Ruffhouse, three guys from Bristol are making some really progressive drum & bass. Pessimist, Vega & Cooper are taking their own journey through the sound, and have caught the ear of Ingredients , so you know they are heading in the right direction. Read on to find out more. 

 

Hi lads – can you introduce yourselves and let us know a little about your history?
We're Ruffhouse from Bristol, UK. There are 3 of us, Pessimist, Vega and Cooper. We have known each other far too long for our own good. We've all been involved in the scene one way or another and met through those circumstances. Since then we discovered we shared a similar understanding in music, so decided to form Ruffhouse as it was the natural progression for us.

 

 

Can you describe your sound for us?
Where to start… The word progression always pops up during a studio session. We feel a lot of drum & bass today is far too DJ friendly in terms of the structure of a regular track, intro, drop, bass, mid range, breakdown….. repeat.

 

We all share the same opinion that music should be interesting from start to finish and not follow the conventional structures of what we feel a lot of music is today. We're really influenced by a lot of German techno artists such as Tommy Four Seven, Monoloc etc, as we love the industrial, gritty warehouse sound that they produce, tracks that build and keep you interested.

 

Its also very dark sounding music which we find ourselves naturally falling into. It’s quite experimental stuff but at the same time it'll smash up the dance on a Friday night, we've seen it first hand.

 

 

What have you got coming up music-wise?
Firstly we've got a 12" single coming on Alignment Records which should be out after the summer.
But since signing with Ingredients we have our debut release The Foot / Bypass which is due for release in October. The Foot seems to have been the one that grabbed people’s attention initially. Originally we had a really busy track, but we then decided to just strip it back and work from there, those spontaneous decisions can completely change the direction of the track and create a vibe. With Bypass we knew we wanted to make something really intense, something that just builds and builds and then explodes. It’s probably our favourite tune we've made to be honest.

 

After that we have another 12" single with Ingredients which is dropping in December which is Division lll / Demand. That’s all we can confirm for now.

 

 

How did you hook up with Ingredients and what makes them stand out in your eyes?
Pessimist had already been released with Ingredients so the link with Clive was made through that. Clive called us and said he was really into what we were doing and wanted to sign The Foot. Ingredients is a really respected label and has a really impressive back catalogue with some modern classics consisting of some of the biggest drum and bass producers in the scene today.

 

They've brought through artists that have gone onto huge success. Check out the Ingredients discography and I’m sure you'll be amazed out how much they've released in the short amount of time they've been around, which is very uncommon within the scene today. It’s also nice to have a label that communicates with you.

 

 

 

Your music has an aspect of looking back and forwards at the same time. Is this deliberate, and do you take inspiration from old skool d&b?
Firstly we feel you kinda have to go back to go forward with the type of music you are writing. It’s important to know where the music came from and understand the essence of what it is. This way of thinking comes naturally to us as we have all been drum and bass fans ourselves for years.

 

To answer your question, yes we are influenced by the old skool. Everything back then had a lot of character and rawness to it which made us fall in love with d&b in the first place. In terms of looking forward, it would be pointless to just write something that’s been done, so in that sense we've gotta try and write something new and unique.

 

We think about the music also from a ravers point of view as we have spent many a forgotten Friday night seeing DJs smash the dance floor up. So we know what works and what doesn't, which helps us in writing our beats. At the end of the day, d&b is made for the dancefloor.

 

 

Who would you like to big up as you start this new chapter in your development?
Firstly we'd like to thank Clive at Ingredients Records. Also a big shout to dBridge, Doc Scott, Loxy & Fracture amongst others for really getting behind our music. A shout to all the Bristol crew and all our mates, you know who you are.

 

Keep your eye out for Ruffhouse...

 

 

 

Related Links:

• Ingredients Records Guest Mix
• Introducing: Mute & Mako
• Introducing: Mute & Mako
• Digital Labz Production Seminar
• DJ Psylence Starts New Deep DnB Imprint

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