TiD&B Interview: Dizplay

Posted by Lady V on Monday, March 28th, 2011

With more and more artists originally known for their Drum and Bass production, experimenting with tempos beyond 170bpm, inevitably, the gap between D&B and other electronic genres has become smaller.  One producer to recently embrace this movement and do so well, is  German producer Dizplay.   Known for his previous work with his brother N.Phect, Dizplay has now ventured down the solo route, completing his debut album ‘Shift Happens’, released today on Basswerk. Defining ‘Shift Happens’ from current Drum and Bass LP releases is that it has two parts; 13 Drum and Bass tracks and 13 tracks of slower beats encompassing elements of  Dubstep and Electro House, however both are equally as musically special as each other.  Creating a piece of such size and quality is quite  a spectacular feat and wanting to find out more about the project and the artist behind it, we caught up with Dizplay…

 

 

TiD&B: Firstly, as a German D&B artist and having had several releases on the legendary German label Basswerk Recordings, can you update us on the scene there?  Has it changed significantly over recent years as it has done in the UK and US?
Dizplay: I haven’t seen a major change in the German scene, but in general, it is more club than rave based. Germany has a long tradition in electronic music, and although D&B differs in many musical ways, you often find Techno and D&B acts performing at the same event, for example big festivals are often more focused on the concept of electronic music as a whole than specific genres.

TiD&B: You released ‘Beautiful Bytes’ a collaborative album with your brother N.Phect, 5 years ago, and now you’re releasing your debut solo LP ‘Shift Happens’, how did this album come about?  Can you tell us more about the move from working with N.Phect to then making tracks by yourself?
Dizplay: After N.Phect moved from Cologne to Berlin, collaboration between us was no longer the same, particularly as we it is difficult to replicate working together digitally or via Skype. Therefore, I focused on my own music, which was also something I had been working on before our collaboration and also in parallel. In doing so, I found that my goal when it came to creating tracks changed, as I stepped away from simple club-based music and moved to more song-orientated music, the kind you could enjoy at home. There is no black and white though, building heavy tracks is still fun, I just felt there was more to experiment with by concentrating on the song concept.  Another aspect of my creative process which changed was my whole work process as before and when working with other artists I had to focus on one track at a time before starting another, however with ‘Shift Happens’, I worked on many tracks in parallel instead, which allowed me to remix myself again and again, a sort of digital ripening.

 

TiD&B: Was it always your intention to create a double LP and showcase your production talents beyond the 170bpm mark?
Dizplay: Yes, definitely. Before focusing on D&B, I produced general electronic music, without any strict boundaries like BPM or basic kick patterns. Therefore, when I decided to create an album, I knew this would be the opportunity to merge those two worlds. I think in the previous couple of years, the former Cold War-like self-contained D&B music has opened up quite a lot, mostly thanks to the wonderful Autonomic people, and this has had an effect on how people listen to and regard D&B, it feels like it’s all about aesthetics now and no longer BPM.

 

TiD&B: With your exploration of making music outside of Drum and Bass, do you still DJ D&B, is that where you feel more comfortable or have your tastes changed?
Dizplay: When performing on stage, I will generally work in the D&B BPM range. It’s just a passion you can’t deny. Actually, after those many years with this music, I really don’t even know how to dance to techno – my feet just stumble, and I’m lost. So the 170 BPM feels very natural for me. Nevertheless, using this single constant now gives me the freedom to put in more creative elements, such as speeded up tracks from whatever genre.

 

TiD&B: Can you tell us more about 5 tracks from ‘Shift Happens’ and guide us through them?

‘Don’t Tell Anyone’

This is one of the older tracks on the album.  It’s influenced by Techno and House which have a wider range of arrangement tricks and I also really like the way both genres can  build up tension without unleashing a drop, which was something I wanted to try. The track started around this huge intro sound, and from there quickly expanded. It carries a lot of power through the punchy snare, but still has enough variability to keep you entertained. Therefore, for me, it’s like a blue-print of a heavier track.

 

‘The Beauty Of The Naive’

This is another of my favourites from the album as it’s pretty smooth, but has a certain elegance. This track is a good example of the new process I’ve been using where I work on tracks in parallel, as it was shaped over a long time and I didn’t stop working on it until I felt it was both interesting and powerful enough.  It also features samples I’d been carrying around for a long time, i.e. that prominent high-frequency dirty harp sound, which I never found the perfect track to put into, until this was made.

 

‘Coming Home’ (VIP)

D&B has always been shaped by two things, firstly the 170 BPM, and secondly the typical two-snare pattern, whether straight or broken. Moreover, typical club tracks seem to only build around a punchy snare, which the rest arbitrary. This really bored me, as of course it works in the club, but leaves no personality to the track when listened to alone. The original of ‘Coming Home’ was a really important track for me, so re-working it was quite like therapy.  It has a lot of melody for such a dark D&B tack and the VIP plays with this and also has a heavy bassline.  However, instead of keeping the simple typical snare pattern which I originally put in, I decided to keep it a bit more subtle.

 

‘Midnight’

I think this is my favorite Dizplay track. When a friend of mine offered me his skills as a trained piano player, I instantly knew this was a great opportunity to try something new. The song extends from a stumbling beat along the piano to a pumping House track, and finally returns to the piano, with the greatest of an outro.

 

‘Them Rats’ (feat. 1EON)

Leon and I have been  band mates for quite a while. We used to play in a band called Sunbomb, which combined Korn-ish aggressive nu-metal with Prodigy-styled electronic beats.  Leon is one of the nicest people I know, kind of hidden behind his figure packed with muscles and attitude. When I asked him to contribute to the album he was all in, so I sent him basic beats to work on, and quickly received his response, so it was an easy process – it’s always good when things don’t end up complicated.

 

 

TiD&B: We’ve heard that you are currently working on turning ‘Shift Happens’ into a live project, can you tell us more?
Dizplay: When playing in Sunbomb, I gained a lot of experience performing live and in particular, using certain pieces of hardware live. I’ve always wanted to return to performing live even whilst making solely D&B, but the main problem has been the technology and finding the right type, which is something I had always discussed with N.Phect.  However with the latest developments, I think there is finally quite a lot of hardware to combine the need for high-level sound with the required flexibility, so I’m ready to use it.  I’m looking forward to synchronising and mixing this with my DJing – it’s going to be fun!