“A name doesn’t carry weight for me. A good track is a good track! That’s what DPMO is about; it’s not the best of the best on this very best compilation; it’s simply a bunch of wicked tracks from guys you might not have heard of, all tried and tested in my sets and all sick as fuck mate…”
With that type of description, we don’t need to explain the DPMO concept much further. But we will anyway… A new series on Circus dedicated to the heavier, underground side of dubstep curated by Funty McFuntcase himself, expect regular dispatches bulging with the most exciting new talent and biggest bangers he’s been keeping as percy… Until now.
“Every track I’ve put on this compilation has been massive in my sets for months,” he explains. “They still are massive for me now. Once people know them you have that great combination of familiarity and underground sound. So it’s like the best of both worlds meeting.”
Effectively what Funtcase is talking about here is dubplate culture; the process of letting a track build its own hype and story over time before finally releasing it to fans who, by this stage, have been craving it for months.
“I’ve been banging on about dubplate culture for so long now,” says Funt. “It’s the worst thing ever when you’re playing at a festival and every DJ plays the same big tracks. That’s why I love finding these gems from guys who I’ve never heard of in my life before… I win, because I have music none of my peers do. The artist wins because their music is getting out to larger audiences and the dancefloor wins because I’m not playing the same tracks you’ve heard before.”
And when the hype has reached the appropriate level for release, Funtcase will now present it as part of a DPMO dispatch. He’s already half way through volume 2 as you read this.
“I’ve got over 10 tracks signed for it now and trust me, they’re the biggest tunes in my set right now,” he grins.
Don’t take his word for it, though – go and see him on his tour, launching this week, and hear them for yourselves.
14th Sept: Grand Rapids
15th Sept: Tampa
16th Sept: Tallahassee
20th Sept: Gainesville
21st Sept: San Marcos
22nd Sept: Puerto Rico
23rd Sept: Miami
27th Sept: Seattle
28th Sept: San Francisco
29th Sept: Los Angeles
30th Sept: Ohio
And now hear these… We asked Funtcase to personally introduce and biggup each artist on DPMO’s inaugural volume. This is how it went down…
Phiso
“I’m mentoring Phiso in a similar way to how Excision is mentoring Dion Timmer right now. Obviously we all know how hot this guy is; he wrote the biggest dubstep tune in years with Jotaro and there are a lot of people sniffing around him right now. So I’m guiding him, helping him make the right decisions and playing his music hard. The first drop in my set is always a Phiso one and always one of the biggest. Perish Song has been massive in my sets for a long time and when I got the go-ahead for DPMO I went straight to him and signed it. Just in the nick of time too…”
Kompany & Adair
“I knew about both Kompany and Adair as solo artists, mainly through their Firepower releases but not a huge amount more. Then when I set up the email for people to send music to and Kompany came in out of the blue with four tunes and they were all absolute fire. It was a hard job to pick one!”
Aweminus & Definitive
“Everyone knows Aweminus can kill it, he’s been putting all different types of fire – dubstep and drum & bass – for more than a minute. Not quite as many people know how much Definitive is killing it too. He’s been onside with Savage Society for a while. That crew can do no wrong for underground dubstep!”
Paix
“Paix is also mates with Flakzz & Aryaxz, who we’ll get to in a minute. As far as I know, they’re all from Russia and have just come out of nowhere with these incredible tunes. I’d been speaking to Flakzz & Aryaxz for a while and realised they were all connected. Paix productions don’t always fit my style, but when he turns in a banger, it’s a fucking banger mate. Wiseman’s Cave was one of them. I premiered it at Rampage last year – people were ID’ing it straight away.”
Infekt
“Infekt is part of the Monsters crew. I’d been aware of him for a while but not really gone out of my way to check his stuff if you know what I mean. Then he sent me a few bits on email and I realised I needed to pay attention a lot more than I was. He’s sent me some absolute fire on various occasions now.”
Torqux
“These guys have been around since before me! They’ve released all kinds of music over the years… Underground and mainstream on labels like Never Say Die and MTA. They’re probably best known for their house music but this is them going back to that greasy dubstep they do so well. I want them to do more!”
Flakzz & Aryaxz
“I just mentioned these guys. I’ve been playing their stuff for a few years now. They actually landed in my life at the same time Coffi released Power Moves. The same time he gave me his track I got a track from Flakzz & Aryaxz with the same name and same sample. It was super greasy and made me go ‘who the fuck are these dudes?’ I’ve had Bad Render for a while now. Years. I assumed it was signed but when I set up DPMO and asked them about it, they said it wasn’t signed so I was like give it to me NOW!”
Squnto
“I got a release from Squnto called Sayim and was playing it for a long long time. It was really big. So when DPMO came about I asked about it but he said it was signed, to which I responded ‘balls’. But then he told me not worry, he’d write something special for me. That special track was Deth Bounce’ He sent over a demo and I was like ‘yes yes yes, it’s mine! I’m taking it! That’s exactly how the situation went down.”
Ganon & Bloodthinnerz
“Ganon is a random French dude who got hold of me on some type of messaging platform. I can’t remember which one, but he got hold me and I’m glad he did. He makes jump-up drum & bass and dubstep. I’ve been playing both styles in my set. He sent me this as a demo and I was like ‘finish this!’ Bloodthinnerz, meanwhile, are part of Savage Society – they’ve been pushing a lot of heavy riddim lately. Together they’ve made something very special here.”
Lethal
“Lethal is a guy I discovered in my email – he got in touch saying he’d been writing for a while and can I check his music, which I was more than happy to do. He’s got that trappy vibe but also the heaviness of dubstep; the type of shit Herobust does really well. This one has all the right elements – it’s got the 808s and layout of a trap tune but it’s got the mixdown of a dubstep tune. It goes off because it’s so different but fits in. It throws people at first, which is always fun to do at the right time.”
Jkyl & Hyde
“Same as Lethal, I discovered them on email. They’re from LA and they’ve been sending me music for a while. At first it was for feedback but now a lot of it is straight up fire. This one especially, it taps into the 2009 part of my brain with this Bar 9 meets 16 Bit vibe. The orchestral intro is the type of emotion Bar 9 would encapsulate. Then out of nowhere it comes with a minimal spacious vibe which 16 Bit did really well. This took me back to my roots, let me tell you.”
Funtcase: DPMO Vol 1 is out now on Circus: Spotify / Beatport
Follow Funtcase: Soundcloud / Twitter / Facebook
