When I met up with My Digital Enemy earlier this year, we had a talk about the state of House music, their love of tribal bass and the most expensive thing they’d ever bought. Fast forward seven months and Kieron and Serg have dropped another typically Bass heavy main room banger featuring vocals from Lizzie Massey entitled “To Dust“, released on Beatport on the 20th of October this track comes in two flavours: the original and a Rektchords Remix.
The original mix of this track gives you the high energy bassline right up front, these guys aren’t ones to tease you with ‘the drop’, it’s the kind of in your face polyrhythm that you want to hear at the peak of your weekend powers, when there’s no such thing as Monday, just you, your fresh moves and the endless possibilities. Serg and Kieron specialise in uplifting high energy productions, they “spend a crazy amount of time tweaking and refining our basslines”, and over the last year, their focus on their own brand of Bass has been pushed to the fore.
“Compressors EQ’s and other nerdy gadgets” are the main production tools of choice at the moment and the rewards of endless tweaking are evident throughout the track – the clean bouncy bassline of the intro develops as the vocal is introduced; building to the kind of crescendo that is a bass lovers dream. Massey’s effervescent vocal over the top is featherlight, letting the production carry the impact while keyboard keys tinkle in the back of the arrangement before it all comes together and builds once more. These two Brighton boys thrive on club atmosphere and put everything into their performances. It’s not surprising that in 2013, they deejayed in Japan, Russia, Canada, Indonesia, Barbados and of course the UK & Europe with this year being no different they’ve continued to play to crowds across the continents.
The thing that makes this track so pleasurable is the ability of Kieron and Serg to know exactly when to pull back on the tricks, when to let Massey’s vocal and lyricism carry the mood of the song, and when to let that voluminous bassline speak to itself, it’s a love of bass that combines effortlessly in this particular 1990’s style breakdown. With Toolroom Records having recently #RESET their focus, stripping back the dressing and letting the music take centre stage, it’s easy to understand why the House and Tech House sounds of a duo like My Digital Enemy would be made welcome on the imprint, “we love producing House music; the reason we were drawn to it is the party vibes that come hand in hand with the music – which is why Toolroom is such a good home for us”. My Digital Enemy’s productions are highly in demand and as well as releasing them on their own label Zulu Records, they have also released tracks on Toolroom, Stealth, Spinnin, Great Stuff, Hotfingers, Skint and many others besides.
The remix of “To Dust” comes courtesy of Rektchords – yet another hugely talented producer that has emerged from Bristol’s ever bubbling underground scene; his tracks have gained him support in recent times from the likes of James Zabiela, Crookers and Todd Edwards. His offering on the remix of “To Dust” is another high energy interpretation although his use of bass differs from the original, the vocal drives the track and the melody then flows around – the bassline on this one has a Xylophonic quality that adds body and volume without overpowering. Both utilize their chosen basslines to great effect, on the original is a thumping take-no-prisoners dancefloor challenge whereas the Rektchords vibe is slightly more mellow. His genre simply states that he makes ‘Feel Good music’ and based on this offering, it’s hard to disagree.
“To Dust” is out on Beatport now, purchase it here.
Words by Akua Ofei // Edited by Ayo Adepoju
