8 FRONTLINES
FRONTLINES
DOPE AMMO // THE WRONGSTARS //
NOISIA // HARRY SHOTTA // EVESON //
DIGITAL SOUNDBOY // BEARDYMAN //
FANU // UTAH JAZZ
WRONG TURN
The self styled inventors of Hooligan Step are here to give the
breaks scene a much needed kick up the arse. Ladies and
Gentlemen...we give you The Wrongstars! And they are very
wrong indeed...
‘Welcome, you cunts...to beats, rhymes and conflicts’ goes the
intro to their debut album and it’s an early indicator of the punk
CHECK THE LABEL
attitude and anything goes ethos of this unruly bunch of Essex
boys. Straight off the terraces and onto the dancefloor, the
Wrongstars come complete with bagloads of attitude, but all they
COCO GIVES US THE LOWDOWN ON HIS DOPE AMMO LABEL... want to do is party harder than they did last weekend and take
the piss out of each other. With Unstable Breaks’ head honcho
WHEN DID DOPE AMMO BEGIN? Paul Era at the helm, the extended live crew consists of six
We started Dope Ammo as an outlet for our own productions in 1998 and in that time we’ve members (including MC ESQ who is masked up at all times and
released some massive tunes like ‘Kill Bill’, ‘Roots + Culture’, ‘Better Believe’, ‘Deep In The the mysterious Bez like figure, Skelator, who supplies the illegal
Underground’ and ‘Jazz Funk’. substances, allegedly).
WHAT OTHER LABELS HAVE INSPIRED YOU? Paul Era has been flying the flag for phat, noisy breaks since 1999,
Ram, V, Full Cycle, Urban Takeover, Hospital, Ganja have all lasted the test of time with some with his Unstable Label recently celebrating its 25th release.
quality releases throughout the years. Older ones like Basement, Awesome, Congo Natty and With The Wrongstars, he now has a focal point for the label and
White House all released some proper classics! an extremely exciting and groundbreaking act to put into the
marketplace. He explains how it all came about: “I was in Harlow
WHO RECORDS FOR THE LABEL? in Essex attending a court case and I came out and went to a
Dope Ammo (Drunken Masters) are the main outfit on the label. However we’ve had massive record shop and saw a flyer for James (Bass Invada) and Dave’s
remixes from the likes of Hazard, Baron, G Dub, Benny Page and Taxman along the way. (Dirty D) studio. I gave them a bell and went round and the first
tune I made there was pretty shocking...”
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE DOPE AMMO SOUND?
Cutting edge dancefloor drum & bass whether it be dark, techy, jump-up, soulful, liquid... as long Initially James and Dave were enlisted to engineer Paul’s tunes
as it’s got a groove and works on the dancefloor we are in it. but they took the decision to form The Wrongstars when Luke (MC
Mooretime) came on board. “‘Beats, Rhymes And Conflicts’ was
WHAT’S THE ETHOS BEHIND THE LABEL? the first tune where we realised something was coming together,”
To carry on putting out quality music, move with the times, to capture new audiences all around explains Paul “and it just kind of evolved from there”. The resulting
the world and carry on representing our sound all over the globe! album is a mongrel mash up of tear-out breaks, sick bass, rabble
rousing terrace chant MCing, the occasional guitar riff and a few
WHAT HAVE BEEN YOUR BIGGEST RELEASES TO DATE? choice moments of pure comedy.
‘Kill Bill’ was our biggest release. I think we sold over 7,000 copies of that tune and it’s still selling.
Other tracks include Hazard’s ‘Deep In The Underground’, Baron’s ‘Jazz Funk’, Benny Page’s ‘Better Paul has strong words to say about the current musical climate:
Believe’ remix and all the mixes of ‘Roots + Culture’ (Dope Ammo, G Dub and Serial Killaz mixes). “Dance music is mostly generic bullshit and it all sounds the
same. What we are trying to do is something different... we fuckin
WHAT DO YOU HAVE COMING OUT SOON? hate about 90% of breakbeat out there at the moment.”
We’ve been working over the past year on our biggest release to date, the ‘Roots+Future’ album.
It’s coming out on CD mixed by Nicky Blackmarket with our biggest tunes to date, VIP mixes of There is also a more serious side to The Wrongstars as Luke
some classics and a whole load of brand new material from the likes of Hazard, Baron, Benny reveals: “Although we like to have a laugh, there are still things
Page, Taxman, G Dub, Dope Ammo, Swan-E, Evol, Sappo, Muffler, Social Security, Alter Ego, that need to be said. The lyrics on ‘Fight The System’ are political
Dirtyphonics, Zero G, Serial Killaz, Nicol + Majistrate and vocal tracks from Youngman MC, and ‘Freakshow’ is about depression.” ESQ also contributes
Shortston and MC Tali. We’ve also included a bonus DVD featuring live footage from Europeans ‘Section Sixty’ which discusses the rights of police to stop and
tours to give you an insight to D&B abroad plus live interviews with some of our artists. search ‘in anticipation of violence’ (usually football related).
We’re releasing a series of 12” off the album which will take us through to the end of the year. ‘Beats, Rhymes and Conflicts’ is spread over two discs, the second
Watch out for the first three 12” release’s which are: Dope Ammo Vs Benny Page – ‘Roots + Future’ of which contains ‘DJ Weapons and Remixes’ and packs enough
(Nicol + Majistrate remix) / Dope Ammo ft. Youngman MC – ‘Everything’, Dope Ammo ‘Roots + punch to knock the breaks scene into next week.
Culture’ (Serial Killaz 2008 VIP) / Dope Ammo ‘Big Summer’ and Dope Ammo ft. MC Tali – ‘Cold
Rock A Party’ / Majistrate – ‘Rumble’. WORDS | Dr Khan
K08-22_Frontlines.indd 8 23/4/08 11:49:04
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