If D&B history has taught us anything it’s that strength can always been found in numbers.
Crews, collectives, communities, collaborations: the best things always happen when like minds join forces and help to push and amplify each other’s creativity. Back in the day this was evident among camps such as V, Ram, Virus, crews like Bad Company and Ram Trilogy and the communities that gathered at Music House cutting house or local record shops.
These days you can see it in collectives such as Music Squad and KCDC or the way the way labels such as The North Quarter, AudioPorn and Guidance all share each other’s releases and support each other. On a much wider scale you can see it with online Facebook communities… If someone posts they’re down or they need a raving mate, you’re guaranteed to see the nice side of humanity in the responses.
It’s this spirit that’s brought Task Horizon, Magnetude and Receptor together to reboot the Evolution Chamber imprint. Previously a vehicle for Task Horizon’s productions that didn’t fit the labels they were working with, it had been on sleep mode for five years… Until now.
Awakened from its hiatus slumber and now run by the collective of artists, Evolution Chamber launched last week with Mantis, a track that is categorically Mangentude’s stinkiest stinker to date. They’re set to follow it up with a slew of equally exciting and explorative releases. Receptor, for instance, will be dropping a psy-trance influenced D&B record on the label in the near future. Something he hinted at when we interviewed him earlier this year.
Rooted in the label’s original experimental, unbounded ethos, rebooted with a collective spirit and strength in numbers: forget D&B history, Evolution Chamber has everything in place for a very bright D&B future…
Evolution Chamber is back! Tell us how this came about…
Aaron Task Horizon: The label was originally set up to give us complete creative freedom. We have great relationships with the labels who have helped us a lot but we wanted to see what we could do with the tracks to which some of them felt didn’t fit. The label had already started to pick up after several releases, but then we decided to take a step back for several years and focus on developing a new sound and engineering discipline.
James Magnetude: When Task Horizon came out of the shadows and reappeared onto the scene in 2018, they came with an onslaught of releases that really signified their comeback and return. Aaron and the gang told me that they had always wanted to turn Evolution Chamber into an established label and bring other artists onboard but didn’t really know where to start. So we continued to push the tunes that we felt made more sense to release on Evolution Chamber.
Receptor: Yeah, we were all on a call together and we were just discussing music and sharing unsigned tunes, then Aaron suggested it would be cool if we rebooted Evolution Chamber and did it properly, gave these tunes a platform and then this way we could get these tunes out. There is so much fantastic music we are all sat on, so why not make it happen?
Aaron Task Horizon: I was put in a tough situation as there were a lot of releases we had put out there, but James suggested that we should just start from scratch, do it properly, efficiently and professionally, so James worked around the clock with Dan and the Cygnus team to move the old releases over to a self-release imprint to then give us a totally clean slate and now we are ready to roll.
James Magnetude: We all want to see each other and everyone around us succeed and we really want to push and support every artist we encounter on our journey.
I get the feeling this is artist/friend-focused and not being run as a traditional label…
Aaron Task Horizon: We want it to be both an artist/friend label and also a traditional label too. We welcome any artists who have tracks that they would love to get out there and that they believe in, with space to push their music they way they want to.
Receptor: As an artist it is also so important to have fun with what you do and write the music you want to write as this can in some cases be one of the only freedoms you have – The freedom to express yourself. We absolutely would welcome anyone else on-board, and do not want to limit ourselves either.
Musically speaking we can expect the unexpected, right?
James Magnetude: Absolutely! We all share a love for labels such as Breakbeat Kaos and Lifted Music where you would never have to listen to the record in the stores, you would literally pick it up and put it in the “definitely taking it” pile. We tend to find that a lot of labels have honed in on a particular sound, which is amazing as they are the go-to for people on the hunt for that sound, but the downside is that the risk-taking element feels lost these days and you have to write music that is a particular style to fit specific labels.
Rustam Magnetude: We are really trying to come with completely original ideas and concepts – Mitya (Receptor) is working on a ton of psy-trance infused drum & bass tracks, we are all working together on special ‘series EP’s’ which are based on a formula that no label has ever tried to do. We will be the first!
It launched with Mantis. This is the first tune on the label by another artist beside Task Horizon. It’s also the most disgusting tune you’ve done so far as Magnetude. Tell us more…
Rustam Magnetude: We started this track around the same time that we started Snatch for RAM, and we tested it in every set trying to experiment with many different versions to find the one that fit the most for both us and the crowd.
James Magnetude: It was the track that many people would contact us through our pages asking “What is this tune? And when will it be released” – and we just couldn’t find the right time.
What comes next?
Aaron Task Horizon: A lot of music, that is for sure. Currently we have two singles and an EP locked in.
Rustam Magnetude: We are currently wrapping up our 4th release too. We also plan some big all-artists collaborative projects together, also some remix projects too… We just want to see what we can all do if we all work together and see where it takes us.
Receptor: Besides the psy-drum & bass tracks I mentioned, I am also in the process of completing several singles with some really talented vocalists and MCs which I am really excited about.
James Magnetude: We all also have a lot of music coming out across other labels too. Just because we have launched this label, we do not want to limit ourselves and close doors especially with labels and people whom we respect to the max.
Magnetude – Mantis is out now on Evolution Chamber
Follow Evolution Chamber: Facebook / Soundcloud
