Born out of a desire to bring different corners of rave culture together, All Colours has always been about championing grassroots. Founded by Ekula in 2018 as a Facebook group, the project grew from a love of the underground and a belief that club culture should unite rather than divide. Bringing breaks, jungle, UKG, dubstep and bass-heavy sounds under one roof, All Colours has carved out a space for these sounds and communities that don’t always fit neatly into genre-defined boxes.
What makes All Colours special is its community spirit. Built through online communities, independent events, guest mixes and collaborations, it’s a project driven by genuine passion, personal connections and a shared love for the culture. From early parties in Bristol, Leeds and London to annual takeovers at Boomtown, its journey reflects the importance of independent platforms in giving emerging artists a voice, creating opportunities and keeping the underground evolving. It’s a reminder that some of the most exciting things in dance music grow organically, powered by those who live and breathe it.
Now, with the forthcoming Chrome Colours EP marking the debut All Colours vinyl release, the project enters an exciting new chapter. Featuring a collaboration between Ekula and Sheba Q, alongside notable remixes from Silkie and Charla Green, the release embodies the experimentation and cross-pollination that have defined the brand from day one. We caught up with Ekula to talk about the roots of All Colours, the communities that have shaped it, the journey through Botanica Zoo at Boomtown, and the importance of keeping the spirit of underground rave culture alive.
What got you into the scene you know and love today?
I started going to clubs, festivals and free parties in my teenage years and quickly fell in love with rave culture – as a then undiagnosed neurodiverse oddball that spent a lot of their childhood and teenage years getting bullied, beaten up and alienated by people it was the first place I felt truly accepted and I became obsessed. The lovely people I met in this scene and the experiences they facilitated helped me to work out who I am, helped me to address a lot of misguided anger, bitterness and shitty attitudes I’d developed over the years and helped me to finally open up to people. I dread to think who I’d have become without raves and I think they’re a really important lifeline for people, especially those who are lost. I became a producer and event promoter in my late teens, then started producing and DJing as Ekula and one half of Six Sunsets in my early twenties and naturally spent a lot of time in scene related online communities.
How did the idea of All Colours come about?
I eventually started All Colours – Breaks, Steps & Bass as a Facebook group in 2018 because I wanted an alternative to the way that music was being discussed and promoted online at the time. Each platform would just focus on one sound – for example, ‘DnB talk’ for largely jump-up, ‘Shitty Tune Share For Us Wastes That Like Dubstep’ for deep dubstep, ‘The UK Is Funky’ for uk funky and ‘Lengoland’ for bassline / uk bass. I thought a lot of these formats were great but maybe a bit too inward facing and creating too much of the same. This restricted the opportunity for people to promote tunes that took influence from multiple scenes and perhaps fell outside of the usual brackets that define certain genres, which is how you could describe a lot of my own productions. I also felt that ultimately if rave culture is supposed to bring people together then we shouldn’t be subdividing them into different scenes. So, I decided to create a facebook group and make it multi-genre, with the intention to put on some parties. I did put some focus on the breakbeat side of things, as well as jungle and the breakstep and 2-step end of uk garage. Dubstep always found itself in the mix too. It was a melting pot of loads of different sounds and tempos with the common denominator being broken rhythms and bassweight.
Does All Colours have a distinct identity?
Yes. I came up with the name All Colours for a number of reasons: I wanted the name to reaffirm the politics of rave culture and its mission to bring different people together. I also wanted the name to make clear that it’s a multi-genre party with tunes right across the rave spectrum. So in many ways there’s no distinct identity but a broad call-out to anybody in the rave and free party scene to come and get involved. Before I started the project, I’d moved around a lot and spent about 8 years involving myself in both legal and underground events in London, Bristol, Cornwall, Newcastle, Manchester and Australia and I wanted to bring all these experiences together under one roof, so I guess its identity is first and foremost the uk rave family, clubbers, festival types, squat and free party people and anyone else who wants to join in.If you’re a fan of festivals like Boomtown, Balter (RIP), Bangface, Ground Rules, An Experience and so on, then this community is for you.
What was the first ever project?
To begin with, I set it up as a facebook group in 2018 and invited loads of people in from different scenes. I started things off with war dub competitions and guest mixes. The war dubs could be any style, as long as they used the BPM and breakbeat sample provided (in some way) at the start of each round. We also threw some parties in London, Bristol and Leeds before Covid hit.
Talk to me about early events and radio.
The first one was a link-up with Bass Militia and Loose Lips at the Jack Of Diamonds in Bristol, with a lineup featuring Omen Breaks, ScanOne, Hypho back to back Biome, AS.IF KID, Supplya, Dutchie (now Rose Holland) and more. We were then invited onto the Threads Radio roster and were involved in an event they put together at The Cause’s original site in Tottenham. We also put together a party at Hi-Fi Club in Leeds with Benton headlining, alongside Borai, Samurai Breaks and Charla Green on the bill who all went on to do really well in the scene. Our last one before Covid was at Four Quarters in Peckham, with the lineup including Opus, CA$TLE and Jago / Mista Jago. The breakbeat, rave, jungle revival started to gain a lot more momentum during lockdown and I was glad that the All Colours online presence could contribute to that – among others, we had guest mixes and b2bs on our Threads Radio show from the likes of Borai, LMajor, Mani Festo and A For Alpha before they blew up. I also arranged some NHS fundraiser livestreams, with Yung Singh recording one for us.
Post lockdown you were able to push on and even get some releases out.
Yes. The first release was a VA in 2022, followed by another one in 2023. We also had a couple of events at The Fox & Firkin throughout this period, which overlapped with the beginning of our journey with the Botanica Zoo project at Boomtown. It was originally the plan to be more consistent as a label and club night but due to my priorities becoming redirected towards Botanica Zoo, things became a little bit stop and start. All Colours has become much more active again in recent years though and are currently in a very exciting position now.
And now, would you say the All Colours brand is more active than ever?
Things feel quiet at the moment because I’m currently recovering from a fractured heel that I got from jumping off a balcony at a System Of A Down gig in July, but up till then we’d been really busy with regular events across London for a while, often linking up with Only Rave Handles which is run by Abby Daze. Big up Abby. We also did a really fun link-up with After Hours and Only Rave Handles at the Fox & Firkin recently and I had a well fun b2b with Chinese Daughter there. We’ve also been doing annual takeovers at Boomtown for 5 years now. Fortunately, I’ve been able to fill my time currently stuck at home with work towards our debut vinyl release which I’m really excited about.
What have you got in store with your upcoming vinyl release?
Myself and Sheba Q have teamed up on a deep rolling breaks tune called Chrome Colours, which will be coming out as the debut All Colours vinyl release in November. This one’s an emotional tune for me – in our first jam session Sheba Q included the lyric “today’s sunshine won”, which later became a poignant message to me about letting positivity overcome darkness following the untimely and controversial death of my close friend and housemate, the much loved local artist and graffiti writer Alex ‘Drape’ Valdez, rest in peace Drape. This tune became an outlet for a lot of sadness, grief and anger and I ended up pouring my heart into re-writing the instrumental to match the emotions I was going through. On the B-Side we’ve got a dubstep remix from the legendary Silkie, plus a jungle remix from Sheffield’s rising force in bass music, Charla Green. Charla Green has previously featured on our second VA release Breaks, Steps & Bass, Volume 2 and she is someone I met through the All Colours group back in the Facebook days. The Chrome Colours EP also has music videos on the way, which I’m really excited to share.
I’d love to know a bit more about the Botanica Zoo takeovers at Boomtown.
I first started performing at Boomtown in 2015, DJing at micro-venues like Boomtown Bobbies, Sub:Lab and Barrio Loco Block Party. However, I was also interested in the immersive theatre and games aspect of the festival and always wanted to get more involved. Meanwhile, my friend Joe had been involved in walkabout theatre for the Boomtown Bobbies for about 6 years. In 2021, Joe and I started joking about potentially running some sort of zoo themed micro-venue at Boomtown so we could have a laugh dressing up as animals and one thing led to another. Over the course of that Autumn and Winter, we teamed up with some friends to pitch a liberated zoo that had been overthrown and turned into a squat by the animals, who had gained self- awareness of their captivity from sacred mushrooms in the mycology exhibit and later rose up against their oppressors. In Spring the following year Boomtown got in touch to say we were on board.
And it’s been a great journey for you since. It must’ve helped with running All Colours.
Joe and I have been running the venue together for 5 years now and although Botanica Zoo and All Colours aren’t the same project, but there’s a big crossover of who’s involved and it very much matches the All Colours ethos of bringing people together from different scenes – the team is largely made up of some of me and Joe’s favourite people from London, the west country and the north east and I book everything from dub, house, techno, garage, uk funky, dubstep, breaks, hardcore, jungle, drum’n’bass, donk, makina, hard-tekno, uptempo, you name it. Our first year was powered by 30Hz Soundsystem and since the increase in our venue size in 2023, we’ve been working with Cranked Soundsystem who used to power The Northern Embassy at Balter Festival and are a big force in the north east underground scene.
And you’ve been able to draw some of the best in your scene.
For sure. Programming Botanica Zoo has allowed me to book artists like Coki, SHOSH, Ray Keith, Chinese Daughter, Benton, Sterling Moss, Origin8a & Propa, Aries, Dwarde, Tim Reaper, Denis The Menis, Slamboree, My Bad Sister and E-Coli to name a few, plus takeovers from the likes of Planet Wax, Sexy Lady Massive, NRG CRU, Lively Up, SIS:DEM, Subtle Radio, AAJA, Only Rave Handles, Motive Hunter, Rumble In The Jungle and obviously All Colours. I’ve also been fortunate enough to perform there with the likes of N-Type, Sheba Q, Charla Green, Samurai Breaks, Sepia, Opus, Killa P and the connections I’ve made have led to me playing on big stages on-site such as HYDRO and Tangled Roots. I’ve got to give a special mention to DJ Dizzle from Lively Up, Crank from Cranked Soundsystem and Abby Daze for helping me to facilitate some of these bookings, alongside Rose, Megan, Stevie, Jamie, Wonka, Fizzy Gillespie and Paris from the Boomtown music and production offices for all their help with so many aspects of my involvement in the festival.
It must’ve taught you a lot in regards to running your own brand and label.
Working with Boomtown has taught me so much and I’m so grateful for all the skills I’m now able to pour in to other All Colours projects – we’re now in a position where we can deliver events with serious lineups including immersive build and decor installs, walkabout theatre, dancers, lighting engineers, the lot. I’m really excited to see what else we can pull off in the future. A good bit of advice I learned from set-dressing was “don’t think, just do”. I’ve got to big up Jamie from Rumble In The Jungle. Of course you still have to be conscientious about things, but ultimately spending too much time fretting how to do things right isn’t going to get you anywhere. You’ve got to make mistakes and corrections in order to succeed. This mindset has massively helped with running events and moving the record label forward because I can really overthink things sometimes.
How would you describe the label and what it stands for?
It’s a space for producers to experiment with anything they like, alongside put out tunes from genres they’re less known for. It’s a place for freedom and experimentation and a means of bringing together safe as fuck people from different scenes and communities. One big rave family.
In terms of future projects, what can we expect?
I’ve got some very exciting things in the pipeline at the moment: I’ve produced a very lively breaks-meets-bassline-meets-uk-funky-meets-dubstep track. I honestly don’t know how else to describe it. I’m collaborating with uk garage legend MC DT and I’m really excited to release that into the world. I’m also sitting on a huge body of tunes with south east London’s ragga legend Deemas J. I’ve also been twiddling away on a very unique breakbeat and garage EP for about 11 years now called Zen Rotation, in collaboration with the Geordie conscious hip-hop duo Trinity Lo-Fi which includes Jody Bigfoot and Zico MC. They used to host my sets in Newcastle back when I lived up there – it was originally meant to be the first Ekula EP in 2015 but perfectionism got the better of me and here we are now in 2026 but it’s finally almost ready.
Zen Rotation sounds like there’s an interesting story behind it.
Yes, there’s an interesting backstory to ‘Zen Rotation’. I used to have a small buddha statue on top of my monitors and the original bassline to the first instrumental made the statue vibrate and rotate – hence the track and EP title. It led to me lending the Trinity Lo-Fi lads books I had on Taoism and Buddhism I’d inherited from my late uncle Tony for inspiration – they then put together lyrics that referenced this, Lou Tzo, Samurai and other aspects of east Asian culture, before shouting Tokyo’s grime don Pakin to spit some verses in Japanese too. We’ve also got two impeccable breaks remixes from a Japanese producer duo called FT&Blueflower, so this is a unique international collaboration between London, Newcastle and Japan. I’ve also sent the stems for one track to Iller Instinct who will no doubt throw a ruthless jungle remix on it. This one’s gonna have to be a vinyl release when I can afford it as it’s such a special one – if you find yourself wanting to hear geordie conscious hip-hop and Japanese grime over rolling breaks then you know where to keep your eye out now.
What are some future goals for the label?
I’d love to be able to catch up on the list of people I want releasing on the label. I’ve been sitting on so many great tracks and ideas from different producers for ages. The back catalogue is crazy. I’d love to be able to improve the social media presence, giving the artists the platform they deserve from it. I feel like I owe it to them to become better with it. I’d also love to be more present on the festival and club circuits. Now I’m in a really good position with Botanica Zoo and All Colours, I feel like I can show everyone out there a body of curation with real production quality. I really want to strengthen the community, creating a collective that represents what we stand for. I’d also love to represent the free-party and squat scene a bit more and make space on the label for things like hard-tek, breakcore and acid techno etc.
As an events brand, what venues have stood out to you over the years?
Hootananny in Brixton has a proper fun festival type of vibe and we had a really sick event there last year with Ray Keith, Dwarde b2b Abby Daze with MC Deadman and myself back to back with Boomtown’s lead music programmer Wonka – that one was loads of fun. Rowans Tenpin Bowl has been an absolute godsend to work with too. I also want to big up the Birds Nest in Deptford – it was quality back in the day and it’s an honour to perform and contribute zoo decor to the Whistle Crew Horns Crew new years eve parties that still go on there. The Endeavour, also in Deptford, has done a great job in keeping that kind of vibe up. I also want to shout out The Fox & Firkin, that space is wicked.
And finally, are there any artists the readers should be keeping an eye on?
Oh god, so many. I’ll start with Lucent, Illegal Shipment, Panix and T-Cuts because I’ve owed them releases for ages and the tunes they’ve been persistently sending me are so good. Repping the London scene I want to shout Abby Daze 100 percent. VXRGO. Deemas J is a next level vocalist. Krunx does absolutely wicked live sets and I’ve also gotta shout out the Crates R Us crew including Junior Buzz who’s one half of Bomb Shelter Crew, as well as DJ Lessons, LS Dare and Rhi Spect. Also got to big up CICELY, Rivibes, MC Deadman, Nav, A.N.T, Marky V, Zak Smiff, Joel Deep, Pressa, Yasmine, Choze, Shai Sevin and Cable! too. From the North-East I want to shout Stompz from Lively Up, Crank and Ironic Thug from Cranked Soundsystem and Slanty from Hostilis Soundsystem – they’re such talented and under-rated DJs and producers. Repping the west country I’ve gotta shout T-Break and Usurper who make absolutely sick tunes plus I also want to big up Humb and Iller Instinct. Finally from the label, Qant from France – they’re wicked and released on the second All Colours VA. Also Charla Green for sure.
