Label:Exit Records (7)
Catalog#: EXIT016
Format: M2T
Country:UK
Released:21 Aug 2009
Genre: Electronic
Style: Drum n Bass
Quality: 384kbps / 48.0 kHz

All credits go to the producer (Spectrasoul)
Buy this tune @ bm-soho.com/store/AutoKey/…

Brace yourself for Ninja Tune’s latest signing: King Cannibal aka Zilla aka Dylan Richards, because he is coming hard as hell in his forthcoming record “Let the Night Roar.” We were immediately feeling it and got goosebumps down the spine with the intro (which is exactly what Richards was going for, as stated below), and it’s the sickest album intro we’ve heard in a long time.

Starting with a movie soundtrack vibe that goes into a wild and unique dance hall beat on the second track, “Aragami Style.” You just have to experience for yourself to know what we’re talking about. Mary Anne-Hobbs knows what we’re talking about and if you listen to her regularly on Radio 1, she has already played the track multiple times, praising King Cannibal’s sound, affectionately referring to it as “too dark!”

Before we even listened to the CD, we found the cover interesting and just the artist name and album title Richards chose really are twisted. His music certainly lives up to the artist image and cover art.

Tracklisting:

1. Intro (0:59)
2. Aragami Style (6:14)
3. Murder Us (6:16)
4. Virgo (Featuring – Jahcoozi) (5:03)
5. So… Embrace The Minimum (Featuring – Face-A-Face) (5:48)
6. Dirt (Featuring – Daddy Freddy) (4:58)
7. Colder Still (6:07)
8. A Shining Force (6:12)
9. The Untitled (5:40)
10. Onwards Vultures (5:32)
11. Flower Of Flesh And Blood (6:40)

King Cannibal himself on his music:

I never really started off making music with a theme but at the half way point it really became clear that it had built its own outside of what I was consciously thinking. It is quite obviously, sonically speaking, a violent piece of work, but where as most albums who tackle this subject fall back on its links with horror films I’ve really tried to make this about real life happening outside of our windows, in our backyards and in our small lives. We get trapped into thinking a certain way, doing things we don’t want to do just so we can postpone our ambition another day. It’s about cutting through these things with a positive violence and letting ‘the night roar,’ for the night is when we finally get to do the things we really want to do. The title, Let The Night Roar, is from a speech made by Jim Jones, the man responsible for the Jonestown massacre. Whilst it was a terrible series of events I happened across a recording of part of his speech and it really shivers down my spine and the album title really jumped out at me when he spoke it.

Really interesting and articulate story behind the music, and so deliberately creepy. King Cannibal has already earned the respect and support of The Bug, Bong Ra, Jagz Kooner, Strictly Kev, Kid 606, Knifehand Chop and Ebola.

Before he was King Cannibal, Zilla was best known for a series of well-received mix tapes, including “A Friendly Game of Chess” (with Buddy Peace), “One Foot In The Fire, One Fist In The Air” and his compilation “Watch And Repeat Play” for Warp Records (also with Buddy Peace).

The King Cannibal debut album drops on October 6, 2009, so get your ears ready for the pure, raw darkness to come.

So we caught up with Libby Picken from Lazerbitch and got a chance to interview her, finding out all kinds of information about  the group and some of the East Coast music scene in the process. Even though the Lazerbitch fan base keeps growing, Picken was still friendly and down to Earth, not letting her ego get the best of her.

We’re really excited to see the forthcoming music video for the “Coquette” track and look forward to hearing more from Lazerbitch in the future. We were impressed by the duo’s musical history before forming Lazerbitch both before and after speaking to Picken. It’s always nice to get a chance to converse with artists you follow.

You’ve worked with a lot of successful producers before Lazerbitch was formed. What’s some of the story behind the sound that Lazerbitch has created?

I’ve been singing since I was a little kid, I would sing Broadway tunes at talent shows and such. I started going to raves back in 1994 in the Baltimore/DC metro area. A couple of the big parties back then were Fever and Buzz. I started throwing events in Baltimore in 1998. Going out and promoting for my parties allowed me to meet many different DJs and producers. While promoting my monthly party,“Go,” I met DJ Sinestro(Chis Baggett), who introduced me to and suggested I work with his friend Holmes Ives. At the time, Holmes was producing tracks under the moniker Memnon and Aurora. Holmes was also just starting to garner attention from people like Paul Oakenfold for his trance music production. Holmes then introduced me to his friend Michael Meacham; they were doing music on the Caffeine label out of New York. Holmes then used my voice in small portions on a couple of his records. Among those tunes, I was tossed in the background of a BT remix, and my resulting Caffeine release was a record called “Exit 9″. I was only 19 at the time. Since I was always going out, it was only a matter of time before I became friends and involved with the people backing Buzz. One of these people was John Tab. Whenever I knew of a DJ/producer coming through to play Buzz, I would hit John Tab up and ask him if I could pick up that person from the airport. This would enable me to get some face time with the producer I was seeking to chat with. Unfortunately, it more often than not ended up with the DJ hitting on me and not taking me seriously as a vocalist.

In August of 2000, I picked up John B as a trade off for guest-list to Buzz’s then monthly weekday Wednesday night party, Mango. I had actually met John the night before at Bar Nun in DC, and I chatted him up about getting me on one of his tracks. I mailed John a CD of mine shortly thereafter, and John emailed back that he loved my music, and very much wanted to work with me. This resulted in our 2002 release on his Beta Recordings label entitled “Electrofreek”. Somehow, Paul Oakenfold heard “Electrofreek”, and asked John B to do a trance remix for his “Great Wall” CD, which was released in 2003.

I feel you need to move forward to stay current, and I think John understood that. A lot of people either loved or hated “Electrofreek” because it was so different from what John had been doing at the time. I will acknowledge that drum and bass is still relevant, although I don’t think it’s anywhere nearly as huge as it was years ago. People are surprised to learn that I will still work on the odd drum and bass track, but it is a very rare occurrence. My only drum and bass projects are with Mark Subsonik of Subsonik Sound Recordings. I find Subsonik’s sound incredibly advanced; that was the main reason why I agreed to work with him. He also came with the John B stamp of approval, which totally worked in his favor. Subsonik’s and my track entitled, “Let You Go”, will be released on Beta Recordings as the B side to Subsonik’s “Mercury Skies”(original by John B) remix.