Sonic Router

SR Mix #100: Commodo [Deep Medi]

Posted in Sonic Router Mixes   

A lot has changed since we went live with our first mix from Rekordah, a dude who himself has gone from strength to strength, beginning his Astro:Dynamics label and assuming his role as one of SR’s advisory council, back in February of 2009. The Sonic Router editorial staff have written a lot since, constantly keen to shed light on some of what they deem to be the most interesting and noteworthy music. It’s never been a paid job, more of a passion that’s rewarded by little outside of internet kudos (other than a couple of fruitless nominations for the annual DSF awards) but on the day we publish our 100th mix, the hours of Microsoft Word, Blogger and now WordPress, all those weeks of accumulated effort seems worth it to reach this triple figure milestone.

We never thought it’d get this far and no matter how much (or how little) the humanity of those involved translates over these pages; the site has always been a product of those people involved. It reflects their personalities, tastes and, above all, the cyclical nature of journalistic interest or availability. If, over the last few years, you’ve contributed (either words or mixes, tracks to giveaway or material for review), spent time reading or disagreeing with what we write, if you’ve listened to our radio show, our downloaded our Bleep podcast; from the bottom of our binary blood pumps, we thank you.

It’s also actually quite fitting for such a landmark mix that it highlights both Commodo, a producer doing increasingly interesting things within the open ended realm of 140bpm bass led music – harking back to that ‘proper dubstep’ (or ‘the reason that we started this site in the first place’) – and introduces a new member of our editorial staff; Atlanta’s own, Owen Renn.

Enjoy,

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Dom Tarasek is a Sheffield based producer whose tracks were first brought to my attention about a year ago when his single ‘Eastern Bloc’ premiered on Joe Nice’s Gourmet Beats radio show. With a nod from Joe Nice, releases on Black Box and with forthcoming material coming in the next couple of weeks on Mala’s Deep Medi Musik imprint, it seems assured Commodo’s is at the helm of a prolific future in the weightier side of the dubstep arena.

When asked about his upcoming release on Deep Medi, Commodo noted the label as an obvious influence stating: “I’m very happy to be releasing on Deep Medi, it was where I was aiming for from very early on… ‘Uprising’ and Saracen,’ are definitely in keeping with the vibe of the label and are a good representation of what I’m doing at the minute.”

Commodo – Eastern Bloc [forthcoming Origin Audio]

Displaying a punching grasp of that early ‘dread’ sound (that taught incisive bass work that ruffles and rumbles while the drums just keep rolling) that producers like Pinch execute so well, Commodo remains meditative with his top lines, letting a simple and overly reverbed duo of notes ring out behind that off beat stab on ‘Saracen.’ Like Tarasek says, his work does fit that Mala template of music that works your head and swirls up around the rest of you; making heavy work of his drones and the key changes of them on ‘Uprising,’ book ending them with sampled guitar chords over percussion that never once stops moving.

“I’ve got a Mac, running Windows so I can use FL Studio, which kinda defeats the point of getting the Mac but I can’t move on,” he tells me when I ask about his setup. “I’ve been on Fruity Loops since I first started messing around with grime in 2005. I’ve tried other programs but FL still does it for me to be honest. All I’ve really got is FL Studio, Fostex PM0.5MKII monitors (with sub – it’s tasty), a couple soft synths and my sample sources. Occasionally I’ll use a Zoom H4 recorder to record random little bits round the house.”

“ I do sample a lot;” he concludes. “It’s something that not a lot of people do in this music – and by sampling I don’t mean some cheesy spoken phrase thrown in before a drop. I listen to a lot of hip hop so that’s always affected the way I make tunes; it’s really satisfying digging through a load of vinyl and coming out with 100 crusty samples…”

Commodo – Saracen [Deep Medi Musik]

Given the prevalence of the format in his tune construction and the attention that’s paid to the importance and aesthetic value of using vinyl as a performance medium for DJs, it’s not surprising to learn that Commodo holds such high value to the medium holds to producers, something that not much attention seems to be paid to.

“Without a doubt, as a producer it wouldn’t really feel like a proper release if it wasn’t on vinyl…” Tarasek agrees. “Once it’s on vinyl it becomes the finished article. That said when I play out its all digital now. Vinyl is definitely the nicest medium to play music off, but it’s not practical at the moment. With sound systems getting bigger and club equipment getting more and more ropey I don’t feel like spending a load of money cutting all the stuff I wanna play just so it can feedback and skip all over the place. Besides, often the crowd doesn’t understand things like that are out of your control either, so they just think you’re an idiot.”

In anticipation of his upcoming Medi release Commodo has provided Sonic Router readers with a mix that clocks in at just over half an hour. It’s laden with dubplates from Jack Sparrow, Distance, Pinch; his own ‘Uprising’ and ‘Saracen’ that are to be featured on Deep Medi in the next few weeks as well as a few choice productions of his still yet unsigned. He cites the mix as an exemplification of his live sets noting “one of the main things I look for in this music is the funk; I’m not a big fan of plodders, so in terms of rhythm it’s usually fairly busy.”

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DOWNLOAD: Commodo – Sonic Router Mix #100

Tracklist:

Tyler, The Creator – VCR [OFWGKTA]
Pinch – Blow Out The Candle [dub]
DJG – Pressure VIP [dub]
Author – Teacher [forthcoming Tectonic]
Commodo – Uprising [forthcoming Deep Medi]
Commodo – So Clear Mkii [dub]
Jack Sparrow – Afraid Of Me [dub]
Commodo – Saracen [forthcoming Deep Medi]
Distance – Knowing [dub]
Commodo – Surveillance [dub]
V.I.V.E.K – Out of Reach [dub]
Commodo – 00 / Double Zero [dub]
Lurka – Forgotten Ones [dub]
Commodo vs Lurka – Gassin [Black Box]
Headhunter – Projector (tease) [dub]

Words: Oli Marlow & Owen Renn

Commodo’s ‘Uprising’ b/w ‘Saracen’ is out on Deep Medi on 10th October.