Give Em Props: DJ Vengeance

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Vengeance

Please introduce yourself

I'm DJ Vengeance aka B-Rone. My real name is Byron Townshend and I began mixing drum & bass in 1998. In 2004 I won Finest DJ in the East 2004 at the Young Musician of the East Awards and Goldie judged this competition.

Bookings began rolling in after this and I played big Norwich Nights such as Rumble and Bounce. Winning the award also took me to London where I played at MC MC's leaving party at Camden palace. After this I began concentrating on producing drum & bass.

Can you describe your sound?

I make upfront d&b and my main influences within the scene are artists like Mampi Swift, Dillinja and Doc Scott. I try and make my tracks sound epic and tell a story in some way.

The overall sound that I'm pushing just now is what I like to call 'dirty horror', which is a mixture of dark jump-up with a horror twist. Most of the tracks I'm currently producing are inspired by classic 80s video nasties such as Braindead and Evil Dead. Zombie style samples seem like a good theme to go for an underground producer.

Tell us more about your new labels

Digital Vengeance is a download label while Vengeance Recordings is an outlet for my productions on vinyl and may also feature some collaborations in the near future.

I set the labels up to have a reliable way to push my tracks while they are still fresh. In the past I've found myself being put on the back burner with some of my tracks because I wasn't a big name, so wanted to have control and setting up my own imprint seemed the logical think to do. My other label Digital Cutting Edge Soundz is on its seventh release.

Who is involved with running it?

I am a one-man band so to speak. I produce the music, I do all my own promotion, I design my own artwork / videos and I run two d&b web sites: www.vengeancerecordings.co.uk and www.cuttingedgesoundz.co.uk. My four younger brothers also help out behind the scenes and my brother Olly featured as the voice of the bouncer on my debut release 'Up Yours' released on Deadly Recordings.

What's the concept behind Vengeance Recordings?

Now digital downloading is the main source for a lot of DJs I think you have to offer a little bit more for people to part with their money and buy the hard copy of the tracks. So I'm producing four-track EPs for digital download and then releasing a sampler on record featuring one track from the digital EP and one track exclusive to the plastic cut. I think this will make the vinyl more collectable and more valuable in the long term.

Can you tell us more about your key artists?

On the Digital Cutting Edge Soundz Label the roster includes Flat-T, Mr Explicit, Bad Influence and I've also been collaborating with Bladerunner of Dread Recordings on some tracks which will be dropping on the vinyl label next year.

Forthcoming releases?

No Mercy Rmx / Think Big (Deadly)

Evil Dead EP Part 1: Book Of The Dead (Digital Vengeance)

Anything else you want to tell us about?

I also run a digital dubstep label called Deadstep. I'm on my third release and the whole theme behind the Deadstep sound at the moment is also Evil Dead, so for some more zomb stomping beats and bass from beyond the grave head to www.myspace.com/ukdeadstep

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