Dubtronix, aka Darkus, aka Jeremy Sylvester, made his mark on the music game some time ago, with classics like Screwface and Fantasy. He is now returning with The Best Of Dubtronix Vol. 1 which contains all of his hits and unreleased material. Read our interview with Dubtronix to find out more. 

 

 

Hi Dubtronix, you have a long history in the game tell us a little more about your career.

Dubtronix started out in the music game in the early nineties based from our label and recording studio at the Custard Factory in Birmingham. We had a small label called Cream Recordings, but we had a string of releases on various other labels including Quartz Recordings owned by Tony Owens (Musical Youth’s manager at the time), the world famous Renk records with M Beat, and Birmingham based B9 Records where we released 2 CD albums called ‘The Extreme Collection. We also released a CD album with DJ Moose T’s label Peppermint Jam based in Germany.

 

Our biggest breakthrough was with London label/distributor S.A.S Recordings with our biggest hit being the Steven Segal film sampling ‘Screwface’ remixed by the late great GE Real. This gave us some nice exposure with heavy support from the mighty Grooverider and a handful of top jungle DJs at the time. This led to the track being licensed on many CD compilations worldwide.

 

We quickly released a follow up called ‘Fantasy’ which became popular on the scene.

 

And now you’ve released volume 1 of your best of - what can we expect from the album?
You can expect to hear all our biggest releases including the massive ‘Screwface’ and ‘Fantasy’. There are 20 tracks on the album with the majority of them never before seeing the light of day, so there are some great exclusives on there. I dusted off the DAT tapes found in the cellar and re-mastered all the tracks ready for the next generation.

 

This album will take you back to the core of drum & bass when it truly was raw, when new technologies were starting to come and when producers were really trying to break ground with new sounds, techniques and vibes.

 

Why are you releasing it now?

Dubtronix decided to release the album now because it felt right. We found all the DAT tapes lying around in various locations around the country and decided, now is as good a time as any to remind the world about the tracks and to showcase to the new generation who knew nothing about Dubtronix. Our involvement with Urban Dubz Music has allowed this to happen.

What gives you the inspiration to still be involved in music after so long?

Music is in my soul and will never go away. I will always be inspired by music, it’s like a drug almost. With so much music out there becoming so accessible because of the internet, it’s even easier now to be inspired by much more great music and artists.

 

Personally I love the UK music scene especially because of the diverse mix of styles/genres within music. This has always been the backbone of Dubtronix, and it’s still fantastic to see those foundations well and truly in place.

 

What do you think of drum & bass now compared with back in the day?

I love drum & bass even now, and its good to see its still going strong. I think many of the elements are still there but with new sounds and new equipment and technologies. Back in the days it was all about for me the Akai S900, S950 and S1000 samplers, which got rinsed to death. In fact I’m trying to find one again because there are certain things that it can do that I’ve seen no other new sampler/DAW do…

 

The scene seems a lot more fragmented but that’s a good thing, its shows how diverse the music can be taken. The music has evolved and will always evolve.

 

Do you have any plans for new music?

Dubtronix plans to release volume 2 of the best of compilation after this one with yet more unreleased tracks on there. There is still quite a lot of gems on those DATs.

 

Once we released the albums, we have already started ideas for a new single later this year or early next year which is looking very exciting, so watch this space for more info on that. There is also talk of a brand new album later next year but right now its early stages and really want to concentrate on the singles and see what kind of response, support and feedback we get from it first.

 

The future is bright, the future is DUBTRONIX…

 

 

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