‘Watching people play pool, that’s what inspires me, [I] try to work out their stories. What are they doing? What jobs do they do? What do they eat? What are they like? What makes them tick?’ says Obaro Ejimiwe aka Ghostpoet, 29 year old British producer and spoken-word linguist from London via Coventry. Obaro adjusts his trademark frames briefly and ardently continues, as he describes his music to us in the dimly lit pool hall at Kings Cross.

Ghostpoet’s unique droney approach to hip hop joins the dots between spoken-word, soft rock and left field electronica.  Disregarding genre classifications and never allowing himself to stick to one particular sound, Ghostpoet doesn’t confine himself to one formula when writing music. ‘I don’t try and think too much about a plan of action, I want to let my music flourish and bloom as it wants to’. Perhaps it’s this approach that’s allowed him to make such sincere compositions, often dabbling on topics of frustration, social circumstances and everyday struggles in his lyrics, producing a unique blend of headphone music that narrates our everyday lives.

After getting worldwide recognition from signing with globetrotting purveyor Gilles Peterson’s label Brownswood Recordings, Ghostpoet went on to release ‘The Sound Of Strangers’ EP and a few singles followed by the well received ‘Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam’ album which triggered great success, a summer packed with festival bookings and a nominees for the 2011 Mercury Prize.

Prior to his sold out gig at Scala, Ghostpoet speaks to us about his musical upbringing, the mutation of genres at this day in time and what he might ask a yeti if he found one in his basement..

Yeti Meets | Ghost Poet from Yeti in the Basement on Vimeo.

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The folks over at LDN DC have been throwing some banging parties around the east end this year. For their first birthday, they’ve prepared a stellar line up that sums up the progressive sound they push for.

Top of the bill is Untold, a man who has had a massive impact on the post-dubstep clubbing landscape. From the Eski experiments of his classic ‘Gonna Work Out Fine’ EP, to the throbbing techno of last year’s ‘Little Things Like That’, Untold’s productions are taut, razor sharp affairs that refuse to sit comfortably in any pigeonhole.  As head of Hemlock, Untold has developed a reputation as a first class curator, after releasing records from the likes of James Blake, Ramandanman and Cosmic TRG, his latest signing Guy Andrews will be joining the bill.

Joining the Hemlock famalia will be Scratcha DVA, a man that’s spent the best part of the last decade immersed in the UK’s underground rave culture. As a producer he is perhaps best known for his mutant take on the UK funky sound (check Natty and Ganja) but he originally came up through the Grime scene, working with legends such as Wiley and Durrty Goodz. As anyone who has seen him live will testify, his DJ sets are as large and colourful as his Rinse FM radio shows, and we are particularly excited for this one as it’s the eve of the his debut album release, ‘Pretty Ugly’, on Hyperdub.

If that wasn’t enough, the boys also enlisted the services of Altered Natives, a producer who’s steadfast and uncompromising approach to house music, all rugged, syncopated drums and deviant basslines will inevitably contribute some exciting vibes towards the evening. Support on the night comes from Leon Vynehall, a young artist set for big things  this year along with LDN DC residents.

We had a quick chat with Andrew Wade from LDN DC as he tells us a little about the curation of this line up and the one to watch this year.

Happy Birthday! 3 words to sum up the last 12 months?

What just happened?!

Any favourite party moments this year you can share with us?

Too many to mention, least favourite would be not being able to get in the room at Corsica Studios to see Grand Master Flash.

What made you put together this line up?

Always wanted to book Untold since I heard ‘Just For You’ but never had the right line up. Scratcha is just a sick guy and with the album dropping soon it’s going to be a mad set. Altered Natives is probably one of the most under rated produces out there and I support what he’s doing 100%. Guy is making some serious waves at the moment, his release on Hemlock has taken him up a level as well as Leon, this guy is making some nuts tunes.

First track you played at your last night?

Not sure, it could have been ‘Blackheath’ by Duct.

Who’s the one to watch this year?

Leon Vynehall. He’s got some big releases coming out this year from Well Rounded and Man Make Music.

What can we look forward to in the coming year?

There could be a little collaboration going on at some point over summer, we’ll be doing a party in May and the rest when we know you’ll know.

For more information, follow LDN DC on their Facebook Page.

Tickets check here:
£3 Early Bird / £5 Advance / £7 OTD

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On Friday 17th of February get ready for an epic night of heavy bass and fast drums as Innovation returns to London superclub Proud2 (formerly Matter) for Distortion; a night that all the D ‘n B heads won’t want to miss!

Proud2 will play host to the official reunion party of ‘Innovation In The Dam’ and it promises to be just as mad with 3000 ravers, the best lighting in London and a sound system so loud the floor shakes!

As for the line up.. Innovation have once again sorted out the full spectrum of D ‘n B with DJs representing the best of jump up, liquid and tech.
In room 1 the legendary DJ Hype will be mashing up the dance alongside drum and bass duos Brookes Brothers and Drumsound and Bassline Smith. The dark and dangerous DJ Hazard will also grace room 1 along with Sigma, The Prototypes, Grooverider, Sub Zero, DC Breaks and DJ Ollie. Room 1 will be hosted by some of the best MCs in the game; including the crowd favourite IC3, Skibba, Harry Shotta, Eksman and many more.

Room 2 crosses over to the darker side of dnb with tech legends Dom and Roland playing as well as Tech Itch, Audio, Lynx, Fierce, Cause4Concern and Detail.

As if all this wasn’t enough Proud2 has an exclusive, state of the art smoking area and there will be shuttle buses running all night to Waterloo and central London. For only £20 you’d be crazy to miss this night as it promises to be a serious vibe!

Facebook event: here

Line up

Arena 1:
Hype, Brookes Brothers, Hazard, Sigma, The Prototypes, Drumsound & Bassline Smith, Grooverider, DC Breaks, Subzero, DJ Ollie
Hosts
Ic3, Skibadee, Dynamite, Harry Shotta, Eksman, Rhymes, Shabba, Ad, Krafty

Arena 2:
Tech Itch, Dom & Roland, Audio, Lynx, Fierce, Cause 4 Concern, Detail
Hosts
Ad, 2Shy, Stapelton, J.O.K

Tickets: innovation.gb.com

Adress: Proud 2
The O2 Arena
Peninsula Square
London
SE10 0DX
Nearest Tube: North Greenwich
Map: http://g.co/maps/j2eey

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One of Yeti’s favourite Grime producers, Royal T is set to release his first full length album via Rinse. Yeti first caught wind of this project almost a year ago when we threw our Dalton roadblock rave with the man in question and Mighty Moe. So it gives us great pleasure to finally let the cat out the bag.
The album will feature some collaboration with the Butterz crew members as well as vocalist and MC’s. A 12″ single will be released in the run up to the album launch date (April/May) featuring two tracks entitled Inside the Ride’ and ‘ Cool Down’ on the 3rd of March.

We’ve already heard from Mark himself that he’s began work on his next LP and from the sounds of it you we can expect some big collaborations.

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Loud Noise have found a new home that perfectly fits the music they push for, dark, eerie and full of sinister connotations, South London’s alternative hub Hidden will play host to Loud Noise’s heavyweight dubstep line up this Friday 10th February.

A night curated for fully fledged dub heads, be prepared to pull out some nauseous facial expressions as the likes of Kromestar, Tunnidge, J:Kenzo , Sleeper and Thelem, rattle your bones out to some deep subs. No candy garage beats or Joy Orbison rip offs, this calls for those familiar to shocking out to the early days of Forward >>. As we enter FOUND Series II, Loud Noise are bringing you some of dubstep’s finest acts of the moment that’ll take you on a ride through the veteran sound of dubstep. Ahead of his set this Friday at Hidden, Tunnidge talks to us about his artwork for Deep Medi, his and Cyrus’ imprint Origin Audio and the state of dubstep today..

You’ve been creating the artworks for Deep Medi releases – how long have you been doing this for? From where did your relationship with Deep Medi stem?

I’ve been doing the portraits for Deep Medi since the label started in 2006. Mala – who runs the label – is a friend and had always liked my artwork; he asked me to do the portraits and I jumped at the chance.

Tell us a little bit about Origin.

Origin Audio is a label run by my self and Cyrus. We started it to represent the more foundational side of Dubstep at a time it was being largely overlooked. We have been a bit slow on our releases (we are currently on our third) due to other projects and labels, but we are looking to step it up this year, and have some pretty big things lined up. People aren’t going to see some of them coming.

Artistically, what’s your favorite medium to work in?

 I like to work in oil; it takes ages to dry so its great at giving you time to readjust and correct. It’s nice with painting – and the music – to be able to stand back and give a project a bit of time and distance. Sometimes you work so closely on music or a painting that you loose perspective. It’s great to be able to come back to a painting after a week and see if it has the ability to stand by itself, if that makes sense. Also with the music perspective is great – I often have a tune which I’ll become disillusioned with after a day, but when I come back to it in a week or even a few months I can see the original vision and finish it. It’s great to load up an old tune listen to it and think, ‘yep – this will work.’

Dubstep’s taken on a huge transformation in recent years. How or why do you think the shift of deeper dubstep has transformed into a mainstream entity that barely touches on where it came from?

I never felt that dubstep – the original sound – was ever mainstream music but it was fresh and exciting and I think the internet allowed the sound to travel very quickly to like-minded individuals. The original sound was very much focused on the club environment and the stripped down elements, and sub was refreshing to an audience overloaded with layers and layers of glossy dance music. So what we have is an online audience with small pockets of people separated geographically becoming very excited by a sound that translates badly outside of a decent club sound system, and a developing genre which is [proving to be] unpalatable to most people.

But the nature of people is they want to be a part of something and the enthusiasm and excitement was no doubt infectious. I feel certain producers started to pick on the sound and produced tracks that could be easily understood, less focus on the experimental and space and more the drum and bass jump up values, speed and variation. All of a sudden you have a marketable sound parading under an exciting genre name. Cue the media.

The internet being the double-edged sword that it is ended up biting the genre it helped establish on the arse. People like the infamous Mount Eden were savvy enough to put ‘dubstep’ in the name of the music they uploaded to YouTube so now every teenager who has heard about dubstep but doesn’t know what it is, YouTubes ‘dubstep’ and they get…Mount Eden (dubstep remix), not Digital Mystikz ‘Molten’. So the music actually becomes something it’s not. Then we have radio worrying about not being relevant to its demographic, what are the kids listening to? Dubstep eh? What tracks have the most hits on YouTube, we’ll play them, and so on. Radio 1 actually bases what dubstep it plays on YouTube hits, which is laughable.

It’s going to be an interesting year, though. The commercial dubstep audience is a transient one and will move on when the next hype hits, if not this year then maybe the next. I’m sure the real sound would have gained some support out of this group as their tastes evolve, but a few producers who sold their musical integrity or went for cheap-shot productions are going to be left out in the cold. I’ve talked to fellow producers about it and some get upset with this misrepresentation and success of the commercial dubstep sound. But you have to ask yourself as a producer what you want, and for all of us who have continued to represent and push the sound we believe in, it’s always been about the music – not about mainstream success.

What’s your stance on the diminishing boundaries of genres in UK electronic music?

 I think it’s an amazing thing and refreshing, it’s great to hear all the different aspects of UK electronic music mixing and mutating. Producers advancing into different genres and BPM is always going to be exciting. When I play in different countries I always feel very proud when they talk so passionately about UK music.

You’ve been tight with the GetDarker family for while now [Cyrus, Distance, the Taylors] – define you lot in 4 words.

Joking bantering music believers.

There is also a COMPETITION for a lucky DJ to play a set on the night, in addition to winning a copy of Sleeper’s ‘Zomby’ EP signed by artists on the night. For info regarding competition check here/ info regarding tickets and line up check here.

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The track was South Rakkas Crew’s ‘Mad Again’ which not only became our anthem for ecstatic times but continued to spawn 12” releases and inspire 7 remixes by tastemakers like Boy 8 Bit, Fake Blood, Drop The Lime and Jokers of the Scene. Judging by these remixes, one could solely associate SRC with the dancehall / fidget house scene. But their musical borders are by no means exclusive to any genre as their production history ranges from baile funk to ghetto tech and every blend in between.

Unlike most artists, SRC didn’t take the typical route to become the groundbreaking rhythm killers they are today. A decade ago, Dennis ‘D-Rakkas’ Shaw met Alex Greggs while working at a rave in Canada over an incident with a naked girl on roller skates! The upshot of this partnership lead to a flow of parallel concepts in the studio as both realized they shared roots in the hip hop and reggae scene. At the time, Greggs was gaining a strong rep as the local beat smith extraordinaire and Shaw was a party rocking DJ with more taste ranges than your average pack of Skittles.

As the two settled in Orlando, Florida, Greggs continued his production in the dance and pop circles which eventually led him to become a chart topping producer for the likes of Duran Duran and Janet Jackson while writing for T-Pain and Lil Jon. During this time, Shaw travelled back to his birthplace Jamaica where his brother-in-law Mr. Vegas exposed him to Dancehall’s rawest features. The combination of both influences led to their early blazing riddims like ‘Clappas’, ‘Bionic Ras’ and ‘Red Alert’, collaborating with up and coming ragga warriors like Hollow Point and Alozade!

The years to come saw new affiliated members to the crew like Riprok, Tucan and DJ Ninja Kid – their eyes and ears in the jagged Kingston scene. Cohesively paving way for their current monster sound of 120 bmp booty shaking fusion dancehall, the crew went on to congregate with Diplo’s Mad Decent mafia, releasing ‘Mad Again’, the ‘Mix Up’ EPs, ‘Nuff Remixes Vol 1′ and the much hyped, rugga album ‘The Stimulus Package’. By the time major labels were knocking in, they already created a string of remixes from M.I.A to Beck and their single ‘Spring Break’ was quickly shooting to number one on BBC 1xtra’s dancehall chart.

If releasing 10 albums since 2003 and Greggs’ producing for Michael Jackson wasn’t already setting the bar high, SRC teamed up with trip hop legend Tricky in 2009 to remix a full album, ‘Tricky Meets South Rakkas Crew’. The master piece is a listening experience of Tricky’s 2008 ‘Knowle West Boy’ sprinkled with a fiery South Rakkas flavor. Colliding exotic and intoxicating tempos that dance around body rocking beats, SRC reveal to their listeners how to disassemble an already genius creation and hammer it into forms of innovative sounds. Check out the album’s first track ‘Numb’ Below.

Causing club havoc from Berlin to the Bronx, SRC are currently embarking on their month long tour across Canada and the West Coast promoting their ‘Gangsta Revival’ EP (listen below). On Friday February 3^rd, they will make their fourth stop at Vancouver’s Fortune Sound Club. Expect gnarly electric guitar riffs mixed with jump up Jamaican rhythms while dread locked babes rashly mosh pit, as SRC graces Fortune’s Happy Ending Fridays for the third time! The boundary breaking club night has also hosted Mad Decent’s Toy Selecta, Skerrit Bwoy, Paul Devro, Sega and Jillionaire on their 200 watt strong Funktion-One sound system.

As noble and bountiful beasts, we Yetis are giving away FREE TICKETS to our Vancouver followers to catch the South Rakkas boys disintegrate Fortune’s dance floor! All you have to do is COMMENT your FULL NAME & LIKE this post below! If you follow this, we’ll contact you to confirm entry before February 3rd, 12:00pm mid day Pacific Time (Vancouver Time Zone)! For our London peeps hungry for a slice of the Mad Decent pie this weekend, join us with Mumdance and friends as Yeti in the Basement hosts Room 2 at The Egg, more info HERE. Until then, only Tricky’s lyrics on his South Rakkas collabo ‘Cross to Bear’ can best describe the upcoming mayhem; as we ‘come in peace and leave you in pieces!’

Yeti Out x

Our East London Yeti prints have been receiving a lot of attention recently so we thought it would only be fitting to show you the hard work that’s gone into the production of these individual prints created and designed exclusively for Yeti in the Basement by Guy Roberts.

We currently have 12 prints remaining in stock so if you would like one of these fine print in your life then be quick!

We are also giving everyone who signs up to our mailing list a £5 voucher to be used on our Yeti Flagship Tee in White.

VISIT THE YETI STORE

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Room 1 sees Weird Science Recordings hold down some up lifting house business led by head honcho Jordan & Santero and Citizen. Joining them is Mad Decent flag holder Mumdance who will inevitably throw down some funky bassline party vibes. In-between recent collaborations with Cerebral Ballzy and doing ‘Lean House’ edits,  we’re interested to see what else he’ll mix into his set, especially when we haven’t fully grasp the concept behind ‘Lean House’..

Alix Perez’s alter ego Arp 101 is on to something. I can only describe his production as a soundtrack to the life of a fur coat wearing romantic, that can’t decide what he loves more- his 1970’s Cheviot or his 2012 Akai MPC. Arp will take us on a jittery journey full of boggie funk and synth goodness, a new found sound he’s developed that joins the dots between a Dam Funk record and a Lucky Me production.

In room 2 we’re excited to bring you the solid sounds of Eliphino. The mans diverse production is witnessed via stints of instrumental hip-hop in Seasons EP to more ambient electronica on Brownswood and experimental dubs on Hoya:hoya.  His sets range from grime, left field house to 2-step which is also reflected in production, most recently in his ‘More than Me’ EP on Somethink Sounds, a personal favorite that satisfactorily wrapped up 2011. Who knows what to expect on Friday?!

Recently releasing ‘Unity’ on Keysound, (Yeti review here) Damu’s production defines the ‘post-genre’ revolution. Crediting all genres from old school UKG to house hold hip hop anthems, his superb sampling techniques and progressive production allows listeners to dwell in a pool of unique samples while getting buck wild when those weird bleeps finally formulate into a beasty drop. Listen carefully at 2.22 on ‘Don’t Cry In My Bed’ if you don’t want to sleep tonight.

Hailed by many as the one to watch in 2012, Pedestrian’s orchestral sounds drifts firmly among 2 step shuffles, full of emotion and obscure narrative, Pedestrian’s music finds a middle ground between ambience and dance music- whereby  each sample witnessed plays a vibrant role in his tracks no matter how far flung they might sound individually.

Brighton native Lorca has been causing a bit of a ruckus lately on the sonic airwaves through releases on Live Ones and Left_Blank. Heavy in vocal sample along with atmospheric percussion packed with a handful of sub and energy, Lorca’s production fits firmly in the ever evolving post dubstep sound and will be sure to keep you stomping till the early hours! Check his Yeti mix for a sneak peek on what he’ll deliver on the night.

Buzzlin creates garage fuelled lullabies that re-dazzle 2-step with warm four to the floor cuts. Imagine a Night Slug production made on a Sunday afternoon, after an inspirational choir service and a big brunch with close friends and family and you’ll catch my drift. Don’t sleep on him, this kids buzzing. Check here for a quick Q&A we did with Mr. Buzz.

Fife and Lex Darker are the dudes behind Yeah, Maybe- a night that brings you the best of house/ grime / dancehall. With a religious following and a resume of parties that have nearly caved in the roof of Alibi, these guys are sure to blow up some speakers with their bass driven shenanigans. Fife also makes some pretty tropical beats, featuring recent collaborations with Randomer.

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Their latest creative output comes from fashion trend setter and all round top gal, Nxy Deyn. Her studded Metalheads hoodies caught the attention of the fashion world for their fresh punk inspired simplicity sold via ASOS and the Copson St blog. Nxy hooked up with East Pak to bring her spiky design to the classic backpack shape as part of East Pak’s Artist Studio along with many more one off design from creative’s around the world. All proceeds go to the charity program, Designers Against AIDS to help raise awareness for HIV/AIDS and promote prevention as the only cure for this insidious disease.

More Pics and Interview with the girls over at East Pak

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