Blackout is the new drum & bass label from Bristol's Chemical Records with releases and remixes from the likes of dBridge, Data and Lynx already lined up. Discover what they're about and get an exclusive free download...

Please introduce yourself...
My name's Luke Bugden, I'm from Cheltenham and I head up the music department at Chemical Records along with A&Ring for Blackout Music and RUN DNB.

 

Why have you set the label up?
Well, I was sat in Ian's (our label manager) office and he was going through a load of music he'd been sent from Synkro and there were four D&B tracks that really pricked my ears up. It just got me very excited and I thought 'why not start a new label for the slightly more atmospheric side of drum & bass'. And it just went from there really. You could say Synkro was the catalyst for the label.

 

Why Blackout?
Whenever we've started a new label project in the past, we've always sat down and brainstormed for name ideas. It actually came to us pretty quickly this time! It's hard to explain, but it just seemed right for the direction we wanted to take with the label.

 

Who is involved with running it?
I head up the A&Ring side of things, although we all tend to have a listen to tracks before we commit to a release - myself, Mark, Ian, Diccon, the cleaner, if she's about. Ian takes care of the production side of things, everything from contracts to pressing. And Jamie takes care of all things design-wise. We were really pleased with the design he came up with for this project, especially when you consider the lack of info we gave him for the design brief:
 
"How do you want it to look?"

"Just make it look bad, Jamie."

 

What's the ethos behind the label?

Without wanting to sound like a massive cliche, the ethos is simply to release 'good-quality' music that has that 'certain-something' that sticks with you. We don't want to be restricted to one particular style, but at the same time, it's pretty safe to say you won't be seeing any jump-up releases anytime soon!

 

Can you tell us more about your key artists?
Well, Synkro is kicking things off for the label with a dBridge remix on the flip. We're really, really happy with both tracks and they seem to be getting good responses so far. Synkro has another single scheduled for the end of the year too. We're working pretty closely with Data at the moment, I think the guy's a genius and we're extremely pleased to have him on board. Then there's Lynx, someone whose music I've admired for a long time, over the moon with the single we got from him! We've also signed tracks from newer artists such as DLR & Hybris, two guys that I think are set to do big things in the future.

 

You've got some pretty big names on board already, how did you manage to persuade them to get involved with such a new label?
To be honest with you, I just got in touch with people and explained what I wanted to do with the label and the ethos behind it all. I was lucky that everyone I spoke to seemed to be really enthused by the idea and were keen to get on board. Couldn't be happier with artist roster so far to tell you the truth!

 

Forthcoming releases?
Synkro - Letting Go b/w dBridge Remix
Lynx & Malibu - Star b/w Lynx & Hellrazor - On The Other Side
Data feat. K2 - Prey b/w Data feat. DJ E - Curveball
Phaeleh - Afterglow (dBridge Remixes)
DLR - Tundra b/w TBC
Hybris - The Elusive 101 b/w Septic
Synkro - Prologue b/w Summer Blues

Anything else you want to tell us about?
Yes, there is as it goes! We've just signed Data for an album project that we're very excited about. It's basically going to be half drum & bass, half dubstep, with the drum & bass being released on Blackout Music and the dubstep being released on Black Box. The CD will then be released as a collab between the two labels. As I said before, I'm so impressed by Data's output and to get to do his album is a real honour.

On a final note, we're giving away a free download. This is a track that we had penned in for a limited edition series, but we thought it would be nice to give something out for free. The track's called Lonely by The Funktion, hopefully people will like it! People can also get a preview of forthcoming tracks on our Soundcloud page.

 

The Funktion - Lonely by knowledge

Related Links:

• Free Lynx Track
• New Technics Tees
• Lynx & Kemo interview for Bodytonic
• Diffrent Presents Giraffecast 002
• Audio & The Funktion February Single

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