This week sees the release of Firepower’s Shellshock Kamikaze collection.
With a muscular roll call of talent such as Zak The Lad, Spag Heddy, Protohype, Bear Grillz it’s another buy-on-sight Firepower situation for any discerning bass lover.
It’s also home to Datsik & 12th Planet’s first collaboration in almost five years: Party In The Sewer
Datsik & 12th Planet – Party In The Sewer
We thought we’d send them both some questions and find out how the collaboration came about, whether we’ll have to wait half a decade for another Datsik & 12th Planet collaboration and some facts about each other. They came back with some serious gold. Trust: the bromance runs deep!
It’s been over four years since Open Your Eyes… This one has been a LONG TIME coming. How long have you guys been working on this?
12th Planet: We spoke about doing another collab a few years ago, but I think it took a multitude of things I feel. First, the chance that both of us are in the city at the same time is a huge factor. Online collaborations are cool, but there is something magical when you’re in the room with another human, especially a friend, or a down-ass homie like Troy. Once all the chess pieces were in place, the game was set.
Datsik: Honestly it’s funny how the project rolled out, it was on a whim and we spent literally two full days straight on the studio, in which John had passed out on my studio couch a couple times. Probably one of the funnest collabs yet as we were hanging and partying and just generally fucking around the entire time we were in there haha!
Have you ever been in a sewer? Like literally it would be the shittest place to have a party…
12th Planet: Me personally, I don’t think I have consciously been in a sewer. And having a party there? LOL! I hope that the music doesn’t become that underground. Really, it’s more of a double entendre; on one side it’s an homage to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which were these 4 super heroes who ate pizza and lived in a sewer and, however smelly these mutants were, they were tasked with saving the city of New York from attacks by the Foot Clan and took absolutely no credit for their accomplishments, despite the fact that their best friend was a news anchor.
On the other side, dubstep has always been one of the sounds from the underground. And this genre has influenced numerous other genres, so I guess in this case, this dubstep song would be like the bad ass Ninja Turtle from the sewer, coming to save dance music from the evil Foot Clan. I mean if you listen to the lyrics of the verse from Elan, you will get the idea. Plus the friggin LP is called Shellshock Kamikaze. By definition, I think Shellshock is what happens to a Ninja Turtle when he gets electrocuted.
Datsik: Yep, nailed it. My thoughts exactly.
Where is the worst place you’ve ever partied?
12th Planet: Man, if it’s a party, then it can’t be that bad of a place right?
Datsik: He’s got a good point, haha! That being said I think for me it would have had to have been in a horse stable in the south of the UK with 10 kids. It was so fun though.
How long have you been buds for exactly?
12th Planet: I think I met Troy on the internet like in 2008 or something. My boy Juan Basshead was like, check out this kid I found on DubstepForum. He came down to LA a few months later with Excision, and we been pretty much dawgs ever since. I think one can even find the video of it on YouTube somewhere.
Datsik: Yeah John has been the homie since day one. Every time we link up it always turns into something crazy and fun. Ice wine left right and centre!
Will we have to wait another five years between collaborations?
12th Planet: Absolutely not! There I said it. I’m gonna force my way into Datsik’s studio, and make another collab happen, because we live in the same city, and use the same DAW, and we’ve got the same damn birthday.
Datsik: You’re welcome here ANY FUCKING TIME.
12th Planet on Datsik
- Troy is an amazing Tumbler. When we were making Party In The Sewer, he would start doing ninja-like backflips and front flips whenever we would take a break from the tune. I think he might have been a gymnast or maybe some sort of assassin in his former life.
- Troy was born on June 8th, which is a day after my birthday.
- Troy’s first record Gecko came out on my boy Juan’s label Basshead records. My first dubstep record Control came out on the same label. My record was the first release and Troy’s was the third. So it’s safe to say we both got our start on the same label.
- Troy is the biggest DragonBall Z fan ever. I truly think he might be Super-Saiyan.
- Troy knows almost every word to GZA’s – Liquid Swords LP.
Datsik on 12th Planet
- John can speak a shit-load of different languages and he’s fluent in them! Whenever we play overseas it blows my mind how he can speak with drivers, promoters, and crowds in their native tongue and smash it!
- John can sleep anywhere at any time at an afterparty. Give him a couch of any sort and it’s game over haha!
- John was THE FIRST big DJ to support my music when I first started! He was also the first person I would send all my new dubplates to.
- John took us to Christmas dinner when we were newbies in LA and didn’t have anyone to spend it with. I got to meet his whole fam and they are amazing cooks and amazing people. I will never forget that!
- John actually does have super powers and he can fly.
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