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There’s remote, and then there’s the sleepy fishing village of Oban in North West Scotland, not exactly the first place that springs to mind when you think of rich, textured house. One man working single-handedly to change that however is Argyll local Colin Bailey, better known by his slightly spooky moniker Drums of Death. Releasing his first full length album in 2010 – as well as a string of top notch EPs on Greco-Roman and Civil Music – Bailey has worked with the likes of Azealia Banks, Peaches and Yasmin to produce a hefty catalogue of lush electronic tracks. We caught up with the man himself to find out more about how it all began, why voodoo face-paint is no longer his thing, and who we should be keeping an eye on over the coming months.

How did it all begin?

I first started buying Jockey Slut about 10 years ago and even though I was living somewhere so remote I kept hearing about all of these amazing things that were going on in Glasgow. After a while I decided to take the plunge, up sticks and move there.

I began singing and playing bass guitar for a myriad of pretty terrible bands, and then I got involved with film working as a video editor for a while, but eventually I realised that if I was going to make something happen, I’d need to specialise rather than having a go at a bit of everything.

Something about electronic music really hit me and that’s what eventually led me to London in early 2007. I sort of developed Drums of Death as an expression of everything I learned in Glasgow mixed with all of the new music I was being introduced to in London.

How do you think your music has changed over the years?

I first began producing mixes for the likes of Franz Ferdinand, Offshore and Tricky but I’d forget to add in proper intros and outros. Pretty quickly you learn that you can’t really make music in isolation like that, it has to come hand in hand with DJing, otherwise you end up forgetting that some poor bastard has to work your crazy track into his or her set.

Once I’d mastered the basics I was free to concentrate on honing my style and ended up producing quite a lot of melodic stuff working with a lot of really talented vocalists. From there it was a pretty natural step towards thinking more about collaborations and who I could and would want to work with to produce something as a pair.

My first album definitely taught me what not to do, and now I feel like this new release is giving me a chance to dig down and find out what it is I want my sound to be. House music is great, but you need to make sure it feels alive, you can’t just have a bunch of loops and leave it at that. I want my tracks to feel like warm and multi-layered.

Do you think you’ve learnt a lot from the rest of the creative community?

I don’t really feel like being around creative people does much, I think it’s much more important to surround yourself with friends and family, because everyone has an opinion on music so it’s just as productive to get their feedback as it is to get comments from other artists. Sure you make some great, immensely talented friends along the way, but you don’t need to surround yourself with music people if you care about the music itself.

What’s with the face paint? Where has it gone?

I supposed I used to use the face paint as a way of standing out from the crowd – to make myself feel different. I wanted to define myself as separate from the dance scene then, but now there’s so much good dance, house and techno out there I feel a lot more comfortable blending in. I don’t need to take a stance against anything anymore, because there is so much great stuff being produced at the moment. It’s a personal evolution, I feel more at home in this modern sound, and I feel it’s helped me evolve as an artist.

How did you start working with Yasmin?

I actually met her at my signing at EMI and we clicked immediately. Yasmin’s great, she’s like my little sister, she’ll come round to my house and we’ll sit listening to music for a while before cracking on with new material. We’ll write a vocal line and she just makes it beautiful. I used to work on my own, so it’s great to spend time working with such a talented artist.

Who should we be watching closely?

Ha, there are so many! Ok so, you’ve got Tanka from Winchester with his take on Dirtybird-esque house, he’s only 21 but is making music which has the maturity of someone twice his age. Scntst from Munich, makes fucking awesome techno, it’s really funky and there are some solid old school hip-hop and Detroit house influences in there. Ryan Ashley is a great vocalist who I’ve been working with a fair bit recently, he’s very young but a promising new artist on PMR, the same label as Disclosure, Jessie Ware etc. Auntie Flo & Esa are african house artists from Glasgow and Capetown who’ve newly moved to London. Martyn who’s originally from Eindhoven, but now lives in D.C., makes magically unique blends of house, techno and DnB. Really quite something. Finally, there’s Kink from Bulgaria who’s live set is one of the best dance music shows at the moment. Stripped-back, machine-made, taut grooves – anything those guys release I’ll buy straight away, no question.

What’s next?

I’ve got some more stuff in the pipeline with Yasmin, and I’ve started writing a few bits for her upcoming album. I’ll keep releasing singles with Black Butter, but I’m also hoping to get a bit more involved with the video side of things, I’d like to put together a few storyboards and have a go at editing it once it’s been shot.

TRACKLIST
Drums Of Death – True
Detroit Swindle – The Break Up
Yousef – Beg (Hot Since 82 Future Mix)
House Rules – Hyena (Original Mix)
Bob Sinclar – Sea Lion Woman (Original Mix)
D-Unity – Sax Me Up (D-Unity’s Crazy Sax Mix)
Taras Van De Voorde – 1998 (Deetron Mix)
Robert Owens – I’ll Be Your Friend (Inxec & Matt Tolfrey’s Falling Down Mix)
Kink & Catz ‘n Dogz – Bad Love
Tori Amos – Professional Widow (Armand’s Star Trunk Funkin’)
Francis Preve & Wolfgang Gartner – Yin (Original Club Mix)
Maya Jane Coles – No Sympathy

Liked this mix? Listen to our other exclusive mixes here.

Words: Thomas Curry

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Copenhagen-dwelling vocalist Mercedes might have grown up in a hippie commune, but she’s ditched the flower power for wicked, bass-driven beats and a drenching of old school hip-hop. Armed with great hair and a Neneh Cherry-esque voice, she’s been massively hyped since her 90s-tastic video ‘Live In The Speaker‘.

To introduce herself, she’s teamed up with Brad Baloo from DJ party-starters Nextmen for a minimix to rebel yell her way into the world: it’s a mash-up of throwback rap influences, sassy vocals and shake-it rhythms. Enjoy!

Airwave Hustler – Ghost Copy
Pollars and Pounds – Nextmen
Dollar Bill Ya’ll – Jimmy Spicer
People Up On It – Robbie Lamond
The Vapours – Biz Markie
Back 2 Business – MNEK
Buzz – Nextmen
Buffalo Stance – Neneh Cherry – Phony Boy
Shock Absorber – Tonka
Wild Ones – Nextmen
Get Into This – Malente – Cool For Me
White Noise – Disclosure – House Arrest
Verbal Distorta – Ghost Copy
Shock Absorber – Tony Senghore
Live In The Speaker – Nextmen
Jump Ya Body – Kill The Noise
Airwave – Shift Key
Strobe Light – Dj Artful

Liked this mix? Listen to our other exclusive mixes here.

Live In The Speaker is out now on iTunes. facebook.com/mercedesismyname

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Annie Mac’s Rinse FM enfant terrible proves that quitting school to pursue your DJ dream does actually work. And good thing, too, because Lucy Monkman will be the first to admit that she would’ve made a “crap lawyer”. BBC Radio 1 DJ, ZOO record label owner, and underground tastemaker bringing the heavy vibe to festivals all over Europe and the UK, by the age of 21. In Monki we trust! Tracklisting and interview below.

Atumpan – The Thing (Zulu Remix)
Breach – Jack (Mak & Pasteman Remix)
tessela – Hackney Parrot
Liquid – Sweet Harmony
mY nu Leng – Levels
Zac Toms – Bring Me Down (Stanton Warriors Mix)
Rebound X Rhythm & Gash – (Melé Edit)
Destiny’s Child – Say My Name
Melé & Salva – Hollywood Noir
Salva and RL Grime – What You Waiting For
SL2 – On A Ragga Tip
Shy FX – Shake Your Body
Kelis ft Andre 3000 – Millionaire
Melé – DMX
Roots Manuva – Witness
Fat Joe, Ja Rule and Ashanti – What’s Luv?
The Neptunes – Frontin (ft Pharrell & Jay Z)
Justin Timberlake – Sign (ft Snoop Dogg)

Check out other exclusive Wonderland mixes from top DJs, bands and musicians here.

Hey, Lucy. What have you put together for Wonderland?

A 30 minute mix of old and new bits that represent the sort of set I might play out at a club or festival. House, garage, jungle, hip-Hop. Party set!

How did you start spinning?

I only started DJing four years ago. I used to go round my friend’s after work. We played hip hop on this vinyl deck, and were really crap at it. At the time, I was studying law and economics, and hated it with a passion. Then one day I heard Annie Mac on Radio One, and was like – why can’t I do that? She sounds like she’s having so much fun! The next day I quit, and started hunting for work placements. I didn’t tell my mum for six months.

What did your mum say when she found out?

I knew she’d be really angry, because she’s a barrister. But she was a clubber back in the day, so she got over it. She gets free festival tickets, so she can’t complain.

What was your first break?

My first gig was in the basement of a pub at King’s Cross, and no one turned up. A month after that Annie emailed me asking for a mix. Then we met up for coffee. She asked, do you wanna warm up at the next Annie Mac Presents? And I was like, oh my god! Yes, please! I was 18.

Influences?

Pirate radio and the people I’ve worked with at Rinse, ’cause they’ve driven so much music. Then people like Annie, who’ve always supported me. I didn’t want to fail them.

Were you scared of failure?

Yeah, I didn’t want to end up working at Asda. I wanted to prove something.

Do you feel like a role model for young girls?

People have come up to me in clubs and said, “Oh, I really want to be doing what you’re doing,” which is weird, because I’m still pretty young and it feels like I started out yesterday. But its nice at the same time. If I can inspire someone to do what I did, and they’re happy doing that… Then mission completed, really.

Any advice for aspiring female DJS?

If you wanna do well, you need to be a good DJ, not good for a girl. People will take you way more seriously. Don’t post selfies on Instagram all the time, and stuff like that.

What are you looking for, in terms of sound?

Right now a lot of people are making garage and house. My mixes are what I’m listening to at the time, so it’s across the board. That’s what I’m known for.

What projects are you working on at the moment?

I just finished my Monki and Friends EP with Rebel Studio. I was curating a collaborative of artists including Karma Kid, Salva from LA, and Shadow Child. I also start my own night at Fabric in September. I’m really nervous.

Are you a party animal?

DJing hasn’t spoiled clubbing, but I listen to the mixing instead of letting myself go. I am the world’s most boring DJ because I don’t drink, as well. I had my heyday when I was younger, went wild for a year and got it out of my system. The rare weekend my boyfriend and I get off, we chill out.

What would you like to accomplish by the time you’re 25?

World domination.

DJ Monki plays at Glastonbury on 28th June, and Lovebox Festival in London on 19th July.

Words: Christine Jun (Follow Christine on Twitter @christinecocoj

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Having spent a number of years living and working in Bristol’s burgeoning music scene, it wasn’t until early 2010 that producers Rich Beanland and Amos Nelson – better known by their wayward moniker Waifs & Strays – finally clubbed together to begin work on their debut release 3am which was pushed out by Matt Tolfrey through his Leftroom imprint.

Bringing together a heady mix of classic house stabs and deep, dark baselines both Rich and Amos have since gone about comfortably establishing themselves as two of the city’s most promising up and coming DJs, with support from the likes of Radio One’s Heidi and Fabric’s Jamie Jones amongst others.

Kicking off their festival season supporting Midland, Maya Jane Coles and Cyril Hahn at FOUND – which takes place on the 15th later this month – the two boys have put together an of hour long mix exclusively for Wonderland that’ll get you prepped for the long summer of mud, sweat and warm cider ahead.

Tell us a little bit about yourselves. Where have you come from? Where are you going?

Two guys living in Bristol, making house music. Neither of us are originally for here, but we both consider it our home now. Where are we going, who knows, but the journey is pretty exciting right now!

What’s with the name? What does it say about you?

It would be really great to say there was a big story behind the name, but in reality it came about because we had a track coming out with Leftroom and needed a name. We went through a whole bunch of terrible, terrible options, until we landed on Waifs & Strays, which we liked and went with that!

How has Bristol influenced your music? Where do you look for inspiration?

The city has such a rich culture in music especially electronic music. There are so many great people making amazing music here and luckily most of them are our friends, people like Eats Everything, Lukas, Christophe, DJ Die and loads of others. Plus we have a lot of friends who are putting on amazing events such as Love Saves the Day and See No Evil in Bristol. As its a small city everyone in the scene knows everyone so there is a real community feel.

Kicking off with FOUND festival in a couple of days’ time, what have you guys got planned for the summer? Any festivals in particular we should watch out for?

We are doing lots of festivals this summer – Love Saves the Day, Isle of Wight, Secret Garden, Burning Man, Eastern Electrics and the daddy of them all Glastonbury! Being from Bristol, Glastonbury has a special place in our hearts so it’s a massive honour to finally play there! We love festivals so it’s shaping to be a great summer!

Tell us something we don’t know.

There are 20 Lego bricks for every person on the planet.

Waifs & Strays play at FOUND festival in Haggerston Park on 15th June. soundcloud.com/waifs_strays‎

Words: Thomas Curry

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Brighton pair Anushka (not to be confused with the female DJ of the same name) have been making wave sin their hometown for some time now – we’re expecting a very imminent splash in London. Their coolly sophisticated meld of electronic bass rhythms and enticingly soul-tinged vocals convinced Gilles Peterson to snap them up for his Brownswood label after he played their debut single ‘Yes Guess’ on his Radio 1 show – before it was even mastered.

Max and Victoria, the duo behind the delicious sounds, gift us a mix to get us into the weekend mood and let us into their world.

What’s your idea of a perfect summer night out?

Max: Brighton beach. Bit bait but it’s true, I rate it.

Victoria: Yeah, I’d have to agree, you can’t beat Brighton in the summer! Too many good memories!

How did you two meet?

Max: Our mutual buddy Tom Speak, who ran tonnes of nights in Brighton. He brought her round the studio and she never left. Hahaha.

Victoria: Brighton is so small everyone in the music scene there is connected in one way or another. It all started with a slice of cake and a mad dash back to Yorkshire, right, Max?

Who do you namecheck as your influences?

Max: for me It’s a lot of older music from Detroit via a lot of newer music from the UK. Theo Parrish, Tessella, Guy Andrews, Dauwd…

Victoria: I love Lauryn Hill; Erykah Badu always smashes it musically and lyrically. The New Amerykah part one and two have been massive influences. Also Kate Bush, she is just so different.

TRACKLISTING
Theo Parrish – Heal Yourself & Move
Anushka – Yes Guess VIP Edit
Bicep & Ejeca – You (Ejeca’s Piano Version)
Tessella – Hackney Parrot
Lorca – Can’t See Higher (Temple’s House Edit)

‘Yes Guess’ is out now on Brownswood Recordings. Anushka are playing at The Great Escape on 17th May. www.facebook.com/Anushka

Words: Zing Tsjeng (Follow Zing on Twitter @misszing)

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If there’s one band that knows summer inside and out, it’s Theme Park. Since their ambient, sun-soaked pop has soundtracked many an afternoon drinking in the park (just us?), we asked them to knock out a summer mixtape for us. Enjoy!

Cosmo Sheldrake – The Fly
Donal Bird -Domino’s
New Build – Do You Not Feel Loved
Kavinsky – ProtoVision (Blood Orange remix)
Active Child – She Was a Vision
Andrew Bayer – Lose Sight
Kisses – Bermuda
Unknown Mortal Orchestra – So Good at Being in Trouble
Bon Iver – Holocene
Bobby Womac – Whatever Happened to the Times

Words: Shane Hawkins (Follow Shane on Twitter @piccadilly_boy)

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Romans, the newest hush-hush musical act to hit London, comes enticingly wrapped in a cloak of anonymity. In fact, even though we premiered the man’s first ever video for The Die Is Cast, we still don’t know anything about the guy – other than, as suggested by this mix, his musical taste is as roaringly epic as his own ballsy, blow-out tunes. We do know that badass graphic designer and all around maestro Kate Moross has had a major hand in the Romans look and videos, though – with friends like that, Romans is headed for big things. Tracklisting below.

D’Angelo – Devil’s Pie
Radiohead – No Surprises
Willy Mason – Oxygen
Devendra Banhart & Christopher Marlowe – Carmensita with Dr Faustus’s Death Speech
Robert Johnson – Cross Road Blue
McKay – Take Me Over
The Jimi Hendrix Experience – The Wind Cries Mary
Tune-Yards – Gangsta
The Beatles – Helter Skelter
Jonny Greenwood feat. Rev. Jim Jones and The People’s Temple – Convergence
C.W. Stoneking – The Love Me Or Die
Rodriguez – Inner City Blues
The Stranglers – Golden Brown
The Kinks – Waterloo Sunset
Romans – Ballad Of A Figure 8

www.iamromans.com

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You’ve been described as krautrock – accurate or way out?

Dominic: We didn’t try and deliberately start a krautrock band. We just thought ‘let’s form a band and see what comes out’. There’s lots of other stuff in it like New York punk and things like The Velvet Underground and The Stooges.

How did you guys meet?

Tom: Me, Dom and Panda met each other in school when we were about twelve. We made best friends quite quickly, then Alejandra we met when we were about 18. She came over from Spain and moved to Brighton, and quite soon after that we moved to London and we met Charlie, our drummer.

D: We’ve all known each other for at least six years, so we’ve all listened to music together for at least 3 years before we started playing.

And some of you were all in Joe Lean & the Jing Jang Jong, which was massively hyped, right?

D: Me, Tom and Panda joined it when we were 18 and it took off weirdly quickly. It was the singer’s band and he had his own ideas about what he wanted to do, and after not very long we realised it wasn’t anything to do with what we wanted to do.

T: Even when we were doing that band we were kind of plotting what we were going to do next.

18’s a really young age to be in a band that’s touted as the next big thing.

T [laughs]: I’m glad we got it out of our system! I think we learnt quite a lot about what not to do.

D: It’s not very fun to be making music that you wouldn’t want to listen to. Coming at it with a couple of extra years, you’re a bit more resolved on how you want it to be.

It seems to happen quite a lot – a new band comes out of nowhere, blows up, and doesn’t have much to show for it.

D: It does. It’s really weird when you read a music magazine from a few years ago. You forget how many band

s were touted as something massive, and you have no idea what happened to them. Major labels tend to sign ten bands and they already know that they’re only going to keep one on and the other nine will be thrown by the wayside. It’s kind of the way that they seem to operate, like a safeguard.

That’s not what you guys are going for, right?

D: We’re consciously signed to an independent and that means we can release lots of music with a lot more freedom.

T: We just met Jeff from Heavenly and immediately we just clicked straight away. Heavenly don’t try to shape us in any way, thank god, because I think that’s what destroys a lot of bands. We want a bit of longevity.

Where does the name TOY come from?

T: One of our friends had this old Victorian toy box which just had the writing saying ‘TOY’ on the front. It just seemed to fit our music.

D: I like the way it’s got lots of different meanings, like you can toy with someone’s emotions.

What was the first single you bought?

D: The first song that I became obsessed with was ‘Good Vibrations’. I remember playing Lego to ‘Good Vibrations’.

T: The first single I ever bought was Run DMC ft. Jason Nevins. It was the first song I actually went into town to buy.

Doesn’t really happen much nowadays, going into town and buying a single.

D: It doesn’t. We still do it, though.

Harmonia & Eno – Sometimes In Autumn
Cosmic Jokers – Galactic Joke
Louis & Bebe Barron – The Mind Booster: Creation Of Matter
Kraftwerk – Airwaves
Tim Hecker – Utropics
Gila – Kollaps
Cluster – Hollywood
Brian Eno – Unfamiliar Wind
Conrad Schnitzler – Zug
Harmonia – Hausmusik
Bernard Hermann – The Magnetic Pull
Can – Bel Air
Joji Yuasa – Projection Esemplastic For White Noise

Mix by Dominic O’Dair (guitarist) and Alejandra Diez (synths/modulations). TOY’s self-titled debut is out on 10th September. toy-band.com

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