/are your most essential tool/s of the trade within that set-up?
Laurence:  I love the Focal monitors and Prophet 08 synth. Logic is a pain in the ass but it’s what I know and, well, I guess it makes you work harder to get certain grooves by hand. I think other platforms kind of do it more for you and they sound more generic. The Prophet 08 is a really great synth! – lots of versatile sounds.

Andy: I would say I’ve got pretty used to the TC Finalizer; it’s basically used for mastering and multiband compression. It’s a very nice piece of kit. Ours is the 48K version. Also, I’m using Spectrasonics Stylus RMX a lot because it’s really quick and easy to import REX files into and before you know it you’ve got your loops instantly in time and easily editable – great for time saving.

Can you reveal a secret about your production technique/s?
Laurence:  I start with a bunch of loops and get about 12 tracks going over 8 bars, then I manually start to chop them all down until you start to get your own groove going while doing a bunch of EQing and effecting.

Do you have a general top tip for budding producers?
Laurence:  Get the room treated for acoustics, bass traps and so on. There are tonnes of videos on YouTube to help. Also, try and re-sit your mix at a really low level on the monitors and you will notice any levels that are out of place.

Andy: I would say buy a good quality pair of monitors, and make sure your room is how you would like it acoustically. That is the solid foundation from which all other things can come! We struggled with a room that wasn’t ideal and with mediocre monitors for a long time. It was a constant exercise in learning which part of the room to stand in to hear a certain frequency! All the plug-ins in the world won’t make up for the fact that you can’t hear stuff correctly in the first place.

Finally, what’s your take on the future of electronic music production?
Laurence: The playing field will just get bigger and fairer and worse and better for everyone. If the last four years is anything to go by, it’s going to be all about easily and quickly consuming samples – and cheaply making music that’s very disposable and drowned out by large amounts of content on the download sites. It will become much harder to sell your music and have success, while it becomes easier and cheaper to produce the music in the first place. I personally don’t like plug-ins; I like to plug things in. But that’s because I come from desks and wires and such from when I started out in the mid-90s. I try to embrace both things equally. I feel the future is more about music being done in the one box and on your smart phone.

Andy: I’m guessing that there will be ever more powerful tools available at ever-cheaper prices. Making it ever easier for the bedroom producer to create something that has a ‘big studio’ sheen to it.