CASPA (playing in Mojo)
Caspa grew up in West London, and was brought up on a diet of Jungle & Hip Hop. At the time he wasn’t old enough to go to the Jungle raves so had to be content with his tape packs of Brockie and Det. When garage emerged he naturally progressed into the sound and started attending garage raves.
After an injury which sadly ended his once promosing basketball career, he bought his first pair of decks and started DJ’ing. And after recieveing a free demo copy of Fruity Loops he started to experiment with the idea of building tracks in a computer program and got his first real taste of music production.
Under the name Quiet Storm he made a tune called ‘Bass Bins’ which was picked up by BBC 1xtra’s J Da Flex who showcased on his Underground Knowledge Show in 2003. The next day he recieved a call from DJ Lombardo (the first resident of FWD) who had just started his label Fragile Beats and spoke with him about a possible release of the track he had heard the night before on radio.
Due to unforseen circumstances, the label never blossomed and the track never saw the light of day, but determened not to give up he pursued his ambitions by starting his own label Storming Productions in 2004 and started a weekly radio show on the prolific Rinse FM. With a successful year of working and releasing with artists such as Search & destroy, Dubchild, Toasty Boy, DJ Narrows and Oris Jay the label was well established as one of the dominating labels of the time.
After recieveing a demo from Swedish producers L-Wiz, he decided to start a sister label to Storming called Dub Police, this labels focus was to give platform to up and coming artists and push the newly developing dubstep sound – it was also at this time he had his debut release under the alias of Caspa, after which he had a release on well known dubstep label Tempa (Rubber Chicken), which had been one of the largest tracks of the year and is still regarded by many as an anthem.
With a string of succesful releases from artists such as L-Wiz, N-Type, Rusko, The Others and of course his own productions under the Caspa alias, the label began to grow in to one the dominating labels within the newly formed dubstep genre.
After a number of highly successful releases and remixes, in October 2007, Caspa along with label artist Rusko, were appraoched by Fabric and asked to mix the 37th installment of the legendary FabricLive series, following on from estalished artists like John Peel, Fabio & Grooverider and DJ Craze. This was the first commercially avaliable dubstep compilation and majorly helped bring the genre into the limelight, and for many listeners, it was the first time they were exposed to the music.
In 2008, Caspa joined highly respected artist agency ‘Coda’, this lead to a string of high profile gigs & festival performances such as Glastonbury, Global Gathering, Big Chill and Glade aswell as taking Caspa as far and wide as Isreal, New Zealand, America, Canada and all across Europe and the UK.
Caspa’s recently started sister label to Dub Police; ‘Sub Soldiers’, was now thriving with two installments of the popular ‘Ave It’ series, amongst other huge tracks to come out of the label. It was also at this time that Caspa & Rusko were approached by Lennie De Ice to remix the foundation setting Jungle anthem ‘We I.E.’ which had been one of Caspa’s all time favourite dance tracks. Straight after, Caspa’s highly successful remix of TC’s drum and bass anthem ‘Wheres My Money’, had become one of the biggest dance tracks globally and had grown into one of the biggest crossover tracks of 2008, propelling dubstep to the masses.
Fast foward a year from the release of the FabricLive CD, Caspa and the Dub Police have found their home at Fabric, holding down a bi-monthly night alongside DJ Hype & Pascal’s True Playaz residency at this prestigious nightclub. With an album on the horizon, aswell as other major projects including a mix compilation and a remix for EMI, Caspa shows no signs slowing down, and 2009 is set be the year of the ghost.
Link: Official Website
Record Label: Dub Police
Record Label: Sub Soldiers
GLASS DIAMOND
Glass Diamond is an electronic music duo from Taiwan & U.K. Their music is easily recognized by their heavy use of 8- bit lo -fi electro samples and distorted, full of effect, bizarrely pronounced female vocals. Original music style made from different musicians they met from Myspace. Their performance will definitely make you forget how music should be.
Weblink: http://www.myspace.com/glassdiamondmusic
THEM SQUIRRELS
I was going to start this review with a little paragraph explaining who/what Them Squirrels is, but once the first track of this incredible EP starts playing it’s impossible to think about anything else. Opening with a looping and sinister swell of noise and a gallop of vocals speaking processed gibberish and calling operatically, in a manner similar to – if this means anything to you – the singing just before Maude enters in The Big Lebowski!? Anyway, soon the lead vocals join in and they’re delightfully obtuse and the track moves into a similar kind of territory to such avant-garde acts as Animal Collective, though this joins them at their current point of merging – with consumate skill – the experimental and the pop.
Them Squirrels is the solo project of JT, drummer, co-vocalist and sometime guitar player in Attack + Defend, some of the traits of his other guise are present on Delicate Steps with its sudden changes, scuzzy riffs and repeat-repeat lyrics. JT’s voice though brings a different flavour to the mix, his use of layering as well keeps things softer and generally more melodic than the equally inventive spiky pop-punk he’s usually playing.
You can really hear the Battles on Behind Those Walls which plays glorious tricks with backwards vocals before turning into a psychedelic The Beatles-like trip with glitchy, erratic arrangements. Entirely put together on his own this track is the real showcase for Them Squirrels talents as not only a musician but a producer, crafting something that you can compare to others but still manages to be absolutely unique. For example Pass the Puck sounds like Radiohead but filtered through a crashing computer, played by an asylum and juxtaposed by strangely tender elements such as vibraphone, vocals and some Eastern sounding feedback; all of this over what sounds like a food mixer fighting a vaccum cleaner.
This five-track comes to a close with Out of Sight that sounds like Final Fantasy playing the theme to some The Prisoner-like TV series, all shimmering notes and spooky atmospherics. It echoes back to the first track with an industrialised variation on the once sweet vocals roll, whilst JT himself filters his voice into something similar to a clattering train. The EP ending with all the manic invention and distortion of modern composer Thomas Ades, and that should be some indication of the level of detail and skill put into this absolutely jaw-dropping EP. It’s the kind of record you listen to and can tell how much effort has gone into it, yet it sounds effortless.
Words by Owain Paciuszko for GodIsInTheTv.co.uk
Link: Official Website
Record Label: Shape Records
CAJITA
Cajita makes songs with live instruments, voices and computers, mixing beats and bleeps with trumpets, vocal harmonies, guitars , synths and pianos. He tours a lot and often plays gigs in Europe as well as the UK.
There is a story to how he got the name “Cajita”, but it’s not as interesting as you might hope.
’songwrongtronica genius’ – The Fly
Link: Official Website
Plus
GLOW DJS (IN MEZE)
DJS NEUROPOL, TRUTH, ILL DIDDY, MAGNETA & LUNG (IN MOJO)
For full into regarding the month festival in association with The Joy Collective, see http://www.mezefestival.co.uk
