Pangaea, Ben UFO, Pearson Sound
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Left to right: Pangaea, Ben UFO, Pearson Sound 030 djmag.com Hessle Audio, the label run by Ben UFO, Pearson Sound and Pangaea, has just reached its 10th anniversary milestone. Initially bonding over the infinite possibilities of the embryonic dubstep scene in the mid- noughties, the trio soon set off on their own tangents. Launching Hessle Audio together in 2007, their outsider take on club music has helped reshape the scene during its various twists and turns over the past decade. The three have very distinct musical identities, yet when they come together as A&Rs or as DJs something very special happens. As the threesome embark on a tour to mark the label’s 10th birthday, DJ Mag meets them in South London... Words: BEN MURPHY Pics: CARSTEN WINDHORST Pearson Sound’s productions are always eagerly to use this in a club?’ It doesn’t necessarily have here’s a lot of people awaited. Foxing expectations with each release, he’s to be something that is an obvious club tune, but pushing old drum machines as comfortable making garage-loaded house (‘Your say Bandshell’s record, ‘Dust March’, for me is such or reissuing drum machines Words Matter’, with Midland, released on Aus) as he an amazing track to play in a club, it just sounds now,” says Kevin McAuley, is cone-rattling IDM strangeness (‘Gristle’, from his incredible.” aka Pangaea, one-third of 2015 ‘Pearson Sound’ album) or sinister, cinematic “Joe is definitely on the fringe,” says Ben. “‘Claptrap’, the pioneering Hessle techno (club hit ‘Thaw Cycle’, on his own Pearson at the time [it was released in 2010], sounded totally Audio crew. “It feels like Sound label). mad, and completely his own. But at the same time, things are being marketed towards making classic Though each of the three has their own areas of everyone played it. People in dubstep and grime sounds. There’s nostalgia everywhere, ’cause it’s musical interest, it’s the convergence of their ideas, played it, people in the house world played it, pitched comforting for people. But dance music should be and a belief in pushing forward, that defines Hessle right down. It’s the track we’ve released that’s been forward-thinking.” Audio and makes them stand out. played in the most different contexts, but at the same Hessle Audio has always looked to the future. This time it’s one of the weirdest. That’s the dream, we’ll label, set up by Pangaea, Pearson Sound (David CHIPPER be lucky if we find another record like that.” Kennedy) and Ben UFO (Ben Thomson) has remained DJ Mag meets them one sunny spring morning in at the vanguard from its very first release 10 years south-east London, near where Ben UFO lives now. In the last 10 years, Hessle Audio has released many ago. After weekend gigs, they’re remarkably chipper. early records by future stars, the most notable of Ben tells us about some grime record collections whom, James Blake, now makes quite different While some electronic producers, with their he bought recently nearby, and we stroll to a quiet productions for US pop and hip-hop champs fetishizing of analogue gear and old school café for the interview. Each of them talks with great Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar. Singles by Blawan, authenticity, are stuck in a vintage vacuum, Hessle conviction and a natural camaraderie. They speak Objekt and the aforementioned Untold have shone Audio’s three pioneers — and the artists they’ve frankly on all subjects, from their recollections of how alongside Pangaea and Pearson Sound’s (formerly released on their label — have consistently pushed they started out in dance music, to how they perceive Ramadanman) own releases, and all this has been boundaries. Operating on the fringes of genre, their label now. achieved without outside interference or troubled by they’ve changed the course of underground dance “Our whole thing has been about trying to look profit margins. music more than once, indicating new pathways for forward, to release new music by new producers, so “We never took that step of employing anyone else,” dubstep, house, techno and beyond. we don’t want it to feel too heritage, or too much Ben says. “We never had anyone to come in and help In 2017, they’re celebrating a decade of operation like a victory lap,” says Ben of the 10-year milestone. with anything, let alone employ a label manager with a big European and US tour. The tour has them “We’re releasing stuff and want to have an active year, or anything like that. The only people we’ve had playing back-to-back-to-back all night and represents that seems like the best way to celebrate it.” to satisfy are ourselves. We’re living primarily from a consolidation of the trio’s powers. They’ve become “We’re trying not to turn it into too much of a DJing, so we’ve never had to rush ourselves or put a main draw without once compromising their heritage thing. Like, 10 years and now it’s all anything out we’re unsure about. We can look back on independence or fearless musical aesthetic. downhill!” jokes David. the last 10 years and feel really intimately connected Ever since the label’s start in 2007, Hessle Audio has to everything we’ve released.” Ben UFO has earned a reputation up there with been an outlet for cutting-edge electronic beats and the best underground DJs in the world. With no bass. It’s become a go-to, buy-on-sight imprint for DRUM & BASS compulsion to produce tracks (a rarity in today’s DJs. With each release, a delicate balance between Ben, David and Kevin formulated the idea for Hessle scene), his daring sets travel from grime to techno experimentalism and club heft is struck. Records Audio while studying at Leeds University. The first to house, indefinable bass music and myriad that have stood out for their otherness, from TRG’s two, originally from London, bonded with Kevin, experimental oddities besides, all transmuted and techy, smudged garage track ‘Broken Heart’ to originally from a village near Swindon in the south- linked together with a unique dancefloor attitude. Untold’s weird, sinuous grime cut ‘Anaconda’ via west of England, over an appreciation for drum & bass Pangaea’s psychotropic productions have been the percussive what-do-you-call-it beats of Joe’s DJ Bailey’s 1Xtra radio show. Each of them, though, melting minds since 2007. Atmospheric in the ‘Claptrap’, have also proven to be invaluable weapons had quite a different musical background. extreme, spacious and strange, each of his tracks in any serious DJ’s arsenal, across all genres. Ben’s dance music beginnings were at the deep comes loaded with bass weight. A 2014 Fabric “What we sign has to be something that works in end of d&b, which he’d hear at club-nights in a now mix showcased his formidable DJing chops, clubs,” says Kevin. “There’s a lot of music out there defunct London venue. “I was buying drum & bass, while last year’s techno-heavy ‘In Drum Play’ (on that is headphone music, or interesting electronic that was when I learnt to mix,” he says. “There were Hessle) demonstrated a remarkable merging of music, I’m certainly feeling that at the moment. these little parties going on in East London at a experimentalism with club nous. But the first thing I’m listening for is, ‘Will I be able venue called Herbal, put on by the labels Bassbin and djmag.com 031 station Sub FM. “Kev and Dave could write a record, send it round to people who were the biggest DJs Inperspective. They were Wednesday night parties. and producers in the scene at the time, and you’d People were interested in dubstep there, too. There almost always get a response,” Ben says. “They’d were all these producers like Amit that you used probably hear it.” to see down at the early DMZs as well, so there It was the internet, all agree, that had a significant was a bit of an overlap. I think that was a general role to play in the growth of dubstep and its rapid pattern, where there was a dissatisfaction with the evolution. “It was a perfect storm, the first scene wider drum & bass scene, and a desire to try to find to break through the internet,” David says. “Grime something else.” was earlier in that respect and did have some stuff sounding, compared to what was prevalent at the Kevin, conversely, got into dance music the way going on on the web, but it wasn’t until dubstep time in the scene’.” many teenagers first experience it. “I was buying came about that the wave of the internet suddenly After the first TRG release, ‘Put You Down’, releases trance and hard house,” he says. “It was stuff from became massive. It was maybe the last scene to from Pangaea, Untold and Ramadanman (Pearson HMV. These were, like, £3.99 singles on labels like exist between those two worlds.” Sound) quickly followed. Inspired by the DiY Tidy Trax. It was just what I had access to.” ethos of Mala’s Digital Mystikz (DMZ) label, Hessle David says of his own route into dance music, “I DUBSTEP Audio quickly established its own independent was making some grime-style instrumentals and Despite their early involvement in dubstep, the aesthetic. Some would tag these records, which posting them online, and I seem to remember Hessle Audio three existed outside the inner incorporated everything from hazy dub techno to someone saying, ‘This isn’t really grime, it sounds sanctum.