Jungle

Few artists submerge you in darkness in quite the same way as Christoph De Babalon. With engulfing ambience, depth-charge bass drones and hyperventilating breakcore and jungle beats, the Hamburg-raised, Berlin-based producer has, for over two decades now, etched an unmistakable sonic persona onto an increasingly greyscale planet.

Christoph de Babalon isn’t interested in being a spokesman for doom. He apologises more than once when conversation steers toward his dour mythology. He laughs off the idea that his music is anything more than a necessary personal pursuit, and he certainly doesn’t think the world had to hit this particularly low tide to properly appreciate the 15-minute drone dirge of ‘Opium’ or the convulsive percussion of ‘My Confession’. 

Andy C quite literally made history at the weekend, becoming the first ever drum & bass DJ to headline the SSE Arena next door to Wembley stadium in London.

Horror, when done well, isn’t about constant jump scares and incessant gore. The scariest stories, films and shows are rather the ones that feed on suspense – on their unpredictability and potential to make blood run cold with the most subtle shift in tone.

There are plenty of artists who proclaim the influence of hardcore, but there are very few whose birth was possibly induced by it. “She used to go out raving constantly, even when she was pregnant with me,’ laughs Etch, aka Brighton-based DJ and producer Zak Brashill, on his mum’s story that she was at The Zapp club when, aged just 18, she went into labour with him.

Sinistarr has been at the helm of Detroit’s d&b scene for a decade now. In that time, the prolific DJ/producer – real name Jeremy Howard – has released on some of the most revered jungle and d&b labels in the business, from Metalheadz and Renegade Hardware to Hospital.

Hey Jeremy! How has 2018 been treating you? What’s been going on? What have been some highlights? 

“2018 has been wild so far and it’s still not over! I’ve had steady releases and remixes throughout the year from labels around the world, and I just came back from a crazy summer tour, playing across mainland China, Australia and Taiwan -- all for the first time, and it was all quite incredible.”