The new Birmingham-based Chronos Records imprint burst into existence with their eight-track Screwface EP going straight to number one in the Juno dubstep download chart.

Plundering the grimey depths of dubstep, they are intent on pushing their explosive sound to its limits. With their second release just hitting the shops as we speak and a whole lot more in the pipeline, we caught up with them to get the lowdown.

They have also been generous enough to give away not one, not two, but THREE free tracks which you can download after the jump. Boom!

Can you briefly introduce yourself?

G: George and Ant aka Lawless and Prime. I've been living in Brum for about four years now. Pulled Ant up from Cornwall where we'd grown up knowing each other. We got to know each other through DJing drum & bass and started mixing together when we sussed our tastes and style of mixing were really similar.

We'd heard a lot of dubstep coming through the rave scene and it really started to appeal to us once it moved a bit further away from its dubby roots (sorry to all you old school dub heads) and into a more filthy zone.

I can remember the day when I took my laptop upstairs in my house with a new dubstep tune on it and just saw Ant's face screw up like a cat's arse. That's when we started mixing dubstep.

Why did you decide to set up the label?

A: George and I had been following all the artists on our label way before we had even thought about Chronos. One day George was talking to one of the artists trying to give him advice on how to get signed and push his music further when a friend suggested we started a label.

It then dawned on us that none of the artists we were following and supporting when we played out were signed. We loved the quality of the filth these guys were sending us to play out so we wanted the rest of the world to get a slice of it too.

What kind of sounds did you set up the label to push?

G: Well we've DJed for years now and have always loved pushing the grimey tunes. The guys we've signed are all artists whose tunes we love playing. Whatever makes us grin / frown the most is where we like to send things forward. We've tried picking artists who are all doing their own thing, which is becoming progressively more difficult at the scene gets bigger.

How has the first release gone down?

A: The first release we put out was an eight track EP showcasing all the Chronos artists entitled Screwface EP, we put it out just to test the waters really and to our delight it hit number one on the Juno dubstep download chart in days and then hit number three in the overall Juno chart.

The people to thank for all of this are our artists for doing such an amazing job and providing us with some awesome music, everybody who has bought the EP and is supporting the scene and all the guys who have been playing out Chronos tracks to packed clubs across the globe.

G: The success of the first release has really set us up nicely. People are expecting big things now and they're going to get them.

What have you got forthcoming on the label?

A: We've all seen a lot of movement from DnB producers to dubstep and vice versa which has ended up spawning drumstep. Seeing how well it's gone down some of the artists have been having a crack at it and two of the tracks that came through really blew us away.

Off the back of that the next release is a Drumstep EP (Diesel - Panic Attack and Dr Philth - No Fuss) out now on vinyl and digital from all major outlets. Following that we've got a massive couple of tunes coming from Dayn (Dayn - Bone Breaker and Dayn - Rockin Alive). You can expect some new material from some new artists around this time hopefully as well.

How does the A&R process for the label working and how do you decide what you are going to release?

G: Thankfully me and Ant have a very similar taste in music otherwise we wouldn't have been able to DJ together for so many years. We do have slightly different tastes in some areas, which helps keep the music fresh and interesting.

Apart from searching around to see if we can find anything fresh we're always interested in hearing new material from outside artists and both get a lot of contact from up-and-coming producers.

Anything that we like we bounce off each other and then get back to the producer with what we're thinking and whether it's really geared towards what we're looking for. As we play out a lot it gives us a good opportunity to see what's going down the best, making people pull faces and dance like rabid apes, so we can get a good picture from there with our own artists which tunes we think are best to release next.

The main issue is trying to pick stuff that's individual out of a pile of stuff that sounds so samey. It's piss easy to produce today and people are lazy so 90% of stuff you hear sounds just like every other tune.

Have you got any new artists that you are keeping your eye on?

G: Ha ha. Yeah, we've got a few who we're keeping our eye on. A few producers from the US and a big bunch from Europe. There are about ten guys at the moment who we are really interested in hearing all their new tunes. All very close to hitting the mark with what we're looking for. Stay tuned, there's definitely going to be an expansion to the Chronos roster this year!


Download Vermin's Chemical, Diesel - Randajad and Dr Philth's Mrs Blackbird for free!

 

Vermin-Help me by CHRONOS RECORDS

Related Links:

• Juno Launch Two New Podcasts
• Eptic Interview
• Introducing: Dayn
• DZ Guest Mix
• The Anthology Of Rap

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