Today we've got the purveyor of cavernous bass, Muroidea, in for a chat about his music, but not only that, he's also giving away TWO free tunes, which you can grab below. This interview has been in the works for a while, ever since he sent me a tune called "Rain" with heavy bass and messed up drums that caught my attention straight away, so glad to finally have him down. Check it out...
NT: Hey man, give us an introduction to Muroidea...
M: I produce under the
name Muroidea. I make tunes usually ranging from 110 BPM to 140 BPM, but
sometimes I like to mess around with 170 BPM as well. My sound is dark
and typically beat driven; big bass and strange percussion.
NT: Your music, whilst having the clear unifying theme of bass, seems to
draw from a lot of separate places. Tell us a little about your tastes
and where you draw influence from?
M: For a while I dedicated my
attention to figuring out what electronic music was all about, because I
had entirely ignored and scoffed at it until then. I realised what I
had missed and now I spend all of my time looking for new music, I don't
do much else.
So my influences for what I do with my
productions are always Shackleton, Old Apparatus and Horsepower
Productions / El-B, and a few different ambient artists. Although I tend
to go through phases of listening to certain types of electronic music
and being influenced heavily by the main aspects of those genres as I
see them, whatever it may be. I see it as research... For the last few
months I've been learning a lot about techno; that kind of deep, dark
and sometimes industrial aesthetic is great, it's what I enjoy most.
Generally what I try to do with my tunes is to pack as much atmosphere,
darkness and feeling (maybe a bit of terror / horror) into a few minutes
as possible, and a big bassline with dramatic samples tends to do that
well. I guess I want my tracks to highlight the parts of music which I
enjoy when I hear tunes on a system, so the physical effect of bass is a
big part of that.
NT: Following on from that, can you recommend any other producers or labels we might not have heard about?
M: My old housemate, Corticyte, makes some great tunes, reckon he'll be big, so get to know. Otherwise, these artists;
Regis, Murcof, Yosi Horikawa (e.g. Wandering), Mordant Music (e.g. Post-Mortem / Modem or Dark Side of the Autobahn), Marc Atmost, Hildur Guðnadóttir – Leyfðu Ljósinu, Olafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm – Stare (Nils Frahm's remix is amazing, serious night track), Bersarin Quartett, Talvekoidik (e.g. Negotiate the Distance), Vatican Shadow, The Binary Collective, Posthuman (e.g. Lagrange Point / Posthuman), Chronomad, Leyland Kirby, and bvdub.
And these labels;
Liminal Recs (Delete's first album was released on here, lots of other good material too), Hands Productions (all sorts), Horizontal Ground (techno), Downwards (techno), Frozen Border (techno), Stroboscopic Artefacts (techno), Moving Shadow (old school / dnb) and Sullen Tone.
NT: What is it that you find attracts you to the darker side of electronic
music? Your tunes always have a really cavernous feel to them...
M: There's something comforting about the darker side. I mean, I've tried
making happy songs and they never feel quite right. They tend to annoy
me... Music needs to enshroud me entirely, to be inward looking and
spacious. Dark tunes tend to do that with great success, but I've found
that the music which doesn't have some element of darkness to it just
doesn't move me in the same way, there's no chills or goosebumps.
NT: You're the first artist we've had to give away more than one tune, so
big up for your incredible kindness. Can you tell us a little about the
two tunes?
M: No problem, I like the idea of making tunes in pairs and
tend to do it anyway, so they belong together! The two tunes were made
using the same group of samples, but spaced out by about a month. So the
first one, 30mg, was made during a really intense period whilst 40mg
was made while I was coming out of that, which was similarly intense but
in a different way. They share drum patterns in places, but I tried to
give them a different feel and slant in each track. I spent a lot of
time tweaking the individual atmospheres of each song and I hope it
provides an 'experience'; it's supposed to take you away to somewhere
that isn't here, wherever you are.
NT: What's the plan for Muroidea in the future then?
M: There is no plan as such, but the next target would be a vinyl release.
Beyond that I just want to get better at producing, maybe doing some
live business with Renoise. Some collaborations would be great too, I
could learn a lot from it. I do entertain thoughts of moving to Berlin
and making techno though...
NT: And finally, if you had to pick your three favourite "Night Tracks", what would they be?
M: These are three reoccurring 'Night Tracks' for me, I always play them at some point during the night.
Bochum Welt – Fortune Green
Frog Pocket – Underwood Ladykirk / Hurrah Sapphire Moon!
Shackleton – The Rope Tightens / The Branch is Weak
NT: Thanks dude. Really appreciate sending two free tunes our way, which you can grab by clicking the artwork below or by clicking here!
(FREE019) Muroidea - More Fiend Than Fun
Production: C. Vest
Artwork & Design: T. Kelle
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Production: C. Vest
Artwork & Design: T. Kelle
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