Monthly newspaper and online publication targeting 18 to 35 year olds. The ultimate guide to the hottest parties, going out and having fun. Music, fashion, film, travel, festivals, technology, comedy, and parties! London, Barcelona, Miami and Ibiza.
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DRUM & BASS Hey, for those that don't know - talk us through MethLab's history and ethos? 6 years as an agency and we've just passed our first anniversary as a label. We decided to start a label years ago as we've always had our own aesthetic and ideas - it was just about waiting until we could do it well and make it worthwhile. The reason is to push the music we love without barriers, and to provide a different view for people about electronic music. You had an impressive opening year, what have been your high- lights? The 2 major highlights would be the release of Monoleth 001, which was a release that we were compiling for a few years. It takes a while to pull music of that caliber together. Also the release of our first LP from Audeka, Lost Souls, which was chosen as one of UKF's favourite LPs of the year. It was a pretty diverse and experimental release covering d&b, dubstep, & techno. Methlab also nabbed the 'Best Newcomer' award at the D&BA Awards, how was that? Seeing the hype for the other labels on the night, we certainly didn't expect to get it - being put up there with labels doing great work was an honour! It felt great for us to get the award, a wicked moment. It showed us just how many people around the world we must have affected with our work to date, and that meant a lot to us. What have you found is good about running your own label? Undoubtedly getting to support the work of the artists we love and for that work to reach more people because of our actions. You're taking over Room 2 for Vi- per's next London show, how did this come about? We were planning our London event with the Afterdark crew, and it turned out that Viper also had plans for the club next door - the suggestion was made to link the events and make one banging par- ty with a full range of sick music! Have you ever worked with Viper before? This is the first time, and it's a real honour and pleasure - given that they're one of today's leading labels for drum & bass, working with artists we have a great deal of respect for, such as InsideInfo and Mob Tactics. Who have you got coming down on the night? It's always interesting to see how different line-up combinations gel, and the effect of those artists playing together. This line-up is definitely one of the more diverse we've done. We have Current Value, who's trademark sound is a genre in itself, alongside underground heavy sonics from Broken Note. Real driven depth from War and Billain's much-awaited return to London to annihilate the dance with his inimi- table beat carnage. You can also expect Billain's debut set as Aethek to be relentlessly experimental. In the MethLab room you can expect a diverse array of hard-hitting, intri- cate and experimental sounds. Are there any acts that you'll wanna check out in Room 1? I guess we'll be pretty buried in the vibe of the MethLab room, but Koven, Teddy Killerz and Insideinfo will utterly smash it along with all their crew to deliver the vibe that Viper fans need and love, we're sure! Would this be MethLab's first London show? This is technically our second event, we collaborated with some underground London soundsys- tems a few years back to put on a rave called The Rapture. It was on the MS Stubnitz, a renowned music/art venue and ex-german war ship that was moored up in London at the time. It was a great night, it was so rowdy the speakers literally caught fire! We're actually from London, and half of our crew are still based here, so we know what to expect... Looking forward to seeing the underground crew emerge from the woodwork and return to the clubs alongside those regularly im- mersed in the scene. What do you think about the d&b scene here in London? Nationality has kind of ceased to be important to us. Some of us are from London, others elsewhere, so it's difficult to compare to 'ours'. The UK scene definitely has a unique flavour, it seems that inde- pendent promoters in London are a rare breed though. What have you guys got planned for the future? Quite a lot of new music. We want- ed to pause a little after putting out 3 records fairly simultaneously at the end of last year, because it's important to us that music isn't treated as disposable. But after a period of giving those tunes plenty of attention, and creating our label concept mix that went out recently for MA Music, we're ready to move onto the next things. Plenty of dance floor fo- cused, heavyweight material along- side more diverse, experimental and exploratory releases that focus on the fringes of sound design and complex aesthetics. MethLab as a label has been around for about a year and have really taken the scene by storm. Known for their dark techy side of things, they aren't afraid to try something different. They'll be translating their sound into a whole night of dark, rugged drum & bass at the end of May, as they take control of the second room at the next Viper:100 show. of their show on May 26th, the guys over at MethLab caught up with us about their last year, their plans for the night and what's coming up from them in the future. "EXPECT A DIVERSE ARRAY OF HARD-HITTING, INTRICATE AND EXPERIMENTAL SOUNDS." 39 2017 / ISSUE 99 Arren Haynes | Guestlist follow @MethLabAgency