Over the years, how we consume music has significantly shifted. This evolution, however, has not come without its drawbacks. Artists are now grappling with mounting pressure to consistently deliver exceptional music with a near flawless social media strategy, leaving them feeling stressed and overwhelmed.
This is where Beats In Mind, led by pyxis has played an important role since its inception in 2020. After spending 20 years behind the scenes working with Drum & Bass labels and producers, pyxis formed the imprint, which also functions as a dedicated community that offers information and support to artists suffering from mental health issues. The support from Beats In Mind ‘Headsbass’ initiative comes from offering information, awareness, contributing to mental health charities, and the most crucial mode – music.
The first edition of the Headsbass series dropped in April 2020, when many artists suffered from prolonged isolation without shows and a significant loss of income. Featuring the likes of Winslow, Furney, and Loz Conteras, amongst others, for its debut release, pyxis has overseen 11 editions, with its latest one dropping early this month.
“Beats In Mind: Headsbass was only ever meant to be one album! Now we are onto Volume 11 and lots more plans for future volumes; between these albums and the Floodlight compilation, where we raised money for the flood-affected people of Pakistan, we’ve donated over £32k to mental health and welfare charities all over the world. I love it; it’s a beautiful label full of beautiful people.” says label head pyxis.
Having developed a reputation for featuring artists worldwide, Beats In Mind has brought Ganesh Murthi, aka C4GE, from Mumbai, India, for a dreamy number called ‘Slice Of Life.’ on its 11th edition.
Although he has experimented with different genres, C4GE’s trademark style mainly focuses on jungle and drum & bass. C4GE, who expresses his love for storytelling through his music, has previously released his work on Indian electronic labels such as Qilla Records, RustedSound, and Russian imprint Mathematica Records before dropping this captivating track on Headsbass’ Volume 11.
‘Slice Of Life’s journey to the compilation has been fascinating, and it also embodies our scene’s unwavering and unsaid commitment to push and promote the artists they believe in.
“The tune was actually sent to Sola’s GTA Records. They loved the tune, but the label’s aesthetic being dancefloor leaning, James Sola thought it would be a good fit for pyxis’ label, and that’s how we got in touch.”
Fortunately for C4GE, pyxis was working on the latest edition of Headsbass, and ‘Slice Of Life’ felt like a natural fit. “I was pretty nervous because this was the first time I had gone this far with a demo submission, but the whole process was quite seamless, thanks to Marisa.”
C4GE has now become the first producer from India to feature on UKF’s YouTube channel; when asked about it, he was left speechless. “I have no words, honestly. I never imagined the moment coming so soon and don’t want to get carried away with it. Hopefully, it will also motivate producers out here to keep working hard.”
One thing we have deciphered from C4GE’s music is that he loves conveying a story through his music, which is the case with ‘Slice Of Life’ as well. “The title is actually a movie genre. When I make music, I like to pick a few words and then build the melodies and the atmosphere around them. The tune was made during the pandemic when I wanted to release all the negative energy inside of me through music, and the genre helped me pull through it, so it was more of a dedication to ‘Slice Of Life’. The pandemic was also when I got hooked on Dom & Roland’s music; the broad spectrum of his style, especially his atmospheric style with heavy drums, inspired me to take my path.”
It’s always intriguing to know an artist’s earliest gateway into drum & bass because, more often than not, it has a fascinating story to it. “I was actually into Dubstep until Bamboy introduced me to some drum & bass and showed me some production techniques too. That was it, I guess.”
I kept digging deeper until I met Sean from Noizbleed (drum & bass act from India), who helped me immensely to become the drum & bass producer I am today. Many of my tracks have also been vetted by IYRE, who represents the meaning of helping each other and working as a community.”
Closing our conversation, we asked C4GE how he sees the Indian drum & bass scene pushing forward. “I think in a few years we will see a lot of drum & bass being made in the country. There was a serious dip in producers making DnB, but I feel that we’re past that, and we are seeing new producers coming in nearly every day, which of course is healthy for the Indian scene, which I think was starved of any homegrown producers at all.”
Along with C4GE’s delightful ‘Slice Of Life’, Beats In Mind’s Headsbass Volume 11 features another thirteen alluring tunes that exemplify the label’s ethos of consistently delivering soul-stirring drum & bass beauties.
Follow C4GE: Instgram/Spotify/Soundcloud
READ
