If you’re looking for a serious chest-pressing, chop-walloping slab of premium gully this week, look no further than Rido & Mefjus’s Optimum Trajectory EP on Blackout.
“It was a very slow process and we kept it very secret,” grins Rido – the Prague-based sonic scientist who gave us the massive Twisted on Metalheadz a few years back. “Neither of us are the type of guys who kick up a storm before anything happens! We did a lot of work together whenever we could – we squeezed in time between our tight schedules.”
For Rido – and Mefjus for that matter – the most important thing was working in person and not submitting to the more conventional (and, admittedly much more efficient) method of working online in isolation.
“For me, that’s the only reason you should work with someone collaboratively,” he explains. “To be there and have that experience together. Martin is so technical. I’m pretty technical myself but he takes the smallest details to a whole new level. Also, we didn’t want to go for the biggest dancefloor tunes… We just wanted to make tunes that were fun to make and worked in different scenarios. Of course you have to bear the DJs and dancefloor in mind but the main focus has to be the writers being happy and being able to enjoy the tracks in the car or at home or on headphones.”
If you’ve checked the EP, you’ll know each of the four cuts work in pretty much all scenarios. But then this should come as no surprise when you understand Rido’s vantage point, history and day job. Here’s a few facts about the Czech maestro you may not already know…
His day job is recording music and mixing for movies
“I’ve always been fascinated by the cinematic music. I do sound engineering and mix music for cinema and TV. Most of them are Czech films but I’ve done some international movies and recorded movies that people might recognise. I recorded music for George Lucas’s Red Tails and Piranha 3D. I’ve also written scores for a national TV series. I really enjoy it and while it takes up too much of my time I’d rather spend making drum & bass, it’s still a dream job.”
The first track he ever sent to Metalheadz got signed
“I’ve been producing drum & bass for many years, but it took a long time to break into the UK because the scene was so different and the internet wasn’t really happening. Then in 2007 I got my first English release on Defcom. From there I started working with Black Sun Empire and, following that, came the Metalheadz releases. I sent them one track – Focus – and they got back to me straight away… It was the first track I ever sent them! This led to a collab EP with Hybris, then Twisted and a second EP. It was a major achievement for me and a big ambition for a long, long time…”
His inspirations come directly from the D&B source…
“My passion for drum & bass really took root when I lived in London for a while in 1999. I would go to the legendary Dingwalls for their Sunday Sessions and it was such an eye-opener. It was dark and deep and really exciting. I’d never heard music like it before. It was very inspiring – Loxy, Doc Scott, Goldie of course. All of them playing music none of us had heard at the time! Then, during the week I used to go to all the record stores and a really big synth store on Tottenham Court Road. I’d play on the synths and think ‘oh man, this would be so cool to buy one of these!’ It was a great time to be in London – everything was very fresh and exciting. The inspiration has never left me.”
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