Guest Wax: X-Coast

X-Coast is a Serbian-born, Brooklyn-based DJ and producer renowned for referencing a range of genres in his immaculate productions. Having grown up in Yugoslavia, X-Coast’s diverse musical roots are apparent within his music and has released a plethora of high-impact releases, kicked off by hit sensation “Mango Bay” in 2015. Featuring soulful house-infused elements, the track swept through the scene and amassed well over 1 millions plays on Youtube, thrusting the young artist into the limelight of the electronic music scene.

A number of releases followed via the likes of Mall Grab’s very own Steel City Dance Discs as well as club-orientated records on the Shall Not Fade sub-label, Lost Palms and UNDERTHESEA, before cataloguing his acclaimed “Synthetic Dreams” EP on Dance Trax featuring remix work from French techno stalwart Anetha. Most recently, X-Coast returned to Steel City Dance Discs with a house-infused four-track EP aptly called “SC-CD001” which is certain to set summer motives alight. The Serbian’s productions along with his ability to effortlessly drift through different genres and musical styles, have earned the artist a ravenous reputation on the internet and beyond. Look out.

Future Sound of London – Lifeforms [Virgin]

“If I needed to name a single record/album in electronic music, this would be the one. It is the perfect soundtrack for chill out sessions, a long drive in the country side, after parties at your friends or any sort of escape you would want. The soundscapes are so complex and even though it is often criticized for heavily leaning on samples, I think that the incredible creative sampling that Brian Dougans & Gaz Cobain did just comes together to create a reality of its own – nobody else came even close. Beautiful melodies from all around the world all of a sudden morph to create a claustrophobic, sweaty feeling of a bad trip. I remember that Gaz Cobain said once in an interview that one of their fans at the time said how their music is making him impotent and they actually loved that effect, since everyone was just trying to make perfect fornication music. Incredibly powerful piece of music and one of the biggest X-Coast influences. It also goes so well with the early 3D animated video at the link above.”

Kaotic Chemistry ‎– Five In One Night [Moving Shadow]

“Incredible release by 2 Bad Mice and Rob Playford aka “the busiest man in jungle” – person behind the Moving Shadow label and the producer/recording artist on early Metalheads/Goldie works, including Timeless. Not only is this a musically remarkable EP, but conceptually it is so well put together. The striking dark message about the descend of UK rave scene from euphoric utopia into dark dystopia needs to be taken into consideration while listening.”

“Stages / tracks: A1 Five In One Night, A2 Drum Trip, B1 Strip Search, B2 The Come Down. From the police officers stripping you to your underwear, to taking five pills in one night, and then coming back to your own self the next morning, the music takes you through it all. Fast breakbeats, cheesy, uplifting piano hooks, female “ecstasy” whispers (similar to Joey Beltram – Energy Flash), being cut by scratches and a “do it now” sample. Seems like they want to send us a message.”

“The cover shows a hand holding a joint while simultaneously cutting a line of coke with a credit card, and the back sleeve shows a tab with a bunch of pills in it. Maybe an allusion to the scene going too far with the flamboyant party life? The golden era of heavy MDMA consumption has been replaced by massive paranoia and smiles were traded away for expressions of worry and disbelief… Sounds familiar? Or maybe they were just joking.”

Bad Company )EIB( – The Nine [BC Rec]

“What a debut by what will become a Drum & Bass super-group. After producing tracks separately for a few years in the Renegade Hardware camp, Fresh, dBridge, Maldini & Vegas joined forced in 1998 and raised the bar for the whole scene. This track was an absolute must have for any DJ, it would definitely go off in sets several times a night.”

“The arrangement is so simple, you have the drums, the bass and the dark atmosphere that perfectly blends in a distorted, saturated mixdown. This track, along with some early Ed Rush & Optical works basically gave birth to Tech Step as a style. As a young Drum & Bass DJ, I would practice teasing this track in a mix with my other records, which is done by dropping this famous hook in the middle of another track playing just for a few bars and then going back to the previous track and continuing the mix – this was very effective. The Nine was also voted as the best Drum & Bass track of all time via Drum & Bass arena forum a few years back.”

Recycled Loops – Hear No Evil, Play No Evil, Dance No Evil [Recycled Loops]

“Slovenian producers Uroš Umek & Valentino Kanzyani came together in 1999 to produce this incredible record as their label’s inaugural release. The tracks are labeled Untitled 1-4 and all of them were a blueprint to the future sound of Recycled Loops. The style itself has a lot of influences – funky bass lines mixed with fast beats leaning on breakbeats and percussion to add the overall shuffle and heavy sampling of early (acid) house tunes, like “Blow Your House Down” by A Guy Called Gerald on A1.”

“What if we made Techno out of House samples? The sound perfectly sits somewhere between Naples, Detroit (heavy Jeff Mills influence) and UK Techno, but forming something that I would like to call a Slovenian/Balkan techno sound. The birth of Recycled Loops was incredibly important for the ex Yugoslavian region, since it showed us how you don’t have to be in Italy, UK or USA in order to successfully do your own thing at the time.”

Terminator Benelux – Singing Synth [Nodulus Mix]

“Roland Faber, a great and very underrated producer. Terminator Benelux was just one of his many (27!) aliases. I heard this track on a local TV show back in the days, as a part of Laurent Garnier’s mix called “Afters” which came out on VHS with some incredible visuals. It was only a few years ago that I found the actual name of this incredible track. It runs on around 150 bpm, has an even faster bass line, and the synth has a portamento knob pushed so it’s psychedelically pitching up and down enough to drive people on crazy. This one is definitely for the floor, it works every time. Wish Roland was still at it, I heard he works for Native Instruments now.”

Recent Movements

X-Coast – SC-CD001

“The first X-Coast CD, and the first CD on Steel City Dance Discs. Definitely influenced by Recycled Loops. Comes in a pack with a poster and stickers and you can get the t-shirt too.”