DROP ZONE: RENEGADE HARDWARE

Drop Zones second label night featured none other than the heavyweight champion of murky DnB: Renegade Hardware. Unfortunately, after two decades of history, an unforgettable back catalog of amazing releases and epic events, the pioneering label will close down permanently. Despite that Drop Zone gave them and the Finnish drum and bass following the farewell it deserves; An unforgettable night with the legendary artists Doc Scott, BTK and Maztek, not forgetting a hefty Finnish support line up. Influential, not influenced. Future beats, for future people. Renegade Hardware, gone but never forgotten.

Long live drum and bass!

Kumarachi ‘’Hold It Down” EP

Hold It Down EP

Kumarwho? Kumarwhat? Funny as his name is (a combination of his surname and liberace) I’ve had my eye and ear on this Nottingham based producer for at least a year or two, and couldn’t resist doing a spotlight on this up and coming diamond in the rock deep inside the jungle/drum and bass scene. From releases like Phatty, Droid Ting (a tune seriously underrated and a personal favorite) and Badman Ting VIP, his production and versatility in sound has significantly caught my attention in this time, and as a result we proudly present a full review of his newest EP ‘’Hold It Down’’ on DJ Hybrids Audio Addict Recordings

As we hold it down here in Helsinki, we kick off the session with the first tune, in collaboration with DJ Hybrid (who won producer of the year in the ‘’we love jungle’’ awards btw), it’s time to get down and dirty.

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Drop Zone Critical Label night

With an array of bookings from one of the most respected electronic music labels in the UK, in a brand new location and backed up by the kind of stunningly impressive visual work by Matlock visuals that we have come to expect from a Drop Zone party, what more could you ask?

Rising from the underground, Drop Zone pushes the cutting edge soundscapes of past, present and future. Their first club event was all about Critical Music with guests Kasra, Enei and Hyroglifics. In the future we will see Drop Zone with both club and underground events, more info here!

Audio

Kallio Block Party 2015


The first of August Kallio’s Katri Vala park became the stage for a couple of thousand spectators who felt the bass vibrations for a whopping eight hours. Ivah Sound System had their setup in full with a custom made stack of speakers to make the whole block shake. It was a truly mesmerizing experience, with both old and young united with each other enjoying the sound system in the sun.

“This is exactly why we made Ivah Sound in the first place, to bring people together with the power of music and love. Huge respect to Paleface for delivering his set with a deep and conscious message regarding peace, unity and power to the people, not forgetting the thousands of you who came to experience Ivah Sound System throughout the day. This is something we will all remember for a long time.” – Ivah Sound

The Helsinki based crew have been active for over five years, taking the sound system culture of Finland forward. The foundation of Ivah Sound’s music comes from a Jamaican descent although the sound has a large variation of selections and styles ranging from roots all the way to jungle and steppas.

Grooverider in Helsinki

Last weekend Helsinki Jungle Mafia brought the legendary drum and bass pioneer Grooverider over from the UK. With over 25 years of experience under his belt he tore up Helsinki from start to finish. The atmosphere was fantastic and the venue was ram jam packed in good time, leaving little to no room on the dancefloor till the very end. Maximum respects to the Jungle Mafia, its because we call this music Jungle.

DJ Grooverider
Burma & Physics
Muffler testing out his new LP.
DJ Grooverider touching down.
Kaivohuone have been serving customers since 1838.
MC Reefer
The vibes were on top all the way until the very end of the night.

Helsinki Underground w/ Mr Explicit

Mr Explicit in HelsinkiNorwich born Mr Explicit or “The Scientist” as they call him at Dread Recordings, joined the Dread camp around five years ago with the massive tune “Dark Assassin”, three incredible Vinyl EPs later and his latest remix is of “Dark soldier” coming out soon and it’s going to be huge!

Mr Explicit has proved himself to be a very talented producer, his biggest track “Cringe” a huge anthem and a favourite of the drum and bass elite. Mr Explicit was heavily influenced from the early Jungle, Garage and Hardcore scene and started to produce in 2005 where he met Ray Keith who together with Bladerunner nurtured the young raw talent right up to his first few releases. It’s looking very promising in 2015 for Explicit, with vicious rumors going around of releases from Ash Attacks Label, Directors Cut (under his and Venom’s joint venture project Undercover Audio) Bryan G’s Philly Blunt and of course Ray Keith’s Dread Recordings to name a few.

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Drop Zone

Welcome to the underground scene of the small capital city of Finland; Helsinki. It’s time to enter the Drop Zone. At first glance, this seems like a small scale festival around an industrial area located close to an old power plant. But we assure you this is not the case. The scene is familiar, old friends, new faces, new friends, old faces, no matter how many times these parties reoccur, there is always something exceptional about the support regarding the scene. A fusion of bass music fanatics, both new comers and old heads which makes the atmosphere truly unique. Organization is always a tough job, especially on a scale like this. But Drop Zone is an underground movement that has organized many successful parties like this in the past, and this time it’s no different, the crew outdid themselves once again.

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Musical Murderation

Musical War EP

No war business, seen! Well, actually in this case there is war business, but war of the musical sort. Its a square off between two top Jungle producers Habitat & The Force. Lets have a little look and listen to the ammunition these guys have been cooking up in their studios.

 

 

 

As we square off, the first tune of the EP is from Habitat, titled See Me Coming

This Hip Hop dagger is an extremely playful two step riddim, laced with funky horns, maraca shakers and a uber bouncy bassline with rolling drums to keep your feet moving, definitely one for the one foot skankers.

See me coming, start running, for cover that is…

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Paradox in Helsinki

Photo: Frej Vuori

‘’Live’’ Its a term thrown around a lot in the electronic music scene. Even more so in the drum’n’bass scene. Its a broad term, meaning something possibly with a live band, PA performance of a tune straight out the studio to just a sampler and/or drum machine played live by the music producer. With that said, we get a first hand glance of the master of live drum and bass, for the first time ‘’playing’’ in Finland; Paradox.

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Skating w/ Manny

Photo: Frej Vuori

When Trey lived in a small spanish village in the Valencia region (circa 2003) surrounded by non english speakers, the only means of communication he had was his skateboard. He had just learned 360 flips while skateboarding in Finland, so naturally the locals started calling him by the name Trey. The name stuck and had a ring to it so later he incorporated it as his DJ alias and hasn’t looked back since.

Also, the Eight Trey Gangsta Crips is a Los Angeles latino gang, although born in California and having latino roots, Trey has no known affiliation with the Crip sub division. You can catch Trey Tre flipping around the streets of Helsinki with a smile on his face.