The Dustmite was actually conceived while on my visit to task studios in London. It was with Paul of Ocosi and we just finished playing two shows that week. We were sitting writing tracks at 4:00am and I labeled a song called dustmite. We had been partying all night. When I returned to the states I kept the name in mind for a beat project I was about to start at the time early in 1999.

It comes from the idea of different cultures using mind altering chemicals to elevate their state of consciousness. In music I feel that an individual can acheive this same altered state of thought while listening to my beats.

Well, I was in an industrial/rock band for several years and most of the bands we played with were mc's and hip-hoppers. I was always surrounded by hip-hop since I can remember. I bought a sampler and my mentor Ryan A. of Illy sounds hooked me up with crucial knowledge of the loop. From there I was hooked and just experimented with sound. I upgraded over the years and created my own studio called, Empty Light Soundsystems. I draw on a vareity of musical influences, such as dub, hip-hop, jungle and 70's rock. I've met alot of cool dark-hoppers from all over the world. Much props to Mick Harris for the knowledge and remix, Simon of Mothboy, Paul from Ocosi, Turn of Brainstorm, and Dimitri of Hushhush.

I plan on working with some different people over the next year. I will bee moving to England in January 2001. So I hope to meet up with Ocosi, Mothboy, and Mick Harris to sort some tracks out. Also a collaboration with Turn of Brainstorm studios is on the slab. I did a collaberation a few years back with Paul of Ocosi called, "TheGhettobeast", dark-distorted, dubwise beats. I have also done sevearal remixes as the Dustmite. I love to remix tracks.

That's an easy one mate. My favorite remix of one of my songs is called "SEE INTo MY FAce" (hed-nod remix) remixed in the box by Mick Harris of Scorn earlier this year. The Dustmite track was taken to another level by Mick and cheers for all his efforts. I also had a few other remixes done by Horchata, Ocosi, Mothboy, and Pain Editor. So maybe a remix cd might be in the works for the future.

Well alot at the moment. I have a demo cd I'm shopping around for labels to help put it out. It's a 14 track, dark-hop/dubwise sonic journey for all to hear. Mick Harris mastered it and did a hed-nod remix for me. I give him maximum respect for his inspiration and words of wisdom! I just finished an ultra rare track called, "Dream of a 1000 Butterflies" for a very special girl in my life right now. Cheers to Mia for all the inspiration and undying support! I have about 12 new songs I have done for myself and going to sit on them for a bit. My techniques are getting better every time I write a song. I also wanna try to get Empty Light Soundsystems able to get off the ground soon. I have demos from Mothboy and Ocosi. All killa tracks and must get out there soon! Also me and Dimitri from Hushhush will have our first dark-hop comp called "Low-End Recon" out in the winter of 2001. So everyone be on the look out for that. Such artists featured on it are: Ocosi, Mick Harris, Dijislov, Nos, Alien Radio Station, C-drik and Turn. So check the sonic experience.

Ok, the Low-End Recon (a dark-hop transmission #1) will be a split release early in 2001. Then The Dustmite "Seekers in Darkness" will be the second release. Money is tight and I'm planning on getting out a Mothboy ep as well as a killa Ocosi ep by the end of 2001. So everyone be on point and keep an ear out.

Collision Substance started 2 years ago when Simon Smerdon (then in Ocosi, now in Mothboy) and I decided to start a small CD-R label. Our goal was just to put out 100-copy releases of our music and side projects to the small audience we had. It was basically inspired by punk DIY cassette culture that we were into. Gator Bait Ten (Simon, Paul, and I) was the first release combining the sounds of Ocosi and Kanal. Even then packaging was important, and I silk screened all the disks by hand without logo and stamped them with a number (1-100). They were shipped in black canvas pouches that were stitched together by hand as well. That was then. Now Collision Substance consists of three sub groups, one called Ohm which releases DnB on 12" vinyl and is run by Kurt Gluck of Su8m3rg3d. The second is Csn and releases slow break/dub/dark hop on 12" vinyl, and is organized by Simon. Lastly, there are the experimental/ambient CD releases of the Synapse branch, which is organized by myself. I also get to play bad label boss and deal with the administrative details of the label as a whole.

Mick Harris has been a great person to work with, and I'm always excited to put out more of his tracks. He does brilliant work. So far we've been concentrating on getting his Quoit material out but we are releasing a slow break prjoect with him and Simon called What Now?, and hopefully he'll do another solo slow break 12" for us in the next few months. In addition to him, there is Mothboy, Zenopede, Su8m3rg3d, NOS, Kanal, Temulent, Knuckledown, Hayleck, Zerfallmensch, and others further into the future. Kurt and I are big fans of Aube and I think/hope he may do something with us down the road. Neither Kurt, Simon, nor myself draw salaries from the label, so we basically have carte blanche to do whatever we want. A large part of our working philosophy is to seek out the people who's work we respect and are fans of, and hopefully work with them in some capacity, whether it's an artist like Mick, or engineers like Christoph of Dubplates & Mastering, who masters our records. Collision Substance is an out-growth of the interest we have as musicians and fans.

What Now? (slow break project with Simon and Mick) coming soon. Quoit (4k Ohm) and Su8m3rg3d (5k Ohm) in late Feb. Su8m3rg3d doube 12" of the dub material around Feb/March. Hayleck limited (about 70 copies) of the Paranoiac in the Spring. Dau Tranh (experimental beatlessness) 7" in Feb. Plus we're doing a subscription series that I would like to launch in March where there would be 313 subscriptions available. Those that subscribe would get a split 7" every month for 12 months with 2 C.S. artists on it. They would contain exclusive tracks that won't be sold on other releases or to our distributors. That way we can expose future contributors to our audience early on.
There will aslo be a series on 3" mini CDs that will consist of a reader and a composer working with horror literature from 1850-1950. Short stories by authors suchs as Poe, M.R. James, Bierce, Machen, Blackwookd, etc. People like David Knight from Arkkon, Mick Harris and Martyn Bates, Aube, and Hayleck have expressed willingness to work on this series. One person would read, and the other would compose the bed of music. I love horror and the series is my attempt to work with the stories I grew up reading.

I'm a poor judge of musical trends. I release what I like and hopefully break even at some point. One thing I do see as a hurdle for independant labels is finding good distribution these days. You have people like Caroline yielding to bean-counters and concentrating more on Fatboy Slim and consequently axing about 40% of their indie roster, and this genearl push towards bland electronica sellable to Gap commercials, like Moby and Crystal Method, then you can have a disheartening situation. Some pople don't realize that a small label seeking distribution is analogous to a band seeking an indie label contract. Many distributors these days are unwilling to take a risk with a new label. The same way some labels aren't willing to add new artists to their rosters, distributors, in turn, aren't willing to add new labels to their roster. It's a destructive circle. I have a day job however, (like most involved in independent music) which gives me a certain freedom of movement. In particular, I can justify packaging like Rise|Converge's, which was not as cheap as manufactured CDs, as it was done entirely by hand by Thingmakers, in that I don't rely on profits to live. So it could be better, but one source of comfort lies in that those people who do buy our releases, are genuinely into the music and make great customers. The other is that I get to work creatively with people I find interesting, and what better pursuit is there?

The sound could be anything as long as it evolved periodically with active mixing of delay feedback or something. I don't think I could just sit and listen to one sound without evolution done to it. That said, the closest contender would be some low pulse, like a downwards pitch-shifted gong, or something with an interesting harmonic spectrum. There has to be some modulation there somewhere, though. Otherwise, where is it going to take you? That's the beauty of some dark hop, drum n'bass, ambient material; it can seem repetitive but done well it eventually takes you somewhere else through subtle and sophisticated changes.

For sure the first music that inspired us was punk rock: from the Suicidal Tendencies, Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, Minor Threat, Gorilla Biscuits, Bad Brains, Lark, Nomeansno, Voivod, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Primus, etc, to the more experimental projects mainly punk free jazz and grindcore as Napalm Death, Nacked City, Painkiller, Praxis, God, Mr. Bungle, and heavy rock as Faith No More, Nirvana, Melvins, Soundgarden, etc. Later on those influences started to collapse with jazz, I guess when pino started to play parallelly to NOS in a "jazz" trio (guitar, bass, drums). Their trio was used to take old jazz themes in particular from Minugs, a little bit of John Coltrane from the good free jazz period, some Monk, Archie Shepp, and Sonny Rollins as well; and modified them to create an heavier and distorted sound. It was what you could call some kind of jazz rock, but a little bit more distorted.
In NOS you can clearly hear influences from waht we call the experimental electronic dark music and one main influence that we are going to mention is Scorn, from both the duo era with Bullen and the Harris solo period, mainly Collossus, Gyral, Logghi Barogghi, Zander and of all the other projects from Michael John Harris like The Weakener and hed-nod. Other influences come from some other projects that came out on Possible like, for example the first Simm. Although we have to say that the main influence was already there earlier, starting from all the post Napalm projects Harris has been involved in.

Well, the process begins with an idea for a track. Normally a drum loop that pino makes up; by playing the keys with kicks, cymbals, hi-hats, etc. in, or by recording a beat pattern he plays directly on his drum set (if there is such a thing). This is where he feels the most comfortable with since he is a drummer in the first place, but as you know you can't play drums in an apartment (that's where we built the trap stuido by the way) and renting a space just for it is out of our range so most of the time he composes them on the hardware sequencer by playing the keys in. Then we add some bass to the beat and we fill everything up with drones which basically is my job. In reality we always end up doing it together by playing in real time from the samples and adding the efx alternating his drones and my drones etc. We prefer to 'improvise' because it's much more fun and the track breathes a little bit more, although it can happen sometimes (when we don't have the time to get together) that I multitrack my drones as we did in the waiting game which I will talk about later, that's all really. We have to admit that every track has its own story: we always try to look for new sounds by making them up and we use a very simple approach with a really minimal setup. At the end what counts is that we find the track interesting and that it has a dark mood in it.

Ah, that's a good one. Well it's a long story, it all began back in 1997 when Mick Harris was doing a Scorn gig around the Zander record at the Reithalle in Bern (the Swiss captial) together with Simm (Eraldo Bernocchi) as support act. After the gig we approached Eraldo that obviously (from the last name) spoke Italian and we asked him if he would have been interested in hearing some NOS material and he gave us his contact. Honestly speaking we didn't know who he was (we never heard of him before that show) but we were really impressed from his Simm. A couple of weeks later we send him a DAT tape we made, a little bit in a rush but we had no other chance since the tracks weren't exaclty what you would call finished. Three weeks later he got back to us saying that he liked the jazzy feel (his words) of our demo and wanted to propose NOS to Mick Harris for his Possible records. Unfortunately at that time Possible records was going through a bad period because of the English distributor etc. Three months later if I remember correctly Eraldo contacted us saying that Mick Harris wanted to get in touch directly with NOS and he sent us a fax where he said he wanted to work with NOS for his Possible label. So we started making what became the 'Not Otherwise Specified' album. I think it was in the summer 1998. Once we finished it (around Decemeber) Mick Harris told us to contact David Backer at the Invisible Records Headquarter to find out the artwork budget for NOS. At that time Possible records had become a sublabel of Invisible Records as it was Alley Sweeper and many others. Around there things started to precipitate and unfortunately you know how it went. After months of endless arguments with Invisible Martin Atkins, Mick Harris decided that Possible records was over. Mick really did the best he could to make it happen but it just wasn't working with Invisible. Still a killer idea as a label for definite, though. We were looking forward to maybe doing something with the Italian Interceptor but we never heard anything else from him except the tracks he made for Possible. It's a shame though, because we wanted to hear some more of his stuff. Then after this we started to hunt for another label that was interested in releasing NOS and in the meantime we had also started to make tracks for the second NOS that we titled "The Waiting Game" as that was the status of our project. In February 1999 the 10 tracks of "The Waiting Game" were done and we were still looking for a label that would have been interested in releasing NOS. Finally, after sending around the two NOS to different labels, Vince/Manifold told us he wanted to release both of them on a new label he was starting initially with DJ Spooky, concentrating more on beat projects rather than Vince/Manifold catalogue of experimental non-beat projects.

In Pete's Music Barn, which is a small studio in a converted barn way outside of DC. I did an apprenticeship recording everything from death metal to gospel music there, and kept building up hours to use the studio on my own. I brought in my friend Russel Carlson, who I've known since 7th Grade and who I trust as a musician completely, and we began working on tracks without really knowing what we were doing. Su8m3rg3d was born.
If I had to point to one thing that made me want to make beat music, it would be Scorn's Logghi Barogghi album. It IS the one thing I heard and said, those are tracks? Just that? And I loved it and took it as serious inspiration. Russel is a very skilled musician who understands and is a part of the sound - he is not primarily interested in beats, which is what makes his contribution really work in a different way.

Because the sort of submerging we're doing is not a freindly drone drift bathing submering, the su8m3rg1ng we're doing is a little closer to burying..I think the sound that we instinctively know is our sound is a total sound, using delays and very long samples to create several suggested tempos within a song, trying to give the listener something to get lost in.

While it's tempting to say yes to that image, I'd say that we're not that interested in people, especially not lots of people. The images we're trying to draw kind of have some human fragments, but stripped of their original context (like using guitars but what I ask Russel is "I don't want it to sound like a guitar at all"). One of the distinguishing characteristics of dark hop is the use of unrecognizable elements. In regular hip-hop one of the things that turns me off are the constant samples of recognizable instruments and sounds...when I listen to music I like to be totally lost and not know where I am, and that pertains to making music as well...I don't like to use sounds that people can easily pick out and identify and I know most dark hop gets called dark not because of a scary or spooky sound but because the elements can't be easily identified.

Being extremely practical I would choose the following: 1) Canteen 2) Pick 3) Shovel 4) Trainquilizers to prevent panic (not sedatives which would render me unable to work) 5) .40 semi-automatic S&W with full cartridge for the motherfuckers who buried me alive - I'm pretty clausterphobic.
I'm not interested in isolating myself or going away from people. The opposite is true - I'm interested in people going away from me. I wouldn't be helping anyone buried alive.

Om came before all, and OHM is risen again.

Su8m3rg3d was certainly first. I was a late-comer to Collision Substance; the OHM drum n bass label is a later manifesting of the Collision Substance ideas.

Certainly, because within Collision Substance there are a lot of paths to follow. A group like Su8m3rg3d whose origins are obviously dark hop, but that works at a lot of different tempos and needs different outlets fits very well into the constantly shifting puzzle that is Collision Substance.

Collaborations are important I think, even if they are few and far between. I've always thought that you're able to learn something even if you don't consciously see it by working with others. I think it's important to meet people in person and do a mix in person - I sometimes think the internet makes people a little silly about working through the mail and doing pointless remixes - but on the whole working with others is important for growth.

Andy Hayleck was in Su8m3rg3d for a bit, and helped give us directions and ideas. I do a project called zerfallmensch which is a totally freeform electronic collaboration with Mark Bostdorf, the sound we have is a very instinct/unspoken type sound; the debut CD of that project will be appearing through Collision Substance. I also played a show with Franjo Vukovic and his transistor radio, I played bass clarinet (which I actually have had years of training on), the show turned out so well in recording that Franjo's label is releasing it. I do a lot of work to try to keep a busy schedule, but Su8m3rg3d and the OHM label are my primary projects.

OHM is a label that I started with Mark Filip's help, the records are drum n bass 12"s but very much their own sound. More than that OHM is a kind of family that strings together artists, sound engineers, and DJs.

4K OHM Jan '01 Quoit "Clasp" b/w "Clasp [version]"
5K OHM Jan '01 Su8m3rg3d "110 b/w ""
6K OHM Feb '01 Temulent "Progressive Illness" 2x12"
all of these are currently in the hands of man, Christoph @ DM, getting the vinyl transfer.

Marshall Allen of the Sun Ra Arkestra. I'm not at the level of working with a musician of his stature and body of lifelong hard work, but I can dream....the Arkestra is probably the most powerful force.

Put your weight on it muthafuckas.

Ocosi is a name meaning 'spirit tracker'. I took it from an earlier ambient track I made 5-6 years ago. But mainly it's stuck and I like the sound of it.

Ocosi started in 96-97. Before that I was making sonic noise guitar vs. drum machine workouts in LO-TEC. LO-TEC split in 93 after terrorizing most London venues and fucking up gigs and then I became sampler oriented and decided to work more with beats and turned into Ocosiface...

Experimental/abstract broken beats and bass verses dark ambience and dirt. Dark hop does suit a lot of what I do but I don't like to put a tag on what I do too much as music is a diverse beastie.

Definitely. For instance, I make a lot of mix-tapes for people and I'll usually chuck different styles together; hard drum+bass, underground hip-hop, dub, techno, noise to hardcore. I explore a lot of donwbeat with Ocosi but I like most beat oriented underground music.

I've just received the Horchata/Ocosi album which is dark and chilled out and we made a good collaboration on that one. Ocosi[IN] worked well using live kit inserts from Mick Harris who has been very supportive and is a top guy and good fun. Also, the Gatorbait was well received and some new GB10 may surface, but it's all good and there's some new collaboroations in the pipeline for 2001.

Frank (Dennis Hopper) from Blue Velvet on vocals. fffffuuuuuuuu

The Begotten, Lost Highway, Nowhere, Doom Generation, Free Willy

Blankmove is basically taking the Ocosi sound a bit further and is a faster bpm than Ocosi. I wouldn't tag it as drum and bass although there are elements in there but I think that too many people are trying to get on the d+b train and out phat each other with it; like making drum and bass makes you one of the guys. Not naming names, but, fuck this mentality. Somatic Responses and Current Value and fucked up abstract 'dirt and bass' is closer to what I'll do with Blankmove. Blankmove and Ocosi sounds can interlock as I don't believe in limitations in sound and output. A full Blankmove CD is scheduled for release on manifold economy soon.

aka muffboy....

We're going to do an hour long cover of whitehouse's 'birthdeath experience'.

0

insect pornohop, ambient gabba, anti-dub, power quiet music, death garage, stoner calypso.

You don't want a long and boring history of Zenopded do you? Really? Zenopede started as an idea back in '94. We wanted to hear ourselves on the John Peel show on Radio 1. We did a tape and made a few copies to distribute locally. It should have ended there, but some conspiracies won't lay down...In six months it came down to just me because of my refusal to compromise on the direction. Now it's just me and my machines which suits me. They always turn up for practice and never make mistakes. Plus they all have volume controls which is essential if you want to maintain neighbourhood harmony.

Only BASTARD! when they do something I wasn't expecting or didn't want.

It's almost all Roland groove gear, a couple of samplers and a bunch of FX. It's a pretty simple setup that works for me.

It's been a busy year with three compilation appearances and some remixing but I've just finished a remix for Dustmite on Emptylight records. Got to give it a final polish and send it off. I've got a project on the go with Mike Palace of Horchata. The CD has the working title 'Conversation Afer a Burial' by Horchata/Zenopede or HZ for short. Not to sure when that's going to be finished as I'm a perfectionist and I'll always find something to change. When it does see the light of day it'll be on the Zero1 Media label (fingers crossed). Mike and I planned on a HZ remix of another track for Dustmite. That should be shaping up nicely by the time this gets into print. There's some other possibilities floating around but I don't want to say too much in case they come to nothing. There will probably be some more compilation appearances, more remixes and the like. I'd like to sit down and try and do a follow up to 'The Beast of Cairo' some time soon...

Pretty much everything in my immediate environment. Films, books, music, personal experience all add up. You're going to ask for a list now aren't you?

Difficult one that, after all I've met lots of really talented people and I'd like to work with all of them in some way or another. I find collaborations with other people really useful because you're forced to look at things in a different way. Not compromise on the vision you've got in your head (No, never, why should you?) but the palette of sounds and loops you get. They'll always be something there that sets you off down a different path you'd not consisdered. Sometimes you get the strangest results, like Slaughterhouse Disco, I did with Paul Harrison of E.Y.E. I would never have expected it to come out the way it did but I'm really chuffed with the results.

Probably not for at least six months. It's been taking me a while to write stuff because of other commitments (work, family, more work, collab projects with other people) and I'd rather put out something I'm 100% happy with than just churn it out music by numbers.