Album Profile – Vibe City Volume 1 & 2 (Dirtbox Recordings) – UK
Dirtbox Recordings have been carving out a steady name for themselves over the last three years, endorsing an open music policy that incorporates all aspects and sub genres of the current drum and bass movement.
This month will see them bringing to fruition a huge two album project that highlights some of the best liquid DNB the current scene has to offer. With impactful artwork, a global approach that includes artists and producers from all over the world, and music that truly speaks for itself, we caught up with label owner and driving force behind the project Lee UHF, for a deeper look into the collection of tracks and the ideas that sparked the whole thing off in the first place.
Lee! Welcome in!
Hello Dan, and thank you for having me 🙂
So very briefly, before we start proper, tell us a little bit about Dirtbox Recordings, how the label came into being and the general ethos behind the label.
The ethos of Dirtbox is breaking new talent, covering all corners of the drum & bass spectrum, and helping artists market themselves properly. Our first release was back in 2018. I was no stranger to running record labels though, after a successful career in the UK hardcore/freeform scene, running Bedlam Records and other assorted brands between 2001-2010. It was just a natural progression from me getting into DNB in 2006, and then Djing, promoting and producing. I must say though, it was a big learning curve starting a digital only label, as all of my past experiences were with vinyl.
I had actually planned for a very long time to start a new label, but drum & bass is by far one of the hardest sounds to master production wise, and I didn’t want to start releasing it until I had some tunes that I could put out for myself on the label. A heavy tour schedule between 2010 and 2018 was also getting in the way, as during this time I played a lot of gigs around the world under the name `Dirtbox Live`
This is actually where the name came about for it too, because in 2010 I started a `DJ vs Beatboxer` show for my gigs which spawned the `Dirtbox` brand name. We also added a drummer and an MC to this show, so as you can imagine, it was very different to what was out there at the time, and it helped me secure some fantastic sets across the globe. So the name idea came very quickly when starting to go the record label route again, as it was a chance to keep that brand going instead of starting something from scratch.
Wow. That’s interesting! The two LP set that we’re here to discuss has clearly been a labour of love. The music is absolutely top drawer and the whole thing has been excellently packaged, so where did the idea for this project first germinate?
Well one thing that happens a lot is that people seem to label `Dirtbox` the label as a neurofunk label or a dark DNB label, based on less than 40% of its releases. In actual fact though, I love and support all sounds of DNB and the label reflects this with its music. I love liquid with a passion. It’s the best music for day-time at festivals and the summer in my opinion, and quite frankly the label had not yet put a lot of this sound out. A few amazing liquid drum & bass tracks were sitting on my hard drive already signed for EP’s (two by Sigmus and `Ellie` by myself), but It wasn’t until I had a few tracks submitted to me after this (by Puzzled & Kusha), that I really had the idea to create an album for these and also use the tracks I already had.
I was 100% looking to put out more of this sound but didn’t get quite enough submitted to us me. Having this handful of music ready to go gave me the idea to put the feelers out for more music to fill up a small compilation album. It spawned a brilliant and beautiful story really, as we ended up with far more music than could fill a small compilation. A ton of international artists also came on board, and this created a huge new network for me within the label. Not just artists within the sub-genre, but also people working elsewhere within the scene, such as media platforms dedicated to the sound and other assorted people in the background who work tirelessly in our scene with little thanks.
The release campaign prior to the second instalment has been pretty full on. As a label owner, how do you find the build up to a big project release like this?
It’s been a massive learning curve with running a label. I’ve toyed with multiple ideas for years of what should be done before and after a release and when. The amount of work in the background that goes into a release is insane. So to do four singles and two compilations scheduled to release over a two month span has literally consumed my life since I started this project. During this time I also have other monthly releases that have been flying out the door too. Before we even mentioned it online, it was something that was happening.
The real key before release is to have all the pieces in place that you need to let it do well. Contacting media channels for support, promoting and tracking the music, liaising with all of the individual artists to make sure they know the plan, and to make sure their platforms are ready for my promo schedule. We always announce a release 5 days prior to it coming out.
The reasons for this are firstly; the release before is still being promoted hard and we don’t want to overlap that, as every release deserves, and gets my undivided attention. Secondly; you don’t want to give people fatigue over the music by promoting it too early. If you have no link to buy or stream and create the label revenue it’s totally pointless to post about it. Once release day hits, smash the socials with all you’ve built because then they can then go buy/stream the release.
Now obviously, this project is a little different as we’ve drip fed four singles out across August, so it’s been a huge build up. But until Monday 11th September you won’t see or hear the full album, as we`ll be concentrating on the singles until then.
And the planning must start months in advance?
Oh yes, for this project we started the ideas around six to seven months ago. That was after initially pulling in some tracks. After that It was a case of going through ideas of how to release it. One compilation became two, and then two compilations had four singles. Then there was the artwork idea which was stupidly big (again, thanks Matt!) Generally though, it can all depend. On a straight forward release I may be planning six to eight weeks previous as a minimum, as I want to get the promos out etc at the 6 week before release mark and hit up media companies for premiers and press.
But some ideas brew and transform over time. I have two other huge projects in the pipeline and they’re taking shape just sitting there until I feel they are ready to get to the next stage. It’s great like this because I’m not rushing any ideas and it makes for a more interesting release. One is due next February and the other has no date as yet. It’s just done when it’s done.
There are twenty one tracks spread across the two albums. Tell us a bit about a few of the artists if you can?
As mentioned earlier, Sigmus had signed us a follow up EP from his `Primal` release in 2022 which had two liquid tracks on it, and of course my track `Ellie` which is named after my two year old daughter. Varkid, TRCD, Kusha, Beskar, Sonication, HighThere, Abidance (Bas Ace) Composure, The Fi5th and Taijinx were already artists I’d released on the other labels I run, so putting word out to these guys was really easy in fact.
A few artists that were totally new to me slid into my DMs once they heard I was doing something like this, and they were very pleasant surprises. Puzzled, Spoompi, Sicknote, Skuff, Skandal, Komatose and Erbass all submitted music to me in the latter stages, and this has created some great relationships regarding releasing with these guys again in the future too.
We also had some amazing vocalists featuring on the project too. There’s Rheo Uno, who is a popstar in the making. This girl is the next big thing trust me. The vocal expertise of Skandal, an MC based in Northern Ireland and of course my homie from Toronto, Canada, MC Zee, as well as the awesome talents of Laura Proudman, who incidentally was Komatose’s relative and just decided to jump on the track with him.
Finally there’s Kleu. I’m a big, big fan of their work and we were talking for quite a while about collaborating. They literally submitted their track right on the submission deadline to complete the package. How’s that for Kleu customer service! <3
Producing liquid tracks for these two albums has proved to be a bit of a creative detour for some of the artists involved, right?
A few of the artists featured took me by surprise when submitting music, as they aren’t known for liquid DNB, and for them it was a way to scratch an itch by doing something new and creating a whole new sound. TRCD, HighThere The Fi5th, Varkid and Abidance (Bad Ace) were those artists and it feels great to help them do something a little different for this release.
The project also has a wide geographical reach too. There are producers quite literally from all over the world on this thing. Do these outside factors ever influence you when you’re procuring a project like this?
It never really dawns on me where the artist is from when submitting music. I have been very lucky with Dirtbox, as I have artists from almost every continent now. I do have a current project that’s showing this off right now in ‘Cities’ which currently consists of two EP releases with parts three and four landing in 2024. So as you can see, this is something I am very proud of. All the artists involved have very distinct sounds that you can tell is a product of their environment, so I always feel the results can be very different to say a UK producer.
There are also two stunning album mixes available with each LP. The DJs involved with this are?
Yes, Sub:Liminal and Iyre.
My good friend Mel in the states hooked me up with a chat with rising stars Sub:liminal and Lyre, who are both smashing it to bits with releases between them on Hospital, Soulvent, UKF & Pilot. This was such a great get for me, as It really legitimizes the album with two rising and established artists being involved in the sound. This was 100% the aim from the very first idea behind getting the mixes done.
I have always put a mix on the big compilation projects we do, as I feel this is gonna be great for listeners. The album itself is not 100% DJ focused as you can probably tell by some of the music, so we went out to find the best we could and we got it. (Thanks Mel)
We absolutely love the artwork for this project! What made you choose that particular reference, and how important would you say that artwork is in the digital age?
The artwork initially started out by me thinking of the things I link with sunshine and summer. This compilation was built for summer listening. Miami and Miami Vice was at the crux of it. I’m not sure why, but that neon writing always makes me think of the summer and I think it looks cool as f**k.
Once the first idea for the logo came in it looked distinctly like the GTA game and of course, this spawned a crazy idea to transform every artist featured into their own GTA character. This was a massive task for our artist who created these all individually, so I cannot thank Matt enough for his work on bringing this to life. Artwork can be very important to grab attention. If you nail it you`ll get people listening based just on how it looks to start with. I do try to make sure all the releases on Dirtbox are distinctively different from other labels. It’s hard to do it all the time, but sometimes like with this project, you just nail it.
Tell us a bit about the videos that are going hand in hand with this then?
We have a lot of visuals for this. With each release I make it a goal to always try and get a visualizer/music video done. It certainly helps get people watching it on YouTube and the socials more, and gets them to watch for longer too (these are both keys to good promo)
All four singles have a nice music video that you can view online now, and we have a few more from other tracks within the project. What we have also tried to do is get these videos premiered on other channels on YouTube, rather than just the Dirtbox Recordings channel.
There’s been some great success in doing this as we discovered a great channel called DNB India. They have supported two of the releases on their platform which has blown me away. It’s great to see that there is a thriving DNB scene in India too, and now our music is there for them to hear.
There’s also a podcast listening party happening. Please tell us a bit more about that?
I’m a big fan of Comedy Podcasts/Joe Rogan type stuff. I think this type of media is brilliant. I watch more YouTube myself than TV nowadays and I have always had a vested interest in Podcasting. Back in 2015 I started a comedy/DNB podcast called `Dirtbox & Friends` which you can find on SoundCloud and YouTube (@DirtboxRecordings). I stopped doing this when the label started and the plan was always to bring it back.
Earlier this year I started `Yo! DNB Wraps” obviously a play on words from my favourite show as a teen on MTV, which was ‘Yo! MTV Raps’. It is put together to give people an insight into interesting people in drum and bass, as well as people behind the scenes. We have had some seriously good interviews this year and you can find it in video and audio everywhere. The listening party is our latest episode and consists of me listening to the album as a whole, talking about it and interviewing some of the artists from it as well. It’s a lot of fun and something I’m going to be doing a lot more of once this episode has landed.
With so much incredible music out there, what would you say makes a liquid track stand out above the rest? There are some interesting variations on the liquid sound on these LP’s, including liquidy rollers (which I have heard described recently as ‘post liquid’) and some edgier takes on the style too.
One thing I never really thought about was the fact that each DNB sub-genre also has its own sub-genre too. Once this came to mind, I decided to try and bring in as many as possible for the project. It’s really hard to say what stands out though, as they all have the same general ethos of being a little more chill but as you can hear by this project, there is so much more to it than that.
For example, you have your big commercial lead vocal bits like Kusha’s ‘Come Back To Me’ (which incidentally has been hammered on BBC Radio West Midlands), then you have super deep intricate works like ‘Flow’ by Puzzled coupled with tracks bridging the gap between liquid and neurofunk like ‘VJC’ by The Fi5th. I think what makes them all good is they capture some kind of emotion and that is really what I was looking for when signing this music.
Fair play Lee. This has clearly been a labour of love. We wish you and everybody involved the best of luck!
FIND OUT MORE HERE:
Various Artists – Vibe City Volume 1 (cygnusmusic.link)
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