RTRFM’s dance music program, Full Frequency is throwing a party this Friday, October 18, at Geisha, featuring some local and finely chosen electro, breaks and bass music DJ/producers, one being drum’n’bass duo, Ekko & Sidetrack. RACHEL DAVISON finds out what havoc the boys have been causing on the dance floor of late.
Making some impressive melodic and energetic drum’n’bass tunes and bootlegs which you can hear on SoundCloud and YouTube, Ekko & Sidetrack, who also happen to be brothers, released Bullet/From Me To You, on local drum’n’bass label, Cue Recordings, late last year.
They also did an official remix for Greg Packer, one for UK trio Dexcell, and a remix for the now-Melbourne-via-Perth producer, Drop Frame. The unofficial ones though, like the one they did earlier this year of Bravado by Lorde, can often end up as a favourite.
“The unofficial ones normally come about because we really love a tune and it inspires us,” says younger brother, Jono Hansen. “Some bootlegs have never seen the light of day, but they usually turn into originals.
“So far the responses have been great,” he says of the Lorde bootleg. “At first I don’t think many people recognised the Lorde aspect of the tune and just enjoyed it as a drum’n’bass tune. It’s off her older EP, but I think as her popularity has grown so has people’s recognition – other DJs have also been into it!”
In the studio they’re using mostly Abelton Live and plug-ins to create their tunes although they’d like to add some hardware into the mix, “but that costs money we don’t have at the moment,” Hansen says, as he goes on to tell us how to create an unofficial bootleg, when you haven’t been sent the original parts of the track – like the bass, drums and vocals etc.
“We just used any part of the tune that didn’t have big drums over it basically,” he explains, again referring to the Lorde remix. “The whole intro of the original is a capella so that made it perfect to work with. Other than that, it’s all about selective equalising and processing to render everything but the vocal. Lorde’s stuff is pretty minimal so it lends itself to bootlegging, more so than other artists.”
With quality productions, comes good gig offers – and they’ve been playing some great ones recently. “We’ve supported Sigma and the Brookes Brothers at Villa and Shapeshifter at Metro’s,” Hansen says. “It’s always an honour to play with artists you respect and have a chat to them. Shapeshifter were amazing to see, especially the live sax, and they were such nice guys! The last gig at The Switch (fortnightly Friday’s at Shape Bar) was really fun. Just the vibe in the club was awesome. Had lots of new tunes to play and people really came along for the ride.”
Dart, Charlie Chan, Micah & Philly Blunt, Riot Class and Sardi will all be joining Ekko & Sidetrack at the Full Frequency Presents: Broken, Beaten, Scratched show this Friday.”We should have finished the VIP of our tune Bullet in time (for Friday), so keep an ear out for that, it’s something a bit different from us. Otherwise we hope to showcase a wide variety of tunes and take the party on a bit of a journey through drum’n’bass.”
