Bristol based Intrigue Music is a Liquid Dnb label that’s been going from strength to strength over the past few years and with another exciting looking album due for release on March 16th I caught up with Ben Soundscape for a bit of insight into the label and album.

Hi Ben, For those new to Intrigue Music could you tell us a bit about the history of the label and the idea behind it?

Intrigue Music started life back in 2009 as an evolution of the Intrigue club night. The night started out as a ‘liquid’ night back in the day. With the label, the idea was to showcase the best in deep drum n bass, from both new and established producers. The sound has evolved over time to include all styles of drum n bass, as long as it’s high quality. I want the music to have a certain depth to it, as well as being able to stand the test of time.

 

What would you say have been your biggest releases to date?

So far it’s got to be the absolutely incredible Break remix of our Insiders track ‘Wonder Why’, featuring the amazing vocal talents of Collette Warren. That one got played by everyone! Another notable release was ‘Wake Up’ by RoyGreen & Protone, which recently got snapped up by Hospital for their ‘Hospitality 2015’ mix CD. ‘Meltdown’ from myself and Joe (The Insiders) was also a big tune, getting regular rewinds from Goldie and Storm.

Our new album ‘Intrigue 12’ is generating a lot of hype right now, with Friction caning ‘Love I Gave’ on Radio 1 and the other tunes being played by LTJ Bukem, Marky, Fabio, Patife, Storm and Bryan G.

 

You’ve also been running Intrigue as a event in Bristol, any plans for more nights on the horizon?

Yes indeed – the next one is the 12th Birthday and ‘Intrigue 12’ album launch party, which takes place next Friday 20th February at Dojo’s in Bristol. We’ve pulled out all the stops, with D-Bridge playing a 3 hour set and Randall coming with a history set. It should be a biggie, we’re all getting really excited!!

After that, I’m looking forward to Ulterior Motive in April, the guys have yet to play Intrigue so that should be good. I’m also looking into doing an event in London with my partners at Aerosoul  once we’ve found the right venue for it.

 

For the Intrigue 12 album you’ve put together an impressive line-up of artists, could you tell our readers a bit about them?

Why thank you! I wanted to create a diverse tracklist, which meant a long process of gathering tunes from artists all over the world. Several of them are from the USA – friends of mine who I met whilst touring. Every artist on the album brings their own unique style and flavour to ‘Intrigue 12’. I collaborated with the artists on several of the tracks, which is always a lot of fun. Everyone has their own unique way of working, and it’s interesting to see everyone’s take on things.

Randall and MC Supa brought the dancefloor jungle vibes with our track ‘We Ramping’. They came round my studio one day and we rolled it out. It was one of those tunes that just came together quickly and worked. There were a lot of complaints from my neighbours that day though!

I also worked with Florida-based Random Movement on a tune called ‘Love I Gave’ when he was over in Europe last September. Things flowed really nicely and we wrote two tracks in a few days.

I made a conscious effort to involve newcomers in the project too. Lurch is definitely one to watch, he sent over a couple of tracks by email that were both excellent, the perfect combination between musical vibes and raw energy.

Stereotype, based in Miami, has a great track on the album called ‘Lost in Los Angeles’ which has been in my DJ sets for a long time, and is now finally seeing the light of day! Another Florida-based artist, Jaybee, picked RoyGreen & Protone’s ‘Wake Up’ to remix and did a fine job at reworking a superb original. He also contributed ‘Holding Pattern’ which features two very unique vocalists, TRAC and Ella Jones.

Raw Q, New York resident, has done a sick VIP of ‘NY State of Mine’ also featuring TRAC, as well as remixing Random Movement’s ‘Scotch Bonnet’, one of the earlier Intrigue releases from back in 2009.

Superior Selectionz are a crew from Yeovil made up of three people who I met back in 2006 when I first saw them DJing. Since then we’ve become close friends and work regularly in the studio together – I was down there last weekend in fact. They join me on ‘Talk to Me’, one of the more laid back bits on the LP.

I wanted to involve Zero T in the project as well, and with his remix of ‘Dusk’ he’s taken it in a techier direction than the original. It’s always nice when an artist comes in with something fresh and unexpected!

There’s an Insiders track on there called ‘After Hours’, which I felt was a perfect way to end the album. It’s the sort of thing you’d expect to hear late in the night, a deep and moody piece, not in your face in any way. We’ve got quite a few other new tracks ready to unleash in the coming months, watch this space.

Break is one of my favourite producers and has been part of the label since the beginning, contributing ‘Out of Nowhere’ for our second release, as well as his ‘Wonder Why’ remix. He does an excellent job at mastering our releases too. For this album he’s given us ‘Chainmail’ which is a twisted half-time steppa!

 

Which tracks are your personal favorites?

That’s a tough one as I love every track! I would say that though wouldn’t I. My faves change every week, but the current ones are ‘Lost in Los Angeles’, ‘Body Language’, ‘Love I Gave’ and ‘NY State of Mine’.

 

You’ve also been kind enough to provide our readers with a free track from Stereotype & Sopheye?

Yeah it’s called ‘Sock it to Me’, a lovely dnb rework of the famous Missy Elliot tune. I heard Stereotype play it a while back, and then in Miami last year Sopheye sang it live. It was brilliant, I just had to snap it up for the label right away and everyone loves a free tune!

Soundcloud Download:

 

Anything else you’d like to mention?

Head to https://soundcloud.com/intriguemusic/sets/intrigue12 to check out the album on Soundcloud

For more info on everything Intrigue related, news, music, t-shirts, demo submissions, check out our website http://www.intrigue.org.uk, and FB http://www.facebook.com/intriguednb

Instagram: @bensoundscape

 

Thanks for speaking to us today

You’re welcome! Thanks for your support.