EJ Underground sister label, Krafted Records, has made its debut with the techno monster ‘Scaredrum’ from fast-rising Norwegian producer, Ponytech. Remixes come courtesy Scientific Funk – already an established producer on labels such as Wiggle – with his acid-fuelled interpretation and Bournemouth-based Romanian DJ & producer Ovi Valentino.
TNG gets the lowdown from Meg Morgan on the full EP, before an exclusive interview with Krafted founder, Paul Sawyer…
Meg: Shining new label Krafted Records, specialising in deep tech house, progressive and techno, cracks the surface of the industry with the release of the dynamic techno EP, ‘Scaredrum’. This is courtesy of Norwegian producer, Ponytech, who is already signed to Krafted’s sister label EJ Underground, and is rising through the ranks of the underground electronic music scene – and fast. The EP is backed up by a pair of powerful tech house remixes, tangled and weaved by emerging DJs, Scientific Funk and Ovi Valentino.
During the Original Mix, a deep beat sets the blue tone for the song, seeming to push further into your mind with every note, coaxing your brain into full immersion between the edgeless rhythms and skipping backbeats. Smooth synths rise up between the central sounds, low and sinister with the slowly shifting pitch, as the song progresses. It almost sounds as if the song is personified, as though it is standing up. Another beat overlaps the rooted one, increasing the complexity and tightening the bonds between the erratic, displaced musical elements that make up the song. Independent sounds are intermixed in the turbid mosaic that is ‘Scaredrum’ throughout, adding a coloured splash of electronic paint, but overall the song creates a steady flow of techno artistry.
The Scientific Funk remix is much more full of sounds, spilling over each other in a smooth relay, with fewer short, sharp sounds and more elongated ones to combine the song into a single journey, instead of fragmenting it. It also fluctuates through a more muted segment in the middle, easing the sense of repetitiveness and adding variation. After this, the beat erupts back up, this time with even more power and depth, proving a focal point for the other complimentary sounds to slip around. It’s like an amped-up version of the original, with the quiet sounds made quieter and the loud sounds made louder.
The Ovi Valentino Remix has a more complex and active beat, with a clunking, wooden sound as opposed to something more clearly artificial. An eerie, level note is present behind the jaunty beat throughout the track, taking away the minimalistic quality of the original mix. Vocal elements are also interlaced, giving an almost tribal tenor – the track is made more interesting as it expands out of its genre, dipping tentatively into more mainstream sounds.
TNG: Hey Paul, So what inspired the formation of Krafted Records?
PS: The whole reason Krafted came about was because I wanted to form a label that concentrated on what I play basically, which is all deep tech house and techno. Because EJ Underground is all genres of house music, from electronica to deep house and more. I also wanted a different image to the label as well, which you’ve probably noticed from the artwork.
TNG: that was my next question actually – the artwork is amazing – how did you come up with it?
PS: I was quite conscious of the old school rave artwork when I came up with the concept but I didn’t want to go as colourful as they used to and they used to have quite a lot of different fonts on the flyers, which I wanted to stay away from but I wanted it to still have that cool element – almost a bit like Renaissance but without going that far. I mean they had a particular look didn’t they, for years? And that was what I was the style I was trying to recreate but not copy. I wanted it to have quite a lot of depth, which is what I’m trying to look for in the music. It’s going back to the old school I suppose when the whole house scene took off. It was about getting away from your normal life, and I suppose it’s a bit like that now. But I’m not into it in a big way clubbing-wise like I was years ago, so I can’t comment on whether that’s what people feel when they go out nowadays, but when I was going out years ago, that was a major thing, so I wanted to recreate that vibe in the imagery as well as its music.
TNG: What’s your plan for Krafted then, looking forward?
PS: I’ve got about a dozen releases signed up already but I’m not going to release too much too soon. When I started EJ Underground I was releasing two records a week, which is quite a lot, and we’re up to release 70-something now, so I’m slowing that down because since joining forces with Endemic and acquiring Bloxbox [the label founded by Brandon Block] we’ve got to be a little bit careful about how much we release. Promoting all of it all is going to be a bit costly and we want everyone to get behind everything we do – we don’t want to just end up saturating it and having nobody follow it, because that could easily happen couldn’t it? Krafted is sort of my baby and I just want to get it in the right hands and see where it goes really.
TNG: How did you decide on the debut release?
PS: I was to-ing and fro-ing over what would be the best release to debut the label, but I’m really into the Ponytech stuff. He’s quite a new producer from Norway and I came across him because I’ve got a guy who does A&R for me from Thailand called Jordan Bourdes and he found him. Then he did a track on EJ Underground with Jordan called ‘Auntie Depressant’ and the support has been brilliant. The number of plays on Soundcloud has been massive. So that’s why I chose Ponytech for the debut. And Scientific Funk came up with that acid line for the remix, which was just awesome. Acid is coming back in a big way. The second remixer I chose was Ovi Valentino from Romania but lives in Bournemouth. I chose him because the feedback I’ve been getting from his remixes has been amazing. People like Luciano have been supporting his stuff so it’s been brilliant. It’ll be interesting to see how far that release goes really.
Check out the full EP below…
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