Our favorite new UK-based label All Centre is welcoming DJ QGB for their 57. release. After releasing two exceptional LPs in 2018 and 2022, he steps out from his own label Present Tense for the first time to explore a club-ready approach to his singularly intricate and original sound. Across the 4 tracks, he strips his work down to basics, and chases „expensive sounds“. Deep dive into the first single called Animus Type Beat. It’s a dubbed-out, soundscape with stuttering kicks. Every sound on the track sounds indeed, expensive. You can get to know the producer and his work behind this EP in our short e-mail interview below.
You’ve been producing very interesting music. Words like loud ambient,brain-dance, and abstract IDM came to mind… The atmosphere of your songs is relaxed, like a fresh bath in the waterfall, but on the other hand, it sounds very digital and futuristic. Can you describe how you found your artistic voice and came to this unique style?
Thank you for enjoying the music. I like to make tracks where these harsher experimental sounds come together with beauty and melodrama. I like it when sounds are a bit ambiguous and blurred between being melodic, percussive, and textural. It’s hard for me to get inspired without there being some kind of serendipitous discovery and experimentation involved and I like to think I am good at finding those ‚accidental‘ sounds where the synth/sampler comes to life. I like things that sound interconnected and when there’s a life to the track beyond my intentions. I guess my sound is about taking all this chaotic energy and trying to make sense of it and conjuring up feelings and narratives. I’m a pretty chaotic person so I guess it’s pretty fitting.
The new EP, which will be out on the All Centre label, is called Expensive Sounds. What inspired you on this project and did you want to convey some specific atmosphere with this? Was the overall audio quality of each used sound important for you? How was it created, only using audio software on your laptop, or some field recording as well?
ExpensiveSounds as an EP still has a lot of this mangled sound design and twisted energy but I was trying to foreground tracks that were clubbier and had more space so all the extra bells and whistles and warping had to be in service to the mix as much as possible. I was trying to get to the crux of the ideas and remove anything that wasn’t serving that. For me, it’s hip-hop producers especially Timbaland who are the masters of this. It’s all made in the box on my laptop.
Are there some contemporary artists or labels that you admire and listen to? (If you want to name a few)
I’m stoked to be releasing on All Centre because I’ve enjoyed playing tracks from their back catalog. you can hear in many of their releases that they’re not only into pushing a specific techno sound but they are working with people who are inspired by many types of music. For this EP I’d say big inspirations would be Neil Landstrumm, Oris Jay, Arca, AceMoma, Anz, LoraineJames, Manga Saint Hilare, and lots of the stuff on YOUTH records.
Do you find important discussions about art and music? For example, do you talk a lot about your music with your friends or other artists? Is feedback from your friends important?
I don’t release a lot of the music I make so my friends are so important to me when I’m making music. Freddie, with whom I run PresentTense records is a great help with direction. In terms of friends who produce, working with Gaunt was hugely eye-opening. Also big shout-outs to Safejas, Maniatrix, Yung Ze$ty & Caldera! I like forming the basis of a track and then showing friends in the living room and spamming links and that frenzied part of the production process where the ideas are all new and you want to shout from the rooftops about this thing you’ve created. Friends are also the people you need to encourage you to see the tracks across the finish line for everyone else to enjoy. this is the part I find the hardest so I’m grateful for the support I had to see this EP finished and to be able to talk about it!
What plans do you have for 2024?
For 2024 I just want to get stuck into as much music as possible, really just enjoy it as much as possible, release a couple more EPs and play some shows.
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✦ You can follow DJ QGB on Instagram or SoundCloud / All Centre is on Bandcamp or Instagram as well ✦
Interview: Krištof Budke
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