Features

Jade

Many a producer's journey into drum and bass meanders a similar path; influence from a sibling or friend, late nights and early mornings at raves, or picking up tape packs from the last big event. For Simon Gabor, aka Jade, the need to seek shelter after a sudden downpour in his native Budapest opened his eyes to the exciting genre we all know and love.

"I first encountered drum and bass ten years ago, and it was purely accidental," he states. "We found shelter in a club playing drum and bass. I was already turning towards electronic music; The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers shaped my general idea, but down there in that cellar I felt I'd found something new and exciting!"

Soon after the discovery and buoyed by the experience, Jade began to mix, but he soon realised that productions of his own were required in order to get gigs and conduct the energy he had witnessed in the club: "In the end I was right, soon after my first release, bookings started coming in, and I picked up DJing again."

Idolising the unique sound of Kemal and taking inspirations from producers such as Ed Rush & Optical, Matrix and Future Cut, Jade was on the road and swiftly raking up releases on labels such as Black Sun Empire, Citrus and Cyberfunk. The hugely successful 'Ready EP' on Citrus in 2008 proved to be the springboard Jade required to initiate the process of releasing an album, a task he describes as "the next step".

Jade is honest when pressed on the album's merit as a constructed piece of work and unpretentious in stating its aim to be current, and directed at the dance floor: "I did what I felt like doing at the moment, no preconceptions. In a way it's a collection of tracks, however I don't think it's a bad thing, it truly represents what I've been about for the past years."

The notion of doing things 'at the moment' is explicit when Jade considers tracks of old and his latest productions: "In the beginning I was possessed with sound engineering, I easily spent weeks on polishing a single snare hit. I had a tune on BSE called 'Acid Flood' - that track took me half a year, and over a hundred different mixdowns. Comparatively, 'This Is My World', one of my favourite tunes on the album, only took two or three days!"

Indeed, 'This Is My World' is a highlight of the album, dark and rolling, while 'No Cure' offers tight drum programming with a brilliant driving bass and cheeky vocal cuts to keep the head nodding. Jade manages to create tunes that have a very rich, high quality of production. Dark, industrial and hard hitting, without sounding messy and congested. On remix duty, Jade revisits Black Sun Empire's 'Stasis' while Icicle offers his interpretation of 'This Is My World'.

"Nowadays I spend zero time on mixdowns and mastering, or sound design. Now I think it's part of the music creating, sound design is born with the basic idea of the song. I think you can notice that on the album too, listening to 'Venom' you hear a bright, clean, polished and techy mix, while 'Banshee' has a rough, dirty and distorted sound.

Jade cites 'Venom', the LP's title track, as a tune of real significance and always a high point of his sets. Featuring the vocals of Ryme Tyme, a half step, energy building intro gives way to a monstrous twisted synth-bass that demands attention. A sweeping squeal creates yet more commotion and the vocals are re-introduced to stunning effect, a real killer.

The album features many collaborations and Jade is swift to express the advantages of a companion in the studio: "What I like about working with other people is getting fresh ideas, other points of view, but what I like most is not sitting there alone! Tunes such as 'Banshee' and 'Moblaw' featuring Mindscape and Matt-U contain these external influences to great effect."

'Venom' is the second artist album released by Dutch label Citrus and affirms their stature in neurofunk drum and bass. Jade expresses fondness and gratitude to a label his sound has helped shape and evolve. "Well, I think I am part of the 'Citrus sound', I took my part shaping it by releasing eight tunes over the years, and I am proud of it. I couldn't have found a better label for a debut album, Citrus has the most professional and effective management I have ever encountered."

The opportunity for Jade to design the artwork for the album is also of note, the full audiovisual package brought together by the clearly talented Hungarian.

In support of the album, a hectic DJ schedule has evolved. As well as dates across Europe, Jade has planned a special Oceanic album launch tour. Put to him that there appears to be large similarities between the sounds emanating from Hungary, Australia and New Zealand, Jade concurs, but is just pleased of the fact that Hungary has such a strong scene.

As for the future, Jade points to the bonus CD as a sign of his versatility and prowess in the studio. Containing trip hop, dubstep, breakbeat and house, the cross-genre mentality of leading producers has seeped into Jade's work, and is something he clearly wants to pursue.

"Right now there are many ideas to fulfill. I've just signed a track I made with Axiom to Lifted, I have a solo tune called 'Shift' coming out on 'Close2Death' in a few weeks. 'Grindhouse', the dubstep tune I made with Matt-U that features on the bonus CD, is coming out on vinyl too. It's been very well received so I might be involved with more dubstep in the future. I also have half a dozen tunes to finish with Mindscape, Rido, Mastif, Noisia, BSE, and a remix of a Morebeat tune for Citrus. I also intend to launch a label with Mindscape."

A busy time for Jade as his own path continues to flourish.

WORDS Owen Goldser