5 Questions with Rags #78 - Kytami + Phonik Ops

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There's something about the presence of a live instrument (beyond turntables, which are 100% an instrument and I'll fight you if you say otherwise) in electronic music that immediately grabs the attention of hardcore bass-heads and the uninitiated alike. Undoubtedly there are a few acts on the west coast combining live instrumentation and next-level bass with the ferocity and craft than Kytami + Phonik Ops. Since connecting at a festival here in British Columbia, the duo has become one of the most intriguing acts, standing out in an already saturated musical landscape. I got a chance to talk with the two from their studio, where they've been holed up – in heavy creation mode – during this whole quarantine thing.

“Phonik Ops reached out to me when were both playing Centre of Gravity in Kelowna. We were both playing at the hip-hop stage. He had reached out to me and posted one of my videos, so I looked him up and started listening to all his mixes,” Kytami says, recalling their beginnings as a duo. “At the time he was working with a rapper – Mishap – and I got them to open up for me on a winter tour. We started talking about working on a mix together and then we did it. That led to an EP. When we started working on actual music, we became partners in shows. It only made sense.” Phonik Ops elaborates with a laugh, “I started DJing for her is what she's trying to say.”

While both artists had their own things established, they meshed well right away and began tackling the big work – creating a truly unique sound that is instantly recognizable as their own. Listening to the duo talk about their music, it's clear why they work so well to this shared, and gloriously defined goal. “What these last few years has been about is getting the sound I want, getting it dialed in and getting the catalogue behind us. Really finding the space for my melodic lines against really heavy, fucking badass basslines. Trying to get those two working together, that's been the work. That's what we're really striving for,” says Kytami. “Not just liquid, or pretty, or easy-listening electronic music, we want it to be really badass, dirty but still have these soaring lines that I'm playing or shredding. But I don't want it be an afterthought.” Phonik Ops elaborates on the duo's process, “Part two to that is us figuring out how to write better together. Bass sounds and violin, how we can stack and move together and also what we can get away with frequency range-wise. Taking away frequency so there's that much room for her, versus if there's a more noisy part and balancing it out more. We're stoked with everything we're making right now.”

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1. When's the last time you did something for the first time?

Phonik Ops: First time I've been quarantined. Sorry, that's boring.

Nah, that's a very timely answer! Relatable as fuck.

Kytami: This is weird. I've been in this electronic world for so long. I actually rented a CD-J setup over the holidays, around Christmas, and I started trying to actually DJ. I DJed at a little clothing store. I found all my tracks, I DJed and played the violin over it. You think I would have done it by then. It was just for myself.

PO: She headlined her own birthday party! The dope part about that was that I saw it start to make her think about our sets differently. She's always pretty good at coming up with ideas but she's all stoked getting her own tracks and piecing together other tracks now.

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5 Questions with Rags #53 - WBBL

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“I used to play in bands back where I lived in Dorset in the UK - ska bands, pop cover bands. That's what you gotta do in Dorset to make fun, you gotta make your own fun down there. It's a lovely little countryside area but not a lot going on there at all, nightlife especially. I think there's one club that's only open once a month.” This is where WBBL's music started. WBBL, one of the leaders of the next wave of great bass-masters coming from the UK. Before he was smashing open the ears of clubs and festival crowds around the Europe (And Canada!) the good homie, known in the real world as Joe Gale, was laying a solid foundation for his eventual assault on bass-seekers everywhere. “I went to ACM in Gilford in the UK - Academy of Contemporary Music. It sounds fancier than it is,” laughs Gale. “They're a great school. It's all about the experience you get from going there. I met so many great people there, loads of people trying to do the same thing. People who just want to make their music better, who want to meet and collaborate.” Taking a look at WBBL's output, the collaborative spirit is alive and well, as evidenced by his ever-growing list of tracks with wobbly peers like Slynk, X-Ray Ted, Mr. Switch and Father Funk.

Too many years in the making, a long-established heavyweight of the ever-popular Ghetto Funk label, WBBL made a triumphant Shambhala Music Festival debut on the legendarily funky Fractal Forest last month. A dance floor filled with a couple thousand people was, then and there, turned into a legion of WBBLites. (WBBLers? WBBListas? What's the term we want to collectively coin for the growing mass?) If you want some more in-depth talk of his set, GO HERE, and read the thing I already wrote about it. Earlier today the powerful homie gifted his Shambhala set onto the world, so you don't even have to read what I wrote. You can listen for yourself. Pair up his blistering set with another tasty round of the 5 Questions to get a full helping of wobbly goodness. Here we discuss the Gorillaz, welcoming-ass Canadians and Hendrix's proclivity for plain bagels.

1. What was the first album you bought with your own money?

WBBL: It was the first Gorillaz album on CD. In 2001, or something. It was a good introduction because it was pop but it was dub and reggae and hip-hop and garage. It opened my mind up to a load of different genres. I thought it was such a cool thing to have in the charts that were all bubble-gum pop and you get this dark, awesome album.

2. First time you did something for the last time?

WBBL: Well, this is my first Shambhala. So that's the obvious one. But last year was my first time in Canada, my first time being out of Europe, coming to do international shows. That was a brilliant first time because everyone in Canada is so ridiculously welcoming and nice. That's what Shambhala is about as well. I want to do this first time every time.

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#festivalseason - 20 years in, Shambhala is as memorable and magical as ever.

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Every year I step onto the Salmo River Ranch for Shambhala (This was my fifth consecutive year) I'm amazed and inspired. It's not just all the great music – though the amount of high-quality, incredibly creative music is near-baffling – but how Shambhala brings the best out of everyone involved. The organizers seemingly outdo themselves every year with new instalments, a keen eye for talent and various tweaks, small and large, to the well-oiled machine that is Shambhala. The Djs, visual artists, dancers, hoopers, etc, all bring their A-games, bringing out their finest beats, strokes and moves to the funky proceedings. And my fellow attendees – their willingness to let the weirdest parts of themselves shine and bathe in bass makes me smile. Seeing all the little pieces of oddness people have found for themselves, the novelty we all gift to each other as we traverse the four days on the farm, is unlike anything my imagination can come close to. I am astounded every year and this year was no different. Please Shambhala, Shambhalovelies, please don't ever stop astounding me.

EVERYONE HAD TO DEAL WITH THE FIRES. WELL DONE, EVERYONE.

There have been many stories about the Sunday cancellation/evacuation/cancellation of the evacuation. The good homies at Betty & Kora just put out a great breakdown of the timeline and events of the whole thing. There's nothing more to be said on the matter. However, what is becoming more interesting to me is hearing stories from attendees of how different people and camps came together and dealt with the impending chaos in their own ways. My campmates sat down Saturday afternoon for a very well moderated meeting that included a time to share our favourite moments of the first couple of days of Shambhala, in an effort to keep spirits high. This is when we found that two of our Sham-fam had got engaged on Friday night! In the same spot at the Pagoda where two other members of the fam had had their wedding ceremony a couple of years earlier. I'm sure we would have found out soon enough, but to discover this beautiful thing in the midst of what kind of felt like impending doom was a deeply moving moment. One that I'm sure no one who experienced it will forget anytime soon.

THE RIVER OF SMOKE

This is an untouched photo of the river on Thursday, in the midst of what would prove to be the worst bout of wildfire smoke all weekend. It's burned into my head forever now – the relentless partiers continuing unabated in front of what looks like the bloody apocalypse. At this moment it felt like the smoke would never let up, that this is just how life was going to be, gasping for fresh air in between dance moves. Obviously it wasn't like that, crisp air wasn't that far away, but it's a pretty good summation of the most challenging parts of this Shambhala20.

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Jimi Needles - Of synths, sounds and Jungle Strikes.

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“I recently came to the realization that I've been Djing half of my life,” Jimi Needles – world-class DJ, producer and drummer for knock-out soul band Ephemerals – recalls, talking to me from home, shortly before leaving on a well-deserved holiday. “I had my CD decks first when I was 14. I bought really cheap CD decks and hated it, then got vinyl decks when I was 15 and restarted again. Not many people did that back then. You didn't touch Cds like that. It was all vinyl and then suddenly it was all Cds and I did the opposite. I've been djing full-time about half of my djing life. And only about the last four have been giving a real shit.” Four years is probably about the length of time that Needles has been on the radar of an ever-growing contingent of bassheads here on the Canadian west coast. His Needlewurk mixes are some of the most reliable I've found, able to keep all the members of the crew happy – no matter where they lay on the spectrum of bass music enjoyment. The good homie combines his incredible arsenal of sounds, tempos and feelings, with great taste in music and a penchant for juggling the best parts from an unyielding scope of genres.

It's been a year and half since the last time I've talked to Needles. It's been a fruitful time that has seen him touring relentlessly on his own and as the drummer for Ephemerals, the creation of the Jimi Needles Band and the beginning of the final stretch toward his long-awaited debut album. “I think I've become a worse DJ and a better producer since we last talked. I've sacrificed a bit of the Djing. In the past 18 months I've really collected a bunch of sounds that I will use for all of my tracks. Every producer has their signature thing, like Stickybuds has his signature bass. 'Oh yeah, that's a Stickybuds tune there.' Featurecast has got his signature boom-bap-shuffle-drums. You can't miss those. A. Skillz has own kits and stuff. I've done a lot of tracks that share the same synth,” says Needles. “The whole album is going to speak to that synth. It'll be the “Jimi Needles Sound.” Really moving away from bootleg stuff on the album to more original stuff. It's exciting. I've really learned to create space in tracks. When I was just bootlegging I would just go, “Let's just feature loads of stuff!” Never give it a breather. You kind of learn to add those spaces in.”

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#festivalseason - Once again, Tall Tree is coming at your ears hard.

Over the past 7 years, Tall Tree has risen to the top of BC's endlessly growing list of bloody awesome music festivals. Over here on Vancouver Island, up on Brown's Mountain in Port Renfrew, in the clouds, overlooking the world below like the gods themselves, Tall Tree has split the difference between laid back alt-rock festival and balls-to-the-wall rave, creating one of the most unique festival experiences around. Vancouver Island runs at a different pace than anywhere else in the province, nay, the country, and Tall Tree exemplifies all the facets of what makes being a music fan here on the Island so fucking great. Be as normal, as weird, as chill, as wild as you want...ON A MOUTAIN.

On a lineup as deep as ever with local favourites (And past 5 Questions guests) like Mat the Alien, SkiiTour, and Pigeon Hole, Tall Tree has expanded their reach further than usual to pack their roster more full than ever. Here are the first six acts that jumped out to my eyes on my first look through the lineup. Get after it, good people.

Shapeshifter NZ

As I struggle to find myself a solid foothold on the vast mountain that is drum 'n' bass, Shapeshifter has found their way into my life like some kind of blessing from the headphone gods. The New Zealand 5-piece play relentlessly pretty liquid drum 'n' bass, throwing in heavy dollops of soul and dub reggae. Their live shows have garnered them sell-out, large-scale tours around their home country and spots at legendary festivals like Glastonbury. Highlighted by the ethereal but earthy vocals of P. Digsss, Shapeshifter's engaging live DnB opens up the genre to a whole new level of accessibility. It's important work, helping new aural seekers uncover the intense mysteries of this powerful form of music.

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