Saturday March 18th welcomes Badvss RAVES & 3D Productions’ annual The World of Drum & Bass event to Washington DC creative space The Dance Loft. Headliners include drum and bass stalwarts Drumsound & Bassline Smith, DJ SS, Brooks Brothers, Bladerunner and Tantrum Desire. Londoners Tantrum Desire started out in 2004, around the time the dnb scene started to enter the mainstream circus. Jay Faleye and Devin Smith began working at a pirate radio station but had spent time earlier producing and DJing individually and their passion for the genre, as well as similar tastes led them to collaborate on music.
MC Shortson was the first to see Tantrum Desire’s potential after listening to a few of their tracks which then led to the production of the Heavyweight Records label. With this label, Tantrum Desire released well known tracks ‘The Red Pill’ and ‘The Inner Moon and White’ and later, ‘Transformers’, ‘Jealousy’, ‘Drop It Like It’s Hot’ and ‘Can’t Stop’. At the turn of the decade, their fame was growing and their fanbase was exponentially expanding; Simon Bassline Smith saw the potential and they were signed to Technique Recordings. Their work was instantly picked up by BBC Radio 1’s Zane Lowe.
Tantrum Desire’s talent lies in the mixture of different genres in their tracks which produces a softer drum and bass sound with elements of hip hop and dubstep embedded deep within. This is shown explicitly in arguably, their most famous track ‘Reach’ which was released in 2011 which saw them rise to electronic highs and charting on Beatport, Trackitdown and D&B Arena. A VIP version was produced and they were featured on the UKF Bass Culture album and more recently, Tantrum Desire have remixed music from the likes of Laidback Luke, The Wanted and Skrillex.
2015 saw the release of the Technique Records LP Diversified with 16 heavy dance floor tracks bursting with lyrical synths and featured collaborations with SOLAH, Laura Bayston and Drumsound & Bassline Smith, who will also be performing at The World of Drum & Bass event in Washington DC next Saturday. UKF interviewed the duo before the release of the album and Jay Faleye said that every producer hits a brick wall sometimes. “This happened to me at one point, and all I could think was ‘oh shit, there are no more ideas coming into my head, how the hell am I going to write a whole album worth of music!?’ but it’s just one of those creative challenges you learn to overcome.
Although I’m mainly a drum & bass producer, I listen to a lot of other genres too including deep house, so when I’m not producing things at 170 BPM I tend to mess around with house-y bits. Some of those then develop into actual house tracks that I release! I like all kinds of music, though, and try to spread across the board as much as possible. I hope this album shows people that I can produce a range of different sub-genres and also that I can mix things up when it comes to making music. I’m curious to see what response people have to all the different styles. I didn’t just want to have an album of dance floor smashers, as this can get a bit repetitive for the listeners. Instead of just being an album that people can listen to in clubs, it’s also an album that can be listened to at home. Every track has a different feel, shape and form.
Buy your tickets for The World of Drum & Bass here.
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