blog // Interviews, Tunes

Amen-tal : interview & FREE download

13 January 2010

This week we speak to the fantastic Amental. A Norfolk based collective of jungle fanatics, these boys are establishing themselves as some of the most talented and dedicated young amen mashers around.

We’ve played with them a number of times over the last year – notably Braindrop @ Scala, Bloc Weekend and Jungle Syndicate Bristol. And they’ve smashed it every time with their Ableton based live show. And the lovely chaps have given us a track to download too.

We caught up with 2 of their key players, Dr Um…. and Badman Moriarty to chat about barn trance, amens and rat poo.

Interview

BD – Hello guys – how are you and what are you doing at the moment?

DU – Pretty Cold, Ill, Burning spliffs, Logs and Breaking beats!

BM – Pretty ill, burning things

BD – How would you describe Amental? What are your main influences?

BOTH – Amen-tal are a collective of like minded wrong’uns who like to make horrible noises at excessive volumes. We grew up playing in ska/metal/punk bands in our youth so the horrible element to our music has always been there from before we began!! this i guess has to be our biggest influence since that’s how we grew up…… An insatiable hunger for smoke-able plant matter mixed with a very unhealthy range of sleep disorders play a pretty large part in things too! There was a period where raves were kicking off every weekend around our ends so we all started to warm towards the idea of electronic music. After a few months of banging as fuck barn trance, piano house and old school parties… :-/ … we saw a little rig called structurally unsound (Life4Land) crop up at a multi rigger in the depths of Thetford forest and had a little musical epiphany! NOT EVERYONE WHO LIKES DANCE MUSIC LIKES SHIT MINDLESS 4X4 NONSENSE AIMED MAINLY FOR VEGETABLES!!! With this realisation and a collective hate for the commercial dance scene which dominates the area in which we operate and in general… We decided we’d give it a bash!

BD – Where did you get the name from?

BOTH- Our collective unhealthy obsession with the amen break. We never intended to steal it, but its also a name of a track by Amen Andrews.

BD – Any exciting news? Releases / remixes / collaborations /
festival appearances etc etc?

BOTH – ‘Amentalist Movement – Round Two’ was released on Acroplane, ideation and structural damage on the 23rd November + it’s free to download!!!! Check www.acroplane.org + www.ideation-records.com + www.structuraldamage.co.uk. We plan on sticking out a few more free releases over the course of 2010 so keep your eyes peeled! Go to www.amen-tal.co.uk for updates. Early this year probably around April we will being releasing the 3rd independent Amen-tal release long time itched over Amen 002 vinyl. We’ve been waiting for this for too long, and there’s some serious amen bizzniss in the pipeline for this one!!! As for festivals this year were playing at Bangface Weekender 2010 which anyone who has attended in the past will know is gonna be completely off the wall! www.bangface.com. Also were in talks with a few other promoters for some other festivals this year so stay tuned for some big announcements to come with any luck

BD – What equipment / software do you use to make your music?

BOTH – Acid, Ableton, Logic, krk rokits, Akai mpd, things that make noise, things that record noise

BD -Top production tip?

DU – WHAT THAT NEEDS IS A BANGING DONK MATE…. and if i were you id put an amen break on it too…

BM – Break it, ruin it, do it all wrong

BD – Which artists are you really rating at the moment and why?

DU – There’s too many to list…. but off the top of my head without writing an entire book for you… Ghost – because of his amazingly intricate sound and second to none production skills! I wouldn’t hesitate to say Kenny has made some of the best music I’ve ever heard in my life! Dj Vocoda – fresh new upcoming talent from our ways – this lad is barely out of nappies and is already writing jungle sick enough to make you spit out ya dummies. Axewound – one of the newest additions to the Amen-tal crew, allongside his mad amounts of musical talent which seemingly fall from his fingertips – he also won the title of boots most beautiful baby as a young’un

BM – Daytime Televisuals for relentlessly being at every dirty rave up possible supplying images for your eyes displeasure. We’ve worked closely with him this year check his stuff out!  Ghosts tracks have been stand out for years his mastering is an art of it’s own, enjoying a lot coming from Life 4 Land crew, MDS & Senor Scram especially. I’m rating crews of producers more this year. Jungle Syndicate, Junglist Alliance, Satta Sounds are raping my ears currently, I like the DIY vibe

BD – All time 3 top tunes (anything at all!)?

BOTH – that’s too hard!!!

DU

1. The Winstons – Amen brother (the world would be a very sad place without this tune)
2. Lynn Collins – Think (Again…just think of all the tunes that wouldn’t exist!)
3. Billie Holliday – Gloomy Sunday (original darkside bizzniss)

BM

1. The Beastie Boys – Ch-check it out
2. Voodoo Glow Skulls – El Coo Cool
3. Bob Dylan – Rainy Day Women 12 & 35

BD – What are the top 10 records smashing it in your sets at the mo?

1. Falling Down Escalators – The Devil’s Ring
2. 4a4 – Constant Mash Up
3. eN – Falmer Stn
4. Axewound – Insatiable Hunger
5. DSC – Burn Down The System
6. Dr…um + Axewound – Babylon Junglist
7. Badman Moriarty – Twisted Brain Wrong
8. Pastaman + Cherub – The Grudge
9. Ghost – Camber Acid
10. Dj Vocoda + Radman – Jamaica will rise

BD – All time 3 animals

DU – There’s more than three awesome animals!!

1. The Sarcastic Fringehead – (not an mouthy emo kid locked in the cupboard as you may imagine) these are fish that have the best name going in the animal kingdom!
2. My Chickens are pretty good as they provide eggy treats on a regular basis!
3. My Ratkid’s (R.I.P) – one of the most loyal an coolest pets…although smelliest… when they rarely did shit on the floor it was far less of an issue than your nan’s Great Dane unleashing jellified meaty chunks of semi digested food babies onto the carpet.

BM –

1. chickens for scrambled eggs
2. cats
3. goats

BD – Favorite Youtube video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU5Dn-WaElI – this demo of Ableton – someone remaking Prodigy – Smack my bitch up… It’s a nice insight into Ableton + the world of sample manipulation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIFFcVEWClg& – its a stop time animation done by one of our friends a few years ago – the patience and skill that went in to making this is mind blowing!

BM – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvl0Nc3Mj98

We could do you a top 10000 Youtube clips… though we’re going to stop myself right there…

Free tune download

Big thanks to the Amen-tal massiiiive! Download Badman Moriarty’s Twisted Brain Wrong below . . .

[audio:Twisted Brain Wrong.mp3]

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