Stormfield is the head of underground bass label Combat Recordings. Having started in 2004, the label has 11 releases out on vinyl and has pushed it's releases digitally from the start, 3-stage remixes and exclusive tracks.
In a scene obsessed with categorisation Combat has risen above the crowd and carved out a distinctive sound taking in influence from Electro, Dubstep, Breakbeat and Electronica.
With recent clan member King Cannibal recently signed to legendary Ninja Tune and a number of mixes on key shows such as Surgeon's 'Electronic Explorations' the stock of the label keeps rising and has become a benchmark of quality for dark, dancefloor orientated beats.
Interview by Threnody
Combat recordings has been going for a number of years now. Do you think your musical vision has changed in that time?
Not particularly. Genres have shifted around us a bit, but Combat's more of a vibe, which can be found in specific tunes across various genres. Or an attitude, you could say.
The label's founding members are all DJs, hence with every release there's a strong focus on dancefloor tracks. We'll happily play weird beats, but regardless of how abstract or disjointed something is, it's gotta still work on the dancefloor. Having lots and lots of bass helps
How has the label grown since you started?
Gradually, organically and haphazardly. People are starting to recognise it now I guess; over 17 releases out, and more importantly, there's good word-of-mouth support. Plus, with Mary Anne on Radio 1 and Surgeon pushing the tunes, things ain't that bad.
Because of money and distro problems at the start of the label, every release is planned as if it were the very last one. That way, you force yourself to pick only the heaviest tunes, so if the label suddenly stops dead, you can still look back on the records that came out, without regret.
A load of tracks get put aside. It's not that difficult to make such harsh decisions in selecting tracks once you realise how expensive and risky it is to press vinyl these days; space on the grooves of a 12" is like prime real estate - you gotta be brutal with picking stuff. One shit 12" and the label's fucked... Even now that we're on a good roll with the releases, I'm sticking with that idea.
Having a boring dayjob helps, it gave time to run a label behind the manager's back, without worrying about the rent. But what's really helped the label grow, in ways not so obvious, is a lot of synchronicity that's happened over the past 4 years: seemingly unrelated events and "luck" have collectively nudged things along in the right direction, such as randomly hooking up with totally like-minded producers, clubnights, graphic artists, web designers, getting professional advice from friends, getting support in press, radio, gigs.. without asking for them, I've witnessed unlikely things just click into place, and with each bit the label grows. I mean, like a lot of small labels we've never had money to start with, but yet we've managed okay, so I do believe some supreme evil force must be guiding things
Nights such as Plex, Yardcore, Interakt, No Fixed Abode, Adverse Camber, Platform 1 (London), Sequence and Electrode (Manchester) and Sound Headquarters (Czech) have been a huge support to the label's artists. King Cannibal (one of our more recent crew) has recently been signed by Ninja Tune (congrats!) which is obviously a big outlet to push his music. And hopefully the exposure will bring people sniffing around his other projects on labels like us, and Rag and Bone.
Speaking of haphazardly, I've just been told the next 12" is delayed due to a hiccup at the pressing plant. Joys of releasing vinyl...
What attracts you to a tune sonically?
For listening, all sorts of things. In the past week at work I've gone through, erm let's see... a François K mix, a Bugz in the Attic set, some new King Cannibal stuff, L'usine, some new Funckarma bits, Brian Eno, Rob Hall mix sets, Merck mix 2, an acid set I downloaded of Basterdized, the new Chris Clark album, some new demos .. they allowed headphones all day in the office so I've been cramming all sorts into the player.
For relevance to this interview, I pick for the label stuff that's techy, sci-fi, bassy and a bit dark... stuff that's sometimes brutal and not afraid to let go. The vibe of what we felt when Blackmass and ScanOne were DJ'ing old hardcore, when I was playing old drum'n'bass and glitchy electro, when the other artists are all doing their thing and not holding back. The "lets fucking have it." It continues in the current mutations of dubstep and breakstep and steppy techno etc.
At risk of sounding like Gordon Ramsay, I'd say the label picks tunes that are forward-thinking, with fresh ideas, and high production values. It's not arrogance; we're simply very specific about stuff we like, and can explain why a tune works for the label or not. Although it takes more words to say no without coming across like a wanker.
Having been into anime and meditation for quite a bit, I like the eastern idea of balancing hi-technology with mysticism, which keeps developments firmly rooted in something timeless, less perishable. Hopefully this comes across a little in the releases, but if it doesn't then... whatever
If there was more time and the cash, I wouldn't mind releasing music that's not so DJ focused, like Hymen Records, which has introduced the public to some amazing artists. But at the moment, electronic listening music is a risky thing to put money into, because of downloading blah blah blah. That's a whole other discussion right there! At any rate, there's enough work for us to keep busy with, as it is.
Which sounds are you currently attracted to?
Meaning sounds from people not already on the label? Quite a few.
Anstam – a German electronic group, who, within the space of two 12"s, have released some of the sickest techy darkness we've had the luck to discover. Anstam #2, "Brom" is just next-level stuff... succinct, full of growl and attitude along with expert sound design.
Broken Note – a couple of guys from the Yardcore extended family, they have a 12" out on Ruff Recordings and another in the pipeline. Again, precise, powerful sounds, not constrained to a formula. Their productions could easily sit next to Boxcutter on Planet Mu.
Elemental – He's a mate and part of our kebab group (Kebabylon, on Facebook – look it up!) but grilled dinners aside, he's a sick producer and has totally got his own sound locked down. Old junglist vibes reinterpreted in his own way: Spooky, understated Photek sounds, weird inventive rhythms and fanatical attention to detail. Heard him drop some syncopated steppy techno at the last christmas party, there needs to be more of that released!
Zan Lyons – visual artist and musician who's released on Digital Hardcore and his own label. Very unique sound, really beautiful and musical (he plays the cello on stage) but matched with incredible violence, dark atmospherics and precision-crafted distortion and monster subs. His visuals go perfectly with the sounds. You need to check his site zanlyons.com
L'usine – veteran electronica artist and sound designer. Amazingly crisp engineering. His more recent stuff is more housey, but I've been buying digitally his older stuff which is more electro, abstract. Again, very melodic with spiky sharp glitches.
Funckarma (aka. Cane) – couple of brothers from Holland who make incredibly detailed electronic music. They released some killer acid electro on the Colony label and have other stuff out on Creative Space, Highpoint Lowlife, Marguerita which are pretty good.
Gridlock – An electronica duo from the states (not the same guys as the drum'n'bass Gridlock). Released an amazing album and E.P. on Hymen which by chance I'm listening to now while typing this. Similar to Zan Lyons, the more violent the beats the more beautiful the pads and melodies.
Burial – Yeah I know there's a lot of hype around him, but looking past that he's got his own vibe which, when it ventures into darker territory, I really like. Still playing his first EP on Hyperdub, that South London Boroughs track which I like best. Nice chap too.
Among the dubstep/breakstep producers I'd have to shout out Urban Collective, Search & Destroy, Slaughter Mob, Rottun Recordings, Sully Shanks, Frijsfo Beats, Lone Wolf, Grim Feast, M2J, Reso, Immigrant Recs, Rag and Bone, Dirty Needles, Tes la Rok, Bass Clef, Ital Tek, Boxcutter, Steve @ Hyperdub, Distance, TRG, Shack and Laurie @ Skull Disco, Vex'd, fuck i've probably forgotten a few..
How did the link with Scorn happen?
An ex-gf was a big scorn fan, through her I got acquainted with the sound of Mr Harris. Round the same time (about 6 years ago), I was helping out doing radio shows for another label on Breaks FM. After 2 shows we quickly ran out of tunes and didn't wanna have to resort to playing shitty breaks, so I started contacting artists we respected, hoping they'd send mixes and live sets in.
Got Mick's email off Kosmik Neil from Trigger, and it went from there. Found him to be really warm, approachable and chatty – a total contrast to the choking, isolationist atmospheres his music conjures. (it seems to be consistently the case that the nice, chilled-out ones make the most evil tunes) .
The Scorn radio set was later released as a CD from a label in Poland, titled "Lists of Takers", a fucking awesome live set - if you come across it, grab it.
Mick's lovely, really chatty, and very humble. We'd talked of a release for ages but things weren't ready yet - Combat wasn't up and running properly, money & distro problems etc and Mick was tied up with other things, but last year he suddenly knocked out an album and 3 tracks. The album ended up on Ad Noiseum / Ohm Resistance and of the 3 others, 2 were picked for a series of Combat 12"s. Then the rest of us jumped in and the remix work began. So far there's remixes from King Cannibal, Blackmass, Zan Lyons, Dolphin (of Planet Mu), Bracket and myself. Mick's gonna do more on Combat in future. I'm quite happy that his set tore the place apart at Bloc 2008, though it was gutting to miss it.
Have you ever encountered hate or derision towards what you are doing?
Good question
Hate's a pretty strong word, so no. But derision, sometimes.
If you stay on the outer margins between genres/scenes, you get to witness a lot of interesting, creative ideas happening, but socially you can get labelled as an outsider quite easily. Especially if you try to avoid clique politics and bullshit.
Some socially savvy artists/labels manage to stay just barely within those outer boundaries, so they still get some degree of support from within a scene, while looking and reaching toward the outside of it. We on the other hand are kind of sometimes inside, and sometimes outside, it depends on any particular release at the time and how that makes people wanna perceive us. Electro people call us dubstep, dubstep people call us electro, whatever... fuck it.
At any rate, the BIG names at the core of certain scenes, you'd be led by their PR agencies to think they are 100% living, breathing and shitting only dubstep or whatever... but you'd be surprised the producers listen to a very wide range of stuff and probably even produce tunes in genres you'd sneer at, but under different names. So it's not all cut-and-dried, though of course it would be easier for agencies to market music if the public is programmed to think that way.
A rather funny thing happened a while back when some people on a messageboard accused us of being Nazis (!). It started from the announcement of COMBAT013 - Instead of listening to the tunes, they looked at the artwork (a ninja star) and immediately assumed it was some sort of disguised swastika. The ranting ran into several pages until we explained that, first off - I'm Chinese i.e. not even white, thus wouldn't make a very convincing Nazi. I guess the lesson learned was, you'll get judged, regardless whether people even listen to the tunes or not.
The flipside is, things are going fine because Combat's always had support from some clued-up music heads, and as long as it can continue to release records, play gigs, that's cool. It's encouraging that the sound has found found it's way to various promoters and listeners further afield in Europe and the states, purely word of mouth, without having a press agency to push us in people's faces. Czech Republic, especially... large up the Czech crew. And last Spring, I realised that COMBAT13 was being played at a Hekate squat party in London, and at the Bloc Festival in 2 arenas, by Yukimura who's one of the top underground DJs in Czech, by Rob Hall of Skam Records, and on Radio 1 by Mary Anne Hobbs – support from right across the board
That was a nice buzz. Anyway, originally coming from a country (Singapore) with no culture of rave (by this I mean soundsystems, a community of people making tunes, class A's, mad adventures searching for parties, total immersion in music), that kind of environment pushes you towards compromise, playing what other people want. And if pursued full-time, it becomes like another kind of 9-5 job. Or, if you're naturally reclusive anyway, you'd tend to hide away, in order to stay with the music you personally like. In balance though, there's always been a handful of clued-up people there (as with most places), and (via magazines and some clubs) you could get a little taste of the madness that was going on in England and Europe, just enough to make you wanna explore.Started college in the UK was wicked because there were a lot of amazing little clubs going on at the time: Metalheadz at the Blue Note, Ninja Tune nights, Logical Progression, Co-Op, Warp nights. The downside was, people who went to these nights wouldn't go to the other nights because by then electronic music had fragmented into techno, hip hop, drum'n'bass (+ various micro genres therein), electronica blah blah so I unknowingly became an outsider again: by buying various styles of music and going to various nights, you'd get sneered at by whichever cliques thought their own genre was the only one worth knowing. The central idea being that, if you didn't restrict yourself to only one thing, you couldn't possibly have any proper knowledge of it so why even listen to it anyway. Over time, dealing with that bollocks tends to make you a bit thick skinned, less concerned what the moaners think. Sometimes it's good to blunder in, not knowing the rules. Not giving a shit helps
Where do you see the future of Combat lying?
Wherever it may end up, it'll continue to sound like Combat. There's a definate direction in the vibe and sound, but no particular destination. We've been blessed with the run of tunes so far, hopefully we'll continue to receive and release interesting tracks. Will probably have to release an album at some point, to help develop the artists. Albums need even more cash to do though, so feel free to paypal me if you're reading this
What has been your personal highlight as an artist and label boss?
There's lots of little highlights but one that's just popped in my mind is: not being arrested by a tall policeman in the booth after playing a really, really nice gig last summer. Those that know, know
Release-wise, it's always a good buzz when a new track appears that makes you go "OH FUCK"; you know you gotta get it released somehow.
A "near-highlight" from last autumn was when my mate hooked up with this really lovely bird during an outdoor gig, who spent the whole night in the front of the speakers getting severely mashed and raving like mad to some really brutal, evil tunes. 2 weeks later, she was persuaded to do a photo shoot for the label's artwork, which involved posing around a graveyard wearing fake blood and not very many clothes
Demented, but in a good way. We had the Combat demon embossed on her top and everything. A photographer was booked but on the day of the shoot it properly pissed it down with rain; and I ended up in the kitchen drinking tea and chatting to the photographer who was also quite a sweetie. That was the final week of warm weather last year, it got put back and back and didn't happen in the end. Maybe next time Combat 017: ScanOne – Toolkit pt2 is out soon on Vinyl
Combat BM1: Blackmass – Do The Mash EP is out now digitally
Full release archive and links to live sets, news and future releases can be found on the Combat Recordings website at
http://www.combatrecordings.com
