Terror Danjah has been actively involved in the UK music scene for over a decade now, exploring many avenues in underground dance genres like jungle and, most notably, grime with stints alongside the N.A.S.T.Y and Aftershock crews.

After a plethora of releases on many a label, including recent ventures on Planet Mu, Hyperdub and Butterz, Terror is preparing to release the first vinyl on his new label, Hardrive. The Golden Axe EP is Hardrive's first release and features three massive DOK productions. We spoke to Terror Danjah to find out what he has in store for us...

What is the inspiration behind your new label, Hardrive?
I was DJing at a booking Dublin back in January and a guy came up and told me he couldn't wait for my Bipolar EP on Butterz. I was amazed that they still buy vinyl and he knew the release was forthcoming at the time. I did plan to start Hardrive next year, but this inspired me to push the launch of the label earlier.

The overall idea behind me starting the label is to push UK music, which I play out to Europe and the rest of the world. It's more of a UK bass label, mainly dealing with grime. I won't be releasing a lot of my stuff on Hardrive so it will be other producers.

The first release is a selection of DOK rhythms, is the label going to be entirely instrumental based or will you be pushing out some vocals as well?
Yeah it will be more on the instrumental front, but if there's a big vocal I'm playing or a big tune that hasn't got a release yet (a lot of grime tracks on the whole) then I would release it! I'm concentrating my label on underground clubland culture, so the majority of tunes are instrumental based.

Tell us a little bit about the first release, the Golden Axe EP...
DOK, like myself, is very underrated and has tons of tunes sitting there. So I just compiled the tracks what I liked, and there you have the Golden Axe EP.

DOK has always struck me as quite an elusive member of the scene, why did you choose him to focus on for the first release?
He hasn't got an outlet for his tunes as such although he's got his own releases planned on Hyperdub and Butterz. It's time DOK flooded the scene, plus he's my favourite producer.

Who else can we expect to see on the imprint in the future? Are you going to stick with a select "team" or do you have a sort of blueprint of artists you would like to feature?
I'm gonna look at producers in different countries, but for now, the future release are from Joker, Illmana, Baby Face Jay, TRC, DOK, Swindle, Chain Saw Audio, Sir Spyro and myself! Hopefully I'll get a release from Mark Pritchard aka Harmonic 313 plus stuff from Skream, Teddy, DJ Pioneer & DJ Supa D, etc.

A lot of the new labels have been successful in pushing their vinyl worldwide, are you anticipating a similar sort of success with Hardrive?
Yeah, definitely. I like Cargo my distributor, they understand the music, and help in anyway they can. They're the same distributor as Hyperdub and Butterz, and soon to be Planet Mu. When I was running Aftershock distributors didn't really do distribution outside the UK and, besides, grime was still in its infancy then.

 

Words: Frankie Mines

 

 

• Terror Danjah

Related Links:

• Terror Danjah - Undeniable LP Preview
• Terror Danjah Documentary
• Grime in 2010
• Review: Mr Mitch - Fright Night EP
• New Label Profile: Butterz

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