Phonica White regulars Kassian finally get a chance to showcase their dj skills for our very own mix series. The London-based duo of Danvers and Warren Xc1nce are on fire with their productions and dj sets and whilst normally using their influences of jazz , soul, broken beat and hip-hop in their house mixes , this one is a little bit tougher with more of a techno influence !! Hope you enjoy !! Links for Soundcloud & Mixcloud are below, and don’t forget its also on ITunes….
We caught up with the guys during the lockdown weeks….
How have you guys been getting on during the lockdown? Have you found time to work together?
Joe: It’s actually been a lot better than we thought, we’ve been working on tracks remotely pretty easily, passing ideas back and forth for each other to work on. We’ve been really enjoying making some more leftfield tracks that aren’t necessarily geared for the club.
Warren: Luckily we managed to figure out a nice process before lockdown started so we’re working on the same projects over the cloud. it’s actually been a nice adjustment producing music in a slightly different way, it involves more trust but I think we’re now at a point where we’re in sync with how we see a track being finished.
How have you been keeping yourself busy with social distancing?
Warren: Having not been furloughed most of my time is still wrapped up in my full-time job to be honest and currently it’s as busy as ever with everything going on.. I managed to move away at the start of lockdown to my family’s place by the coast so i’ve been walking down to the beach, reading, hanging out with fam and going through, organising a lot of my music.
Joe: I managed to sneak out to our studio and brought home as much gear as I could carry, I’m still working through the lockdown too, I’m trying to focus on the upsides to all of this – more time to produce, more exercise, healthy eating etc. Having all of our shows postponed actually hit me pretty hard to be honest. I didn’t realise how much the regular gigs kept me in good mental health, safe to say I’m looking forward to the industry getting going again.
You have given us 2 excellent twelves on the Phonica White label, alongside release on Heist and Groovence, you seem to be very prolific at the moment…
Joe: Thanks! We try to work as hard as we can. Obviously the lockdown has really flipped everything on its head and we both really miss playing shows, but we’re trying to make the most of the extra time we’ve got and create as much as possible.
Warren: I guess we’re just trying to keep the rhythm we had before and see if we can maybe produce a slightly different style to reflect the situation. Hopefully we can find a way to tell that story.
Last year, you gave us one of the year’s biggest records with ‘Montana’ on ‘Kassian Versions’, do you have any more secret versions imminent?
Joe: We were really overwhelmed with how well the first Versions release went down, and #2 is on it’s way, we’ve just held back on releasing it because of the lockdown. We want to make sure the industry is back in full swing when it comes out to make sure it gets the spotlight in the clubs and festivals.
Warren: Yeah we had a lot of fun playing the record last year! We just need to find the right time to put out the second record to lift people’s spirits when everyone’s back on the dancefloors. I think everyone will be excited for a big festival season once social distancing is over.
Other than your releases, What do you have planned for the rest of the year?
Warren: We’re looking forward to returning back to Heist Recordings just like we did with Phonica White earlier this year. We’ve got some real nice cameos this time around from the unbelievably gifted instrumentalist Laroye, and also Leo Pol who’s done an amazing job on a remix so we’re excited to share that with everyone.
Joe: After the Heist release we’ve got something a little heavier lined up, and hopefully some exciting shows to announce towards the end of the year (fingers crossed!)
The mix is a little more upfront and techno than your usual output, what was your process for recording the Phonica mix and is techno something you’re planning to experiment with more in the future?
Warren: It’s a nice progression of what we’re doing really. We listen to alot of techno in the studio for inspiration so it makes sense that’d start making it eventually. We had a slightly different approach to recording this mix because we weren’t together, but it’s been good practice thinking about how to combine the tracks we wanted to include and continually editing a potential tracklist to show a nice journey.
Joe: Watch this space… Later in the year we’re hoping to get a release out that’s more suited to bigger rooms, definitely heavier than our usual output.
You’ve put out a few singles and remixes lately, can you tell us any more about those?
Warren: We recently did a very stripped back remix for Elder Island which is doing really well. It was a lot of fun making a disco track from scratch because we’ve not really done that before without a main sample or hook to work from. We’ve had a few singles out too; ‘Ask Yourself’ was featured on Elkka’s fantastic Femme Culture label in collaboration with HeForShe with all proceeds going to UNWomen, and then we had ‘ Hackney Tenor’ released on Joe Corti’s China White label to raise money for the elderly members of the community during COVID-19, it’s been nice to contirbute to charitable causes in our own unique way.
TRACKLIST
Clever Austin – Mist
Delta Rain Dance – 1987 (CD-r Mix)
Leon Vynehall Gold Language (KG – HoRizon)
Enea Pascal – 42428266
DJ Deep – Head Up
Man Power – Redux
Ashee – Techno Face (K Groove Edit)
Kassian – San Junipero (Unreleased)
Bodeler & Brandub – Spaced Out
Antonio – Hyperfunk (Jackson Almond’s Ghosted Fonk Mix)
Cassius Select – HERD
Alex Cellar – Isolde
Damage – Love Lady
Body Copy – Don’t Stop
Kassian – London Orbital (Unreleased)
KUSP – Give it to me
Almaty – En Ros Utsprungen
Randomer – Van Pelt
Bianca Oblivion – Drip
LSDXOXO – Hateshopping (K Edit)
Hooverian Blur – Laluviah
Sinceer – EMP
Joy Orbison – Burn
Axefield – Slapende Honden
Salomo – Sunlight On The River
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