STAMINA DNB & 1015 Folsom Present
BLACK SUN EMPIRE
THE UPBEATS
++SUPPORT++
Jamal
Colonel MC
MC Zezo
Thursday June 22nd / 10PM – 2AM / 21+
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BLACK SUN EMPIRE
Easily one of the Netherlands’ biggest drum’n’bass acts, Black Sun Empire have been producing intense, dramatic nuerofunk and darkstep since the late 90’s. Heavily inspired by the darker end of the d’n’b spectrum, particularly labels like No U-Turn and Virus and producers such as Ed Rush and DJ Trace, the trio’s constantly evolving sound typically includes heavy, choppy breakbeats, wobbly, distorted basslines, and breakdowns, their work is equally suitable for home listening. They’ve largely stayed true to their signature sound, but they’ve also explored substep and British rap, including collaborations with Foreign Beggars and Virus Syndicate. Largely releasing their music on their own eponymous label, as well as related imprints Blackout Music NL, Obsessions, and Shadows of the Empire, BSE have consistently produced fresh, high-quality work, and have earned widespread respect across the international drum’n’bass scene.
THE UPBEATS
In today’s heady climate of bass-fuelled dance music it could easily be argued that producer-DJs are the new rock stars. Climbing into that mold with a pair of schoolboy grins on their faces, The Upbeats have already been playing that role for years. Their anything-goes live performances are renowned for mosh pits, topless dancers (sometimes women) and crowd surfing, while their approach to writing hard-hitting, unique-sounding drum & bass is lauded across the globe.
Nicknamed Terror Snake and Downie Wolf respectively, Jeremy and Dylan are not your average, boring producers. Meeting at school through mutual interests in surfing, skating and ‘being gangly teenagers’ Jeremy had to work hard to pull Dylan into the world of drum & bass. But, armed with a stack of Mickey Finn & Aphrodite mixtapes and an unrelenting attitude, the snake soon overcame the wolf’s natural propensity for rock music and, fortunately for us all, a love of fast breakbeats and low-slung basslines soon followed.
This love soon grew into a passion for creating their own music and by 2001 the pair were balls deep writing their own D&B. Fuelled by New Zealand’s isolation from the rest of the world and its staggering natural beauty, The Upbeats’ unique take on 170bpm+ bass music has seen the duo work alongside scene stalwarts such as Ed Rush & Optical, Bad Company, Hive, Gridlock, Bulletproof, TREi, State of Mind and Noisia while releasing tracks across a plethora of the D&B scene’s most respected record labels.