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» Add News | Biome and Demon
There’s a lot of talent in Manchester that tends to get overlooked, but it’s a testament to the city’s apparently inherent
passion for music that this acts less as a barrier than as a hurdle that needs to be crossed at its highest point. Biome is a
producer representative of this approach in that there is nothing rushed about his work and he only seems happy if what
people are hearing from is something that he can call fully-formed. After first breaking into dubstep with the sort of big kicks
and dark mid. range found on tunes like ‘Sonic’ he has honed his sound to something ...read more
There’s a lot of talent in Manchester that tends to get overlooked, but it’s a testament to the city’s apparently inherent
passion for music that this acts less as a barrier than as a hurdle that needs to be crossed at its highest point. Biome is a
producer representative of this approach in that there is nothing rushed about his work and he only seems happy if what
people are hearing from is something that he can call fully-formed. After first breaking into dubstep with the sort of big kicks
and dark mid. range found on tunes like ‘Sonic’ he has honed his sound to something genuinely original and he’s now reaping
the rewards of his patience and getting regular plays from some of the biggest names on the circuit. By considering the
importance of the mid. range of a tune alongside the bassline and still keeping in mind the idea of space, Biome builds that
ever-elusive sense of darkness into his beats whilst maintaining the energy within them that is necessary to get people
moving on a dancefloor.
First cutting his teeth in the grime scene as a founding member of one of the UK’s most-lauded crews, Macabre Unit – the
collective responsible for classic cuts such as 'Take Time' and 'Dem Na Ready Yet' – Demon, Raff Di Renzo to his Mum, is of a
rare breed of producer/DJs who continue to find themselves at the vanguard of the UK underground: from legendary
Sidewinder tape-pack sets, to gracing the Radio 1Xtra airwaves long before it became the entertainment behemoth that it is
today, there has always the sense with Demon that he isn’t waiting around for people to catch on. This is evident in the
humble way in which he looks back on his days in the grime scene, reflecting that he hadn’t realised "how big we were until
it all blew over". And whilst this might indicate a certain youthful naivety – Demon and his fellow Unit members were only
just into their twenties around the time of their successes in grime – it is arguably better understood as emblematic of the
incredible focus that even casual observers find to be characteristic of Raff himself.
Moving on from grime, after "life took over" and the direct Unit collective all but disintegrated, Demon’s attentions
turned to another offshoot of early-noughties dark garage. Far from what was by that time being peddled to mainstream radio
listeners as dubstep, however, what was coming from Demon’s studio was much closer to the sounds that had moved in the
small dark rooms of the now-world-straddling genre’s early years. This, in his own words, was about reminding people "
where it’s really at". And this, focussed as ever, driving forward a new resurgence of interest in that original, deeper
sound, is exactly what he achieved. Whether it be the hours put in the studio, both as a solo artist and keen collaborator,
coaxing out twisted synths and wrapping them up in tight percussion, or in DJ booths across the UK, Europe and North
America; the passion of the Milton Keynes-based producer cannot be faulted as he dedicates every spare moment possible to
the music he loves.
It’s almost inevitable, then, that this passion be extended to releasing music and the Unit - and the sense of a team or crew
that was so instrumental in the proliferation of grime in its early days - is something that remains today as Demon carefully
selects and mentors new producers to release on his labels Macabre Unit Digital and Macabre Unit Vinyl. Just shy of two
years old, both the M.U.D and M.UV imprints have already established themselves as buy-on-sight labels for discerning
dubstep heads, earning nominations for Best New Label and Best Label in the 2011 and 2012 Dubstepforum Awards
respectively and effectively furthering the crew or ‘family’ aspect of the Unit as it grows to include a passionate and
dedicated fanbase who consistently push each release to the top of the sales charts. « hide |
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