Bell Clap Dance - Radio Slave

The 20: December 2007

Click to view a release from this issue of The 20.

Featured Review #03

Bell Clap Dance

Radio Slave [Rekids]

#03 in this month's The 20

Section: Music Recommendations Topics: The 20
Written by: lizwarner

Radio Slave has quickly been taking the underground by storm as of late, with his phenomenal remixes and with precious few original recordings.

One of his outstanding remixes is ‘Road of Life’, originally by legendary New York staple Francois K (see the link below for Beatportal’s review in The 20).

But as it turns out, Radio Slave is just one of the producer’s projects.

Not only does he put out excellent music of his and others with the Rekids record label, he also has a project under the same name (almost: Rekid, singular) that’s released on the prestigious Soul Jazz label, in addition to working on a project with Joel Martin called Quiet Village.

The project of Matt Edwards, originally a UK resident now living in Berlin, Radio Slave seems poised to make an even greater impression on audio geeks and club kids alike with ‘Bell Clap Dance’.

Beatportal caught up with the man in charge to find out how a Radio Slave operates.

You often remarkably transform the work of others with your remixes. When do you feel it’s time to release a track of your own?

I guess recently I’ve been more confident with my own work, so I’m finding it easier to treat my own ideas in the way that I work on remixes, by creating parts and then editing them down until I have the elements that make a track.

This is something I’ve done over the last year, and I now have over ten new tracks ready to release in 2008 — maybe even enough to do the ‘No Sleep’ LP.

In fact, I’ve just put 4 new ones up on myspace, so feel free to check them out and please give me some feedback!

What is the inspiration for ‘Bell Clap Dance’?

I wanted to create an afro sounding track with the a “Diwali” rhythm, so I made the backbone of the track in the morning, but the main hook took hours to get right.

It was one those tracks where nothing was working, so I took a break, came back to it and then everything fell into place.

It wasn’t the track I had planned to make, but it works; it’s definitely a hybrid of sorts.

When creating a track, what percentage dancefloor and what percentage listening station do you have in mind?

With Radio Slave, it’s 100% dancefloor — it’s sound system music designed for clubs.

Can you give us an eye into your production techniques? What’s some of your key equipment? Does analogue still live?

I believe you can make electronic music with any kind of equipment, be it digital or analogue, and there’s too much emphasis on what software producers use or what you have to use.

Really, it all comes down to good ideas and having great ears.

Will you be making an artist album in the near future?

I hope to release the ‘No Sleep’ LP in 2008, which will be a collection of the EPs re-edited and presented in a mix/club format.

Then, I’m really looking forward to working on the next Rekid LP.

Click here to see Radio Slave’s comments on his remix of Francois K ‘Road of Life’ in December’s The 20 on Beatportal.