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press : interviews & features
opius interview from knowledge magazine, september 2005 following his winning a place on the cover cd with the tune head hostage :
opius - head hostage
west london's opius, aka vinnie smith, may be a new name to most but he's been around the scene since day one.
taking his name from the word opus, which means 'musical composition', vinnie takes his production work very seriously,
citing dillinja, adam f, ray keith and doc scott for inspiration.
although july saw the release of only his fourth tune, his first was as recent as november and he's been tucked up in his studio for time, honing his production skills and fine tuning his sound. "i've been building my studio for about six years now ", explains vinnie. "i started with just a pc and a sampler but now i've got a better sampler and e-mu. i've just bought a new korg keyboard, to do all my strings and stuff with. i've got the mixing desk some rack synths, and some hardware compressors. i feel i'm at the stage equipment wise and what i can do with it, that i'm really ready to start pushing things".
this push was kick-started after hooking up with new vision recordings head honcho gary robinson last summer. vinnie had been sending out demos since the turn of the year and after about six months got a call from gary offering him some remix work. "he's really pushed me. we've been bouncing off each other cause he's been helping me with his contacts and i've been helping him with his production. so we've been good for each other. now he's bringing me in to help run the label too which is great.
biding his time to ensure quality production has paid dividends for vinnie. of the five competitions he's entered to date, he was runner-up in two and won the other three - including a cutting room track 'unmarked territory' on l double's 1xtra show. a take-no-prisoners dance floor mash-up. his 'head hostage' track on this issue's cover cd almost ended up being released in the u.s. but after being messed around, vinnie pulled it and put it forward for the knowledge competition instead. "one of my mates was coming out of a record shop and heard this track that pulled him back in like a magnet kind of held his head hostage. i thought that made a great name for a track and after searching for a relevant sample i came across vin diesal saying 'alright, now you have my attention' in the chronicles of riddick. i sampled that and wrote an intro that complements the theme with inviting strings and beats that roll up and to the tear-out. hopefully it'll keep the listeners hostage.
new vision is planning six to eight releases a year and there are also plans to have monthly releases on new vision limited. these will be one-sided releases with one side black and white artwork and vinnie expects his next three or four tracks to appear this way. already in the pipeline is 'labyrinth' which complete with an eerie sci-fi intro has a more rolling feel to it as vinnie ducks and dives to avoid being pigeonholed. "i like to put a stamp on my work and to be known for many different styles" concludes vinnie.
check www.newvisionrecordings.co.uk for future release info.
contact opius at opius@newvisionrecordings.co.uk
written by stu cronin
new vision recordings feature from knowledge magazine, november 2004 :
inner vision
whilst most people just day dream about running their own company, some surgically
remove their finger and put their ideas in motion. a select few take it a step further
and one such person, gary robinson, has built a whole empire : new vision.
one part of gary's empire, new vision recordings, was started way back in 1997 when gary was riding the crest of the dotcom boom. "i was doing all the web sites for goldie and people like that. i hooked up with total science and stage one publishing and they pretty much got the ball rolling for us."
it was a remix by the science boys that helped get nv recordings in motion, their reworking of rareform (gary's production alias) track 'banal' accompanying the original on the flip. since then there have been another nine releases on nvr always sticking to the same format, with rareform on one side and a big name producer supplying the remix on the flip.
things have been a little quiet in the nvr corner for the last few years. "we signed a deal with kickin records," gary explains, "and did an album that was gonna be rareform but it was more like drum & bass with rock guitars and synth - kind of like prodigy but a lot better. we re-branded it, called in poisonflow, went out on the road and did a lot of gigs in places in like cargo and other clubs around london."
the usual big label nonsense followed; money was spent, a producer was brought in to try and 'improve' the sound, tracks were recorded, the label decided the sound wasn't going where they wanted, and the funding was pulled. a mutually agreed parting of company ensued but the tracks have since been gathering dust on a shelf.
"we're still working on that project, doing more tracks and we're gonna take the whole poisonflow thing to another label. until now we've had to lock down the tunes completely but since they've let us go it's a different story. we've been putting a few mp3s around and we might do a few releases on new vision," says gary.
freed from the restraints of red tape, nvr have been busy recruiting new artists and are lining up with a busy release schedule for 2005. "just recently i've signed a guy called deleon. there's mad vibes from germany - he's one of the big names over there. there's opius, speed from pendulum is playing a lot of his stuff, and we've recruited dj phear from los angeles. he's flying the flag out there for us and supports all of our new material."
first to hit the shops is a re-release of rareform's seminal 'spinechilla'. "we're settled with nu-urban music now. they're doing the distribution and export. we have a release schedule of about five releases. the next one has a remix from spirit and then we've got a remix from simon bassline smith. we've also got something very special coming from lemon d, the valve lab, which is a remix of a vocal tune of mine. it was originally going out on a major, they had lots of plans for this track. then they pulled it but i've still got the mix coming from lemon, so i'm gonna put it out next year on new vision and see how it does."
new vision has also been making waves on both sides of the atlantic in the world of television. to date rareform tunes have cropped up on eastenders, mtv2's making the band, big brother mexico and the shield. "i noticed they had chopped up 'spinechilla', in different bits with people getting kicked and punched and shot". dark!
with this exposure has come a whole host of tv related production work including working with pump audio in new york and p5 audio in los angeles producing drum & bass and hip-hop instrumentals for clients such as hbo and nike.
fortunately though, the bright lights of the u.s. of a aren't set to lure gary away from blighty just yet. "i'm just finishing off another track for nv at the moment. it's a reworking of an old rareform track called 'fear grips'. simon bassline did the remix for me and it's sounding very tough."
written by stu cronin
keltech johnny b in session for bbc radio 1 wales, august 2002 :
two turntables and a microphone are all keltech and johnny b need to put on a show! well, in this case it was one turntable,
a mic and a mini disc player, but they were still off tha hook when they dropped into studio for us.
johnny b has been an mc on the s wales hip hop scene for some years now, while producer keltech has been putting out a wealth of drum 'n' bass tunes on his own pyraplastic records.
» introducing keltech johnny b
new vision recordings feature accompanying cover cd from - knowledge magazine, august 2002 :
launched in 1998 by long time friends gary robinson and david may (aka mc
manik d), the london-based new vision recordings was
originally devised as a platform for the pair under their production
alias, rareform. in the years since, the new vision name has come to
stand for a free-thinking collaborative group of like-minded artists all
fully bent on exploring and experimenting with music from a drum
bass perspective. hoping to create a space for tracks and artists that
don't necessarily conform to what else is going on in the scene, the
new vision family maintain that they're all about good music centered on
"emotion, energy and atmosphere," regardless of genre
classification.
"i think the 'vision' behind the label is to take things in as many different directions as possible from a common starting point," says gary. "it's something that a lot of people talk about but never do."
with a smattering of genres being mashed into the new vision machine, the results are often like nothing else you've ever heard. drum bass, breaks, hip-hop, deep house, metal, "chemical beats," and "urban sickness" all shine through in various guises and forms. even the act of presenting the music to the audience is taken to the next level as the label's own rareform project can attest.
originally the studio production alias of gary and david, rareform quickly
mutated into a four-piece band that sought to bring the
immediacy and energy of live performance to the dance floor. recently
headlining the depth charge night in oxford alongside dj zinc, the
rareform live act had the crowd climbing up the walls, even calling for
rewinds.
"we've definitely come a long way from our early p.a.'s," says gary with a smile.
originally meeting in 1992 while developing music for amiga-based computer games, gary and dave's first attempt at forming a live act (under the name "inner strength") was ill-fated and after being dropped by their management company, the boys lost touch for a number of years.
dave would go on to become a well-known mc on the oxford circuit under the name manik d, working with the likes of grooverider, fabio and ltj bukem, landing a residency at oxford's biggest drum & bass club night at the time, metro. of course after metro folded and the source came to life, manik d became a resident there and decided to give gary a call to invite him up to the club.
gary had been up to a few tricks of his own, hustling full-time as a corporate web designer during the day and soaking up as much studio knowledge as he could at night. a chance encounter opened a number of doors for gary as he found himself in the metalheadz office signing on to do the web design for not only the official metalheadz web site but also goldie's artist web site for ffrr. it wasn't long gary found himself designing web sites for artists like total science, j-majik, blu mar ten, and simon bassline smith.
after reuniting with dave and deciding to pick up where they left off, the boys used both of their connections to get their budding productions into the hands of vip heads like total science, fabio and randall for immediate feedback.
in 1997, q-project of total science gave the boys a boost by calling up dave on his mobile and giving him some advice on how to take the rareform sound to the next level.
"he was really into our sound, which at the time was really different than anything else out there," says dave. "we had given them tunes like 'banal' and 'spinechilla,' which they thought sounded pretty fresh."
inspired by the encouragement, gary and dave decided to launch the new
vision imprint, investing in a pair of heavy-duty remixes to help
kick-start the show. total science headlined the first release in 1999,
remixing the hypnotic creeper "banal" with stunning results. the
second release kept the momentum rolling as spirit was brought in for the
remix of 1998's, "spinechilla."
"that's actually the track that seems to have earned us the most respect," says gary. "it was being played by djs like goldie and randall and was really one of the first tunes to bring back the use of old-skool sounds and that whole early 90s vibe that would dominate the scene in the years to come."
flash-forward to the present and the new vision camp has just released their tenth single, proudly representing a number of artists like the advocate, simon bassline smith, drumsound, time frame, the drunken masters, blanko, emptyhead, redmath, poisonflow, and of course rareform.
looking to the future, gary points us to the forthcoming releases on their recently minted nv2 label which is on the "strictly dance floor" vibe. new school heads like redmath and cloak n daga from the u.s. as well as blanko, keltech, wrisk and mackie from the u.k. seem to be holding things down on the nv2 sub-label while gary mentions the creation of a third label, new vision special edition, that will focus exclusively on metal/drum & bass hybrids best represented by the forthcoming "angels kiss" collaboration with the bristol-based metal/breakbeat-punk band, the soundisciples.
also in the works is the poisonflow album project for kickin records. a mix of drum & bass, metal, hip-hop and deep house, poisonflow is being marketed at the mainstream rather than the underground and hopes to kick-start a whole new style of dance music that will pave the way for more genre-bending artists. of course, in true nv style, poisonflow will soon emerge as a live act as well.
recruiting various artists from outside the drum & bass scene to help out in the project, poisonflow includes classical composer jacqueline kroft, house/breakbeat producer darren flinders (aka sound force/vinyl mafia), as well as scratch-dj lunar who also represents live. with high hopes for their first live date at cargo in june alongside freq nasty and the y4k records crew, poisonflow definitely represents the future of the new vision
"we really are looking to make new vision much more of a general dance music label," explains gary. "i speak for everyone in the new vision camp when i say that we don't ever want to be limited to one sound. i know a lot of people say this but we really aren't coming from the angle of wanting to make 'just drum & bass' for the rest of our musical careers. check out any rareform show and you will hear hard hip-hop beats and breakbeat loops along side tight mc lyrics and punk vocals with drum & bass sewing it all together nicely."
regardless of what you call it, it's obvious that new vision is working on some next level shit. be sure to stay tuned:
words : chris muniz
short write up praising rareform at truck 2001, oxford, uk - night shift magazine :
on what you might loosely call the dance front, rareform’s dirty, apparently subterranean drum n bass holds the high ground as it nestles uneasily between the klyvz untidy clattering.the latter band were a major disappointment at truck and their seeming inability to build on all their gloriously unhinged early promise is worrying. a little less trying to be a bunch of wacky art students and more concentration on the job in hand might not go amiss.
equally hard to fathom is the bob storey vs toby the kid track, busted shoes, which is possibly an ambitious attempt to disseminate country pop but seems to get a bit lost part way through.
rareform - interview - knowledge magazine, january 2002 :
the evolution of drum & bass has been like watching a kid grow up. there's been the boundless enthusiasm and fearlessness of jungle (terrible twos); the tricky temperamental teenage years of the late 1990s; and the recent transition into a street wise, mature young adult. we've even had the sibling rivalry, with uk garage trying to grab a slice of the action.during its adolescent period, criticism of drum & bass for being too insular and introverted, especially on the production front, would have been justified - an 'i know best' mentality resulting in a welter of angry, grooveless output. recent times, though, have seen producers take a bold step into the world beyond d&b - witness the phenomenal success of producers adam f, photek, hype and zinc in their respective forays into hip-hop, house and breakbeat garage.
mcs are getting in on the act too, with dynamite and gq appearing on skitz's 'countryman' lp.
an equally positive and open minded outlook embodies the approach of rareform, a live outfit created by hertfordshire's gary robinson, 25 and oxfords david may, 25 ( aka mc manik d ). originally conceived as a production alias for releases on their new vision imprint, rareform has mutated into a four-peice band.
rareform's and new vision's existence is an achievement in itself, considering that initially gary had nothing to do with making music. "i was doing web design as a job and ended up working with goldie on the metalheadz web site. that was our way in, me and dave were like "this is how we are going to get into it", says gary.
between gary's hertfordshire / metalheadz connection and dave's oxford / source links they were in privileged position to be able to give dats to the likes of total science, fabio and randal, enabling them to get vital feedback. one of these relationships has proved to be invaluable, with new vision's first release in early 1999, a remix of rareform's 'banal' by total science. the second release, the haunting epic 'spinchilla', acheived anthemic status and has even been played in an eastenders club scence?!
it seems that over the last year the rareform live-jigsaw has really come together. who exactly does what ? "theres jonno vaughn who's a guy from bristol into a lot of rocky punky type bands and he does allot of production and vocals for us. there's a scratch dj from the oxford scene, dj lunar, me on the keyboards and manik on the mic" explains gary.
how does that work in the studio? "we work in a weird way bbecause me and manik have got our own studios in hemel and oxford. most of the time he'll start something and send it down to me and ill do the rest of it and bounce it back to him. lunar's in oxford so he'll sit in cos we don't want him to be a dummy dj. jonno does some production with me which is good as he'll open up my mind to his ideas. its all going on mate", enthuses gary.
"were going to be doing some stuff with the sound disciples from bristol, they are a bit like pitchshifter. they got a real nice punky attitude that will blend really well. there's no-one really doing that hard edged with a tight aggressive sound".
it doesn't stop there either : there's another live project, poison flow. "which we're going to present to the majors. been working on that with jonno and there's a whole guitar element... kind of prodigy meets goldie meets tricky", explains gary.
and new vision 2, a label which has launched to look after stateside releases and producers, red math and empty head.
some how, through the internet branch of new vision, rareform have secured remix work for major music corp, columbia. so far the commissions could not have been more contrasting with remixes of teenage bubble gum pop trio, sugababes ("we rolled it out believe me") and nas / qb's finest's filth laden banger, 'oochie walley'.
rareform and gary, though, are taking it all in their stride. for the moment its all about rareform. "we've always wanted to come across as deeper. nothing we do is throwaway music and were going to be sticking to that. a lot of people treat d&b like graffiti - its not about the musical content or the rollidge of it. just put the beats together, give it a name and thats your peice of work for the day with no concept behind it", says gary.
wise words if the new generation of producers are instilled with half the confidence and awareness or rareform , the sky's the limit for drum & bass as it enters the best years of its life.
red math - short write up - knowledge magazine december 2000 :
its mathmatics
red math is a producer who is aware it makes sense to embrace the future as well as the past ! his musical touch stretches from drum & bass to freeforming breakbeat and jazziness to hip hop (under the aka freedom of knowledge).
as well as pulling samples in the classic manner and composing onto computer. math incorporates live instruments and improvisation in a style that has attracted labels oxygen music, ninja tune and bomp hip hop.
hailing from chicago before re-locating to nashville has diversified the mans out put further. especially as a euro influence comes through in his search to 'make the darkest tracks sound beautiful and light'.
forthcoming is the 12" big time / stratovarius.
rareform - ode 2 the amen mp3 review - www.musicblitz.com :
gary j robinson and mc dave may combined forces as rareform in 1997, they had one goal in mind: to put the punishing rhythms coursing through their heads onto vinyl for the whole world to hear.thankfully for the rest of us, they've attained that goal, resulting in beat-ridden tracks like this fierce musicblitz exclusive. on "ode to the amen," the british duo lays down a thick, air-tight layer of drum 'n' bass beats which drives the track from start to finish. but they never let the proceedings get too heavy-handed, balancing out their beats with swooping analog noises and fat bass droplets that plod along in time to the track's pounding rhythm.
by alternating their sonic combinations, rareform ensure the song stays interesting as well. this track will have you jiggling along to it as soon as you download it. you have been warned.
news item on new vision internet / new vision recordings - knowledge magazine june 2000 :
if you're a regular surfer of the net then you've probably come across the name new vision before.
started by complete accident a couple of years ago, gary j robinson got his first break after blindly
sending an e-mail to metalheadz and offering his services as a web designer. after that he went on
to design goldie's own site - word soon got round and people just started calling up out of the blue.
apart from goldie and the headz, other sites to get the new vision internet touch include labels like cia, infrared, collusion and technique; while additional clients include dj agencies, on-line magazines and management companies. the future of new vision internet includes the launch of sites for source direct and jim baker's demonic records label, dope ammo recordings, and the re-launch of the massive new forms drum & bass web-ring site; but with the company in safe hands, gary's sights are more firmly focussed developing the label, new vision recordings.
established just over a year ago as a platform for rareform, the label have had four releases so far, including remixes to date from total science and spirit. with tracks ready to go, and appearances from source direct, dope ammo, the advocate, and simon bassline smith to come, new vision recordings is gonna be a label to watch.
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