Future Retro London HHV Records 15 Items

After the first Meeting Of The Minds VIP release was done, World Championships was my next choice for the VIP treatment.

Made in April 2020 (around the same week as Foundation) by me & FFF, I felt like I could make a VIP of it that adds a bit more energy and gives it a bit more dancefloor flavour, whilst still keeping most of the vibe of the original.

FFF's VIP also takes a similar approach, giving a boost to the style, adding some new sounds into the mix & maintaining the spirit whilst giving it a fresh twist.

Vol. 10 of Meeting Of The Minds is here, with 4 collaborations with some producers whose music I've enjoyed.

"Experiments In Motion" is by me & Parallel, one of the first people I ever collaborated with, back in 2011, with a tune called "Vega", which was released on a German label named Alphacut. We made a lot of other music together at the time, like "Innerspace" on Blu Mar Ten Music, "Your Life" on Green Bay Wavs (Green Bay Wax's digi label), but this is the first collaboration that we've made together in a long time, so I'm quite happy we were able to make it happen again after a break of many years.

Next tune is "Symbolism", which I made with Ben Kei, who runs a record label called Dalston Chillies (that also does some quality hot sauce) that I released on in 2020 with 2 collabs that I'd done with Dwarde & Comfort Zone. He's actually one of the first people I met in in person from music, at the first ever club night I went to in 2011, Jungle Syndicate's 1st Birthday at the Rhythm Factory. We've known each other for quite a long time but never actually worked on any music together so it only made sense to get on the case with collaborating.

X-Altera is someone who people may or may not know has a lot of history in this music, better known in the past as Sk-1, involved in some of the earliest new jungle I had heard, most of it coming from a label called Rewind Records that he ran with Soundmurderer. I discovered Soundmurderer through his Wired For Sound mix and when I found out more about him, I learned about all the music the two of them had been making in the early 2000s like "Call Da Police", "Badman", "Soundclash" and many more. But I had no idea about his newer jungle alias until I stumbled upon his "New Harbinger" EP on Sneaker Social Club & then his self titled LP on Ghostly International, bringing a different take on modern jungle to what I was hearing from other people. I had him on the list of people I must work with Meeting Of The Minds for a long time & am glad to finally be able to tick him off the list.

Last tune on the release is "Step Back", which I made with Sheba Q & No Nation. I've been keeping tabs on both of them for a long while now, from when I first met Sheba Q in person after she came down to a Brighton Loves Jungle event that me & the rest of the Green Bay Wax crew played at a few years ago and when I met No Nation at a Distant Planet event. No Nation had started this tune with some vocals that Sheba Q had sung and I was keen to get involved with finishing it.

The idea for Synergy came after the first Future Retro London night in 2021, where the 4 of us all shared the same lineup for the first time ever, with me going b2b with Dwarde, Coco going b2b with Sully and then all 4 of us playing together for the last hour.

It was so much fun that I wanted to get a tune done for the label with the 4 of us all involved in the making of it, as well as separate remixes done by each of us. Nice one to Dwarde, Coco & Sully for their versions.

Foundation, the first ever collaboration I did with Kloke, finished in April 2020 & released on the first Meeting Of The Minds release a few months later.

Probably one of my favourite collabs in the series & the main reason behind me starting this Meeting Of The Minds VIP series, because I had an idea of doing a VIP of it, in a slightly darker style than the original.

When I had the VIP done, I liked how it sounded and wanted to put it out but thought it'd be cool if Kloke did his own VIP of it as well, in whatever style he felt like doing to go with it. He did a great VIP version of it and that sealed the deal on the first Meeting Of The Minds VIP release.

Anyone that's been checking my sets of recent will probably have heard the tunes on this release, it's no secret that I'm a big fan of DJ Sofa's work and I'm very pleased to have a full EP from her on the label.

Her style is versatile, ranging from hardcore to melody focused jungle to dancefloor style ruffness & much more and she covers all of that on this release, alongside a remix from Dev/Null of 8205 Recordings and a collaboration I did with her.

What I like about Loxy & Resound, individually & together, is how they're able to bring forward oldskool jungle sounds & vibes in a new way & style, as shown in tunes like Fall VIP, The Lodge, Paradigms, Renaissance, Seraphim and some of Loxy's music on his label Cylon & with other producers like Dylan, Ink & Gremlinz.

Hellfire's a great example of this, doing jungle in a more up to date format & on this release, to accompany the original tune, there's remixes from Double O of Rupture, Basic Rhythm of Raw Basics & myself, all taking the sounds of the original in different directions.

Thanks to Loxy & Resound for allowing me to release Hellfire and to Double O & Basic Rhythm for their remix work.

Very excited to have this EP out, goes without saying that I'm very into the music that Comfort Zone makes and that I'm very envious of his ability to make such confident melodies in his tunes.

I've worked with him previously on Future Retro London when we collaborated on Emerald Dreams, which was on Meeting Of The Minds Vol. 5, as well as working with him on an EP for Banoffee Pies and tracks for Repertoire & Dalston Chillies.

He is absolutely one to watch out for and hopefully, there's more to come from him in the near future. Many thanks to him for allowing me to release these tunes of his and for letting me remix Tunnel Vision, which was my favourite track on this release.

Anyone that knows what I like and has been following Future Retro London over the years will know that I'm an avid supporter of Ricky Force's music. Having had him on the label in all the ways possible (a solo tune, a remix & a collab), I think it's fair to say that I'm a huge fan of what he does.

Out of the blue, he sent me a big folder of music and I couldn't narrow it down to a 4 track EP so it ended up becoming an 8 tracker, including a new collab I did with him to go on the release.

Thanks to Ricky Force for his quality work on this release & a very special mention going out to Team Hyper D for their co-operation in clearing the sample of Stevie Hyper D on "Sensi".

I talk quite regularly with Basic Rhythm about all sorts of topics and he regularly sends me music that he's working on, of varying styles and sounds. When he sent me Gargantua last year, there was something about it where even though it wasn't very sonically similar to a lot of the other music I've put out on Future Retro London, there was something about that piqued my interest. I played it out a few times and noticed that there was an energy to it that I enjoyed and I eventually got over my hesitations and signed it for the label. I also did my own remix of Gargantua to try out a few ideas I had for how it could sound a bit different but still maintain the spirit of the original.

Selectors Convention was initially made for a forthcoming joint label project (which is to come hopefully next year, fingers crossed) but was better suited for coming out on a release with Gargantua, as I thought it was similar in the hard edge dancefloor approach that is embodied in Gargantua. I also did a VIP of Selectors Convention, based off wanting a special version of it to play at a Future Retro London event.

Thanks to Basic Rhythm for Gargantua (and letting me remix it) as well as supplying the source images for the artwork.

Fr008 features Eusebeia's "Awe" and The Drizzle's "Unruly (Hit The Deck!)", with remixes by Equinox and DJ Sofa, blending jungle rhythms with a fresh take on remix culture.