12 FRONTLINES
SWITCHING
OVER PODWORKS
Harry Shotta seems like a lyricist at ease on Our essential podcast this month comes from Shy FX & T bass to dubstep & broken beats - so they are very eclectic.
stage at big events such as Innovation and Power’s Digital Soundboy label... It doesn’t matter if the tracks are old skool classics or
Jungle Fever but the man known to many as upfront tunes, they all have to have soul and a good vibe
hip-hop artist Lethal only exploded onto the WHEN DID YOU START PODCASTING? - like the label!
drum & bass scene in August last year. “I’ve In 2006 as it’s such a great way to get the music to people
always liked my drum & bass. I thought ‘let - they have that free party vibe about them which is what ANYTHING YOU’D LIKE TO ADD TO IT IN FUTURE?
me learn it a bit, come to some dances, see Digital Soundboy is all about... What we are looking to do is anything from a five-minute
what’s crackin’ and start writing the bars’,” track preview to a full two-hour mix with MCs, but we’ll
says Shotta, who is one part of MC trio the WHAT DOES IT FEATURE? also be filming some studio sessions, so you’ll get the
Uncontrollables, or UNCZ, with the popular It could be anything to do with Digital Soundboy, but at visuals too.
MC Fun and near-legendary Skibadee. the moment we have our artists on rotation so you can
“Fun brought me in really early actually,” he subscribe for free and listen to mixes from Shy FX with HOW OFTEN DO YOU DO IT?
continues, “he brought me in on a carnival Stamina MC, Benny Page, Breakage with SP:MC and DJ T. We hope to be putting out one or two a month from May.
set last year so I was in at the deep end, I To subscribe to the free Digital Soundboy podcasts just
had to just go for it. The crowd liked it and WHAT DO YOU DO TO MAKE IT DIFFERENT? go to the iTunes store, click on podcasts and type in
from then on I took drum & bass seriously.” Each one is different – anything from all the styles of Digital Soundboy.
D&B - dub, reggae, jazz and the dark influenced drum &
Appearing almost out of the blue on
primetime pirate radio slots, Shotta
demonstrated he could go line-for-line with
the best in the business. After some notable
early live performances at the Unity night in
Luton, he has steadily made the transition
from rapper to drum & bass MC. It seems
that Shotta is taking learning the new art
seriously: “I had to learn certain technical
things about being on a set. Me and Fun
have sat down and he’s shown me a few
things, Skibadee as well. You can’t just come
in a drum & bass rave and spit hip-hop lyrics
– it’s not going to go off.”
The rapid-fire rhymer reckons his new
audiences expect something a little
different: “They want the hype and they want
the energy. At the same time you can’t just
go double time the whole time you have to
have to slow it down, you have to speed it up,
you have to know the music inside out. You
can’t just step from hip hop to drum & bass.
I’m still new to it – I’m still learning now.
An album is planned for later in the year
featuring the likes of Dynamite and Darrison,
with beats supplied by Crissy Criss. However, READY FIRE AIM
Shotta remains humble when questioned
over his lightning-quick ascendancy to the May 27 sees the release of Ready Fire Aim’s debut CD ‘This and squelched through a phalanx of effects pedals on ‘End
upper rungs of the MC ladder: “It’s mad, Changes Nothing’. A collaboration between singer, poet, Of Over’ to the Reznor-esque clipped beats and crackles
it’s happening fast. I’m in a very privileged author, actor and political commentator Sage Rader and of ‘Lush But Dark’, the album is a raucous journey through
position, I know that there’s a lot of chaps Shaun Morris (AKA legendary D&B producer Stakka), Ready electronic beat styles and modes of signal manipulation,
that have been grinding for years to get Fire Aim have come up with a concept album that conjures often harking back to ‘80s Brit synth pop, but also conjuring
into room one, and then suddenly they see shades of Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, The Postal the dystopic dreams of a music from the future.
Shotta up there.” Service and even Pink Floyd, but with a twisted, hyper-
processed and hypnotic sound that truly sets them apart. www.rfasociety.com
WORDS | Richard Garside From the creepy opening strains of electric violin squeezed www.myspace.com/readyfireaimnyc
K08-22_Frontlines.indd 12 23/4/08 11:50:25
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