Broken Bubble is onto its 25th release, and when you combine a high-quality label, a Night Tracks favourite in producer Venture, capped off by artwork from Night Tracks' very own Taavi, then you should know this release couldn't have possible failed. Well it did. Nah jokes, it's sick. Fortunately Venture was on hand (via work email) to catch up with us... #BASE.
Despite recent excursions onto a more garage-y tip, Venture returns to what he does best; languid, flickering minimal genius. As with most of his releases, this is one that requires multiple listens, each turn revealing something new, whether it's the running line of hats in Kolendo, the distant horns hidden in the murk of The Calling's pads or the essential Big Narstie sample in stepper Inner Circle. A stand-out on the EP has gotta be the vocals from Livi, working in perfect harmony with Venture's knack for atmospheric perfection.
As always, Broken Bubble cap off the EP with a fine series of commissioned remixes from the BB stable, this time, Klatu, Ak0pian and Bija. Klatu's remix of Tides is just about as good as a remix gets, a moving affair reminiscent of Burial's Crackle Blues remix. Ak0pian takes things on an '06 dubstep hype, focusing on cutting and twisting the Narstie sample for his take on Inner Circle, and Bija drops a remix of The Calling indebted to the likes of Autechre, to show that he's no one-dimensional producer.
We caught up with Venture too....
NT: Yo. What have you been up to recently?
V: Not that much actually, I had a good 6 weeks without
doing anything musically, which is a pretty long hiatus for me. But now I’m back,
I feel refreshed and I’m ready to get back into production.
NT: When did Broken Bubble first contact you about putting
together an EP for them?
V: Guy first contacted me on the 1st February
2012 at 12:03. He’d listened to Inner Circle and was really diggin’ it, so he
asked me to get on board and write an EP. I’d finished my part of the EP by the
18th February 2012 at 09:29.
NT: Very precise, thank you. Our readers will appreciate it.
NT: How did you come to work with the vocalist Livi? She
seems perfectly suited to your style...
V: It started out as a threesome with fellow producer ZiD.
The three of us were connected on Soundcloud and had discussed for a while
about working together, which we eventually did. Then after that, I'd send her
samples I was working on, and we’ve been collaborating since, her voice just
works so well with the style I like to write, she’s very talented. I told her
I’ve signed her as my full-time vocalist for my next album, she has no say in
the matter.
NT: Tell us what’s in the pipeline for Venture...
V: I received a surprise email yesterday confirming my EP
for Square Harmony. That’s pretty much ready, so that’ll be out in the near
future. I’m writing some ambient tunes for Black Hymn Records, that’ll be a
free EP I think. I’m working with a new vocalist, hopefully that all works out
and there’ll be a new vocal track up on Soundcloud at some point soon. There’s
a few other releases that’ll be out soon too, best to just follow my Facebook fan page for the latest Venture gossip. Other than that, I’ll just be churning out the tunes again
in the next few weeks hopefully.
NT: Finally, anybody you’ve come across recently that we
should keep an eye on?
V:. I’m just listening to my favourite artists at the moment
really, I’d recommend checking out everything on the Narratives Music label,
timeless music lives on.
NT: #BASE
NT: #BASE
You can grab Ebb from Broken Bubble's Bandcamp page as a name-your-price download now.
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