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Music

Touching Bass: Geode

Wrap your ears around the mix after reading about Bulgarian Mafia, TED Talks and life in the future.

Geode's musical output meanders down the same lane that Silkie, Ramadanman and 2562 took during dubstep's more jazzy renaissance. The Londoner produces a savoury brew of chords, skittering percussion lines and pulsating bass alongside his fellow Chord Marauders labelmates. This week's Touching Bass comes fully equipped with an hour's worth of dubby confectionery for your ears. Wrap your ears around the mix after reading about Bulgarian Mafia, TED Talks and life in the future.

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Noisey: Hey man, how was Horizon Festival apart from picking up the illness.

Geode: Had a blast, thanks. Bulgaria itself is beautiful, the Pirin mountains in particular. Was a nice opportunity to link some peeps in person too, namely Max Lee my agent, Amy Becker, the Brotherhood lot, Hypeman Sage, Gerra & Stone, Joe Raygun. My first set was interrupted by the local Mafia, which was a little hairy, but other than that it all went really well.

Hahah, the local mafia. Were they in any way The Godfather-esque? Any well dressed gangsters?

Haha, not quite; they were just extremely beefy looking men who took objection to soulful dubstep.

Seriously, how dare they? Would have been jokes if they came out to party. So, where and what are you up to at the moment?

I'm sat in my living room necking paracetamol, trying to beat this damn virus. Nothing that interesting I'm afraid. My partner, Ola, cooked some lovely sausages earlier though. They were great.

Get well soon man. So, what's the last thing you favourited on Soundcloud?

Thanks homie. Last favourite appears to be Deft's forthcoming EP on WotNot. I really enjoyed the jukey track coming in around the 3-minute mark. I'm a real sucker for arpeggiators.

Ahh yeah, those arps where you just hold the key and release a masterpiece. So are you still using FL Studio?

Yup, I'm a Fruitylooper through and through. My way of working is very loop oriented - I tend to just work on 2 bars layering up elements until I have enough to fill a track. I think my arrangements can sometimes suffer but it's something I'm working on.

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That’s an interesting way of putting things together. I’ve never heard of someone doing it like that. Have you got a favourite VST?

VST-wise I use a lot of really dated stuff. I think being well acquainted with software, knowing it inside-out, is often better than having state of the art stuff that you aren't familiar with. My favourite is probably the V-Station V1.

Cool. I used to love using FL studio when I produced back in the day. But aside from music for a bit, what's your favourite video to rewatch on YouTube?

Hmm, I generally like watching combative debates, documentaries, nature programmes. But this guy, Theo Jansen, caught my eye the other day, he makes amazing moving sculptures: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b694exl_oZo

Dun no the TED talks. Dr. Ken Robinson's discussion about the education system is one of my favourite watches on the internet.

Will have to check that one.

But yeah, what else do you get up to apart from music?

Oo, I did catch that actually. It struck a note here too! Other than music, I'm usually doing bits and pieces on the Chord Marauders website, or for DMDesign where I do ad hoc content management work. When not doing "admin" or getting on a beat, I like hanging out with friends and family or having a game of tennis with my bro, who's based down in Peckham. I've also started getting into food more. I love big piffing roasts, cous cous salads and anything you can add Sri Racha hot sauce to.

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Big ups on the hot sauce. I’m on the Encona hot pepper sauce, probably putting it on way too many of my meals. You mentioned Chord Marauders - which is your team of beatsmiths - but how did you originally start the label?

Yo! Encona Hot Pepper is also strong. Chord Marauders was just really born out of our common ear for jazzy bass music and wanting to do our own thing. We connected and made it happen all online, as a digital platform, but we're already moving into nights and physical releases since becoming a little more established.

Would love to get some Chord Marauders stuff on wax.

Yeah, that's definitely what we've been hearing and where we want to go. It poses its own set of problems, as we're a self-selling, self-distributing collective, but having had some experience with getting Congi's CDs out, we're in a better place now.

Sounds good. Naturally, I imagine you want to take it step by step. But thanks for putting together the mix for Touching Bass. What kind of vibes have you gone for on it?

I've tried to push for the groovier, jazzier and weirder aesthetics of dubstep - a sound that was touched upon by the early innovators (2562, Martyn, Scuba, Blawan) but which faded after that short burst. A lot of those guys moved on - but there's been resurgence in the more innovative, boundary-pushing 140 in recent years in my opinion. The mix combines some of my unreleased work and that of likeminded producers, alongside some more classic dubstep tracks, which have informed our styles. Beyond the people I always mention, Tosti, Mercy, Sub Basics & Dillard are making some really interesting stuff, so make sure you listen out for their tracks. I guess the set is quite similar to what I'd play out, with some weirder tracks added and a few bangers left out!

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Big ups, thanks for the time mate.

TRACKLIST

01. Geode - Good God Y'all [Dub]

02. Tosti - Basics [Dub]

03. B9 - Milliner [Dub]

04. B9 feat. Mercy - Egg Yolk [Dub]

05. Mercy - Honey Drip [Dub]

06. K-LONE - Misty [Dub]

07. TRG - Broken Heart (Martyn Remix)

08. Ramadanman - Bidding War

09. Geode - Let's Have Another [Dub]

10. Nanobyte - Swoop [FKOF Dub]

11. Geode - Lime Juice Cordial [Dub]

12. Native & Altimeter - Clarity

13. Icicle - Galacticstep

14. Cluekid - Evolution

15. Baitface - Bloodsport [Dub]

16. Dillard - Chains [Substruct Audio Dub]

17. B9 - Award Winning Mex Club [Dub]

18. Geode - Agriculture (Sub Basics Remix) [Dub]

19. Deafblind - Shattered Vision [Dub]

20. Congi & Jafu - December [Chord Marauders]

21. Geode - Embrace [Dub]

22. B9 - Daily Scrub

23. Sub Basics - In The Quiet

24. Congi - Attenuation [Chord Marauders]

25. Miilkbone - Keep it Real instrumental (Geode Remix) [Dub]

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