Dvojec ZHOU (Amos in Cris) je po izdaji prvenca na Peverelistovi založbi Punch Drunk nehote razkril neverjetno raznovrstno mrežje sodobne bristolske dub elektronike, ki je bila zaradi shypanih house in dubstep hibridov popolnoma zapostavljena; mladi kolektiv Young Echo, katerega člana sta tudi Amos in Cris, indicira, da soundsystem in dubplate kultura nikakor ne izgublja zagonske moči, to pa ZHOU samozavestno prikazujeta tudi s svojim široko zastavljenim, ekskluzivnim mixom za Radio Študent!

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''DUBPLATE CULTURE REALLY GOES BACK A LONG WAY. WE'D LIKE OUR MUSIC TO HAVE A LINK WITH THAT.''


Interview with Cris and Amos of ZHOU, May 2012

To the listeners, who are not familiar with your work - what's your sound about?

Cris: My name is Cris, I form half of Zhou with Amos. I write kind of digital steppers on my own, but with him we write dubstep-influenced, bass-heavy dub music.

Amos: Hi, I'm Amos from Zhou. We make electronic, bass-heavy music.

You come from Bristol, right? Bristol has quite influenced both of you. Which artists inspired you to start producing your own music, do your own radio shows?

Amos: We are very into the Bristol sound. There's a lot of good music that comes out from Bristol, especially older people that were doing dubstep in Bristol have been a huge influence - Peverelist, Shackleton, Appleblim. We also listen to a lot of reggae music.

Cris: For me, Pinch was someone who I listened to quite a lot; Aphex Twin and Goth-Trad as well. They are not all Bristol, but Pinch is definitely a big Bristol name that's kind of always stood out. And always - RSD, Rob Smith of Smith & Mighty, I've listened to his productions for a long time. He was one of the first people that made me think about writing music.

Pinch was playing here in Ljubljana recently, and he said that when he started out with his nights in Bristol, there were not many people listening to dubstep. After a while, when talking to a music journalist, he realized there were 15 different labels dealing with dubstep. Do you think that dubstep is still strong in Bristol?

Amos: I think that with regards to dubstep, the scene in Bristol has had its glory days, to be honest. The scene in Bristol at the moment is a lot more focused on house music - that's what a lot people seem to be listening to and making.

Cris: A lot of Bristolians are very dedicated to the sound of raw drum'n'bass and it's still alive in parts of Bristol, but when it became taken over by national and international radio, I think a lot of people didn't see the same raw, roots inspiration that it held in its early days. And I think it's the same with dubstep, maybe. People don't like to be associated with it in the same way, it's kind of become a dirty word in Bristol. But for me, I know I've got certain influences from it and certain influences are definitely from the right parts of dubstep. A lot of the Bristol elders are keeping that alive, even if it's not noticed so much. I think house has taken over a little bit.

You're a part of a collective called Young Echo. How did you guys come together?

Amos: It all started with the radio show. Me and Seb (Vessel) were producing a lot of tracks together at the time. He's been friends with Kahn and El Kid for a long time and I think we were all listening to each other's music and swapping our gears and stuff on the internet, sometimes even sitting down in the same room and making music. So it sort of made sense to solidify ourselves as a group and a radio show was a good way to that. And also to put our music out there.

Cris: Amos was the one that was pushing the sound and the idea that we could make something tangible. A lot of what we do is quite insular and personal. We're doing something on our own, writing our music. The dancefloor tracks that come out of that do get heard and do get displayed, but there's a lot of our sound that isn't suited for the dancefloor, and still I think we all kind of felt it needed sharing. What Amos has allowed to happen was a platform for that, so that the all different dancefloor and non-dancefloor sounds could be shared in a broadcast. There aren't any set boundaries or BPM that we stick to.

When did you start producing?

Cris: I've been producing maybe three years with Amos, and two years prior to that. I've always made dub or reggae influenced electronic music. Before that, I used to play in an acoustic folk duo with my girlfriend [laughs].

Amos: I've sort of been into doing it on and off since I was 16.

You released a 12'' for Punch Drunk. How did you get in touch with Peverelist?

Cris: Our friend Joe (Kahn) had a 12'' debut at the time, and he got to know Peverelist. I think he saw a connection between the tracks that he was writing and the tracks that we were writing, so we sent some of our tracks to him [Peverelist]. Six months after Kahn's release was when our debut release came out.

Amos: Yeah, Peverelist has been an important figure in our music.

What kind of equipment do you use for producing?

Cris: Me and Amos both have just a Mac, we're set up in Ableton. I'm just digital and Amos is a lot more onto tape, off tape, through the effects, through the analog. I think that works well, because we get a bit of a balance out of it.

When you play out, do you play vinyl?

Amos: We just started cutting dubplates. We want to move away from playing on a computer to playing vinyl. There's something about the heritage of vinyl me and Cris are really into. The dubplate culture really goes back a really long way. We would like our music to have a link with that soundsystem culture.

Cris: Vinyl is the way dub music has always been communicated to me. It's the right place for a lot of the music we're influenced by. What can be achieved on vinyl, just seems a bit more tangible. We've done a few gigs with just a laptop and it doesn't seem very honest, and also the sound that comes out maybe isn't as full as we would hope. So getting on to vinyl is more true to the sound we're kind of listening to. I'm definitely from an age where CDs, MP3s and tapes were what I was listening when I was growing up. But more recently, while I've been getting into production and writing music, I've also been discovering the sound capacity that vinyl has to hold. It may be a better and also a timeless way, a lot more true to dub music I'm influenced by. So I've got to respect that in a way.

You've done an exclusive mix for Radio Student. How did you record it and what's the message behind it?

Amos: I did it on my computer. I think I was sort of trying to do bit of an unconventional mix, a mix that I would like to listen to if I was listening to a mix. A lot of the time people seem to stick to one genre or make it easy for themselves, but if I was listening to it, I'd like a bit of variety.

More info at:



Soundcloud


Bandcamp


Tumblr


Facebook


MySpace


Discogs

Young Echo Crew


Young Echo feature on Juno





Tracklist:

01. El Kid - 01

02. El Kid & REI - Radial Sheaves

03. Raz Mesinai's Badawi - Market Place

04. Andre 'Suku' Gray - Sign Rhythm

05. Kahn - Intention

06. Pale Sketcher - Wash It All Away (King Midas Sound Remix)

07. Muslimgauze - Ultra Orthodox, And No Cheating

08. Ossia - Last Efforts

09. Scientist - Ghost Of Frankenstein

10. Tommy McCook & The Supersonics - Stupid Doctor

11. Delroy Williams - Think Twice

12. Lingam Cutter - Kickermorphose

13. El Kid - Under (In Ripples)

14. 2562 - Greyscale

15. Eleven Tigers - Stableface (Peverelist Remix)

16. Kahn - Dread

17. Zhou - Locust Dub

18. Zhou - I Remain

19. Kahn - Way Mi Defend

20. Ekoplekz - Stahlman Gas

21. Aardvarck - 1ne

22. 2562 - Channel Two

23. Zhou - Noboru

24. El Kid - Snow Amnesia

25. Baba Yaga - Rainbows

26. Sam Kidel - Serra





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