With his latest Hyperdub single just released, Terror Danjah will drop his first album for Hyperdub entitled 'Undeniable' in November. Kode9 caught up with the East London producer to see what he's been up to.
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Terror Danjah - Undeniable
1. Grand Opening ft Dream Mclean
2. Acid
3. This Year (Pro Plus) ft D.O.K, Mz Bratt & Griminal
4. Bruzin V.I.P
5. S.O.S
6. I'm Feelin U
7. Minimal Dub
8. Breaking Bad ft Baby Face Jay
9. Sonar (Selassi Mix)
10. Undeniable ft D Double E (of Newham Generals)
11. Leave Me Alone ft Bruza
12. All I Wanna Do ft Lauren Mason
13. Time To Let Go
14. Story Ending
9: Apart from the Mu compilation last year, you've had relatively quiet few years on the music front compared with say 5 years ago. What have you been up to?
TD: To the public, it seem like I was quiet, but I was behind the scenes working on alot of projects for my label at the time Aftershock. My output was crazy back then, I was engineering 25 plus artists on the label which involved recording, mixing and even mixing down all the other producers on the label tracks (D.O.K, Magnum Force, Big-E-D etc)! I had Bruza, Tinie Tempah, Mz Bratt, Gemma Fox, Sadie Ama, Shola Ama, Elrae, Loudmouth Melvin to name a few lol, but over the years the hype died down and the business model had changed and the music became more about the artist and less about the producers.
Selling music changed from Vinyl to CD's and more recently MP3, and it was hard for Grime producers to sell vinyl when artist mixtapes where popular in 2006/07. So I guess that's the main reason why I went quiet!!!
9: Whats you're feeling about grime these days?
TD: It's actually weird, on one hand the artist have gone from Mixtape artists to Popstars, don't get me wrong, that's great and on the other hand Grime producers are making more mellow Hip hop'ish sounding beats to get on MC's mixtapes or commercial albums, again that's great for the money, but everyone not balancing it out for making Grime music for what if is, CLUB MUSIC!!! So basically the major labels are actually have major influence on Grime. I thought Grime was underground music. I tweeted last year 'Rise Of The Producers' and with talks with Elijah from Butterz, were started deejaying Grime music from new producers and i encouraged the other Grime producers to start deejaying just like it's done in Dubstep. That's why I approached yourself (Kode 9) at Hyperdub because there will be no limitation on me to sell records!!!
9: The album is pretty diverse, and showcases quite a few different styles? Is this what you intended at the outset?
TD: Yeah definitely, I want to show the world how diverse I am and i believe Hyperdub would be the place because their track record and cult following, especially the interested Burial achieved. I don't think I could done this album on another label especially they way yourself (Kode 9) pushed me to be more creative.
9: Almost half the album is vocals. Can you tell us about the vocal tracks on the album and how they came about?
TD: I did try to only have a only a few, but as time went on it became half the album. I don't wanna spoil the storyline of each vocal track, but every artist is perfectly suited to the canvas I provided for them. I wanted to push the artists to their limits like you never heard before. Some you may know like D Double E, Bruza, Mz Bratt, Griminal, Ragga Twins, Mc Skibadde, Shabba D etc and newcomer Dream Mclean and Lauren Mason (she's the real Duffy lol).
I have no idea, seriously. I just make them, and the in process I decided if it's gonna end up as full vocal, vocal sample or instrumental track. what ever the vibe or how the mood takes me!
9: You've also got a beatless version of one of your older tracks from the Aftershock days. How come it never came out?
TD: Then wasn't the time, I think it was always intended for it to come out, but this album is perfect for it (and no, I haven't mention the tune, you have to get the album to relate loooool).
