FABRICLIVE 52

I don™t like to be pigeon-holed. People are constantly coming up with new names for jungle. It™s all jungle, to me. If it™s at 170 BPM it™s jungle, its drum n™ bass, that™s it.›  Zero T In the world of drum & bass, a scene all too often segregated by superficially constructed genre confines, Zero T stands as a figurehead for a new breed of producers tearing down these boundaries and building from the ground up, creating a more open musical plane. By setting his own parameters, Zero T not only explores the full spectrum of sounds within D&B, but expands beyond it with his forward-thinking, intricately textured and overtly musical sound. It comes as little wonder that Zero T™s absorbed such a plethora of wide-spanning influences that diffuse through his own music, amalgamating to create something unique and, in a word, peerless. Music is something that has surrounded the talented artist from his earliest days: from growing up alongside his father™s ever-expanding blue note jazz collection, to being tutored by his older brother™s multi-instrumental musicianship, to his exposure to jungle through older friends, to an entirely fortuitous meeting with fellow Irish D&B artist Calibre. Zero T™s rise to prominence was extraordinarily rapid, which is perhaps representative of the kind of artist, and character, he happens to be. After joining the Bassbin collective in Dublin, Zero T was quickly snapped up by the legendary 4 Hero for their Reinforced imprint. Bassbin was Rohan and Naphta's club night that turned into a bunch of |No residents...and we ended up getting our own club. We did it every week for a few years. When we started to make our own tunes, Rohan started a label - the first ever release was Naphta and I on Bassbin #1. As that was coming out, Beta 2 and I had just started to make tunes together. We had a handful of tunes going but we were very unsure of ourselves. One night, we went to go and see Digital and Stretch at a Reinforced Night. Beta 2™s girlfriend jumped on stage and said we were making some D&B tunes - and they actually asked us to bring them a CD! We got a phone call from Marc Mac a week later saying they wanted an EP. So our first release, other than on Bassbin, was a Reinforced EP - that was in 1999. It™s still mind-blowing to me; it was like winning the world cup."  Zero T From there, Zero T was quickly picked up for releases on esteemed labels like Integral, V and CIA, culminating with the release of his critically lauded ˜Cheap Shots™ LP for Total Science™s imprint. Taking in a variety of different sounds and moods, ˜Cheap Shots™ was an ambitious LP, maintaining both immediate and lasting effect. Deftly playing with shades of light and dark, eschewing constrictive sound palettes and rhythmic rigidity, Zero T has not restricted himself to any one easily defined sound, letting each release occupy its own musical territory. That his music can sit as comfortably on Subtitles as Soul:r speaks volumes about his versatility. Refusing to let up even for a second, Zero T recently set up his own Footprints label as an outlet for his own productions as well as those of his close cohorts. The debut release, split between Zero T & Bailey™s hard stepping, ominous ˜Wasp Factory™ and Calibre & ST Files™ rolling ˜Devil Inside™ was unanimously devoured, announcing the arrival of the label in style. I™d been toying with starting a label for a long time. I make lots of music, |No I collaborate with many people, and I've got 10 years of experience on my back. It felt like 10 years was long enough to just be an employee - I wanted to become the employer and be my own boss! (laughs) I was super lucky to get Calibre and Bailey to work on the first release and could never have hoped for it to be such a strong release. The second release comes from Moses and I, and I™ve got my original compatriot Beta 2, who has been studying and out of music for a few years, so this is kind of his return."  Zero T With many more strings to his bow, Zero T is also working several other projects which serve as an outlet for just some of his myriad interests outside of drum & bass. Fuelled by an insatiable creative appetite, there™s no chance that Zero T will let himself stagnate; he tirelessly strives for evolution and expansion. šMy main plan for this year is to branch out into other music worlds. I™m currently working on a hip-hop, soul project that will be aimed at commercial release. The band is called The Jones™s. It is a labour of love that I™m trying to launch in September. The sound involves a lot of samples and the use of some live players; everything from early 80s sleaze funk to 90s hip hop. It™s the music that makes me tick on a personal level; the music I listened to before drum n™ bass. The fact that I do play a lot of different styles is starting to filter out to the general populous.›  Zero T ˜FABRICLIVE 52: Zero T™ seamlessly connects the dots between the different facets of his sound with aplomb, deftly moving through tempos and styles to create a beautifully crafted mix. Fusing a wide spectrum of styles with ease, Zero T simultaneously showcases the expansive and diverse possibilities at one™s fingertips, while highlighting the common threads between them. At once free flowing and precise, the mix takes you on a journey through an intoxicating world of sound, veering from the ominous to the uplifting, the paranoid to the soulful. Expanding its appeal beyond the limitations of drum & bass, it effortlessly takes in dubstep, garage, house and hip hop along the way. Further ensuring its durability, it hosts a healthy smattering of exclusives throughout: Lemon D, Dillinja, Break, Calibre, and extremely special versions of tunes from Icicle and Paradox - never to be heard anywhere else. šIt seems that here in the UK, strict genres and the rigidity of DJing are both melting away. Now it™s normal for me to switch tempos in a D&B set, and it™s just as normal for Skream and Benga to play a D&B tune - which is healthy. Hopefully it™s going to turn back into just UK bass music, with tempos being flexible. It really opens you up as a DJ when you can play a good tune at the right time, instead of being obsessed with double drops and stupid timings. That™s what I was trying to do with the mix: to show my sets at a peak time show, but also get really eclectic in the mix later on - with dubstep and old garage classics (such as Wookie's ˜Little Man™), then some dub and straight up techno, finishing on some jacking Chicago-style house. At the very end there™s this new crew local to my adopted home (N8), it's basically a hip hop tune that switches into something a bit like Roni Size™s 'Music Box,' with twinkly Rhodes and cosmic surfer samples. I wanted to give an honest representation of what a Zero T set is like, to play tunes that I genuinely love. I also wanted for it to be a CD for people that aren™t into drum & bass. It goes from dark, to more musical, to vocal, to properly minimal and deep stuff. I™ve managed to get all the artists I wanted, who are either heroes of mine or the current people to watch. Some of the tracks will only appear on the CD, they'll never appear anywhere else - lots of exclusives.›  Zero T. Paradox - A Certain Sound (Alaska & Paradox Lost DAT Mix) [Paradox] Kabuki feat. Jeru The Damaja - Watch Your Step (Need For Mirrors VIP Mix) [V] Ulterior Motive - Seven Segments [Unreleased] Slam - Positive Education (Zero T Remix) [Soma] Lynx & Kemo - You Are Being Lied To [Detail] Icicle - Ocular [Shogun Audio] Zero T feat. Script - Guessing Games [Footprints] System - Speed of Light [Footprints] Lemonde - Heaven [Valve] Jubei - Distrust [Shogun Audio] Break - Wine [Symmetry] All Thieves - Stars (Zero T Remix) [Footprints] Need For Mirrors - Sick In The Head [Footprints] Rockwell - Everything (& U) [Darkestral] Artificial Intelligence & Krust - Audio Assault [V] Fracture & Neptune - The Limit [Astrophonica] Dillinja - When Love [Valve] Zero T feat. Steo - Walk Away (Zero T Reprint) [CIA] Genotype - Dubsoca [Unreleased] Commix - Japanese Electronics (Instra:mental Remix) [Metalheadz] SP:MC & Joker D - Down [Unreleased] Icicle - Xylophobia [Shogun Audio] Compound One - Pum Pum Beat [Compound One] Sia - Little Man (Exemen Remix) [Long Lost Brother] Ation - Missing You [Unreleased] Equinox - Space Dub [Scientific Wax] Marcus Intalex - 21 [Soul:r] Calibre - Reach [Unreleased] Reds feat. Tehbis & Fee Lups - Green Lanes [Footprints]