Dubbel Dutch will be in his native Texas this Friday alongside Prince William and Bok Bok. They even have a nuts promo video here.

Melé’s Starlight EP just dropped this week on Mixpak and has already made its way to the top of the Juno chart! As you may have noticed, it’s a departure from his usual productions and is heavily influenced by techno, rap and early house. We asked him to name five tunes that influenced the record:

Lloyd Banks – Start It Up

I basically listened to this record non stop for about a month when i heard it, still listen to it a lot now! The producer Cardiak has been a huge influence on my sound in the last few months, especially tracks like Lego!

Erol Alkan & Boys Noize – Death Suite

Always been a massive fan of Erol and Boys Noize, I’ve really been going back to and playing a few of there things lately. I tried to capture a lot of the driving stuff they play in their sets in Starlight Express.

Bok Bok – Silo Pass

His Southside EP is by far one of my favourite things to come out this year, Silo Pass is everything I love about grime but somewhere in the future, dope!

Lunice – The Name Dunnit

Lunice is basically my favourite person in this thing right now, his music and his live sets a killing it! Another one that’s been influencing my new stuff heavily.

Joey Beltram – Game Form

The music speaks for itself!

Brodinski’s latest curated project, “The Best of Everything, Volume 2″ is exactly that – a compilation that throws underground dance music allstars against the best r&b and hip hop of the last two decades. There are myriad highlights (Renaissance Man remixing Lil Wayne?! I almost died), but one of the standout tracks is the grimey Bok Bok redux of Lil Scrappy’s recent Mixpak single.

Bok Bok turns Lil Scrappy’s “grown ass man rapping” into a cough syrup injected drawl where you can almost hear Scrappy’s gold teeth clacking together nervously in between lines, ready to run off somewhere.

Be sure to grab the whole release, as Bok Bok, Brenmar, Dubbel Dutch, French Fries, J-Wow, Nguzunguzu, Renaissance Man Wildlife! and more throw down spectacular versions of your favorite hip hop guilty pleasures.

Grab it here:
Lil Scrappy- Look At Me (Bok Bok Remix)

Another forthcoming scorcher from the Night Slugs camp.

Girl Unit – Wut

The only thing that’s nicer than the  that funky looking t-shirt is this new “Stag & Dagger” mix that Bok Bok just dropped on the blogosphere.

Much like following a long dark winding tunnel down into an alternate universe where everything is a thousand times grimier, this mix is both surreal and recognizable at the same time-  there’s a cast of recognizable Night Slugs crew showcased within, but all new traxx. It also finishes on an exceptional high note with a brand new Kingdom edit and a mind altering Girl U.N.I.T jam, one of the best things I’ve heard in months.

Bok Bok – Stag & Dagger Mix (Sendspace Link)

Tracklist:

Floating Points- Shark Chase
DJ Eastwood – U Ain’t Ready 2010 (Bok Bok Special)
Lil Silva- No Hooks
T Williams- In The Deep
Dva – New World Order
Lil Silva – Against Yaself
Altered Natives – The B*tch
Egyptrixx – Untitled
Tony Senghore – If You Came Here (L-Vis 1990 Vumpy Remix)
Dowee – Enigmatic
C.R.S.T – Dance (Mosca Remix)
Girl Unit – Shade On
Silkie – Unorthodox Daughter (Kingdom Edit)
Girl Unit – Wut

I once bumped into Egyptrixx as I was getting off the subway on my way to a tutoring job. Recognizing him immediately as the disobedient-dubstep-turned-global-gutter-house DJ hailing from Toronto, I quickly tried to think of something nice I could fit into the two second time period before he passed me and got on the subway. Nothing came, sadly. However, a few months later, I got in touch with him through Mixpak to talk about his eclectic connections to music, Night Slugs, pho, overwrought heavy metal, grad school, and breaking down barriers in dance music.

2010 has already been a notable breakout year for Egyptrixx with the release of an outstanding EP, “The Battle For North America“, and all indications show that he’s just beginning to pick up steam.

Interview by Brendan Arnott (my text in bold)

Untold, who you recently played with here in Toronto, said something I really like: “I hope dubstep continues to be hard to pin down, disobeys its manifesto, gets called stupid names, gatecrashes other scenes, and spikes the punch, elopes, and has lots of children”.  Do you feel similarly about your own music?

Egyptrixx: Haha, yes absolutely. What a great quote.

It’s quite comparatively easy and cheap to make electronic/club music right now.  The software is cheap if you decide to pay for it at all, the distribution methods are largely digital and similarly cheap. These are pragmatic excuses to be experimental, of course there are intellectual reasons as well. It’s amusing to me that everything beyond the traditional guitar/bass/drums/piano configuration is considered experimental or electronic, because even those amplified instruments were considered alien and experimental in the 60′s when they first started popping up. Sonic experimentation is as much a part of making music as coming up with a clever way to say “I love my girlfriend, it sucked when she dumped me”.

Wow, that’s an excellent analogy.

Thanks!

When you talk about intellectual reasons to be experimental, I read that you’re finishing a graduate program now, correct? What have you been studying, and do you feel like your education informs the way you look at making music?

I just finished a Master’s degree in journalism, before that I studied neuroscience. That’s an interesting question, maybe school influenced my music in the process… how to start with an idea and end with a product. I’ve probably become a better songwriter since going to J school… more impoverished, anyway.

You’ve also been changing the way that you perform music live lately – I caught your live PA debut at Wrongbar a little while back, which sounded great. Can you talk a bit about how your live show has changed recently?

Well, when I started this project (basically out of boredom) two years ago, the intention was never to do the DJ/Producer thing. It only remained that way for so long because I was in school and touring, so I didn’t have enough time to really develop a live set. Being a DJ comes with different responsibilities/expectations, and basically, I just find a “live” set more fun, expressive and personal. It’s totally a work in progress.

The vocalist “Starving yet Full” from Azari & III was doing some vocals overtop that night… are there any plans to ever “formally” collaborate with vocalists?

Oh yeah, that was so cool. I’m working on an LP right now, there will be a few guest vocalists on it.

This is the LP that you’ve called a “vague tribute” to your Irish great grandmother?

Haha, yea.

Sometimes it feels like there’s an unspoken dichotomy in subject matter here in Canada where you can’t really write an electronic album about anything except something “dark & sexy”, y’know? Meanwhile,  other Canadians like Owen Pallet are making indie music coming from a “traditionally Canadian” farmer aesthetic… and because it’s indie it can kind of talk about whatever it wants without criticism, where dance music can’t. What are your thoughts on that?

Man, I could talk to you all day about my beef with how electronic music is covered by the Canadian music media…LOL.

In short:
(1) Almost all music is made with keyboards/midi/DAWs, so deal with that.
(2) Electronic music or music with a synthesized palette (however you want to define it) is/can be serious music too.

I agree with your sentiments, we’ve got a long way to go… but onto the next question.

Haha, yes…let’s not dwell.

You once called club music “participatory and democratic” in an interview, in the sense that it takes a whole room full of people to made a mood & establish a feeling. I like that idea a lot, and there’s a track on “The Battle for North America” that I really love called “Drive U Crazy” which is not only maybe your most pop-friendly and accessible track (in my opinion) but it’s also talking about “bringing back that feeling… that feeling that’s been gone for way too long…” This may seem like a daunting question, but… how can we bring back the groove, Egyptrixx?

Thanks! Ummm, well I’m not really advocating ‘bringing something back’, I think everything is in place to create something new. What I like about club music (like you said before) is that it (along with the right people and setting) can really provide powerful moments, euphoria or whatever.  It’s a very visceral style of music. I think if you present club music properly it can be very powerful. I’m not trying to sound nostalgic in that track. I didn’t even go to raves “back in the day”.

It seems like you’re suggesting that there might be something a bit dangerous about longing for that “return to a better time”, which I guess when you look at the way some of this “nu-disco” stuff stagnates pretty quickly, is understandable.

Absolutely, that sentiment seems disdainful of progress to me, like whiney grandparents. I’m happy to be making music right now, it seems like an exciting time.

I agree! It’s funny too, because there are also some changes that are a bit strange…  like the way that “mainstream dubstep” seems to be enjoying a big explosion of success right now. Can you ever imagine a future where that was taken one step further, and Night Slugs family & Egyptrixx were blaring in Ibiza? I mean, it seemed like there was a point where thinking about “dubstep” and commercial success in the same sentence was ridiculous.

Haha true, you can put the right acapella over top of anything and sell it to rich Californians…Well,  “dubstep” has come a long way…
…

As for the Night Slugs family, I think the sky is the limit really. It’s a group of really interesting musicians from completely different backgrounds. I’m excited to see what happens…

Your new forthcoming EP “The Only Way Up” is the next Night Slugs release- did anyone’s remix (Kingdom, Ikonika, Cubic Zirconia) really surprise you?

They’re all so good, I especially loved Cubic Zirconia’s, which they flipped into this really futuristic funk/boogie song. Tiombe (their lead singer) is a total superstar.

What can you tell me about Africa, the pre-Egyptrixx group?

Oh, Africa never really graduated past the basement stage. It was almost a pretty cool drone project, then it was nothing… yea, I actually have a new band right now, we’re just writing and recording some new material.

I mention it because through twitter, I see a lot of influence from noise stuff like Suicide and AIDS Wolf. I was wondering if you had anything that you’d personally define as a guilty pleasure.

Ummmmm….. I’m a real sucker for overwrought black metal. Also, I love Lady Gaga, but i dont know I would call either a guilty pleasure.

Have you ever watched Metalocalypse? It’s amazing for overwrought death metal vibes.

Haha absolutely, it’s so funny. My brother and I were “metalheads” in our tweens/teens, I think a lot of the satire in that show is so dead-on.  And the Dethklok music is legitmately good… Mermaider!!

What do you think labels need to do in 2010 to survive?

Well, it would be great to see labels start to really take advantage of the malleability of digital content, there really are endless possibilites. Splits, multimedia releases, formats beyond LP/EP- also, there is so much music being released constantly. Maybe finding the right balance between quanity/quality is key. I think the pressure is on the labels to prime the consumer sufficiently, instead of just drowning them with content.

Final question- Where can you get the best pho in Toronto? What are some of your choice dining places here?

Oh wow, GOOD QUESTION. Well, I’ve just recently been told by a reliable source that the best pho in Toronto is “Kim Asia”  (I believe it’s called) on St. Andrew. The Pho Hung on Spadina is a safe bet, although Pho Pasteur right around the corner is much greasier and more indulgent. But, i moved to brockton recently, so I frequent Phoenix now, at College and Sheridan.

Wow. Title for this interview is going to be…. Egyptrixx: Serious about his Pho.

TRUTH. Can I ask you a favor?

Sure thing.

Can you not use any “TRIXX” puns in your title? Like “Back to his old TRIXX”

Hahah, oh my God, no worries.

THANK YOU!

The debut release from French producer French Fries is out now on Young Gunz and it’s a big EP with massive originals and proper remixes from Bok Bok, Tomb Crew, and Beataucue. We hired French Fries to do a remix for a still secret, upcoming release on Mixpak and we promise it’s a BIG remix! In the meantime, support good music and purchase this EP on Beatport.

It is 2010, bloggers and music fans have no idea how to describe anything anymore, and UK based Deejay Mosca sure isn’t making it easy. While Dan Hancox of the Guardian says that his music inpsires “a sense of epic grandeur befitting global house, shuddering dub echoes straight from Jamaica, Latino percussion and still undeniably UK”, I am still somewhat in the dark about what exactly comprises the hybrid sound that Mosca is putting forth in his Night Slugs Label debut “Square One EP”. I caught up with Mosca to talk about “ethno techno”, q-tips and the future of pirate radio over Gmail chat, here are the results.

Interview by Brendan Arnott, my text in bold.

Mixpak: A lot of people are gaining awareness of who you are through your debut release on the new Night Slugs label, but what have you been doing prior to this release? Can you talk about your origins in making this kind of ‘genre destroying’ music?

Mosca: I did a remix of Tempz’s “Next Hype” about a year ago, a kinda Baltimore rub with those UK funky strings off reason. I put that up on my blog and it got played on Rinse.FM and a few other places. So some guys called Kry Wolf got in touch and asked for a B-more remix of one of their first tunes, their first release on their new label called Sounds of Sumo. The tune that got put out was called “Mucky”. So that was my debut I guess, but not an original production.

So you started off as a producer before you were making the transition to DJing at clubs?

Yeah, definitely. I started with drum machines when i was about 15, I was in a band with Unknown Soulja and we didn’t have a drummer so got a drum machine, then started making jungle and hip hop and experimental stuff.  I got into DJing at University, about five years ago, but the production thing has meant way more bookings.

When you talk abut your earlier sounds being jungle and hip hop influenced, I can definitely hear bits and pieces of  that in your EP now. It feels like everyone is describing it differently – I’ve heard “global house”, “genre-destroying, UK crossover nu-skool. Does it get exhausting trying to explain your sound?

I think it will! But I brought it upon myself really. I like to play alot of different stuff and so I don’t want to leave anything out when I produce. I used to do some kinda trip-hop stuff as well for the band, so I guess that’s where some of the moodiness comes from… or melancholy, or whatever you want to call it.

Yeah, one of the coolest surprises when listening to the Square One EP is that there’s even some dubby dancehall vocals in the background, I was happy to hear those.

Dub was my first love really, because you could get it for £4 in record shops, back when you couldn’t just download everything. But yeah, I’m mad into bashment, wish everyone else was.

It does feel like this EP, and the whole Night Slugs crew are really pushing a new sound into clubs though, do you feel like this a breakout time for the sound, or do you want it to stay kind of underground?

That depends on what “the sound” is. I don’t think I sound anything like Bok Bok for example, but yeah, I’m going to say that I would like to see it grow. I played Fabric last night which is a big step up for me, and that was hectic. But I can never see it going top 40 or anything… hopefully I’m safe saying that.

I hear you have a funny twitter related Fabric story.

Haha yeah, I wrote a twitter/facebook message jokingly saying come and ask me if  I’ve got any drum’n'bass. One guy did. I laughed and assumed he’d read the post… but not sure actually! Must have looked like a cunt if he hadn’t.

Well, you are Fabric status now, maybe that means you can laugh in the face of people who make requests?

Nah mate, keep it humble. That’s the key. You’ll put people off music otherwise. But back to the question about the sound we’re putting out. I think that this sound is just kinda of post funky,  which is obviously a UK thing… but really what is it? Just a take on house which is so global its ridiculous. So you’ve got kuduro, etc  which is stripped down, just rugged house.  And so I think that internationalism could mean that the sound will carry. I have a mate Douster from Lyon in France doing that kinda thing…

Ah, which leads us nicely into our next question. The Guardian just wrote an article about a genre they’re calling “ethno-techno” and they’re kind of ragging on it. Matias Aguayo is at least, he has a quote that says  “It doesn’t seem very ‘free’ to me. Adding a few congas and a ‘Latino’ vocal does not reflect a willingness to learn from other cultures.”  Just curious what you think about it?

He has a point,  and I like people that think about music in wider terms. And what he’s describing is not very free, it’s true. But people in East London weren’t very free when they were making sinogrime or whatever. I think he lumps the whole western society together at the expense of standing up for individuals in the ‘third world’.

Sinogrime? what’s that?

(In response to my question, Mosca shows me THIS LINK and also THIS ONE)

It’s basically all these Chinese samples in grime music. Nobody’s from China here though… wait, Mr Wong actually is. Whatever happened to him? Anyway, it doesn’t feel right I know, having these preset congas and I have respect for people who have respect for history and tradition in music. But at the end of the day we’re free to do what the fuck we like. If kuduro or baile funk can rob off ‘western culture’, then why not the other way round? It smacks of positive discrimination.

Douster is remixing Gucci Mane… the possibilities are endless.

He’s a good lad (Douster), I saw him over New Years. He’s already got stuff out on ZZK Records, who incidentally have a lot of respect for ‘world music’ – proper world music (traditional cumbia, etc.)  So it’s funny.

You’ve got a big remix package on your EP (Greena, Julio Bashmore, Bok Bok, L-Vis 1990) – whose remix surprised you the most?

Bok Bok’s,  hands down.

Do you ever think: “Damn, I didn’t know that something I made could sound like that”

Definitely.  Roska’s is maybe my favourite, just because… well, he’s Roska. But its not like he surprised me with it. But Bok Bok’s is ridiculous.

It feels like Ustream sessions are bringing back the ‘live DJing’ element of music even for people who can’t be there at a show. Do you feel like it’s taking things in a positive direction for artist getting live music out online? It feels kind of like the new pirate radio.

I love ‘em, even though it seems some people just come into the chat to hijack it! Definitely feels like pirate radio, with all the luxuries of your yard.

Especially because usually the only warning for it as well is a twitter message being like “MOSCA, Live set on Ustream, nowww!”

“Drop what ur doing!”  Yeah, its still a bit cliquey though. Only people following you on twitter really get a chance to see it.

What’s 2010 going to look like for you after this EP?

Well, I’ve got “Gold Bricks, I See You” coming out on the 18th on the Fabric Elevator Music compilation, and I’ve been speaking to a few people about more releases. I work SLLLLLOOOOOOWWWW though. I make chopped and screwed sound like gabba, but i like to take my time on a record. Put blood sweat and tears in, you know. Delete half of it, change the whole ting. Man, Nike took me at least 7 months.

Just release the deleted versions as “VIP dubs” eight months later?

Haha. I’m going to work with R1 Ryders, and other than that i just want to put out singles and play clubs. Standard. I’m not fussed about an album, even though people are saying my style would suit that.

It doesn’t seem ‘the natural thing to do’ anymore.

Nah. So 2010:  Some collaborations,  and remixes, and hopefully try and work faster.

A final question for you is: name 3 guilty pleasures.

I like cleaning my ears with those earbud things, pushing it right in, but apparently its really bad for you. Damages your hearing and all that.

Yeah, it pushes the earwax back into your brain or something. Dangerous.

But I still do it every now and again. I’m trying to cut down. Other than that I don’t feel guilty about anything.. it’s all pleasure, bitch!

Thanks to Mosca for the interview.

The “Square One EP” (NS001) is out on the 25th of Jan 2010 at your usual mp3 stores with a limited 12″ doing the rounds around the same time. The 8-track-deep digi EP features the title track, already a dubplate anthem of 2009 and a bastion of genre-destroying UK Club. The B-side is Mosca’s “Nike”, a 10-minute masterpiece:  Buy it on Boomkat!

The talented Pomp&Clout follow up their excellent work on the glitched out, grainy VCR tape “Jeffer” video with the beautifully trippy Dre Skull synth pop track “I Want You.” What starts off as a laid back karaoke-style cruise down the Vegas strip (if Las Vegas collided with Tron in space) turns into a ravey, visually gorgeous acid trip complete with gigantic casette tapes and sunglasses flying through the air.

The “I Want You” single with remixes from Bobmo, Bok Bok, AC Slater, Alex Gopher and Dre Skull can now be purchased on iTunes, and if you haven’t checked out the white vinyl Bok Bok VIP remix of “I Want You”, it just came back in stock at Boomkat. Huzzah!

Alex Sushon, AKA Bok Bok, is on fire these days. Between DJing London’s East Village excellent Night Slugs parties, blogging at Lower End Spasm,  hosting a radio show on Sub FM, producing some of 2009′s freshest music, doing graphic design work for Fact Magazine, L-Vis 1990′s “United Groove” EP, and getting praised in Dazed & Confused’s New Media Top 50 piece, it’s safe to say that 2009 has been a pretty massive year. It’s also understandable that Bok Bok was taking a vacation in his hometown of Odessa, Ukraine when I got hold of him, where I  had the opportunity to chat with him about sincerity, his recent remix for Mixpak Records (which you can purchase here), post-DJing snacks, the downfall of grime, “synth ecstasy,” The-Dream and his video design work for Simian Mobile Disco.

Exclusive interview for the Mixpak Blog by Brendan Arnott (my text in bold).

Also, peep one of Bok Bok’s favourite mixes that did for LuckyMe!

Bok Bok – Manara’s Golden Fleece Mix for LuckyMe (tracklist here)

Brendan: Your Night Slugs  parties sound like they’ve been continually successful,  I’m curious about what sort of things are important to you when you’re organizing this kind of night?

Bok Bok: Well, what I really wanted to do with night slugs was make a fun accessible party for people that DIDN’T compromise on music, that’s to put it simply. It’s really a dance / club music party that’s frameworked by the UK soundsystem heritage, so what’s important to me is – good, heavy but CLEAR and bass-heavy sound, a really cutting edge music policy that’s still fun, and stuff that makes people focus on what’s happening in the club, the sound and the dancing, and bond together over it and have some shared experience. Stuff like having a host on the mic, and rewinding tracks, all that stuff helps people focus on what’s going on.

It seems like there’s a lot of collaboration and friendship at the root of the parties, which I imagine makes for a really productive atmosphere. In addition to DJing on your own, you also DJ with fellow South East Londoner Manara, and you’ve collaborating with L-Vis 1990 on the Crazy Cousinz “Bongo Jam” joint which is receiving some major support and love from blogs. What other collaborations do you have in the works for 2009 and beyond?

Oh man I dunno yet! Firstly I have to say this: me and L-Vis 1990 is a long-standing collabo. We DJ b2b (back to back, this is like 2 or 3 tracks each and then pass the headphones) all the time, and will be working on more tracks together. We’ve also got a split Night Slugs EP coming in August on the mighty DRESS 2 SWEAT label. But really i love DJing with other people, it creates a really fun interesting dynamic where you play off what the other person does. It’s a very creative process, b2b. I always try to get people to come on my radio show and play b2b, Some of my favourite people to do it with are Oneman and Ben UFO, they have pretty similar tastes but also bring a lot of their own personality to the mix, and push and pull the selection in different ways. I just did a radio set b2b with Kingdom while he was over here, it was amazing. Audio gonna be up for that v soon. ):

I know you’ve used the term “grimey house” to describe yourself at one point, but I also know that the music you’re making right now seems like a convergence of a ton of different genres, to the point where it seems like trying to slot it into a certain genre, or create a certain name for it is kinda useless – do you have any problems with people who might try and pinpoint your sound with a new catch phrase?

oh shit

You can feel free to say “pass” as well…

No no, this is a good question.

Well “grimey house” was kinda early on, like my favourite music of all time is grime circa 2003-4-5… it had moments when it would go all 4×4 but the house structure never felt quite right in grime and at first what I was doing was combining that grimey sound pallete with 4×4 beats. I guess I’m still doing that now sort of but also it’s a lot different to my early stuff. I’m really wary of giving it a name because it’s definitely a hybrid sound and I’m a big believer in individual innovation within a genre framework.

Let’s say that genre is house/bass/post-grime-dubstep whatever. But that’s why we put gutter house heavy bass on our flyers, those are fake genres and vague signifiers for how the night feels rather than  what we play exactly. The way ideas spread virally now in such a short time I feel genre definitions are a bit limiting.

Let’s see if anyone can come up with a good name for what me and L-Vis are doing…

Free Mixpak EPs for anyone who nails it!!! (just kidding)

hahaha let’s goooo!!!

Speaking of genres, I’ve heard that when you were younger you were primarily a grime DJ- not sure if you’ve heard it yet, but I just listened to Skepta and Tinchy Stryder’s “Ed Hardy Party” and tears started streaming down my face, I couldn’t help but feel like grime was hurdling into a watered-down mainstream and getting kind of lost from its roots. How you feel about the state of grime right now?

Yeah man, I started off just playing grime and 8bar type stuff. Mostly instrumentals, all white labels, and yeah grime has DEFINITELY gone in a direction I’m not into. There’s a lot of reasons for that, mainly that there wasn’t really an infrastructure for it as a club music…it’s gone down a kind of us rap route of MC personalities, mix CDs and stuff like that. I was more into it when it was all riddims on white label 12″ and off-the-wall club bangers. It started going that way too and dubstep went a way i didn’t like as well, that’s what got me playing other stuff in the first place- like house, bmore, 4×4 etc.

Earlier on you were talking a bit about how music is spread virally a lot these days, and I feel like your popularity is coming at a time that’s coinciding with a ton of big changes in the way that music gets promoted, sold and sent out into the world – how do you feel about the move of ‘the music industry’ (whatever that means) from albums and vinyl to a digital, internet based medium?

I mean I’m sort of in two minds about it, because I’m really into vinyl! I play all my upfront ‘dubplate’ material off Serato now as a vinyl proxy, and also try and play real vinyl as much as possible too, even though I’m finding more and more that clubs don’t maintain their capacity for vinyl and often it sounds like shit compared to digital media.

But also, it’s a good thing in that music is super accessible now, and if you want to put something out you’re not limited to short run pressings that sell out fast like in the old days, you can just do a release and everyone who wants it can get it.

For example, Night Slugs is about to launch as a label. We’ve got great things planned, and we wouldn’t be able to do any of it if it wasn’t for digital distribution. Also certain blogs have showed us a lot of love (shouts to discobelle, bap bap), and that’s a big deal for us and i really think blogs are a great thing that have the capacity to take our localized little music scene and make it much bigger.

Yeah, your mixtapes stand out as another example of how digital media helps grab people’s attention – you’ve made a ton of really diverse mixes for a whole slew of blogs and magazines all over the map. Any favourites?

My favourite mixtape was my latest one for my friends LuckyMe up in Glasgow. I love their whole aesthetic, its really honed! They’re a strong team. What I tried to do with it was take a load of quite diverse music and link it all together through certain non-linear similarities they have in audio and emotional palette. I dunno, I don’t like genre names at the moment. The stuff on there has all got these exquisite uplifting synths, that’s what kind of holds it together. I’m trying to chase a certain sound … I’m not sure how to describe it. I dunno why but the word ‘celestial’ keeps coming to my mind lately. It’s a kind of synth ecstacy sound I guess.

On your blog Lower End Spasm, you talk about how there’s a lot of  of “purism, irony, confusion, pretentiousness  & narrow-mindedness” in some London clubs.  Do you feel like sincerity is something that’s somewhat lacking from the scene lately?

Yeah, sincerity and authenticity is a big deal for me, it might seem a bit cliched but… yea ! it is. Some anthropologist say that the hunt for authenticity is a painfully middle class pursuit, but I feel like I’ve had enough of people hijacking localized musics and “reinterpreting” them only to draw all the attention away from the originators.

In my view the key to righteous representation is to:
a) Only drop it if you mean it and
b) Keep the originators involved

I feel like this relates to you talking about destigmatising the music that you play- what does this mean and why it’s important?

I don’t wanna come across as angsty about all of this stuff, because since i was talking about the stigma attached to urban music, things have got much better, people have to much more open minded and the music itself has developed into something much more open, and with a genuine global following. The stigma thing I guess is about keeping an open mind, trying not to set yourselves any dogmatic rules where you’re like “ok if its got this sort of sound in it, or if it comes from this sort of scene, I won’t touch it”

But like I say this problem has really started to correct itself now ! So I’m happy.

Yeah, I feel like the Mixpak collaboration with Sizzla was a move in the right direction when it comes to breaking down genre barriers.

Yeah TOTALLY, Mixpak is doing great things and getting really good people involved. I love what Dre [Skull] is doing.

Who would you like to see Mixpak do a release with?

Hmmm let me think…  I’d love to see Mixpak get some really strange people on the some remixes, like say The Dream (if Dre can one day afford or somehow convince him!!!!) or someone from grime or funky. That’s a bit random, but I mean I love the idiosyncratic nature of the label so far, things like working with Sissy Nobby and Sizzla. I want to see those kind of collaborations continue and I’m sure they will.

Oh wow, the day that the Dream remixes Dre Skull my head will explode.

Seriously, right?

Speaking of remixing, the internet seems to be in love with your Dre Skull remix ( It’s been charted on Grindin’ this month, messageboards seem to mutually declare it a winner, Fake Blood gave you some big props).  How you feel about it?

I’m amazed by the good response to it!! I think its a great thing. I suspect its because its a little different to what’s out there right now, it definitely sounds like night slugs, and I HOPE that it means people are hungry for that sound!

Now in addition to DJing and making music, I know you’re also responsible for a lot of graphic design work as well, and now you’ve also stepped out into the foray of video design too – people might not know that you recently co-directed the Simian Mobile Disco videos for “Synthesise” and “10,000 Horses Can’t Be Wrong” with Kate Moross. They both look beautiful, can you talk a bit about the process of making them?

Video is something i dabble in only occasionally, but yeah!! Those videos were amazing fun. The process was like this: Actually it was a lot like doing a remix for a track. We got stems of the tracks from the band, cut them up into little loops after analyzing the tracks’ overall structure and what they sort of “did” in each section.

We then put each little segment or loop or event into Ableton live, and created accompanying animations for each clip using very simple 2d black & white elements. Next, we used Ableton to cut up and arrange those animations in time to the music. We then rented this space, an amazing warehouse in Peckham, South East London, called Area10, and
projected the composite animations into the space, affecting the footage live in the space with various sets of lights, and filmed it all, then back in the studio once again cut up the footage in time to the tracks. Viola!

That’s insane. no wonder it looks so good. Any idea why Kate Moross was so into circles for it?

She’s more of a triangle gal, circles was somehow just theme for the SMD stuff. We’re not sure why !

Last question. DJing is hard work. One gets very hungry doing it. Favourite post-DJ meal?

HOLY SHIT, you’ve opened a can of worms. Favourite pre- night slugs meal – VIETNAMESE PORK & RICE NOODLES, no doubt. Post DJing … IF we eat and we’re in London probably milkshakes at this one diner that will liquify any chocolate bar into a shake for you. Yep ill go with that.

Wow, that’s ridiculous, we have nothing like that where I am in Canada…

hahaha right !? It’s kind of an amazing rarity.

Thanks to Bok Bok for the interview.

Check out his Myspace, the Night Slugs’ Myspace and be sure to check for his recent remix of Dre Skull’s “I Want You” out now on Mixpak Records.