Dan (aka Kop-Z) recently released the dnb/drumfunk EP "Fading Light Above Us All" on Pinecone Moonshine. The EP opens with a noise and ambient piece called "Feel Lost." The next four tracks feature drum breaks edited and glitched in a drumfunk style. Hectic drum change ups and layers of inharmonic drone and noise, creating a feeling of urgency or forlorn, are balanced by choir-like swells and uplifting harmonies.
Like many of our recent releases on PCMS, Kop-Z's EP was influenced by lockdown.
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Kop-Z: I live in the city of Manchester in the UK.
Kop-Z: Yeah I guess drum and bass is my main focus and is the music that got me involved and interested in the scene, although I have begun to move out into other types of slower music such as techno based stuff, more ambient noise, and maybe even some more film score based stuff. I still think Jungle is my main focus though and would like to keep honing my skills chopping breaks.
Kop-Z: I produce through Ableton Live 11. I utilize a lot of the inhouse plugins and such but also like to use a lot of out of the box production methods. Some of the main methods are...
Arturia Microfreak Synth: I really like this synth as it I feel you can produce a lot of glitchy, experimental sounds which when messing with presets and the various perimetres. This works even better when printed into ableton and resampled with various effects.
Radio and Vinyl Sampling: Last year I found an old Panasonic Music System in my grandparents' garage. At first I wasn't sure it was going to work as the cassette player destroyed any cassette you put in it. But the FM radio and vinyl player work perfectly, and it has become quite a staple in my productions.
I love the fact I can just turn on the radio, look through random channels and then maybe find something I can record straight into Ableton. This is similar to the vinyl sampling side as it has allowed me to go out and enjoy finding random records in and around the city which I can then take home and maybe find my next cool sample.
Audio Recording with my Phone: Another element which is very important in my production is found sound. I like to just sometimes just leave my phone recording when I am out and about or even when I end up somewhere interesting. This is super important to my productions and is something which is utilized in nearly all my tracks.
Vocal Remover: Another method I use a lot is video rips whether this is from old tracks to movie clips. This is something I like to use a lot for vocals especially when paired with an AI powered vocal remover. This can often leave lots of strange artifacts but this is something I like as I believe it adds character. Especially when drowned out in reverbs and or pitch shifts.
Ableton Based Effects and Samples: Another big element I use are drum sample packs such as all the old well known breakbeats and drum machines. I like to then utilize various Ableton devices such as the gate delays and various randomizers found in Ableton and Max. I then like to couple these with intricate audio chops and effects to create different drum grooves and cool sounds.
But yeah I guess these are the main methods I use in my tracks and have been used a lot in "A Fading Light."
Kop-Z: I first got into drum and bass in college. I heard this first through going to parties with friends and soon started to listen to it exclusively on my headphones. At this point I realized a few friends from my school were also really getting into it. We then started to learn to DJ together, and from this point on, I thought the only logical step would be to learn how to produce. I then decided to switch one of my A level courses to music production. Then when I started university four years ago, I took an electronic course and haven't really looked back.
Kop-Z: I like to make these videos for my music stuff. I believe they work well with my musical sound and they also both begin to influence each other and myself when I'm making them. This is something I have really started to get since acquiring a camera during the early lockdown period and is hopefully something which will continue to evolve with my music.
Kop-Z: To make them I use Adobe Premiere. At first I was using various free software, but they always seemed to lack slightly. Since getting Premiere, I have been able to experiment with lots of different effects. Sometimes it even feels quite like Ableton, so it has been quite easy to get to grips with the basics.
Kop-Z: I think I first stumbled across Pinecone Moonshine about when I first came to university. I remember just looking through SoundCloud and allowing the suggested tracks to send me down a rabbit hole. I think the initial track I found was Seventeen by Greenleaf.
The style and sound of the label really grew on me and from checking out a few other releases it became quite a big influence on my music. This then led to me starting to really work on glitched out break focused stuff during the lockdown. This time was also super depressing at points for me, but I feel this brought out some of the solemn sounds which can be heard on "A Fading Light." All these factors led to me deciding to send some music over to Nic in early 2021, and was buzzing when he took on my tracks.
Kop-Z: At first I was unsure of sending a full noise piece over for a dnb EP as this was quite a new style of track for me when I made it. But I thought it complemented the other tunes quite well. Fun fact "Feel Lost" originally is a Jungle tune with a frequency shifter on the master haha. This was a really weird method but I have continued to use it to this day.
Kop-Z: To be honest the breaks in the tracks were not really planned at all. I like to keep things quite random, but one method that seems to help me quite a lot is to create a few breaks when I first start a track. I then might use these all or maybe just one. I always like to keep these breaks saved though as you never know when they could become useful in future projects.
Kop-Z: Yeah, overall I feel "A Fading Light Above Us All" was a really important piece of music for me as it has helped define a style and path for me coming out of lockdown. It also really helped seeing such good feedback on it, and I am super glad to have had the chance to release music alongside some artists I really look up to. :)
Release date 2022.
More PCMS releases by: Kop-Z.
Artwork by: Nic Taylor.
PCMS, Pinecone Moonshine (C) 2022.