Features

Point B

Unforgiving streets are the thread that connects Richard Bultitude with his brooding electronica-informed dubstep-ish work as Point B. Yet despite his current base, Brixton, presenting an obvious starting point for such links, experiences in previous hometowns had more affect on a sound refined throughout his imminent second studio album 'Suicide Beauty Spot'.

"I found the streets of Bradford and my birthplace Birkenhead tougher than my current location," he admits. "They certainly fuelled some of the angst, frustration and fear that's sometimes expressed in my music. Brixton has had a mainly positive influence. The area is so rich with the sights and sounds of other cultures that it inevitably inspires creative thinking."

The title of 'Suicide Beauty Spot', meanwhile, is a direct reference to an equally bleak but rather more picturesque setting: East Sussex headland / notorious death leap site Beachy Head.

"I heard a radio program about Beachy Head," Bultitude elaborates. "That place has seen some tragic things alright but remains unspoiled and beautiful."

The resultant evocative elements of his self-coined 'itchy deep-step' are aided by often unusual live instrumentation prevalent within thought-provoking production work, bleeding a little humanity into the record's alien landscape.

"All the instruments are played by myself, though not always very well," he self-effacingly claims. "I'm not classically trained but I have played guitar since I was a nipper. I have a modest but ever-growing collection of instruments, the most weird and wonderful being my santoor [an Indian dulcimer], which has over 100 strings. The most recent addition is an Irish knee harp."

Excited by Photek and forward-thinking mid-'90s duo Chaos & Julia, drum & bass was an important formative force for Bultitude, who moonlights as d&b project Xammatu, as well as under 'squashy hip-hop' guise Planes. He also went through "a good stint in my late teens with party d&b such as Peshay, E-Z Rollers and Grooverider." Dubstep has since become a bigger catalyst for his music, though.

"The rise of the dubstep scene gave me all sorts of ideas the more I started to understand it," he explains. "The dynamic between the slow, plodding half beat and the 140 bpm 2-step rhythm is really compelling. The use of modulated bass as a rhythmic and physical force is key too and was the perfect ingredient to the repertoire of electro / garage I'd started to build. But I do still love d&b. I bought some Breakage recently and it made me want to freak."

Look out for a Point B album launch party at Plex on 30th October at Corsica Studios, London with live performances from Point B, Scorn and Elemental.